THE SIMPLICITY OF GOD.
Geoffrey R. Kirkland
Pastor, Christ Fellowship Bible Church
The SIMPLICITY OF GOD means that God’s being is not made up of many parts that ‘work together’ to make Him God. What makes God to be God is not a collection of wonderful attributes and qualities. Rather, God’s attributes and qualities and aspects are not part of Him but they are who He truly is. There is no distinction and no separation and no collection of qualities that are collected together to make God God.
Fundamentally, God is one Being. He is perfect, glorious, unified, exalted, transcendent and different than us. He is unique, unrivaled, unparalleled, unfathomable and unmatched in His beauty and excellence.
We can better understand the simplicity of God when he contrast it with human beings. We are very different from God in this regard. Human beings are made up of many parts that contribute to who we are as people, as individuals, as persons, all made in the image of God. For example, we may be wise but our wisdom does not make up who we are as infinitely wise beings. We may be powerful and able to lift much weight in the gym but that power does not make up who we are as infinitely omnipotent beings. These qualities are part of who we are but they do not comprise the fullness of our beings and personhood. But with God, His attributes are simply who He is without any fleeting separation or the smallest distinction.
We can not say that God is part love, and part wrath, and part knowledge, and part grace, and part justice. His attributes are not separate pieces of the pie of God that all fit together to make a unified whole. Rather, all of these wondrous attributes are identical with and gloriously descriptive of who God is in His one, divine, perfect, unrivaled, and distinct essence.
Even from 1561, the Belgic Confession states this profound truth: "that there is a single and simple spiritual being, whom we call God”. The Bible teaches this repeatedly. God is love (1 John 4.8). God is light (1 John 1.5). God is spirit (John 4.24). God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12.29). The LORD is a warrior (Exodus 15.2). The LORD is peace (Judges 6.24). The LORD is upright (Psalm 92.15). The LORD is gracious and merciful (Psalm 145.8). The Lord is full of compassion (James 5.11). The Lord is faithful (2 Thessalonians 3.3). All of these wonderful statements declare who God is in His being and essence. They do not declare what God is in parts or in percentages or in halves or in pieces. God’s very essence and being consists of these marvelous wonders!
For this reason, then, you cannot rank God’s attributes higher than the others. We cannot say God is loving but sometimes he shows His angry wrath and just fury. God is always ever living out who He is in his most excellent Being! God is distinct and infinite and most transcendent above all else! (That’s what it means, again, for God to be holy!)
Let this be reason for you to praise and glory in your God for who He really is. You as a person may show love, show patience, show compassion, extend forgiveness which are God-like qualities. Let these truths in your life compel you to worship your God who is these marvelous qualities in fullness. To sum it up, God’s wondrous attributes comprise who He is simply, perfectly, incomprehensibly and profoundly! Worship your God! Get lost in wonder and praise and honor! Contemplate Him and His transcendence with humble awe today!
