CTSJ 4:2 (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 New
Testament 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. in
Systematic 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 theologians
teach 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 to
recall the notion of anthropomorphism. An anthropomorphism holds that the
Bible ascribes to God human, physical characteristics, which God does not in fact
have.
2
Anthropomorphisms 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).

1
The Westminster Confession of Faith, for example, promotes this belief (see Wayne Grudem,
Systematic Theology [Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994], 165).
2
See 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.
Scripture also says that God comes and goes, though He is omnipresent, being
everywhere at once. Coming and going are anthropomorphisms to
communicate 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 assertion
that God possesses these members, or a corporal body with its parts. Instead, these
indications 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)
because the Bible states that Gods nature is 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 mentions His invisible attributes (Romans 1:20),
CTSJ 4:2 (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 physical
qualities to God, though He does not literally have physical characteristics, being
Spirit. 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 the
Bible 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 + Morphism
Man + Physical form

3
Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology (Dallas: Dallas Seminary Press, 1962), 1:18182.
4
Chafer, 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).
--and--
Anthropo + Pathism
Man + Passion (emotion)
There are often four reasons some theologians use to devise the notion of
anthropopathism:
Reason #1: Some people reason that since God is not physical, He cannot
have human feeling, or emotion. Yet, we must ask why say that Spirit cannot have
emotion? Apart from clear revelation that says so (and none does), such a
conclusion is a non sequitur, that is, it does not follow from the fact God is Spirit.
In fact, in Job 7:11 we read of the distress of my spirit, which suggests that if
spirit has emotion then it is reasonable to infer that Spirit has emotion. Yet, some
theologians conclude as follows:
When we hear that God is angry, we ought not to imagine that
there is any emotion in him, but ought rather to consider the mode
of speech accommodated
CTSJ 4:2 (April 1998) p. 13
to our sense, God appearing to us like one inflamed and irritated
whenever he exercises judgement.
6
Reason #2: Others say that since so much of what we see emotionally in
humans is negative, God could not be like that by having emotion. They suppose,
therefore, that terminology speaking of divine emotion does not reflect real
feeling in God, but only non-emotional attitudes, or disposition. However,
although man distorts emotion into something less than perfect, this does not
mean that God would or does.
Reason #3: The Westminster Confession of Faith uses a proof text (Acts
14:15) to establish the impassibility of God.
7
The text proves nothing of the kind.
Paul compares himself with the men of Lystra saying that he is of the same
nature (same passion, ) as they. By so doing he implies that all
men are not of the same nature/passion as God. Contextually, Pauls point is that
God alone should be worshiped, not man. The passage says nothing either for or
against the notion of divine emotion.
Reason #4: Others seek to draw a parallel between anthropomorphisms and
anthropopathisms. That is, since anthropomorphisms talk about physical
characteristics in God that are not actually true of Him, so anthropopathisms talk
about emotional characteristics in God that are not actually true of Him.

6
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1, Chapter 17 (Logos Library System
2.1b, CD-ROM).
7
Grudem, 16566.
One popular preacher says this:
In planning the creation of mankind, God said, Let us make
mankind 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 the
essence of God.
8
Without validation regarding the absence of divine emotion, the statement
cannot stand. Moreover, there is no analogy, or parallel, with anthropomorphisms
except where one invents it. We have clear biblical justification for the notion of
an 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 emotion
to God? Because of failure to
CTSJ 4:2 (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 emotionless
God.
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 Himself
as 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





8
R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, Bible Doctrines on Computer Diskette.
9
Thieme, Computer Diskette.
10
Suggested by Cliff Rapp, professor at CTS.
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 longer
endure the misery of Israel. However, the expression His soul is pregnant
adding that the Lord was emotionally involved with Israel, something that we
cannot 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 to
use this figure of speech in a peculiar way. Anthropomorphism speaks of
ascribing material characteristics to God, not immaterial. What is soul other
than 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 has
an immaterial soul) in the image and likeness of God.
Isaiah says that God was afflicted, meaning emotionally distressed (in all their
affliction He was afflicted, Isaiah 63:9). We find the same term in Job 7:11, where
Job 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, when
Israel hurt, the Lord hurt. When Israel suffered emotional distress, there was a
corresponding emotional distress in God.
CTSJ 4:2 (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 28:21
where the prophet refers to massive destruction as Gods unusual act. Judgment is
unusual because it is not an eternal expression of His nature. Accordingly, He is
susceptible to impression from withoutsin makes Him angry (note also the
present tense of is revealed in Romans 1:18).
11



11
Ibid.
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 time
on 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 see
something 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 not
exclude 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 His
human nature in hypostatic union. There is no emotion in His
divine nature, only in His human
CTSJ 4:2 (April 1998) p. 16
nature. When Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus, that was good
emotion 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 the
humanity of Christ.
12

12
Thieme, Computer Diskette.
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 a
true 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 20
th
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 required Jesus Christs death for our sin.
Gods love provided Jesus 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 also He who did not spare ( [pheidomai]) His own
Son (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.
CTSJ 4:2 (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 our
weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15).

13
Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985), 737.
Sympathize ( [sumpatheo]) means to share in someones feeling.
In addition, the noun form ( [sumpathes]) means to feel sympathy for
someone (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. We
are, 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 which
Paul 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

14
Louw, 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.
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; 1
Corinthians 11:7), we cannot dismiss the statements that ascribe emotion to God
as anthropopathisms. The many statements about divine emotion
CTSJ 4:2 (April 1998) p. 18
have real correspondence in God Himself.
16
For example, Gods love includes
genuine affection, but it is perfectas He is perfectand not subject to
vacillation, extremes, or other human defects. No need exists to dispose of divine
emotion 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 that
there 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 in
real 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 clear
testimony 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 to
innocuous 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 every
occasion of trouble so that we should be able to console those in
every trouble through the consolation with which we consoled

15
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, 3 vols. Reprint edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970),
1:339.
16
J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 109, says that God has
no passionsthis 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.
ourselves by God (2 Cor. 1:34). Here Gods compassionate
feelings are alleged as the grounds of His comforting us, as our
compassionate 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 if
to make double sure that we understand Gods at-
CTSJ 4:2 (April 1998) p. 19
titude toward us as one of literal and not merely symbolical
compassion 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 show
acts 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 of
pure 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 of
intimate 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. Does
ever 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 the
immutability 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 and
Lord. 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

17
Oliver Buswell, A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1971), 5557.
18
Henry Thiessen, Lectures in Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977), 130131.
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
out
CTSJ 4:2 (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 strive
not 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 one
member is honored, all the members rejoice with it (1 Corinthians
12:26).
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just
as God in Christ also forgave you (Ephesians 4:32).
Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one
another; 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 and
emotion in our relationships.

19
Peter 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).