Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Luke 21:33
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
No doubt, the disciples had trouble believing that the temple in Jerusalem could ever fall. Thanks to Herod the Great’s project to enlarge and improve it, this structure rivaled the seven traditional wonders of the ancient world in size and beauty. It was made with stones so large that the Jews could hardly conceive of anyone’s toppling it. Yet as Jesus said in the Olivet Discourse, the temple and the city would fall to the Romans within a generation of His death and resurrection. Moreover, He gave signs in this discourse to indicate when the city and temple would be destroyed (Luke 21:5–28).
Jesus concluded the Olivet Discourse with words of assurance that His hard-to-believe prediction would come true. First, He set a time limit on when things would come to pass, prefacing that limit with the Hebrew/Aramaic term amen, which is translated in the ESV as “truly” (Luke 21:29–32). This word is often used in Scripture to emphasize the certainty of what is being said (e.g., Matt. 5:26; John 1:51). Second, in today’s passage, we see that Jesus assured the original audience of the Olivet Discourse that it would certainly come true by emphasizing the permanency and indestructibility of His words: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Luke 21:33).
Jesus’ statement is remarkable because it puts His words on the same footing as the words of God Himself. Isaiah 40:8 declares that “the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” God’s words alone endure; even creation itself will fade away. But if the words of Jesus likewise cannot pass away, then this tells us something important about our Savior—namely, that He is God incarnate. The words of Jesus endure forever because they are the very words of the Creator, and they are the words of the Creator because the Son of God is God Himself.
The words of God are worthy of our absolute trust because they are permanent and cannot pass away. John Calvin draws another key application related to the enduring nature of Jesus’ words: “From this passage we draw a useful doctrine, that our salvation, because it is founded on the promises of Christ, does not fluctuate according to the various agitations of the world, but remains unshaken, provided only that our faith rises above heaven and earth, and ascends to Christ himself.” Jesus’ words cannot fail, so His promises of salvation to all who believe cannot fail either.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Some have said that the only constant in this world is change. Indeed, our lives are ever changing, but there is one thing that will never change, and that is the Word of God. We cling to the Word of God because it will endure forever and is thus worthy of our trust. It will never fail because it is the revelation of the Lord of the universe, who Himself cannot fail. Let us trust God’s Word today and every day.
For further study
- Psalm 119:89
- Matthew 24:35
The bible in a year
- Jeremiah 20–22
- 2 Timothy 1
- Jeremiah 23–26
- 2 Timothy 2–3