Second, “God would be mutable.”
Second, “God would be mutable.”
(II) “God would be made mutable if He forgave those with whom He has been angry.”
We respond. The will of God is eternal and unmoving: that the impenitent and those who go on sinning securely should perish forever and that, on the other hand, those who repent seriously should be taken back into grace. This will of God is unchanged through our disobedience or through our repentance, but a change occurs only in us. Rather, Scripture ascribes this change and repentance to God through condescension and anthropopathism. “If that nation turns from its evil, I also will repent of the evil that I intended to do to it” (Jer. 18:8). Most sweet is this statement: “What shall I do to you, O Ephraim? Shall I make you like Admah and Zeboiim? My heart is turned within Me; My repentance is stirred up. I will not act according to the wrath of My fury,” etc. (Hosea 11:8–9). Ambrose considers this passage, noting (De poenit., bk. 1, ch. 4): “Even in His indignation God clings to a paternal affection as to how to hand the erring over to be punished. Because we attract His offense with our sins, He is angry so that we are humbled, so that we are worthy more of His mercy than of His punishment.”