In a previous post (The One), we explained the fundamental importance of understanding the One as we study God. We covered the fact that there is only one God; all others are fake, false, counterfeit, and demonic (I Cor 10:20-21). We dealt with God’s uniqueness as clearly stated in Exodus 8:10, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.” (emphasis added). We also mentioned there is a third aspect to the oneness of God: the simplicity of God.
We rarely hear God referred to as simple. Oxford Languages defines simple as “easily understood or done; presenting no difficulty, plain, basic, or uncomplicated.” This doesn’t get at what theologians mean about God when they use the term Simple. God is not a simpleton or easily understood. We covered the incomprehensibleness of God in The No. The term “uncomplicated” almost gets there.
Rather than God being seen as basic or plain, the point is that God does not consist of parts. He is not a composite of parts, nor is He a compound being. While attempting to study God in this series, we are considering His various attributes. But, we must clearly understand: God is not made up of these various attributes. He is His attributes! He is not a collection of separate characteristics or qualities. He is each attribute completely. He is not partly just. He is completely, wholly, and fully just. The same is true of all His attributes. At the end of I John 4:8, it states: “…God is love.” He doesn’t just act in love, is loving, or have the quality of love, but is love. He is love, fully and completely (see I John 1:5; John 4:24; Heb 12:29).
As humans, we have attributes. We have love and try to be more loving. We have a sense of justice. We seek to be fair, to hold ourselves and others to what is right. As parents, we find ourselves trying to balance these two capacities. We love our children but want to be sure they do right and understand the consequences of doing wrong while the whole time showing love. We struggle to keep these attributes balanced in our daily lives; while, at the same time, they are in tension with each other.
This is not a concern for God. God does not have internal conflicts, as if His attributes were separate parts of Himself competing for supremacy. He is His attributes, which are perfectly balanced in His one harmonious essence. He is always 100% love, 100% justice, 100% power, 100% knowledge, 100% wisdom, and 100% of all His other attributes. All of them blend together in a way in which they are not separate parts within Him, but are all together Him.
They are the qualities which describe God, not the elements that comprise Him.
While we talk about them and study them separately, to understand God correctly, we have to see the whole without any parts.
As with most things with God, this is difficult for us to understand. In creation, everything has parts. What was once thought to be a simple cell with no smaller components is now understood to be a complex organism with microtubules, nucleolus, mitochondrion, ribosomes, and many other working systems. So much for the simple cell. Even the smallest atom is made up of protons, electrons, and neutrons. Scientists are only now beginning to discover the world of subatomic components.
Not so with God! God has no parts that grow or diminish over time. No attribute of God has ever developed, been added, or removed. God is a perfect whole. God is perfect harmony, never in conflict or tension. Light gives us a glimpse into this concept. To study light, we put it through a prism to refract its spectrum of rainbow colors. We see the many colors coming out of the prism, but each color is not the light but an aspect of the light (as with all analogies for God, don’t take this too far or it will fall apart, and you will miss the point). True light is the whole of the spectrum, not the refractured parts. Our graphic for this post is trying to point to this. A plain empty field, with no parts or colors, just pure white. God has no parts. He is complete, He is holy, and He is pure!
Now, we certainly would like to turn the love of God up and bring down justice and wrath, especially if those last two are directed at us. God doesn’t need to turn one quality up or another down. For, in power and complete wisdom, He is the perfect whole of them all. What if God was wise but not powerful enough to act wisely; just but without love to mitigate cold wrath; gracious but not all-knowing to be able to apply grace correctly ? All-powerful without holiness would result in the mythical Zeus, not the One True God of the Bible.
This leads to the analysis of another attribute helping us to understand God: Aseity (a short but important $10 word). The principle of God’s aseity teaches us God is independent, autonomous, self-existent, and self-sufficient (Is 46:9; Ex 3:14). God is not dependent on anyone or anything. Another way of saying this is God is not contingent on anything (sorry another $10 word). Contingent: being dependent on or conditioned on something else. You and I are contingent beings. In order to even exist, we need God to create us. When first born, we need the care of our parents, and as elderly people, we will need the help of others. In between those two points of life, we are contingent on others for our very livelihoods, even if self-employed. Try to run a business without suppliers, or even worse, without customers.
God is not dependent on anyone. No one can add to Him. He doesn’t add to Himself, for He is and has always been a perfect whole. If you change perfect, either it is no longer perfect; or, if it has now been made perfect with the change, it was not perfect before. Nor does God need anything from others. He did not create because He lacked something. He did not have a need which creation was supposed to meet. He is whole and holy, lacking nothing. Hence, self-sufficient (Acts 17:25; Rom 11:36).
When we say God is self-existent, we do not mean He brought Himself into existence, but that He is uncreated. He has always existed. Every child, it seems, will eventually ask, “Where did God come from, who made God?” As parents, we freakout at this kind of question. We over complicate it. The right and simple answer is “No one!” God has always been. He is the “Always-Person” who makes everything else. As Psalms 90:2 tells us, “from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
This is now your task: think about these two attributes of God. His simplicity (He is a whole, not made of parts) and His aseity (He is independent, non-contingent, self-sufficient, and self-existing). What do they tell you about God? Remember, don’t focus on you and what it means for your life. Meditate on how these attributes expand your understanding of God. Keep in mind, we have a great big God and we are seeking to think big thoughts about Him!
Until the next time we see you here at CultivatingFaith.org, God Bless! #CultivatingFaithOrg