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

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Sunday's Hymn: All Glory Be to Christ

Should nothing of our efforts stand
No legacy survive
Unless the Lord does raise the house
In vain its builders strive

To you who boast tomorrow’s gain
Tell me what is your life
A mist that vanishes at dawn
All glory be to Christ! 

All glory be to Christ our king!
All glory be to Christ!
His rule and reign we’ll ever sing,
All glory be to Christ!

His will be done
His kingdom come
On earth as is above
Who is Himself our daily bread
Praise Him the Lord of love

Let living water satisfy
The thirsty without price
We’ll take a cup of kindness yet
All glory be to Christ!

All glory be to Christ our king!
All glory be to Christ!
His rule and reign will ever sing,
All glory be to Christ!

When on the day the great I Am
The faithful and the true
The Lamb who was for sinners slain
Is making all things new.

Behold our God shall live with us
And be our steadfast light
And we shall ere his people be
All glory be to Christ!

All glory be to Christ our king!
All glory be to Christ!
His rule and reign will ever sing,
All glory be to Christ!

—Dustin Kensrue and Chad Gardner

Sunday's Hymn: The Day of Resurrection

The day of re­sur­rect­ion! Earth, tell it out abroad;
The Pass­ov­er of glad­ness, the Pass­ov­er of God.
From death to life eter­nal, from earth un­to the sky,
Our Christ hath brought us ov­er, with hymns of vic­to­ry.

Our hearts be pure from ev­il, that we may see aright
The Lord in rays eter­nal of re­sur­rect­ion light;
And list­en­ing to His ac­cents, may hear, so calm and plain,
His own All hail! and, hear­ing, may raise the vic­tor strain.

Now let the heav’ns be joy­ful! Let earth the song be­gin!
Let the round world keep tri­umph, and all that is there­in!
Let all things seen and un­seen their notes in glad­ness blend,
For Christ the Lord hath ris­en, our joy that hath no end.

—John of Damascus