Adoring God Online:
God's Simplicity
The Simplicity of God Part 1
People desire to make life easier. They love it when their daily routines are simple; taking a complicated week, and streamline it. People enjoy their week more when things are simplified, in contrast to being complex. Simple is better, right? When we describe God as simple, this idea of making God less complex is not what is meant. We are not “streamlining God” or taking Him down a few theological levels to make Him more understandable.[1] Rather, when Christians think about the biblical idea of simplicity, they are referring to His essence and being.[2] That God is simple in that He is one God, and that He is a pure spirit.[3] He is simple in that He is not composed of many “parts.” Christ Himself said, “God is Spirit,”(John 4:24) [simple_tooltip content=’Since God is a spirit, he is numerically one essence, or simple in that regard.’]⊕ [/simple_tooltip] which means He is not made up of any matter, and that He is invisible.[4]
Attributes and Essence
God is truly in a class by Himself, which is to say only God is God.[simple_tooltip content=’I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me. (Isa. 46:9). This is what Bible scholars of long ago called the aseity of God, incorporating the aspects of uniqueness, absolute independence, and self-existence. See the Adoring God chapter, Only God is God.’]⊕ [/simple_tooltip]He is the only one who can describe His nature to us in terms we can apprehend[simple_tooltip content=’For this reason, we can never expect to master a thorough understanding of Him. But by studying His attributes and His actions that flow from His character, we discern glimmers of truth about Him, as His attributes describe His nature in terms we can apprehend. He communicates those things to us in His word so that we can apprehend something of God’s mind on eternal matters. This is called Biblical Accommodation we mean that Scripture is a lisp to us. It is baby talk from an infinite God to finite human beings, which in turn helps us to apprehend, or understanding something about God’]⊕[/simple_tooltip].[5] When we speak about the lack of God’s “parts” (that He is a simple being) we are referring to the truth that He is the one and only[6] living and true God,[7] who is infinite in being and perfection,[8] a most pure spirit,[9] invisible,[10] without body, parts,[11] or passions.[12] What is important here is to determine what God’s essence means to us when we consider Him without a body, without parts and without passions. This makes His essence simple.[13]
Though we talk about God as having various attributes (such as God being holy, just, merciful and the like) this does not mean that God is made up of part holiness, part justice with a dash of mercy. Rather, we speak of these things individually because we must in the manner that human beings conceive truth. We don’t have the capacity to see God as simple, all in one shot, like He does. We have to consider Him free from all composition, but at the same, we have to consider each attribute individually to understand Him in these various ways.
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[1] God is incomprehensible symbolized by the pillar of fire[simple_tooltip content=’The symbol displayed his character and glory. Fire, or a shining flame enveloped by a cloud, is one of the fittest and most natural symbols of the true God, as dwelling, not simply in light, but, in light that is inaccessible and full of glory,—light and glory within the cloud. The fire, however, was itself not uniform in its appearance, but, according to the threefold distinction of Isaiah, (4:5), sometimes appeared as light, sometimes as a radiant splendour or glory, and sometimes again as flaming, or burning fire. Patrick Fairbairn, Typology of Scripture’]⊕[/simple_tooltip], Exod. 14:19, 20; by the darkness of the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, 1 Kings 8:12; by the general structure of the Most Holy Place, Lev. 16:2.
[2] God is unsearchable. Deut. 29:29; Judg. 13:18; Isa. 40:28, 45:15, 55:8-9; Jer. 23:24; Nah. 1:3; Matt. 11:27; Rom. 11:33-34; 1 Cor. 2:10-11, 16; Eph. 3:8.
[3] God is a pure spirit. Num. 16:22 Num. 27:16. John 4:24.
[4] John 4:24; 2 Cor. 3:17; Col. 1:15; 1 Tim. 1:17; William Perkins, Golden Chain of Salvation, (Crossville: Puritan Publications) p. 26.
[5] Scripture is God’s word to us. It is called the oracles of God, Rom. 3:2; 1 Pet. 4:11; the Scriptures of truth, Dan. 10:21; the sword of the Spirit, Eph. 6:17; the Word of God, Luke 11:28; Heb. 4:12; the Word of Christ, Col. 3:16 and the Word of life, Phil. 2:16.
[6] God is one. Deut. 6:4; 1 Cor. 8:4, 6.
[7] God is the living and true God. Jer. 10:10; 1 Thess. 1:9.
[8] God is infinite. Job 11:7-9; 26:14.
[9] God is a most pure spirit. John 4:24.
[10] God is invisible as a pure spirit. 1 Tim. 1:17.
[11] God does not have a body, and is not made up of separate parts. Deut. 4:15-16; John 4:24 with Luke 24:39.
[12] God does not have passions like a man that react to others. He is not affected by other creatures, which would imply wrongly that other creatures have some effect on God which God cannot control. Acts 14:11, 15.
[13] God is one God in simplicity. Exodus 15:11; Deut. 6:4.