The Immutability of God

God is totally unchanging. This is comes out of His aseity (self-existence).  When the Bible addresses God’s immutability, it means, “that perfection of God by which He is devoid of all change, not only in His perfect Being, but also in His perfections (i.e. attributes), as well as His purposes and promises.”

God is not becoming. He is above this. God is not growing.  There is no such thing in the Godhead. God is not decaying.  Far from it. God is constant, perfect, complete, lacking in nothing.

God’s knowledge and plans, His moral principles and volitions remain forever the same.  There is no change possible with God since it is impossible for Him to become better or to become worse. Therefore, in God, the characteristic of improvement and deterioration are both equally impossible.

Now for the Bible passages:

Exodus 3:14:  God replied to Moses, “I am who i am.  Say this to the people of Israel: I am has sent me to you.”

God is the great “I Am,” not “I will be,” or “I was.”

Psalm 102:26-27:  They will perish, but you remain forever; they will wear out like old clothing. You will change them like a garment and discard them.  ²⁷ But you are always the same; you will live forever.  (See also Heb. 1:11-12). 

Man dies and changes, but God lives forever and remains the same.

Isaiah 41:4:  “Who has done such mighty deeds, summoning each new generation from the beginning of time? It is I, the Lord, the First and the Last. I alone am he.” (Also see Isaiah 48:12).

When time began, God was there. When time ends, God will present. He is alone in claiming this.  There is no one immutable like Him.

Malachi 3:6: “I am the Lord, and I do not change.”   

God also does not lie (Titus 1:2). So only He could make this kind of statement and it to be totally factual.

James 1:17:  Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.  

Shadows change shape and direction depending on the object it proceeds from. Not so with God. He is changeless.

“Yeah, but Pastor Rich, how do you explain the incarnation?  If God became a man like the Bible tells us, then that would surely account for a change in God.”

Remember that divine immutability should not be understood as implying immobility, as if there were no movement in God.  Jesus said this, “My Father is always working” (John 5:17).  The Bible teaches that God enters into various relationships with man, living their life with them.  Therefore, there is a change that occurs around God, in relation of men to God, but there is no change in God Himself.

The purpose to create, to send His beloved Son, to live among man was eternal with God.  This purpose did not foreshadow a change in God or necessitate one. When God became a man (the incarnation – through the birth of Jesus), no change was brought in the Being of God. Taking on a human nature was an addition to God that was eternally present and planned, but simply manifested when the right moment occurred.

“Okay, but what about those passages that speak of God repenting or changing His mind?” (Exod. 32:10-14; Jonah 3:10). Those passages that talk about God changing His mind are merely an anthropomorphic way of enabling us to understand the divine. Actually, when you think about it, the change is not in God that occurs, but in man in His relationship to God. This is why we can pray and God will answer our prayers according to His will. God’s relationship to us in moving on our behalf does not constitute a change in His nature.

Those who believe in Open Theism, a teaching that God does change, especially in His knowledge ought to be ashamed to even call themselves Christians.  They know not what they say.