The Confession states that God is without body, parts, or passions (Chapter 2.1). I believe that means, in part, that God does not experience emotional reactions to his creation. In fact, God is pure act, and never reacts. My friend, on the other hand, believes that, God loves as a man loves. Though in a more fervent and pure way, God emotes as do men. Who is right?

Answer

As you might be aware, the doctrine of God’s impassibility has fallen on difficult times, partly because of a misunderstanding of the doctrine, and partly because we crave, more and more, a God that is made after our own image rather than the one presented to us in the Scriptures. With that caveat, I hope I can help answer your question, “who is right” in the (no doubt) friendly discussion between you and your friend.

The first thing we must do when studying a doctrine like God’s impassibility is remember that we must never study it (or any other doctrine for that matter) in a way that alienates it from all the other characteristics of God, particularly that of his immutability (the teaching that God cannot change or be changed) because when we talk about impassibility we are speaking about God’s inability to change or be changed in regard to his emotions. 

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