Divine Simplicity for Life

I grew up as a pastor’s son in a relatively small Mississippi town. It was certainly not uncommon for church members to invite my father and our family over to pick from a garden, or go swimming, or go hunting on their land. I have fond memories of doing all of these things with the wonderful people who called my dad “pastor.” However, as I grew older, the invitations began to turn toward work projects. As a fifteen-year-old saving up to help purchase my first car, I was eager to respond to those invitations (sure, gas was cheaper then, but not to a soon-to-be 16-year-old).

The Tractor Fallacy

One of these phone calls came from a very kind and godly gentleman in our church. He loved the Lord and he served our church with humility. He was also a farmer with an incredibly old tractor in need of deconstruction. My task? To use whatever tools I could find to take apart whatever pieces of the tractor I could get my hands on. The project took two consecutive Saturdays of labor and for every hour of the project I thought to myself, “Good grief! Why do tractors have so many parts and what is he going to do with all of this anyways?”

On a practical note, I never found the answer to those questions. I still wonder sometimes. However, now as a pastor myself, I use this teenage work experience to show people what God is not like – an illustration that show what God is not. God is not like a tractor that is the sum total of its parts. He is not composed of an engine, a fuel pump, a water pump, interchangeable attachments, or whatever else one finds on a tractor. To use language more applicable to God, he is not composed of a portion of love, a portion of grace, a portion of justice, or “interchangeable attributes” some might like to assign to him. Instead, God is simple.

Divine Simplicity

To say God is simple “simply” means he is not the sum total of his parts. The proper equation for God is not “Love + Mercy + Grace + Justice = God.” God is not the composition of different elements. This is vitally important to our understanding of God. What may seem to be a niche theological endeavor is actually utterly significant to how everyday men and women, including those with tractors, think about God. Why is this so important? Consider with me this statement—If God were the sum total of his parts, then he could not be the supreme being. All of his parts (i.e., attributes) would logically have to precede him, thus suggesting he is not the first and highest power. If those attributes did not originate in God, then he cannot be God. This is why we have to say that God is simple. He simply is who he is. When real life hits and you call upon God, you do not get just one part, or some parts, of God—you get God. Click To Tweet

Divine simplicity suggests that whatever right statements we make about God apply to the totality of who he is. For example, the Bible states in 1 John 1:5, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” Light is the totality of who God is. He is the fullness of light. Furthermore,

1 John 4:8 teaches, “God is love.” Love is the totality of who God is. He is the fullness of love. In like manner, Psalm 92:15 reads, “the Lord is upright.” Upright is the totality of who God is. He is the fullness of uprightness. On and on we could go with such statements describing the biblical God; we must do so, however, without making the tractor fallacy. In other words, we must avoid reading these attributes as if they were parts assembled together to create God. Rather, we must read these statements as the fullness of God.

Before writing this column, I finished teaching a class on Deuteronomy in our church’s Wednesday night Old Testament overview course. Although many may not be familiar with the entirety of the book of Deuteronomy, most Christians are familiar with the Hebrew Shema. Found in Deuteronomy 6:4, we read, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” What was vital to the Israelite understanding of who Yahweh is continues to be vital for our understanding today—He is one. Not only does this set God apart, but it shapes the way we think and speak about him. This Hebrew term proclaims his unity and, indeed, his simplicity.

As we make statements about God in our Christian lives, this understanding matters. When we describe him to fellow brothers or sisters in Christ, or when we are sharing the gospel with an unbeliever at work, divine simplicity should inform our vocabulary. No, I am not suggesting we necessarily need to use the words “divine simplicity” to the unbeliever sitting next to us. Rather, the doctrine of divine simplicity should inform our speech. For example, using the verses we have referenced above, we should not describe God as one who “possesses light,” or “has love,” or “acts uprightly.” It would be more appropriate to say that “God is light” or “God is love” or “God is upright.” Not only are we properly describing God, but we are helping others around us see that God is the totality and perfection of whatever good thing they may desire.

Divine Simplicity in Real Life

As important as this vocabulary is, you should know that divine simplicity does so much more than inform your theological terminology. Divine simplicity informs your view of the God who walks with you through the valley of the shadow of death (Ps. 23). When real life hits and you call upon God, you do not get just one part, or some parts, of God—you get God. This seems simple, but that’s exactly the point. The God who is with you when there is reason to rejoice and the God who is with you when darkness is all around is the same God. All he has said about himself through his holy word is the fullness of who he is.

As my dad would regularly say as he preached to the congregants of that Mississippi town, “God is who he says he is.” Divine simplicity is the beautifully simple doctrine that informs this very statement. God is who he says he is, and in the fullness of divine perfections, we can trust.

Image credit: Andrew Milligan sumo