As I said before, I think God’s Simplicity is a good place to start. For reasons that will become clear, simplicity is like the foundation of God’s attributes ~others all flow from simplicity, Other authors I’ve read will say that God’s Eternality is the best one to start with, or God’s Aseity. At the end of the day, each one connects with the others.

Our God is Simple.

Ponder that for just a moment. Simple. Not simple as in “easy to do” or as in “not complicated”. Don’t you ever feel that you are complicated? I know I do! Gosh – sometimes I don’t understand myself!

God is Simple. Let’s flesh that out. The basic definition of simplicity is this: God is free from composition. He is not a collection of parts. He’s not the sum of parts – or, as in the case of attributes, He’s not the sum of His attributes. As a matter of fact, God doesn’t just “have or possess” attributes as if they were given to Him or added to His nature, He IS His attributes. In contrast, all of creation does have parts and must be put together. Nothing in creation is self existent or self sufficient.

Everything that is in God IS God, That’s simple! (or not)!

So, if God IS His attributes, without addition or division, then it follows that there is absolute unity. His essence IS His attributes and His attributes ARE His essence.

An ancient church father, Thomas Aquinas likens it to the body. Our bodies are comprised of parts, of form and matter. God is Spirit without a physical body and so is not composed of parts. Another church father – Irenaeus – taught what God is not when he stated that God is not a “compounded” being. He is a simple, uncompounded God, one in essence. Matthew Barrett in his book “None Greater”, shares Irenaeus’ statement:

“He is a simple, uncompounded Being, without diverse members, and altogether like, and equal to Himself, since He is wholly understanding, and wholly spirit, and wholly thought, and wholly intelligence, and wholly reason….wholly light, and the whole source of all that is good.” (pg 76).

Just in case you’re feeling like “whoa! I can’t process this!”, another way of considering God’s Simplicity is that He is a fully, realized Being in which there is no development, because God has life in Himself! This is what theologians have termed “Pure Act”. He is absolute – there are no distinctions within His Being!

Are you blown away yet? He is so simple, it’s hard to really grasp it all!

What if God weren’t Simple?

Some theologians will deny this attribute. But think about it. What would the danger be?

It is easier for us to think of something having “parts”. Just about everything has parts. A musical composition has different parts, which when put together make it “whole”. As mentioned above, our bodies have parts that make us a whole person. But….think about this. If God were made up of parts, there could be an attribute that isn’t fully developed yet. Or He could be missing a part. Anything that has parts can develop at different rates.

If God is, as I believe, self existent and self sufficient (His Aseity), having no Maker, then it follows that God can’t have parts. Why? Because one part would depend on another part. (again, think of a musical composition or our bodies). And if that were the case, all of a sudden He no longer IS. Yahweh: I AM.

Aquinas said, “Everything composite is subsequent to its components and dependent on them.”

Think: it also follows that some parts would precede others! Whoa! And if He were made of parts, He’d be divisible, nixing His complete and absolute unity. IF attributes were parts, He’d need them added to His Being. And if He needed something added then He’d have been imperfect, needing improvement. This would destroy His Aseity, His Eternality, His Infinitude.

In his book “God IS”, in his chapter on simplicity, author Mark Jones says this: (about Romans 8:28, “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.”). Because God is goodness, He can make the this promise. But His goodness is also His power, so that He is powerfully good. Yet He is also wise, so He is powerfully good and powerfully wise. Add to this that God is unchangeably powerful and wise and good. Or, His power is His goodness is His wisdom is His unchangeability. We can therefore trust that all things are working together for our good because our God IS wisdom, power, goodness and immutability.” (pg 33)

Still with me? 🙂

The mind blowing thing about this is that you can see how, when speaking of one attribute, it inevitably leads us to another, and to another. Because He is Simple, we cannot separate His attributes! He IS all of them at the same time in equal measure.

The idea of simplicity sounds complicated. However, we need to remember that our human language and finite minds do not and cannot equal the One who is above and beyond us. Really, it’s amazing that God stooped down to us and used words we can understand as His way to reveal Himself. We know God is also infinite and incomprehensible. Which means that in our humanness we will have eternity to discover more and more about Him!

A.W, Tozer said, “When God justifies a sinner, everything in God is on the sinner’s side. All the attributes of God are on the sinner’s side. It isn’t that mercy is pleading for the sinner, and justice is trying to beat him to death. All of God does all that God does.”

Conclusion:

God’s essence is unbounded, immeasurable, unfathomable, and inestimable in every way. He cannot be His attributes any more than He already is. He is His attributes absolutely.

Resources:

“None Greater, The Undomesticated Attributes of God” by Matthew Barrett

“God Is, A Devotional Guide to the Attributes of God” by Mark Jones

Next up: God’s Aseity and Eternality