Immutability of God

Augustine (354-430)

“Will you affirm that to be false, which with a strong voice Truth tells me in my inner ear, concerning the Eternity of the Creator, that His substance is no ways changed by time, nor His will separate from His substance? Wherefore He willeth not one thing now, another anon, but once, and at once, and always, He willeth all things that He willeth; not again and again, nor now this, now that; nor willeth afterwards, what before He willed not, nor willeth not, what before He willed; because such a will is mutable; and no mutable thing is eternal; but our God is eternal. Again, what He tells me in my inner ear, the expectation of things to come becomes sight, when they are come, and this same sight becomes memory, when they be past. Now all thought which thus varies is mutable; and no mutable is eternal: but our God is eternal.” These things I infer, and put together, and find that my God, the eternal God, hath not upon any new will made any creature, nor doth His knowledge admit of any thing transitory.

(From: “The Confessions of Saint Augustine”)

Stephen Charnock (1628-1680)

If God were not a Spirit, he were not immutable and unchangeable. His immutability depends upon his simplicity. He is unchangeable in his essence, because he is a pure and unmixed spiritual Being. Whatsoever is compounded of parts may be divided into those parts, and resolved into those distinct parts which make up and constitute the nature. Whatsoever is compounded is changeable in its own nature, though it should never be changed. Adam, who was constituted of body and soul, had he stood in innocence, had not died; there had been no separation made between his soul and body whereof he was constituted, and his body had not resolved into those principles of dust from whence it was extracted. Yet in his own nature he was dissoluble into those distinct parts whereof he was compounded; and so the glorified saints in heaven, after the resurrection, and the happy meeting of their souls and bodies in a new marriage knot, shall never be dissolved; yet in their own nature they are mutable and dissoluble, and cannot be otherwise, because they are made up of such distinct parts that may be separated in their own nature, unless sustained by the grace of God: they are immutable by will, the will of God, not by nature. God is immutable by nature as well as will: as he hath a necessary existence, so he hath a necessary unchangeableness (Mal. iii. 6), “I, the Lord, change not.” He is as unchangeable in his essence as in his veracity and faithfulness: they are perfections belonging to his nature. But if he were not a pure Spirit, he could not be immutable by nature.

(From: “The Existence and Attributes of God”)

The will of God is the same with his essence. If God had a will distinct from his essence, he would not be the most simple being. God hath not a faculty of will distinct from himself: as his understanding is nothing else but Deus intelligens, God understanding; so his will is nothing else but Deus volens, God willing. Being therefore the essence of God, though it is considered according to our weakness as a faculty, it is as his understanding and wisdom, eternal and immutable, and can no more be changed than his essence. The immutability of the Divine counsel depends on that of his essence: he is the Lord Jehovah, therefore he is true to his word, Mal. 3:6.

(From: “The Existence and Attributes of God”)

God is not changed, when of loving to any creatures he becomes angry with them, or of angry he becomes appeased. The change in these cases is in the creature; according to the alteration in the creature, it stands in a various relation to God: an innocent creature is the object of his kindness, an offending creature is the object of his anger: there is a change in the dispensation of God, as there is a change in the creature making himself capable of such dispensations. God always acts according to the immutable nature of his holiness, and can no more change in his affections to good and evil, than he can in his essence. When the devils, now fallen, stood as glorious angels, they were the objects of God’s love, because holy: when they fell, they were the objects of God’s hatred, because impure; the same reason which made him love them while they were pure, made him hate them when they were criminal. The reason of his various dispensations to them was the same in both, as considered in God, his immutable holiness; but as respecting the creature, different; the nature of the creature was changed, but the divine holy nature of God remained the same: “With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward,” Psa. 18:26. He is a refreshing light to those that obey him, and a consuming fire to those that resist him. Though the same angels were not always loved; yet the same reason that moved him to love them moved him to hate them. It had argued a change in God, if he had loved them always, in whatsoever posture they were towards him: it could not be counted love, but a weakness and impotent fondness: the change is in the object, not in the affection of God. For the object loved before is not beloved now, because that which was the motive of love, is not now in it: so that the creature having a different state from what it had, falls under a different affection or dispensation.

It had been a mutable affection in God, to love that which was not worthy of love, with the same love wherewith he loved that which had the greatest resemblance to himself. Had God loved the fallen angels in that state and for that state, he had hated himself, because he had loved that which was contrary to himself, and the image of his own holiness, which made them appear before good in his sight. The will of God is unchangeably set to love righteousness and hate iniquity, and from this hatred to punish it; and if a righteous creature contracts the wrath of God, or a sinful creature hath the communications of God’s love, it must be by a change in themselves. Is the sun changed when it hardens one thing and softens another, according to the disposition of the several subjects? or when the sun makes a flower more fragrant, and a dead carcass more noisome? There are divers effects, but the reason of that diversity is not in the sun, but in the subject: the sun is the same, and produceth those different effects by the same quality of heat. So if an unholy soul approach to God, God looks angrily upon him; if a holy soul come before him, the same immutable perfection in God draws out his kindness towards him; as some think the sun would rather refresh than scorch us, if our bodies were of the same nature and substance with that luminary.

As the will of God for creating the world was not new, but an eternal will, though it manifested itself in time; so the will of God for the punishment of sin, or the reconciliation of the sinner, was no new will; though his wrath in time breaks out in the effects of it upon sinners, and his love flows out in the effects of it upon penitents. Christ by his death reconciling God to man, did not alter the will of God, but did what was consonant to his eternal will: he came not to change his will but to execute his will. “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.” Heb. 10:7. And the grace of God in Christ, was not a new grace, but an old grace in a new appearance; “the grace of God–hath appeared,” Tit. 1:11.

(From: “The Existence and Attributes of God”)

Charles H. Hodge (1797-1878)

The immutability of God is intimately connected with his immensity and eternity, and is frequently included with them in the Scriptural statements concerning his nature. Thus, when it is said, He is the First and the Last; the Alpha and Omega, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever; or when in contrast with the ever changing and perishing world, it is said: “They shall be changed, but thou art the same;” it is not his eternity more than his immutability that is brought into view. As an infinite and absolute Being, self-existent and absolutely independent, God is exalted above all the causes of and even above the possibility of change. Infinite space and infinite duration cannot change. They must ever be what they are. So God is absolutely immutable in his essence and his attributes. He can neither increase nor decrease. He is subject to no process of development, or of self-evolution. His knowledge and power can never be greater or less. He can never be wiser or holier, or more righteous or more merciful than He ever has been and ever must be. He is no less immutable in his plans and purposes. Infinite in wisdom, there can be no error in their conception; infinite in power, there can be no failure in their accomplishment. He is “the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James i. 17.) “God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent; hath He said and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” (Num. xxiii. 19.) “I am the Lord, I change not.” (Mal. iii. 6.) “The counsel of the Lord standeth forever; the thoughts of his heart to all generations.” (Ps. xxxiii. 11.) “There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.” (Prov. xix. 21.) “The Lord of Hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.” (Is. xiv. 24.) “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” (Is. xlvi. 9, 10.) Those passages of Scripture in which God is said to repent, are to be interpreted on the same principle as those in which He is said to ride upon the wings of the wind, or to walk through the earth. These create no difficulty.

(From: “Systematic Theology”)

Robert Shaw (1795-1863)

God is immutable. “With him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” To this important truth reason and revelation give their united testimony. His immutability necessarily results from his absolute perfection. If he were to change, it must be either to the better or to the worse. He cannot change to the better, for that would imply past imperfection; he cannot change to the worse, for then he would cease to be perfect. He must, therefore, remain invariably the same. To the absolute immutability of God the Scripture gives numerous testimonies.–Numb. xxiii.19; Ps. xxxiii.11; Mal. iii.6.

God in unchangeable in his being. “I am that I am,” is the name by which he made himself known to Moses, a name which conveys the idea not only of self-existence and independence, but also of immutability. He is unchangeable in his glory. Though the manifestation of his glory may vary, yet he is, and ever was, infinitely glorious in himself; for his essential glory is neither capable of increase nor susceptible of diminution. He is unchangeable in his blessedness; for as it consists in the enjoyment of himself, so it can neither be increased nor diminished by anything that creatures can do for or against him.–Job xxxv.5-7. He is unchangeable in his purposes and counsels. He proclaims with divine majesty, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.”–Isa. xlvi.10,11. He is unchangeable in his covenant, love, and promises to his people.–Isa. liv.10. When, therefore, we read in Scripture of God’s repenting, we must understand such language of an alteration of the outward dispensations of his providence. We are by no means to attribute to him any change of mind; for, in this respect, it is impossible for God to change. “He is in one mind, and who can turn him?”–Job xxiii.13.

(From: “An Exposition of the Confession of Faith”)

Jerome Zanchius (1516-1590)

Position 1.–God is essentially unchangeable in Himself. Were He otherwise, He would be confessedly imperfect, since whoever changes must change either for the better or for the worse; whatever alteration any being undergoes, that being must, ipso facto, either become more excellent that it was or lose some of the excellency which it had. But neither of these can be the case with the Deity: He cannot change for the better,for that would necessarily imply that He was not perfectly good before; He cannot change for the worse, for then He could not be perfectly good after that change. Ergo, God is unchangeable. And this is the uniform voice of Scripture. “I am the Lord, I change not” (Mal. iii.6). “With Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James i.17). “Thou are the same, and Thy years shall have no end” (Psalm cii.27).

Position 2.–God is likewise absolutely unchangeable with regard to His purposes and promises. “God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or, hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” (Numb. xxiii.19). “The Strength of Israel will not lie, nor repent; for He is not a man, that He should repent” (1 Sam. xv.29). “He is in one mind, and who can turn Him?” (Job xxiii.13). “I, the Lord, have spoken it, it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent” (Ezek. xxiv.14). “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom. xi.29). “He abideth faithful, and cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. ii.13).

By the purpose or decree of God, we mean His determinate counsel, whereby He did from all eternity preordain whatever He should do, or would permit to be done, in time. In particular, it signifies His everlasting appointment of some men to life, and of others to death, which appointment flows entirely from His own free and sovereign will. “The children not yet being born, neither having done any good or evil (that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth), it was said, the elder shall serve the younger: as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” (Rom. ix.11).

The apostle, then, in the very next words, anticipates an objection, which he foresaw men of corrupt minds would make to this, “What shall we say then? is there unrighteousness with God?” which he answers with, “God forbid!” and resolves the whole of God’s procedure with His creatures into His own sovereign and independent will, for He said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

We assert that the decrees of God are not only immutable as to Himself, it being inconsistent with His nature to alter in His purposes or change His mind; but that they are immutable likewise with respect to the objects of those decrees, so that whatsoever God hath determined, concerning every individual person or thing, shall surely and infallibly be accomplished in and upon them. Hence we find that He actually showeth mercy on whom He decreed to show mercy, and hardeneth whom He resolved to harden (Rom. ix.18); “For His counsel shall stand, and He will do all His pleasure” (Isa. xlvi.10). Consequently, His eternal predestination of men and things must be immutable as Himself, and, so far from being reversible, can never admit of the least variation.

Position 3.–“Although,” to use the words of Gregory, “God never swerves from His decree, yet He often varies in His declarations”: that is always sure and immoveable; these are sometimes seemingly discordant. So when He gave sentence against the Ninevites by Jonah, saying, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” the meaning of the words is not that God absolutely intended, at the end of that space, to destroy the city, but that, should God deal with those people according to their deserts, they would be totally extirpated from the earth, and should be so extirpated unless they repented speedily.

Likewise, when He told King Hezekiah by the prophet Isaiah, “Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live,” the meaning was that with respect to second causes, and, considering the king’s bad state of health and emaciated condition, he could not, humanly speaking, live much longer. But still the event showed that God had immutably determined that he should live fifteen years more, and in order to that had put it into his heart to pray for the blessing decreed, just as, in the case of Nineveh, lately mentioned, God had resolved not to overthrow that city then; and, in order to the accomplishment of His own purpose in a way worthy of Himself, made the ministry of Jonah the means of leading that people to repentance. All which, as it shows that God’s absolute predestination does not set aside the use of means, so does it likewise prove that, however various the declarations of God may appear (to wit, when they proceed on a regard had to natural causes), His counsels and designs stand firm and immovable, and can neither admit of alteration in themselves, nor of hindrance in their execution.

(From: “The Doctrine of Absolute Predestination”)