God is simple (not made up of parts)

As we come to think about God being ‘simple’, we are not referring to him being somewhat naive, which is what the word implies when we use it in conversation today. Theologically speaking, God’s simplicity refers to the fact that his being is not made up of parts. This means he is not made up of a combination of his attributes – love, holiness, justice, wisdom, power, knowledge, wrath etc., as if his being was a composition of those attributes. Instead, divine simplicity guards the truth that God is every one of those attributes, in all their glorious perfection, all the time.

The difficulty of this doctrine lies in the fact that every other being in creation is made up of parts. Humans have body parts, as do animals, plants, the earth and the wider universe. In fact, every single cell in the universe is made up of parts, so technically speaking, every one of them can be pulled apart and each part studied in their own right. 

Even angels, although they’re not physical beings made up of physical parts like human bodies are, even they lack divine simplicity because the essence of their being is not identical with their attributes. Or to put that another way, although angels possess knowledge, wisdom, power, courage and a will of their own, if angels were identical with these attributes then they would be bound to always act in light of them … but they’re not.

In this, angels are more like us than God, since angels can grow in their knowledge, this consequently affects what they choose to do, and the way they use their power to do what they want (or what God wants). Angels are moral beings who make choices, and those choices are made because they can consider instructions and then accomplish tasks. If angels were simple beings, then their being (what they are) would be identical with what they do, and that would mean there would be no room for change, since they are already perfectly identical with their attributes, which would perfectly bind their actions to their character. And we know that’s not the case since some angels sinned – like Satan and his demons – while others continue to do God’s will in light of the plans and purposes that God continues to reveal to them by his Spirit.

As we relate this back to God, divine simplicity means that God is identical with his attributes, and all God’s attributes are perfectly united in him. There is no change in God because he perfectly possesses all his attributes, which means he cannot ‘grow’ or ‘develop’ into something he isn’t already. God is his attributes, and those attributes are exactly what God is. This is why we’re told in the New Testament that God does not change like shifting shadows (James 1:17). It’s also why we are told that God is love (1 John 4:8); God is light (1 John 1:5); God is just (Deuteronomy 32:4); God is holy (Leviticus 19:2); God is good (Psalm 100:5) etc. Since we were made in God’s image we also possess some of these characteristics, but like angels, we are not identical to our attributes like God is. Unlike God, our attributes form part of who we are, along with our life-experiences, genetics, and other physical and psychological traits, so that even the most stable of us are a composition of so many parts! And this is one major difference between God and his creation; what we call the Creator / creature distinction that we’ve looked at previously.

To use a human analogy to better understand this distinction, a parent is often divided in ways we don’t see God being susceptible to precisely because parents are made up of parts. This is why a parent will have love for their child that gets tested by the child’s disobedience. Although a decent parent will do their best to maintain their love while they also seek to discipline the child with wisdom and justice, often one attribute gets the better of them and they sacrifice one attribute in favour of the other. 

A judge might do the same thing. Although this is a hotly debated topic, judges should consider mercy as they administer justice, depending on the circumstances of each case. So in principle, a wise and merciful judge will always seek to judge justly and do their best not to pervert justice or mercy in their convictions, but uphold both. However, in the real world judges are often torn between their responsibility to be merciful on the one hand and to show justice on the other, and the result is that some judges are too lenient while others are too harsh in their rulings.

As we bring this back to God, his simplicity guards him from ever sacrificing one characteristic over another, because he is not made up of a collection of attributes in the same way that a pizza is made up of 8 distinct slices. God’s one-ness means all his attributes are essentially one. God always acts in perfect accordance with every one of his attributes since he is his attributes, perfectly, infinitely, and eternally. We might be able to distinguish his love from his justice, and good that we do! But God cannot be loving without also being just. His hatred for sin is always informed by his compassion for sinners. His holiness and his goodness are not two separate things, but they make up who God is along with every other attribute in perfect unity. 

As we continue to think about this complex attribute of our mind-blowing God, I pray we’ll come to see more clearly why God cannot love a sinner without his justice being perfectly satisfied; why God’s compassion for all that he has made does not allow him to forgive people of their sin if the penalty for that sin is not paid in full; why God cannot be unjust as he upholds his promises to be merciful to all who trust in Jesus; why we can be confident that God’s wisdom has been, is, and will always be guided by his knowledge, power and goodness; why our Saviour Jesus could not be anyone apart from the One who is perfectly one with his Father in heaven; and why it’s important that his church unites to uphold all of God’s divine attributes as one body, to reflect the one-ness of the One we serve.