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CTSJ4:2 (April 1998) p. 11

Divine Emotion

Dr. George E. Meisinger *

Chafer Theological Seminary

[*Editors note: George E. Meisinger is dean of Chafer

Theological Seminary, as well as teaching in the Old and NewTestament departments. He received his B.A. from Biola

University, a Th.M. in Old Testament Literature and Exegesis from

Dallas Theological Seminary, and a D.Min. in Biblical Studies

from Western Seminary, and presently pursues a Ph.D. inSystematic Theology. He also pastors Grace Church in Orange,

California.]

What does Scripture teach about Gods feelings, or emotions? The question is:

Does God have feeling as we humans experience emotion? Some theologiansteach the impassibility of God,which if true means that God does not have

emotion, or passion.1

A Figure of Speech: Anthropomorphism

Let us back up a moment. It will help us understand what goes on here torecall the notion of anthropomorphism. An anthropomorphism holds that the

Bible ascribes to God human, physical characteristics, which God does not in facthave.

2Anthropomorphisms seek to humanize God so that we may better

understand what the Lord is like. For example, Scripture says God has:

A finger (Deuteronomy 9:10);

A hand (Exodus 3:20; Isaiah 66:2);

An arm (Exodus 6:6; Deuteronomy 4:34; 5:15);

An ear (Isaiah 37:17; Psalm 11:4).

1The Westminster Confession of Faith, for example, promotes this belief (see Wayne Grudem,

Systematic Theology[Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994], 165).2See E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech Used in the Bible(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House,

1968), 87197, where he discusses anthropomorphisms and anthropopathisms under the title

Anthropopatheia; or, Condescension.

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Scripture also says that God comesandgoes,though He is omnipresent, being

everywhere at once. Coming and going are anthropomorphisms tocommunicate something of Gods activity (Genesis 11:5; Isaiah 64:12).

Such anthropomorphisms as these are unnumbered in the Bible. We should

note that where Scripture ascribes physical members to God, it is not an assertionthat God possesses these members, or a corporal body with its parts. Instead, theseindications of physical members show that God is able to do precisely those

things that are the functions of mans physical parts.He that planted the ear, shall

he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see (Psalm 94:9)?3

Theologians rightly conclude these are figures of speech (anthropomorphisms)becausethe Bible states that Gods natureis Spirit. He is without material

substance. For example:

God is Spirit(John 4:24),

Moreover a spirit does not have flesh and bone(Luke 24:39).

Paul mentionsHis invisible attributes(Romans 1:20),

CTSJ4:2 (April 1998) p. 12

Or simply that God is invisible(Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17).

Thus, no one has seen God at any time(John 1:18; cp. Exodus 33:1820).

Now hands, arms, fingers, and moving from place to place ascribe physicalqualities to God, though He does not literally have physical characteristics, beingSpirit. Thus, it is proper to call these things anthropomorphisms. By their use

God condescends to us, in order that we may rise to Him.4

Anthropopathism: Another Figure of Speech?

So, what about those places that ascribe emotional qualities to God? When theBible talks about Gods emotions, some call it an anthropopathism, which is to

ascribe emotion to God. They say, though, that in fact He does not have feeling.5

Anthropo + MorphismMan + Physical form

3Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology(Dallas: Dallas Seminary Press, 1962), 1:18182.4Chafer, 1:183.5 Human affections and feelings are attributed to God: Not that He has such feelings; but, in

infinite condescension, He is thus spoken of in order to enable us to comprehend Him

(Bullinger, 882).

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One popular preacher says this:

In planning the creation of mankind, God said, Let us makemankind in our shadow-image according to our likeness, Gen

1:26. When God said that, He could not have possibly been talking

about emotion, since there is no evidence for emotion in theessence of God.8

Without validation regarding the absence of divine emotion, the statementcannot stand. Moreover, there is noanalogy, or parallel, with anthropomorphisms

except where one invents it. We have clear biblical justification for the notion ofan anthropomorphism because the Bible says, God is Spirit,or invisible

(references above). There is zero exegetical or theological justification for

assigning Gods emotions to the status of a figure of speech, that is,anthropopathism. Thus, without such justification, we should take the statements

of divine emotion at face value.

The following statement does not line up with what the Bible in fact says, but

rather with what one speculates is the case, thus should not stand:

Why do theologians have such a predilection for assigning emotionto God? Because of failure to

CTSJ4:2 (April 1998) p. 14

understand anthropopathic revelation of God in the word of God.9

We may conclude the four reasons above by saying that none holds water;

none offers ground upon which to base a doctrine of impassibility: an emotionlessGod.

We may add that, if there is not emotion in God, then Gods appeals based on

divine emotion are deceptive. For example, in Isaiah 1:24 God presents Himselfas being in pain like a father who has rebellious sons. In Jeremiah 2 and 3 (as well

as other passages like Ezekiel 16 and 23), He presents Himself as an emotionally

wounded husband of an unfaithful wife. If He has no emotion about this, His

appeal seems like a sham.10

8R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, Bible Doctrines on Computer Diskette.9 Thieme, Computer Diskette.10Suggested by Cliff Rapp, professor at CTS.

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Reasons for Seeing Genuine Emotion in God

Reason #1: The Lords experience with Israel in Old Testament times

His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel(Judges

10:16; cp. Jeremiah 5:9, 29 [Myself =

(napesu)]; 6:8; 15:1

[My mind = .((napeshi)]; Isaiah 42:1

We could render Judges 10:16 with the personal pronoun:I could no longerendure the misery of Israel. However, the expression His soul is pregnant

adding that the Lord was emotionally involved with Israel, something that wecannot explain away with the notion of an anthropopathism. The verse may stand

as is: God experienced the emotion of grief at the suffering of His people,

although they deserved it.

Nor, by the way, should one explain away this verse as an anthropomorphism.

Why?To understand the Lords soul as an anthropomorphism would be touse this figure of speech in a peculiar way. Anthropomorphism speaks of

ascribing material characteristics to God, not immaterial. What is soul otherthan those capacities we usually define as mentality, volition, emotion, and

perhaps conscience. There does not seem to be anything incongruous about saying

God has a soul, especially when we consider that the Lord created man (who hasan immaterial soul) in the image and likeness of God.

Isaiah says that God was afflicted, meaning emotionally distressed (in all theiraffliction He was afflicted,Isaiah 63:9). We find the same term in Job 7:11, whereJob mentions the distress of my spirit. Emotional, not physical, distress is in view

because God is not subject to whatever is physical in nature. In other words, whenIsrael hurt, the Lord hurt. When Israel suffered emotional distress, there was a

corresponding emotional distress in God.

CTSJ4:2 (April 1998) p. 15

Here is another consideration. As regards Gods anger, it is not an eternal

emotion. God is a happy God, which is His eternal disposition (1 Timothy 1:11).Before creation, He was only happy. After creation and before the fall (of Satan),

He was only happy. After the devils fall, He became angryangry at sin and

rebellion. We may support real divine anger with passages like Isaiah 28:21where the prophet refers to massive destruction as Gods unusual act.Judgment is

unusualbecause it is not an eternal expression of His nature. Accordingly, He issusceptible to impression from withoutsin makes Him angry (note also the

present tense of is revealedin Romans 1:18).11

11Ibid.

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Reason #2: The Incarnation

Jesus Christ is the preeminent reference point for what God is like. John says:

No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in

the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him(John 1:18).

The preceding verse is an overview of the Incarnation, of Jesus Christs timeon earth. On an occasion during the Lords earthly ministry, during which He was

declaring the Father, Philip made a request:

Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us(John 14:8).

Jesus answer is revealing:

He who has seen Me has seen the Father(John 14:9).

Note, additionally, what the author of Hebrews says:

God has in these last days spoken to us by His Son who [is] the

brightness of His glory and the express image of His person(Hebrews 1:13).

These passages say that as we observe Jesus Christ in the Gospels, we seesomething of what God is like. Jesus humanity is a perfect (though not infinite)

reflector of God. What we observe in the humanity of Jesus reveals God

Himselfexcept, of course, where Jesus manifests the normal and sinless

limitations of humanity such as hunger and fatigue. However, Scripture does notexclude emotion from God. To the contrary, many passages ascribe emotion to

God. Therefore, where we see emotion in Jesus Christ, it reflects divine emotion.

Some disagree.

Emotion related to the person of Jesus Christ is confined to Hishuman nature in hypostatic union. There is no emotion in His

divine nature, only in His human

CTSJ4:2 (April 1998) p. 16

nature. When Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus, that was goodemotion from His human nature. Because of the impeccability of

Jesus Christ, He experienced only good emotion. While there is no

emotion in the deity of Christ, there is perfect emotion in thehumanity of Christ.

12

12Thieme, Computer Diskette.

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One may contend that there is no emotion in the deity of Christ; to prove it

one needs sound biblical evidence. An appeal to the hypostatic union (which is atrue doctrine) and to the impeccability of Christ (which is also a true doctrine)

does not prove anything either for or against divine emotion. To conclude that

there is perfect emotion in the humanity of Christ is a true statement, but it says

nothing for or against perfect emotion in the deity of Christ.

Specific examples of emotion in Jesus Christ:

Anger when He drove the money changers out of the temple (Matthew

21:12),

Sorrow/tears at Lazarus tomb and over the city of Jerusalem (John 11:35;

Luke 19:41; cp. Matthew 23:37),

Comfort that is resident in the Lord and which He shares with His people

(2 Corinthians 1:34),

Joy, which the Spirit specifically locates within the deity of Christ, and that

sustained His humanity on the Cross (Hebrews 1:9; 12:2).

Remember that no man has seen God at any time, but Jesus Christ reveals

Him and Jesus exhibits emotion. A 20th

Century theologian points out that the

notion God does not have emotion (impassibility) is not a biblical notion at all,

but derives from the rags of Greek philosophy.13

Reason #3: God Suffered on the Cross

It was the righteousness of God that requiredJesus Christs death for our sin.Gods loveprovidedJesus sacrifice. Now while Christ endured crucifixion, He

gave us one of the clearest examples that God is capable of suffering, or emotion.

We see this particularly in the Lords cry,My God, My God, why have You

forsaken Me?Note alsoHe who did not spare ([pheidomai])His ownSon(Romans 8:32), which suggests that it was an emotionally painful sacrifice

for the Father to deliver up His uniquely begotten Son for the sins of the world.

Also see Genesis 22:16 where Abraham did not withhold ([pheidomai])his son, Isaac. If we put ourselves in Abrahams sandals for a moment, we can

sense the emotional distress he endured at that moment.

CTSJ4:2 (April 1998) p. 17

Reason #4: Gods sympathy toward believers in the present Church

Dispensation

We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with ourweaknesses(Hebrews 4:15).

13Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985), 737.

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Sympathize ([sumpatheo]) means to share in someones feeling.In addition, the noun form ([sumpathes]) means to feel sympathy forsomeone (1 Peter 3.8).

14

Other Manifestations of Divine Emotion

Anger (Isaiah 1:14; Nahum 1:2),

Compassion (Psalm 103:13),

Comfort (Isaiah 57:6; Ezekiel 5:13),

Delight (Deuteronomy 10:15),

Displeased (Zechariah 1:15),

Grief (Genesis 6:6; Psalm 78:40; cp. Ephesians 4:30),

Jealousy (Exodus 20:5; Zechariah 1:14; James 4:5),

Laugh of derision (Psalm 2:4; 37:13),

Love (Deuteronomy 10:15),

Rejoicing (Psalm 104:31; Isaiah 62:5).

Now let us note several penetrating insights from theologians of the last two

centuries.

Insights from Notable Theologians

Insight from Charles Hodge

We are the children of God, and, therefore, we are like Him. Weare, therefore, authorized to ascribe to Him all the attributes of our

own nature as rational creatures, without limitation, and to an

infinite degree. If we are like God, God is like us. This is the

fundamental principle of all religion. This is the principle whichPaul assumed in his address to the Athenians (Acts 17:29):

forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to

think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven

14Louw, Johannes P. and Nida, Eugene A., Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on

Semantic Domains, (Logos Library System 2:1b, CD-ROM) (New York: United Bible Societies)

1988, 1989.

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by art and mans device. If we are His children, He is our

Father, whose image we bear, and of whose nature we partake.15

Accordingly, because we are in the image of God (Genesis 1:26; 1Corinthians 11:7), we cannot dismiss the statements that ascribe emotion to God

as anthropopathisms. The many statements about divine emotionCTSJ4:2 (April 1998) p. 18

have realcorrespondence in God Himself.16

For example, Gods love includesgenuine affection, but it is perfectas He is perfectand not subject to

vacillation, extremes, or other human defects. No need exists to dispose of divineemotion because of human faults.

Gods love, along with all other manifestations of divine emotion, is

subordinate to His righteousness, unchangeableness, and truthfulness. Thus, the

Lord commands us to let our love abound still more and more in knowledge and

all discernment(Philippians 1:9).

Insight from Oliver Buswell

The schoolmen and often the philosophical theologians tell us thatthere is not feeling in God. This, they say, would imply passivity

or susceptibility of impression from without, which, it is assumed,

is incompatible with the nature of God [But] such a view is inreal contradiction to the representations of God in the Old

Testament and the New Testament . here again we have to

choose between a mere philosophical speculation and the cleartestimony of the Bible, and of our own moral and religious nature.

Love, of necessity, involves feeling, and if there be no feeling in

God, there can be no love.

If the word for love, agape, has been reduced by some toinnocuous frigidity, frozen nothingness, what will they do with the

word compassionate feeling, oiktirmoi? Blessed be the God

and Father of all consolation, who hath consoled us upon everyoccasion of trouble so that we should be able to console those in

every trouble through the consolation with which we consoled

15Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, 3 vols. Reprint edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970),1:339.16J. I. Packer,Knowing God(Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 109, says that God has

nopassionsthis does not mean that He is unfeeling (impassive), or that there is nothing in Him

that corresponds to emotions and affections in us, but that whereas human passionsspecially the

painful ones, fear, grief, regret, despairare in a sense passive and involuntary, being called forth

and constrained by circumstances not under our control, the corresponding attitudes in God have

the nature of deliberate, voluntary choices, and therefore are not of the same order as human

passions at all.

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ourselves by God (2 Cor. 1:34). Here Gods compassionate

feelings are alleged as the grounds of His comforting us, as ourcompassionate feelings are to be the grounds of our comforting

others in trouble. To this end we are exhorted, As elect of God,

holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with the affections of

compassionate feelings,splagchna oiktirmoi (Col. 3:12). As ifto make double sure that we understand Gods at-

CTSJ4:2 (April 1998) p. 19

titude toward us as one of literal and not merely symbolicalcompassion and sympathy, the Scripture distinguishes between

Gods act of mercy, implied in the verb eleeo, and Gods

compassionate feelings, implied in the verb oikteiro.I will showacts of mercy toward him whom I show acts of mercy, and I will

have compassionate feelings toward him whom I have

compassionate feelings (Romans 9:15) .

Unless we wish to reduce the love of God to the frozen wastes ofpure speculative abstraction, we should shake off the static

ideology which has come into Christian theology from non-

Biblical sources, and insist upon preaching the living God ofintimate actual relationship with His people. Gods immutability is

the absolutely perfect consistency of His character in His actual

relationships, throughout history, with His finite creation. Doesever a sinner repent, there is always joy in the presence of the

angels (Luke 15:7, 10). Does ever a child of God, sealed by the

Spirit, fall into sin, the Holy Spirit is grieved (Ephesians 4:30).17

Insight from Henry Thiessen

Philosophers frequently deny feeling to God, saying that feeling

implies passivity and susceptibility of impression from without,

and that such a possibility is incompatible with the idea of theimmutability of God. But immutability does not mean immobility.

True love necessarily involves feeling, and if there be no feeling in

God, then there is no love of God.18

Insight from the Westminster Theological Journal

Man is made as Gods image, created to imitate his Creator andLord. The Bible clearly reveals a passionate God. I do not mean to

deny the impassibility of God in its classic sense, namely, that

God is never passive, never acted upon. Yet Scripture teaches that

17Oliver Buswell, A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion(Grand Rapids: Zondervan,

1971), 5557.18Henry Thiessen,Lectures in Systematic Theology(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), 130131.

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God is angry with the wicked every day, that he loves his people

with an eternal love, dancing over them as a warrior over his bride,that he delights in the ways of the righteous. The incarnate Son

cursed hypocritical Pharisees, overturned money-changers in the

temple, shed tears at Bethany, sweat blood in Gethsemane, cried

outCTSJ4:2 (April 1998) p. 20

in agony from the cross of Calvaryall for the joy that was set

before him. Our God is no Stoic sage . Christians should strivenot for moderate passions, but for strong God-directed passions.

19

Verses for Personal Application

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love(Romans

12:10).

If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if onemember is honored, all the members rejoice with it(1 Corinthians

12:26).

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, justas God in Christ also forgave you(Ephesians 4:32).

Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for oneanother; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous(1 Peter

3:8).

As the sons of God by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone,let us not assign these challenges to innocuous frigidity, frozen nothingness, or

the frozen wastes of speculative abstraction, as Buswell puts it. As God is a

God of perfect emotion and passion, so we should walk with godly affection andemotion in our relationships.

19Peter J. Leithart, Stoic Elements in Calvins Doctrine of the Christian Life: Part III: Christian

Moderation (WTJ, vol. 56, #1, Spring 1994) (Logos Library System 2.1b, CD-ROM).