Time flies. Here we are at the beginning of another year. And with the change from 2025 to 2026, we may look for other things to change as well. We may seek to change our habits, our health, or our way of living. Or maybe we’re faced with the prospect of change and we’d rather things just stay the same.
And yet, with the passage of time, things change. As the years pass, seasons change, the world changes, and even we change—irrespective of whether we want change or not. But what about our faith? Does the Christian faith change? When the world changes, does God change too?
No. God, in His Word tells us: our faith doesn’t change. The Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians that the Church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” (2:20, ESV). As Lutheran Christians, our faith didn’t begin with the Reformation. Instead, our clinging to the apostolic and prophetic writings of Holy Scripture and to our Lutheran Confessions is itself holding to the Christian faith that has always been.
There is a foundation that is concretely established, and this is the catholic and apostolic faith. Things have changed a great deal over the course of human history, but the faith we have been given hasn’t changed a bit. It doesn’t matter how quickly time might fly or how drastically the world may change. Neither does the truth change because those around us claim it has. Our faith remains unmoved and unchanged because it is fixed to a sure foundation.
And Christian faith doesn’t change because Christ doesn’t change. He is the Cornerstone. And because Jesus doesn’t fail in keeping His promises, our faith and confession remains fixed to the foundation that He gave us. Christian brothers and sisters, take heart this new year: Christ’s love for you remains the same.
Therefore, cling to the faith that He gave you. It is the sure foundation that will never change. Because the years may change, but the foundation never will. We stand upon and within the one holy catholic and apostolic faith and Jesus, the unfailing Christ, is the Cornerstone.
In Christ,
