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Acts 14:15
“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.”
Perhaps no divine attribute has been the subject of more controversy in recent years than divine impassibility. Historically, Christians of all theological traditions have affirmed that God is impassible. We see this idea taught in Westminster Confession of Faith 2.1, for instance, where we read that God is “without body, parts, or passions.”
Divine impassibility means that God in His divine nature cannot suffer, and specifically it refers to the idea that our Creator is not subject to emotional change. To put it another way, the Lord does not have emotions as we do; He does not possess passions that fluctuate. He is not happy one moment and sad the next. His hatred for sin does not grow more or less intense. He cannot become more loving than He already is.
We conclude that God is impassible from two main biblical teachings. First, the Creator-creature distinction means that while there are some similarities between God and human beings, His nature is very different from ours. He is the Creator and source of all being, and while men are of like nature with one another, we are not the living God who made the heaven and the earth (Acts 14:15). Thus, descriptions of God’s emotions are not univocal. In other words, when the Bible describes the Lord in emotional terms, it does not mean that God suffers emotional change as we do. God’s hatred, delight, and so forth are not identical to ours. We refer to the emotional language used of our Creator as anthropopathic language, describing the Lord in terms of human emotions that He does not literally possess so that we can understand truth about Him. Second, Scripture tells us that the Lord does not change (Mal. 3:6), which means that He cannot experience emotional fluctuations, since that is a type of change.
Many in recent decades have denied divine impassibility, often because they think that an impassible God must be stoic and apathetic, unconcerned with His creation. Yet nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it is because God is impassible that He cannot have greater care for His creation than He already possesses. God cannot be moved from a state of being uncaring toward creation to a state of caring for creation because He is perfect love and His care cannot be increased or diminished (1 John 4:8). God is all His attributes in infinite measure, and because of this, He shows much more affection toward His creation than we can imagine.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
God’s impassibility can be seen as a function of His goodness, and this truth is greatly comforting to us. If the Lord were subject to emotional change and if things outside Him could change His “feelings,” we might end up with a being who could unexpectedly lash out at the slightest provocation. An omnipotent being subject to emotional whims is a truly frightening thing to comprehend, but God is not like that.
For further study
- Numbers 23:19
- 1 Samuel 15:29
- Hebrews 13:8
- James 1:17
The bible in a year
- 2 Samuel 8–9
- Luke 19:1–27