What does it mean that there is no shadow of turning with God (James 1:17)?

But more, with God who is the Father of lights there is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning." These, I understand, are astronomical allusions. With the heavenly bodies that give us light, there are parallaxes; they appear to change their position when viewed from different points; they act and react upon one another, and as they turn they cast shadows one on another; hence the eclipses. But with God there is nothing of this kind, with Him there is no "parallax." From whatever point we observe Him He is the same, and nothing that He has created can move Him from His purpose or cast an obscuring shadow upon Him. The works of His hands shall wax old as doth a garment, but He changes not. We turn from all created light to Him as we hasten to the city that has "no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof" (Rev. 21:23).

But more, with God who is the Father of lights there is "no variableness, neither shadow of turning." These, I understand, are astronomical allusions. With the heavenly bodies that give us light, there are "parallaxes"; they appear to change their position when viewed from different points; they act and react upon one another, and as they turn they cast shadows one on another; hence the eclipses. But with God there is nothing of this kind, with Him there is no "parallax." From whatever point we observe Him He is the same, and nothing that He has created can move Him from His purpose or cast an obscuring shadow upon Him. The works of His hands shall wax old as doth a garment, but He changes not. We turn from all created light to Him as we hasten to the city that has "no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof" (Rev. 21:23).

But more, with God who is the Father of lights there is “ no variableness, neither shadow of turning .” These, I understand, are astronomical allusions. With the heavenly bodies that give us light, there are parallaxes; they appear to change their position when viewed from different points; they act and react upon one another, and as they turn they cast shadows one on another; hence the eclipses. But with God there is nothing of this kind, with Him there is no “parallax.” From whatever point we observe Him He is the same, and nothing that He has created can move Him from His purpose or cast an obscuring shadow upon Him. The works of His hands shall wax old as doth a garment, but He changes not. We turn from all created light to Him as we hasten to the city that has “no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof” (Rev. 21:23).

The apostle James uses the astronomical term "parallax" to set forth the unchangeable character of God. Parallax is the apparent change of place of a body viewed from different points. By sufficiently extending our base of observation even the most distant parts of the universe will appear to shift, but this is not so with God, He manifests no "parallax" or variableness, neither shadow of turning (tropees apokiasma) which is obviously derived by analogy with the shadow arising from the apparent turning of the sun at the solstice. The noonday shadow of an upright stick is shortest at the summer solstice. The tides are due to the differential attraction of the moon and sun. These are negligible in the Mediterranean, the only sea known to the ancients. Yet Job was enlightened to say "He that compasses the waters with bounds until the day and night come to an end," (Job 26:10) and again "Hither shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed. (Job 38:11). He stated what he could never have seen nor even heard from mortal lips.

There is another consideration added, full of comfort. The greater the blessing, the more is the sorrow if it be exposed to loss or change. Now in our relationship with God we are assured that the goodness displayed suffers no diminution, nor eclipse. Even the greater light that rules the day, which men adored early and long, the bright orb of the sun to which they applied the epithet here predicated of our God, is liable to the variations of nature all day long, and is the salient example, in its apparent motions, of shadow that is cast by turning. But it is not so, as here declared, with the Father of lights, Whose unchangeableness is as perfect as His goodness, and His goodness to us who deserved nothing less, still in our weakness, and still in a world of evil.

(Vv. 16-18). In contrast with the evil that comes from the flesh, every “good gift” and “every perfect gift” comes from God. The Greek word for “good gift” refers to the giving, the word for “perfect gift” to the thing given. All that is good both in the manner of giving as well as the thing given comes from God. He also is the father of lights. In the physical world it was He who set the “lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.” He also is the source of all spiritual light. No darkness comes from Him. He is not only good and pure light, but all goodness and all light come from Him; and with Him there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He does not change with our changing circumstances or our varying moods.

It is an urgent matter here that, as beloved brethren, we do not err. On the one side, the temptation to evil proceeds from our own fleshly lusts: on the other side, all that is good and wholesome comes from above, not from ourselves, but is the gracious gift of the Father of lights. Surely this involves every various ray of the spectrum; for every color of the light is a beautiful symbolization of some precious attribute of God and Father, who deals with us in perfection of wisdom and goodness. And in Him is no variableness, but absolute, undeviating consistency; and no shadow of turning, no suggestion of change in His character of pure goodness.

Verse 19. "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself," etc. The work of reconciliation is in this passage traced directly to its origin, and viewed in its effective demonstration. The parties estranged were God and the world which God had made. Sin having entered into the world had of order made disorder, and of a living soul a dying worm. The taint of corruption had fastened on the work of God, and He only who had in wisdom suffered this injury to vitiate His first work of creation, had power to redress it to the praise of His own glory. And God was in Christ. It is necessary first of all to mark the one-sidedness of the apostle's doctrine here. He never speaks of God's being reconciled to the world, or even to His people, when setting forth the gospel of His grace on this its higher side. Such a notion would be plainly out of harmony with what the scriptures teach us of divine perfection. For while it is true that sin is a perpetual provoking of divine judgment, and that God is angry with the wicked every day, yet it is certain also that the same God, who loved the work of His own hands, has in His essential dispositions undergone no change since first He saw His likeness in His work. In Him is neither variableness nor shadow of turning, and His purpose is eternal like Himself. If therefore it is written that God repented that He had made man upon the earth, when He looked upon the ripened fruits of sin (Gen. 6:5-6), it is that we may know that our Maker has in His nature susceptibilities of which our own are a reflexion; that He is affected by what He sees of good or evil (seeing that He is the living God, and not a mere philosopher's abstraction), not that his original intentions ever change, or that He can be diverted from His purposed end. What He does proves only what He is, and both His actions and His ways are known only as He makes them known.

He is "the same yesterday, and today, and for ever," in His own proper glory. With Him "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," according to His essential, divine nature. But so in His knowledge of us, His relationship to us, His affections for us, and His way with us.

The pendulum of a clock rests upon a pivot above, else it would not move below. Now the pivot, on which it is suspended, is within the clock, invisible; but there above is the starting-point for the visible movement of the pendulum below. If anything is wrong up there (from want of oil, or through rust, etc. the pendulum stops, or moves irregularly, and with a moaning noise, below. It was for this reason that I referred my Christian reader, at the head of this chapter, to the first chapter of the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, and the third chapter of his Epistle to the Colossians. You will find, that throughout the epistles of the inspired Apostle, the Holy Ghost takes pains, if I may say so, first of all, to set before the soul the full truth of a settled relationship, resting upon our Blessed Saviour and His work, and as unchangeable and unmoveable, as are Christ and His work. Then, as flowing from it, and in the closest connection with it, comes the responsibility (as to practical walk), becoming such a relationship, and its natural result — if realized by the power of the Spirit. Our God and Father, blessed be His name! has placed us, and all His dear children, even the feeblest babe in Christ, upon divinely solid, everlasting foundations. With Him, the Father and God of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our Father and God, there is "no variableness," nor even a "shadow of turning." The light of the moon changes, and the moon turns; but there is no such thing with the "Father of Lights," nay, not even a shadow of turning.