Q.
1. “What is God’s immutability?”
1.
The word immutable means unchangeable and means that God does not
change in His being or in His attributes. (a.) This means that God IS; He does
not develop, change or become something different. He does not grow older; He
does not become more wise, or more holy, etc. He IS infinitely and perfectly
what He IS. His name Jehovah, “I AM THAT I AM” reflects this perfection
of God (Mal. 3:6; Jam. 1:17). (b.)
Change implies imperfection: if something changes it either becomes better
(so it was not perfect before the change) or it becomes worse (it has
ceased by the change to be perfect). (c.)
This means, too, that God cannot be changed by something outside of Himself.
“There is change around, about and outside of Him and there is change in
people’s relations to Him; but there is no change in God Himself” (Herman
Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. II, p. 158).
2.
God’s immutability also applies to God’s will or purpose. (a.) Remember, that
God’s will or purpose is God willing or God purposing. God’s will cannot be
separated from God Himself. Since God is immutable in His being, He is
also immutable in His will (Heb. 6:17; Job 12:32; Ps. 115:3; Num.
23:19). (b.) However, the Bible speaks
of God’s repentance, and of God changing in response to the actions of
men. How can we understand this in light of God’s immutability? Quite
simply, we understand such language as describing not what happens in God but
how God’s dealings appear to have changed in relation to His creatures.
For example, Gen. 6:6 is an expression of divine abhorrence for sin; the
repentance of God at the repentance of Nineveh shows that it was never God’s
purpose to destroy Nineveh at this time, but the threat was the means used to
stir them up to seek the mercy of God, etc. In addition, the immutability of
God means that prayer cannot change God’s mind.
(c.) God is immutable in all of His attributes: inflexibly holy and just
to the terror of the wicked, and immutably merciful and loving to the
consolation of His people.
(Rev.
Martyn McGeown, “Essentials of Reformed Doctrine”: Lesson 4:2—“God’s
Incommunicable Attributes” [2])
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Q.
2. “It has been argued by some, in answer to the claim that common grace
conflicts with God’s absolute immutability/unchangeableness, that God can
sovereignly and immutably ‘decree a sequence of dispositions’—i.e., God
can eternally decree to ‘hate’ the reprobate in time, and not want to save
them, and then decree that, when the world is created, and when people are
conceived and born, that He will also have a ‘love’ and ‘favourable
disposition’ towards them (a love and favour shown to them in all manner of
earthly good things) … and then decree that, after their death, He will have
nothing but ‘hatred’ towards them and not want to save them.”
“This
view has God not only changing, but has God decreeing to change
Himself! … God’s decree pertains to everything outside Himself. He
doesn’t decree Himself—He is Himself (“I am that I
am”—Exod. 3:14); and what God decrees or purposes or counsels pertains to the
world that He made, everything in it, and what will happen. This view makes
[God] decree to change Himself—whereas [according to James 1:17], ‘there
is no variableness, neither shadow of turning’ in God, in His attributes,
in His attitudes, in His decree, in His persons, in His being, etc.” (Rev.
Angus Stewart, sermon on James 1:17-18 [trans.])
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Q. 3. “When Jesus received the wrath of God for sin was this a new
experience for God, who is an unchanging (non-contingent) Being? How could God
be angry with God?”
This
issue is, while difficult for us to understand, extremely important. It assumes
that Christ, who is the eternal Son of God, bore God’s wrath against sin. That
is, God was angry with God. How can that be? … And if it is true
that God was angry with Christ, does this anger of God mean that God is changeable?
Yet Scripture very clearly teaches that God is unchangeable, but wrath
towards Christ, the eternal Son of God, would seem to indicate change, for God
also loved His Son.
As
“non-contingent,” God is in Himself independent; that is, He depends on
no being or power outside Himself for His existence. He is eternal. The
creation is contingent; that is, the creation is dependent upon God for its
existence … [U]nchangeability is
rooted in non-contingency; while contingency means changeableness.
We
must distinguish, first, between the Triune God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
While it is true that Christ is personally the Second Person of the Holy
Trinity and, as Nicea put
it so forcibly, “true God of true God,” He is the eternal and unchangeable Son
of God in our flesh. He united the divine nature with the human
nature in the one Person of the Son. He is both true God and true man. This is
the mystery of the incarnation.
The
relation between our Lord Jesus Christ and God is a father-son relation. The
Triune God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When Gabriel described to Mary how she would be the mother of the Lord, he
said, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall
overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
The
Triune God eternally appointed Christ to be the mediator of the covenant and to
accomplish full and complete redemption on behalf of the elect. He was chosen
to accomplish God’s purpose as God’s Son in our flesh, so that God Himself
accomplishes redemption. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
himself” (II Cor.
5:19).
Christ
fulfilled His calling by coming into our flesh in the womb of the virgin Mary,
suffering the wrath of God, dying on the cross, rising from the dead and
ascending into heaven where He is exalted as Lord of all.
We
are told by the Scriptures that Christ bore the wrath of God against sin from
the beginning of His incarnation to the end of His life on earth. Here is a
wonder: while Christ bore the wrath of God throughout His life, He was also
conscious of God’s approval. At His baptism and in the presence of His enemies,
a voice sounded from heaven: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased”
(Matt. 3:17). Christ heard that voice and rejoiced in it. Thus Christ
experienced both God’s wrath and God’s favour.
How
can this experience of wrath and favour be present at the same time? The
explanation seems to be along these lines. It was indeed possible for Christ to
know and experience both the wrath and the favour of God at the same time, because
in bearing God’s wrath, He was obeying the will of God, fulfilling His calling
and accomplishing His Father’s purpose. He knew God’s favour because He was obedient to God.
That continued all His life. Perhaps an analogy can be found in a son who is
punished by his father for some misdeed, but knows that the punishment is
rooted in his father’s love for him.
However,
as Christ neared the cross, the consciousness of God’s wrath grew
greater and greater, while the consciousness of God’s favour grew dimmer.
While on the cross, during those awful hours when Christ suffered all the
torments of hell, the consciousness of God’s favour was completely swallowed up in
the fury of God’s wrath. All Christ knew was wrath.
That
consciousness of wrath is expressed in Christ’s cry, “My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). Christ did not dare to call God “Father;” He
could only say, “God,” because the wrath was too great. Christ was conscious
only of being forsaken in the deep, dark pit of the suffering of hell on the
cross. So great was that overwhelming wrath of God which Christ endured, that
He could no longer understand the necessity of bearing God’s wrath. That
heart-rending “Why?” pierces our souls.
And
yet, at that moment, when God’s wrath was all-consuming, God was, if I may put
it that way, most pleased with His Son. “This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well-pleased; for He is obedient even unto the death of the cross!”
But
Christ knew only wrath, even though behind it was God’s infinite love for
Him. So with us in our
relation to our earthly fathers. Wrath is not incompatible
with love. Our fathers can love us and be very angry with us. In fact, their
anger may be a manifestation of their love, for they desire that we walk in
God’s ways, and we have been sinful. So it was with Christ.
And
so, gradually, Christ crawled out of hell’s pit into the presence of God. “It
is finished!” (John 19:30). And then, so beautifully: “Father, into thy
hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46). The wrath was gone, the favour was restored.
Atonement for sin and redemption was accomplished.
There
is no change in God. He had appointed His Son to accomplish our redemption.
Christ perfectly bore the wrath of God and accomplished all the Father’s purpose. He is now
exalted on high as our redeemer and saviour.
Let
us marvel at the greatness of the suffering of Christ, for in it is the measure
of our sin, which required such awful anguish. Let us marvel at the riches of
divine grace displayed in God’s gift of His own beloved Son to accomplish for
us what we could never accomplish ourselves.
(Herman C. Hanko,
“Covenant Reformed News,” vol. 11, no. 4 [Aug. 2006])
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Q. 4. “But was there not a moment in eternity when God did
not create? Followed by a moment when He was creating all things and then
followed by another moment when He stopped or was no longer creating? Isn’t
that God changing?”
The reader has made some serious mistakes in
his question. One error is that he speaks of time in God’s counsel: “a moment
in eternity.” The fact is that time itself is a creation of God (II Tim. 1:9).
God is eternal and He determined that time would be made at the creation of the
earth. It is a denial of God’s attribute of eternity to say time is in His
decree (or in Him) and it would also mean that God changes, a denial of His
immutability.
… The answer to the reader’s question itself
is clear: “I am the Lord; I change not” (Mal. 3:6; cf. Num.
23:19; Heb. 1:10-12). That means exactly what it says. God’s counsel,
therefore, is as eternal as He is. History is God working out His eternal
counsel, part of which is the creature we call “time.”
(Herman C. Hanko,
“Covenant Reformed News,” vol. 18, no. 3 [July 2020])
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Q. 5. “But what about the Incarnation?
Wasn’t there a time when the Son was ‘not’ a man, followed by a time when He became
man and forever will be a man? (in two natures) ... That seems on the outset to
be a radical change ... John 1 says the Word ‘was made’ or ‘became’ flesh ...
Isn’t that sort of change in the second person of the Trinity?”
First, God is immutable in His BEING. His being did
not change when the Son took on flesh.
Second, God is immutable in His PROMISES. He
promised to send His Son; He must fulfil His promise.
Third, God is immutable in His WORKS. His great
work is that of the saving His church; He showed Himself immutable by sending
His Son. Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:8 underscore this point. (DK,
07/08/2020)
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Q. 6. “What about Christ’s bearing the wrath of God for us? Was there not a
moment when the wrath of God was upon Christ, followed by a moment when that
wrath was no more? His wrath was a real wrath—not figurative or
imaginary. He was wrathful towards His Son one moment, but not the next. The
truth of penal substitution is deeply at stake here … Similarly, what
about God’s attitude towards the ‘pre-converted elect’ (‘dead in sin’—Eph.
2:3), compared to the ‘post-conversion’ elect? Wasn’t God’s attitude towards us
one of wrath prior to our conversion? and that after our
conversion He is no longer wrathful towards us ... To deny that God changes in
any respect has implications upon central truths of the gospel!”
“The questioner notes—correctly—that God’s wrath is
real, and not figurative or imaginary. His question is how God’s immutability
squares with the fact that He showed wrath to Christ at one moment but does not
any longer.
To this, he adds the question of how God would show
wrath to the elect, pre-conversion, and favor to the same, post-conversion.
My answer is this: God, being immutable, ALWAYS
shows wrath to those whom He sees to be sinners, and ALWAYS shows favor to
those whom He sees to be righteous. In this, God is consistent and immutable.
So, when God declared Christ to be guilty of sin
when He sent Christ into our flesh, He poured out on Christ His wrath. This is
what we would expect from an immutable God. When He declared Christ to be
innocent, in raising Him from the dead, He showed His favor. This, too, we
would expect from an immutable God.
What ‘changed’ is not God’s ‘attitude toward’
Christ, but God’s ‘view of’ Christ: While on earth, God viewed Him as guilty of
sin. When Christ paid for that sin FULLY, God viewed Him as no longer guilty of
sin. The real change, in other words, is not in ‘God’; it was in
‘Christ’—particularly in Christ in the human nature; and it was accomplished by
Christ, in the human nature, bearing the wrath of God in full.
Maybe here is the nub of it: That God is immutable
does ‘not’ mean that He never appears to change; He does appear to men to
change His mind. But the difference is not really in ‘God’; it is in the ‘man’.
God bestows His blessing on His own who walk in faith and obedience; He causes
His own who walk in unbelief and disobedience to experience His disfavor; He
returns His favor to those who repent. The one who changed is not God; He did
as He said He would do. The one who changed is ‘man’. And, of course, lest it
be forgotten, the change of man from unbelief to faith, so that he enjoys God’s
favor again, is entirely of grace and nothing merited by man.” (DK, 10/08/2020)
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It
may be objected, “How can God hate a being that is at that time upright and
perfect?” To which we reply, “How can God love a sinner who is at that time a
sinner?” Or alternatively, “How can God love a being whom He knows (and has in
fact decreed and purposed) will become the devil?”
The
answer is as follows: First, God’s love and hatred are sovereignly determined
within Himself and not dependent on anything in the creature (Rom. 9:11-13).
Second, God is not bound by time, and therefore “sees” the devil, even in his
original upright state, according to what the devil in God’s decree of
predestination would become, even as He sees the elect not only as in Christ by
election, but as what we become in time—righteous by the imputation of Christ’s
righteousness. (Dr. Manuel Kuhs,
British Reformed Journal, Issue 59)
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