Theological Term of the Week: Illumination

illumination

The work of the Holy Spirit within us, enabling us “to grasp and to love the revelation that is in the biblical text” as we hear and read it, and as it is explained to us by teachers and writers.1

• From scripture:

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:12-14 ESV)

• From The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 1:

The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men. Nevertheless, we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word…. 

• From The Christian Faith by Michael Horton, page 167:

[I]nspiration is a characteristic of the biblical text, while illumination is the Spirit’s subsequent work of bringing us to an understanding and acceptance of its meaning. … The Spirit’s illumination is of two kinds, internal and external. The Spirit witnesses to the truth of Scripture and within us to win our consent.

Learn more:

1. J. I. Packer: Illumination
2. Ligonier Ministries: Divine Illumination
3. Ligonier Ministries: Illumining Scripture 
4. David Garner: An Illumined Reading of Scripture

Related terms:

• internal call
• inspiration of scripture

1Concise Theology by J. I. Packer, page 155

Filed under Person and Work of the Holy Spirit and Scripture

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Sunday Hymn: Join All the Glorious Names

Join all the glorious names
of wisdom, love, and pow’r,
that ever mortals knew,
that angels ever bore;
all are too mean to speak His worth,
too mean to set my Savior forth.

Great Prophet of my God,
my tongue would bless Thy Name;
by Thee the joyful news
of our salvation came-
the joyful news of sins forgiv’n,
of hell subdued, and peace with heav’n.

Jesus, my great High Priest,
offered His blood and died;
my guilty conscience seeks
no sacrifice beside:
His pow’rful blood did once atone,
and now it pleads before the throne.

My dear Almighty Lord,
my Conqueror and King,
Thy sceptre and Thy sword,
Thy reigning grace I sing;
Thine is the pow’r; behold I sit,
in willing bonds, beneath Thy feet.

Now let my soul arise,
and tread the tempter down;
my Captain leads me forth
to conquest and a crown.
A feeble saint shall win the day,
tho’ death and hell obstruct the way.

—Isaac Watts

Theological Term of the Week: Simplicity of God

simplicity of God

The state of God in which he is not a composite or compound being. He is not made up of parts, but is simple. He does not possess his attributes, but he is his attributes.

• Implied in scripture in statements that say God is his perfections: 

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:8 ESV).

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5 ESV)

…  for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:29 ESV)

• From the Belgic Confession:

Article 1: The Only God 

We all believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that there is a single and simple spiritual being, whom we call God — eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, unchangeable, infinite, almighty; completely wise, just, and good, and the overflowing source of all good.

• From Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof:

When we speak of the simplicity of God, we use the term to describe the state or quality of being simple, the condition of being free from division into parts, and therefore from compositeness. It means that God is not composite and is not susceptible of division in any sense of the word. This implies among other things that the three Persons in the Godhead are not so many parts of which the Divine essence is composed, that God’s essence and perfections are not distinct, and that the attributes are not superadded to His essence. Since the two are one, the Bible can speak of God as light and life, as righteousness and love, thus identifying Him with His perfections. The simplicity of God follows from some of His other perfections; from His Self-existence, which excludes the idea that something preceded Him, as in the case of compounds; and from His immutability, which could not be predicated of His nature, if it were made up of parts. This perfection was disputed during the Middle Ages, and was denied by Socinians and Arminians. Scripture does not explicitly assert it, but implies it where it speaks of God as righteousness, truth, wisdom, light, life, love, and so on, and thus indicates that each of these properties, because of their absolute perfection, is identical with His Being.

Learn more:

1. Kevin DeYoung: Theological Primer: The Simplicity of God
2. Kevin DeYoung: Divine Simplicity (video)
3. Persis Lorenti: Classic Theism: Is God Simple or Complex?
4. Tim Bertolet: Divine Simplicity: The Simplicity of God
5. Herman Bavinck: Divine Simplicity
6. Amy Mantravadi: Introduction to Divine Simplicity
7. Matthew Barrett: Divine Simplicity
8. Sinclair Ferguson: The Lord Our God, The Lord Is One: The Simplicity of God (video)

Related terms:

• aseity
• eternality
• immutability
• impassibility

Filed under God’s Nature and His Work

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.