What is impassibility? How can the Father be impassible but not Jesus?

from the old testament

• One truth undergirding the doctrine of impassibility is the fact that God is unchanging: “I the LORD do not change” (Malachi 3:6). Thus, whatever one thinks of God’s emotions, one must not think of God as fluctuating or shifting (cf. James 1:17).
• Another foundational truth is the aseity of God. Aseity refers to God’s self-sufficiency. He has everything He needs within Himself (cf. Acts 17:24–25) and thus says, “Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine” (Job 41:11). This doctrine means that God is neither helped nor hurt by anything outside of Himself. Thus, His emotions do not change in response to His creatures.
• Impassibility builds on these doctrines, teaching that, at a minimum, God lacks the emotions (passions) that humans do. Whatever one says about His emotion, it is wrong to map human emotion onto God.
• That said, Scripture does attribute emotional language to Him. In Scripture, we read descriptions of times when He is said to be angry (Psalm 7:11), loving (Deuteronomy 7:8; cf. John 3:16), sorrowful (Genesis 6:6), or jealous (Exodus 20:5). The doctrine of impassibility must wrestle with these truths.

from the new testament

• Though He is fully God (John 1:1), Jesus added a human nature (Philippians 2:6–7). In that human nature, He is “like his brothers in every respect” (Hebrews 2:17). Thus, when Jesus wept (John 11:35), got angry (Mark 3:5), or recoiled from pain (Luke 22:44), He did it in His humanity. He experienced emotions like a human, but without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He is our example of how, as believers, we are to bring even our emotions into subjection.

implications for today

The doctrine of impassibility is difficult to understand. As emotional creatures, we have no category for passionless responses outside of, perhaps, a computer’s response. But a computer’s responses are not at all like God’s, which are grounded in His holy character (Isaiah 6:3) and thus genuine responses to different behaviors. This doctrine is theologians attempting to describe God in a way that doesn’t map human fragility and flakiness onto God while respecting Scripture’s descriptions of God responding in anger or in love.

God is completely unlike us, and thus whatever one may describe as “emotion” in God is entirely different from what we know of emotion in humans. The doctrine of impassibility guards us against thinking of God as erratic or emotionally driven. His responses to human behavior are measured, perfectly just, and righteous.

Knowing that we are not God and that He experiences emotions perfectly, how are we to handle our own emotions? We must remember that because we are made in God’s image, emotions are not sinful in themselves; Jesus Himself experienced genuine human emotions, including sorrow, compassion, and anger, yet always expressed them perfectly. The problem is not that we feel deeply, but that sin often distorts our emotions and causes us to respond in selfish, impulsive, or unrighteous ways.

Rather than allowing our emotions to control us, we are called to bring them under the rule of God’s truth, seeking wisdom, self-control, and righteousness in our response (James 1:19–20; Galatians 5:22–23). When we are overwhelmed by anger, fear, frustration, sadness, joy, anxiety, or grief, we can bring those emotions honestly before God. He will help us navigate our thoughts and responses. He will give us a way out so we do not sin. He is with us through our emotions. The goal is not to become emotionless but to become more like Christ—people whose emotions are shaped by the character of God.