Does God suffer?

Is God passible or impassible? Why is it theologically unsound to say that God suffers in our suffering, difficulty, and pain? If God experiences emotional change, does that throw God’s immutability into question? Can we trust a God who is subject to alteration or loss?

In this new Credo video, Matthew Barrett discusses God’s impassibility, how it correlates with God’s immutability, and why God’s impassibility is a comforting and assuring doctrine for the Christian. Watch other videos like this one on the Credo Video page.

And if you enjoyed this video, check out Matthew Barrett’s new book, None Greater: The Undomesticated Attributes of God (Baker).

For too long, Christians have domesticated God, bringing him down to our level, as if he is a God who can be tamed. But he is a God who is high and lifted up, the Creator rather than the creature, someone than which none greater can be conceived. If God is the most perfect, supreme being, infinite and incomprehensible, then certain perfect-making attributes must be true of him. Perfections like aseity, simplicity, immutability, and eternity shield God from being crippled by creaturely limitations. At the same time, this all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-wise God exhibits perfect wisdom, holiness, and love as he makes known who he is and how he will save us. When we need to be reminded of God’s magnificence, the attributes of God show us exactly why God is worthy of worship: there is none like him.

Join Matthew Barrett as he rediscovers these divine perfections and finds himself surprised by the God he thought he knew. Your Christian walk will never be the same.

You can order None Greater at Baker Books or Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Here is a short video about the book.