A brief description of what this lesson covers and what you will learn
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Romans 8:28-30
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God is incomprehensible because He is entirely one—simple—while we are complex composites.
God is incomprehensible to us in another way.
God is what theologians call "simple" - and again, we are not.
By "simple" we don't mean "easily understood" or "plain and basic".
By simple, theologians mean that God is entirely one. His attributes are, as one theologian explains, "distinguishable, but not separable." Nothing about God is accidental.
God is not, for instance, a Father, a Son, and a Spirit who are combined together. Rather, he is eternally and always one God in three persons. The theologian Millard Erickson further explains it this way:
"God is his attributes, and without them he would not be God. The idea that God 'has' omniscience, freedom, goodness, omnipotence, and so on, is misleading. He is God because he is all these things."
Simply put, that is not at all the kind of beings that we are. We are composites of different parts.
Most obviously, we have bodies that have many different parts. For instance, our attributes do not always work together. We can know one thing is right but act in the opposite way. This is unlike God, who is simple - his perfect knowledge is inseparable from his perfect will.
We have no personal experience with simplicity.
We can know this is true of God, but a full understanding of God's simplicity is simply beyond our capacity.
Deuteronomy 6:4
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
God's simplicity means that all His attributes work together in perfect harmony. What would it look like for your own attributes and desires to be more unified and consistent? What steps can you take to move towards that kind of wholeness?
Reflect on areas of your life where you experience internal conflict—knowing what's right but doing otherwise. Bring these to God in prayer, asking Him to unify your heart.
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