It would probably be a good idea to start with definitions. Many of my readers will already know what immutability is, but likely not impassibility. Why not impassability? Because it’s just not talked about often, even in books about attributes. Also, would you even know by looking at the word itself what impassible is? I know I didn’t. Mutability is easy to figure out, we all know what it means to be mute.

Definitions:

Immutability: God cannot change. Jen Wilkin calls this The God of Infinite Sameness. (None Like Him, pg 83). His nature, His essence is unchanging. We understand immutability more clearly as described in His impassability.

Impassability: God does not experience emotional changes, He does not suffer. God is without “passions” – impassible. He is impassible in His nature, and incapable of changing emotions.

Let’s start with immutability. Scriptures teach us of God’s immutability. Over 20 times in the Psalms we read of God being our Rock, steady and immoveable. Psalm 18:31 “For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?” Now we’ll look at specific verses that speak of an unchanging God.

Malachi 3:6 ~ “For I the LORD do not change.” James 1:17 ~ “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” Hebrews 13:8 ~ “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Numbers 23:19 ~ “God is not a man, that He might lie, or a son of man, that He might change His mind.” 1 Samuel 15:29 ~ “Furthermore, the Eternal One of Israel does not lie or change His mind, for He is not a man who changes His mind.” Hebrews 6:17-18 ~ “Because God wanted to show His unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us.”

So I would say quite confidently that Scripture is more than clear about God’s unchanging nature. I know that some of you might be asking yourselves “But didn’t God regret making mankind when He decided to flood the world? Or when He made Saul king?“. It appears contradictory, but when comparing Scripture to Scripture to understand harder passages in light of more straightforward passages, and understanding the use of language, it is absolutely not contradictory, and I hope to address this in my next blog post.

In “None Like Him“, Jen Wilkin talks about how God’s immutability shows us how mutable or changeable we are. The immutable God shows us we will never be immutable ~ He changes our hearts of stone to hearts of flesh (because we can’t change ourselves). He changes our desires from only wanting to glorify ourselves to pointing us heavenward. (pp, 88). We tend to say things like “never” and “always”, or we say things like “I can’t help it, I can’t change.” That’s saying “I’m immutable.” And well, we change. We are inconsistent, we change like shifting shadows. We change our minds on a whim. Only God doesn’t change. Jen writes, “ The God who was is the God who is. The God who is the God who is to come. The God who is to come is the God who was.” (pp. 85) This is changeless comfort for us!

But let’s move on to Impassibility. This doctrine has come under fire in the recent decades. Why? Because a God who weeps with us, or who feels our pain is a comforting God. That God suffers with us. For example. where was God when the Jews were being executed? God was suffering with them in the gas chambers. He was suffering when martyrs were burned at the stake. He was suffering when His child battled cancer. Or when he became paralyzed. Hence, this gives us hope in a world of pain and suffering. We know then that God knows our pain on a personal level. Sometimes we may (inadvertently) comfort a suffering friend, and in our shared tears say, “God’s right here with you, He feels your pain. He knows your suffering intimately. He’s overcome with grief too.” It sounds persuasive, and honestly, it’s emotionally appealing.

But this is just not good doctrine. Matthew Barrett uses this example. I’m using my own words here. Let’s pretend that you broke your leg and needed surgery. You’re in the hospital, and your friend comes in – hobbling on crutches, her leg in a cast! You’d ask “how did that happen?”. And much to your surprise she says, “I broke my own leg so that I could feel your pain, suffer alongside you, know your pain to help you.” You’d think “You’re crazy, chickie!! Dude! Who is going to help me now? Who’s going to stay with me when I get home while I keep my leg up? I need a helper, a rescuer.”

Understandably, we need a God who can be a rescuer, our helper. But….if God was prone to emotional changes ~ if He suffered with us, He wouldn’t be able to help! He would be like us, but wouldn’t be able to rescue us. You can even argue that He would be helpless.

Matthew Barrett explains what it would mean: “if God was passible, according to Thomas Wienandy.

1. For God to be passible then means that he is capable of being acted upon from without and that such actions bring about emotional changes of state within Him,
2. Moreover, for God to be passible means that He is capable of freely changing His inner emotional state in response to and interaction with the changing human condition and world order.
3. Last, passibility implies that God’s changing emotional sates involve “feelings” that are analogous to human feelings……God experiences inner emotional changes of state, either of comfort or discomfort, whether freely from within or by being acted upon from without.

By contrast, God is impassible in that He does not undergo successive and fluctuating emotional states; nor can the created order alter Him in such a way so as to cause Him to suffer any modification or loss.” (pp. 114 – 115)

A God without “passions” is a God who cannot change in His character (His attributes). An infinite, self sufficient, eternal God is what we NEED. And that is opposite of us finite humans! Our moods fluctuate, we are happy one moment, we fly off the handle the next. We’re calm, and then get irritated with the other driver. We can be unpredictable!

It may be important to provide a distinction between “passions” and “affections”. This will be important for the next blog regarding understanding what we should understand about how to understand God’s “emotions” in Scripture.

1. Passion: emotional response to external actions. Passions overpower the will and cause us to respond on their own power. These include reactions like anger or lust or fear.
2. Affection: self-chosen emotional response. Affections are actives responses of the will, such as compassion, love, or wrath against injustice. (article “Does God Have Feelings?” by Mike McGarry, https://livingtheologically.com/2017/05/08/does-god-have-feelings/

Now, deniers of this doctrine argue that this would lead to an apathetic God. Aloof. Not moved by His creatures. A God who doesn’t care. Stoic. Indifferent. Yet, God DOES care. God is infused with what I would call, divine emotions. While God is not affected by people’s sufferings (as in his emotions or moods change in response to ours), it doesn’t mean He has no emotion at all. John Calvin explained Biblical descriptions of God having emotions as examples of divine accommodation to our human limitations like “nurses are wont to do with little children”. I will delve into this further in the next blog post. Because it really does need addressing.

Instead of a cold, aloof God, impassability assures us the opposite, that He remains the SAME in His character – God is WHO HE SAYS HE IS. Love.….He is eternal and His love is eternal. Kindness…is eternal. Wisdom is eternal. Because He IS eternally love, and kind, and wise. We know that God is infinite, immeasurable, unlimited, He has no boundaries, He is beyond space, time and matter. He is simple ~ not made of parts, not lacking anything or in need of anything. He is complete as an immutable and impassible God. As in a previous blog on God’s simplicity, if He was made of parts, He would be a changing God. A God without parts is a God incapable of fluctuating emotions. It would be contrary to God’s immutability. God is Pure Act (Aseity). Nothing in Him ever needs activating, as if something in God must reach perfection. He is maximally alive needing nothing else. He is unchanging in every way possible, including all His attributes, and in His “emotions”. And thus, is impassible. See how every attribute exists within each of them?

If we deny God’s impassibility, we do have an existential problem. Many people want to believe that we have a God who weeps with us, or is disappointed with us when we do wrong, or happy when we do right (as if we can change how God responds!). A God who commiserates with us. Yet, seen in that light, we would also have to contend with the awful reality that if His emotions change – from sorrow to joy to irritation, we couldn’t really trust in and hope in God, especially in times of hardship! We’d have to ask “How do I know He will stay true to His gospel promises? ” Those could change with His emotions or moods. “How do I know that He will always love me? If God is vulnerable to emotional fluctuation, how do I know for sure that His character – His attributes won’t change? Can I really trust in His steadfast love?”

What God says is right – or evil, will always remain so. What He promises will always be so. He will not change His mind about His love for us. Ever. As Jen Wilkin says, “We cannot commit a future sin that will change his verdict, because his verdict was passed with every sin past, present, and future fixed in view. Whom God pronounces righteous will always be righteous.” (pp. 85).

There is the challenge here that would have us ask “What about Jesus? He definitely suffered and experienced all of human emotions.” Yes, that is true. What Jesus went through in his 33 years on earth were real and true sufferings in his humanity. He was crucified – but then rose in victory. As The Son of God, with two natures, human and divine, Christ as God didn’t suffer and die, but Christ as human did. Ignatius said, “Look for Christ, the Son of God; who was invisible by nature, yet visible in flesh; who was impalpable, and could not be touched, as being without a body, but for our sakes became such, might be touched and handled in the body; who was impassible as God, but became passible for our sakes as man; and who in every kind of way suffered for our sakes.” (article “The Impassible God Who “Cried”, by Amos Winarto Oei, Gospel Coalition, Article Volume 41 – Issue 2; Oei’s source: Ignatius, Pol., ch. 3 (ANF 1).

“All that to say, it may seem counterintuitive, but only impassibility can give us a personal God who is eternal, unalterable love. Far from apathetic or inert, impassibility promises the believer that God could not be any more loving than He is eternally. That is something a passible God cannot promise.” (Matthew Barrett, TGC essay)

Next time? More explanation on how to understand God’s emotions as described in Scripture.

Sources:

None Greater, God’s Undomesticated Attributes, Matthew Barrett.

None Like Him, Jen Wilkin

The Gospel Coalition Essays and Articles