The Immutability and Impassibility of God

This morning I want to bring to your attention two doctrines of God which are related; that of Divine Immutability and Divine Impassibility. The study of the doctrine of Divine Impassibility is a subset of the study of Divine Immutability; that is the truth, that, according to the Bible, our God does not change. In Malachi 3: 6 He states: “For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” God does not change in His Essence or His Being. And He does not change in His decrees; all that He has purposed to do as the Triune God from before the foundation of the world. If this is true, and is true according to the Bible, then we also need to understand that God does not change in any of His purposed actions, or in what we would understand as His feelings or emotions. It is true that God is love, and that because of men's sins, God is angry with sinners every day. The Bible also describes Him as full of compassion to men because of His essential goodness. And when we come to consider His care over His elect people, those whom He redeems and saves for Christ's sake, we find that “as a father pities His children, even so God pities those who fear Him”, as it says in Psalm 103, verse 13. If these repentings, and emotions and affections in God are not like the repentings, and emotions and affections which are found in us as men, then what are they? I want you to think with me 1st – Of what it means when it says that God was sorry (or that it repented Him) that He had made man. And 2nd – I want you to think with me about what it means when it says that God was grieved in His heart. And 3rd – I want you to think with me about God's e