Impassibility means that God has no nerves, blood, or flesh. So he doesn’t get hangry, mad due to lack of sleep, or dopey. He is Spirit (John 4:24). So he doesn’t have emotions that fluctuate on the basis of hunger or lack of sleep.
He is not like the Greek and Roman gods whose vices are ever so human. They commit adultery, become enraged, and so on.
God is simply not like that. He is not like the other gods, as Isaiah tells us. He knows the end from the beginning; he created all; he has no visible form.
So Scripture accommodates itself to us by saying God has an arm, nostrils, is fire, is like a bird, etc. These tell us true things about God that fit our created capacity.
The alternative would be a book that feels like abstract philosophy about God’s invisible nature. God instead delights to communicate with us according to our capacity. We do the same with our children.
In the end, impassibility means that God is not a Greek god who will betray you on a whim. He doesn’t get mad when he doesn’t get his way. He doesn’t let things ruffle his feathers.
When God says, “I love you,” nothing can prevent that love from coming to you. It is stable, forever. It’s not based on a sugar high, or a feeling of elation that feeds. God has no hormones to produce such an effect.
When he acts, it’s all of what he is that acts. He is what he is. And that’s really good news.
That’s why I love this subject — it clarifies the difference between us and Him. “These tell us true things about God that fit our created capacity.” Right, some nerve for the cup I made in a pottery class to tell me it doesn’t believe in I had anything to do with his appearance…so limited yet so arrogant. Some of us by the mercy of God come across information that captures our minds and it’s a compilation of bits and pieces we discern along the way. And suddenly we can see…
But you put it well, Wyatt, we are so choked… “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42 but only one thing is necessary; for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” I am convinceded we need more than obedience, we also do well to have a devoted discipline such as Daniel did. In the end all we’ve done is raise the bar back to where the salvation drama should be. So raising the bar simply invites the Spirit in (cf, Matthew 12:45). Here’s a man who had the golden opportunity to discern God and be influenced by His immpassivity — what a wonderful asset to stay, not aloof, but objective to the confusion.