What does it mean that Jesus' words will not pass away (Matthew 24:35)?

1908 105 The sanction which Christ has attached to this prophecy possesses unusual solemnity: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away," applicable no doubt to all His words, but specifically spoken of this particular prophecy (ver. 35). Let us therefore approach its consideration with a full regard to the warning sentence with which the Lord has protected this special scripture. The globe on which we walk will pass away; the heavens, as a scroll when it is rolled up; but not a syllable of these utterances of the Lord Jesus shall fall to the ground unfulfilled.

Luke's short account of the Lord's prophecy ends with the solemn words in which He asserted the truth and reliability of His words. Every word of His lips has something in it, something to be fulfilled, and is more stable than the heavens and the earth. Thus verse 33 furnishes the striking thought that the words of His lips are more enduring than the works of His fingers.

185 We have then the well-known word: "this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." If we return to Deuteronomy 32, the expression becomes quite clear (see v. 5, 20); the last is just what is spoken of here. I attach great importance to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, because, consequent on the rejection of the Lord, the throne of God on the earth was finally set aside; but it is not the subject here, though there is analogy. Indeed it was more than an ordinary generation of men after the Lord's crucifixion, though perhaps not sufficiently so to use it as a proof that it does not apply. Nor has that unbelieving generation passed away; we have it amongst us to this day unmingled with the nations. The word of the Lord abides: heaven and earth will pass, Christ's word will not - a solemn assertion of divine testimony. The word of the Lord abides for ever. The "word of our God" says Isaiah. Precious and solemn truth! we have a testimony: God's word, essential truth that changes not, must be always true. Things change, heaven and earth pass away, all is rolled up like a garment; but truth is always truth, and God's word is truth, has revealed the truth blessedly adapted to us and the state we are in; but God's own truth, what reveals Him and His ways, what is heavenly and divine is suited, as Jesus Himself, to what is human and weak down here. We have what never passes away, and faith possesses it, the believer is sanctified by it, and Christ is the fulness of it. Grace and truth came by Him. But of the day and hour of His coming knows no man or angel. It is not a thing revealed. It is kept in the secret of the Father's counsels, the divine mind, and is not in any wise a subject of revelation; it does not come to expression out of the secret of that mind.

"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away" (ver. 35). Is not this exceedingly sweet for us to meditate on! The child of God knows he has a foundation for his faith more stable than heaven or earth. The Lord speaks of His own words; the word of the Lord endures for ever. How ever men may seek to detract from the word of God, by His grace may we hold fast all God has given to us. The quotation in 1 Peter 1 about the word of the Lord is in reference to being born again, and this is ever by the word of God Himself. It is surprising how small a portion of His word God may use to impart divine life. Here it is the Lord's own words, but the whole word of God has a divine character. We can say, I am sure, that the one who knows most and studies most, and has been taught by the Spirit, feels how he has only just touched the surface of an inestimable treasure. Whatever truth we have is what we have received; no one can boast of originality about truth. Some did at Corinth, and the apostle says "What have ye that ye have not received?"

The truth of this is emphasized in verse 35. Though heaven and earth pass away, not so with the Lord's words. We have every evidence today that the time is near. Yet the day and the hour of it are reserved for divine intelligence. Many have defied this declaration by setting dates, which efforts have proven only their own folly. Though faith is watchful, expecting His coming very soon, it would be unbelief to suggest any date or time for this.

With our God, let me here say, there has been, from the beginning, a work far deeper and more excellent than that of the old creation. The old creation was, in some sense, left at man's disposal. His allegiance or his disobedience was to determine its history. But the divine counsel from before the creation had planned and laid a work in and by the Son, which could never fail, or be contingent on any strength less than His own. And it is this mystery which the Lord has before Him when He says, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." Creation was removable; redemption (the work of the Word) is immovable, because the living God has joined Himself with it. And thus the prophet, addressing Jesus the Son, says, "Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure." And so all things that are made may be shaken (Heb. 12:27), for God Himself is not joined to them; He is not their foundation. But the Word was with God, and was God, and became flesh, part and parcel (so to speak of this blessed mystery of everlasting goodness) of the work itself. He is the Vine, the Chief Corner-stone, the Head-stone of the building. This gives redemption an unspeakably more excellent glory than creation ever had. And thus the Baptist, in the ministry which we have in this chapter of our Gospel, says, "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever." See Isa. 40. All in this work is incorruptible. The seed of the life which it brings is incorruptible — the body with which it will clothe that life is incorruptible — the inheritance to which it introduces is incorruptible. 1 Cor. 15; 1 Peter 1. God has entered through the breach which man's sin produced in the old creation, and has joined Himself with the mighty ruin, in such a way, and for such an end, as will be to the everlasting praise of His own most blessed name, and also to the sure abiding and imperishableness of His new creation.

From this point on to verse 44 contrary to what we might have expected the Lord goes back to what preceded His coming to warn His disciples both by parables and from history with regard to the terrible state of things yet to come. Foreseeing the dreadful storm the blessed One adds emphasis to His solemn Forewarnings by saying, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." These are the words of a faithful and well-known love. Could they or we doubt Him? His words are the guarantee that evil shall be permitted only so far as divine wisdom sees fit for the working out of its own wise decrees. "Hitherto shall thou come and no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." He concludes this part of His instruction with the words of verse 44, "Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man comes."

And there is a needs-be for His solemn assurance in verses 32-34. "Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." Now, some at least of those who listened to His words, and many of those to whom they would be repeated, would see the city and land swept clean of its inhabitants — "wiped as a man wipeth a dish; wiping it, and turning it upside down" (2 Kings 21:13); and they might well be tempted to think that all was over for the nation — and the promise unfulfilled after all. "Not so," says the Lord; "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." We have only to look around to see the confirmation of that word. The prophet Hosea, who flourished in the days of four of Judah's greatest kings, 800 years before Christ, had said, "The children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim" (Hos. 3:4). It may be that speaking as he did in the palmy days of Judah's history, few believed his words, but so the Jews abide to-day. Having neither a king nor the hope of one, unable to sacrifice to the true God, yet so far they are preserved from image worship. With all genealogies lost, no one can lay claim to wear the priestly ephod wherewith to ask counsel of God; neither do they seek after oracular responses of lying spirits, through teraphim, as their fathers did of old. But to the same prophet was given the promise that "afterwards shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord, and his goodness in the later day" (Hos. 3:5).

We who are not under law but under grace and the leading of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 6: 14; Gal. 5: 18) can receive spiritual exhortations from the Old Testament laws of God. "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning" (Rom. 15: 4). But it is also possible that the Lord, when speaking here about "commandments," was not thinking of the Sinaitic law but of His own new commandments which He was just about to announce in the "sermon on the mount." Later, in Matthew 28: 20, He told His disciples to teach what He had commanded them. Here in Matthew 5: 19-20 He no longer speaks of the "law," as in verses 17-18, but of "these... commandments." They might still have seemed "least" to His audience, yet they were the guidelines for the behaviour of the disciples of Christ in the kingdom of the heavens. This explanation is supported by the words of the Lord in Matthew 24: 35: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away." The law may pass away with the end of the present creation (v. 18) but the words of the Lord shall never pass away.

In grace He permits a long space to intervene between this Scripture, so far as He quoted it, and that which remains to be fulfilled. But though heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or tittle of His word shall, till all be fulfilled.