Doctrine Matters with Kevin DeYoung What Is the Doctrine of Impassibility?
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Feb 25, 2025 Dive into the fascinating concept of divine impassibility, where God is untouched by suffering. Discover the link between this doctrine and God's immutability, along with its historical context. The discussion reveals how God's inability to suffer necessitates the incarnation, marrying divine sovereignty with human experience. Explore God's communicable attributes, shedding light on how they reflect in humanity while highlighting the harmony of divine love and moral perfection.
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Impassibility Defined
- Impassibility, a controversial attribute, means God doesn't suffer or change.
- This was the church's position from the beginning, not due to Greek philosophy.
Problems with Passibility
- Divine passibility (God suffering) makes God the most miserable creature, putting him on our level.
- It suggests God acts to relieve his own suffering, not purely out of love for us.
God's 'Emotional' Life
- God doesn't have emotions as we do, given our physicality.
- Scripture describes God with human-like emotions (anthropomorphisms) to help us understand.