The Doctrine of Divine Impassibility (that God is "without passions"), affirmed by the Christian church for almost two millennia, has in the last century been maligned, or in the least watered down, so as to conceive of a God who either suffers along with His people, or who, in some way, "has an emotional life" of ever-changing reactions and interactions with His people.
This brief study seeks to present and uphold the Classical (Biblical and confessional) view of Impassibility - that God does not properly have passions and/or emotions (if these are understood as "to suffer, or undergo", "to be excited, disturbed, or moved") since He is the infinite, eternal, and unchanging God "with whom there is no variation, nor shadow of turning" (James 1:17). Far from being a doctrine that presents God as cold, detached, and apathetic the classical view of divine impassibility upholds the God who has condescended to reveal Himself as the unchanging God who is "most absolute" and "most loving", who is so purely actual in His love for His people that He can not be increased or diminished in the plenitude of His infinite love.
As sinful creatures, saved by amazing and victorious grace, we need the unchanging God of impassibility as the refuge for our weak and weary souls. God does not have "an emotional life". We have emotional lives, and we need the God who doesn't to be our ever-present help in time of need.
"Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
Earth's joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me."
~ Henry Francis Lyte |
