Doctrine of God

Infinity

What is infinity? Sometimes, when trying to fathom infinity, you will be asked to think of a hotel with an infinite number of vacant rooms. How big would that hotel be? Who was great enough to have built that hotel? If you check out one of the infinite numbers of available rooms, how many rooms would be available?

None of those questions “make sense” to us. They can’t be understood because infinite things don’t exist in reality. A hotel with an infinite number of rooms cannot exist. Someone with infinite strength and infinite would be required to build such a hotel and there is no one with infinite strength or infinite knowledge. Infinite things cannot exist in creation, but creation cannot exist without one truly infinite source. There must be a beginning to every series. God is the unmoved Mover necessary for creation (contingent things) to exist.

But when we think of God, we are thinking of the infinite. His infinitude is taught in Romans 11:33 which declares his unsearchable wisdom. His infinitude is necessitated by his invisibility coupled with his full presence across time and space (Matt. 28:19-20). We impossibly try to fathom the truly unfathomable. Infinite things do not and cannot exist in creation, but God is the infinite One who exists and makes all of creation to exist. Thomas Aquinas wrote, “The infinite cannot be contained in the finite. God exists infinitely and nothing finite can grasp him infinitely…It is impossible for a created mind to understand God infinitely; it is impossible, therefore to comprehend him.”[1]

As we go through life, we can’t help but ponder God. We ask whether he exists and what he is like. One cause of disbelief is our, often misinformed view of God. Most of us have a conception of God that is far too small. We think of God as being like us but better when in fact he is totally other.

INCOMPREHENSIBILITY

Our God is incomprehensible. Our God is “the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see” (1 Tim. 6:15-16). God spoke to Moses as with a friend (Ex. 33:11). Moses knew the Lord by name (Ex. 33:17). At the same time, Moses asked “Please show me your glory” (Ex. 33:18). God revealed his “goodness” to Moses as he proclaimed his name “the LORD” (Ex. 33:19). God reminded Moses “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Ex. 33:20). God had revealed himself, in part, to Moses. Still, Moses was not able to be in God’s full presence. Moses was hidden “in the cleft of the rock” so he could see a glimpse of God” (Ex. 33:21-23). God is so transcendent, so other, so higher, than Moses or us that humans cannot be in his presence and live—the divine greatness is too great for us.

This greatness is life threatening, and beyond our comprehension. God said, “To whom will you liken me and me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike?” (Is. 46:5). God described his greatness in, what we can imagine, are understated and anthropomorphic. Isaiah 40:12-23 shows us God’s immensity, incomparability, self-existent perfection of wisdom and power, infinite significance, and his position as the sovereign Creator. Matthew Barrett wrote, “What is abundantly evident from Isaiah 40 is that this God is not just a greater being than us, as if he were merely different in degree, a type of superman. No, this God is different in kind. He is a different type of being altogether. He is the Creator, not the created. From this fundamental difference—what theologians have called the Creator-creature distinction—every other difference follows.”[2] Augustine said, “Is it any wonder that you do not comprehend? For if you comprehend, it is not God you comprehend. To attain some slight knowledge of God is a great blessing; to comprehend him, however, is totally impossible.”[3]

God’s incomprehensible infinitude is what Anselm attempted to label when he called God “something which nothing greater can be thought.”[4] This doesn’t teach that God is the greatest superhuman we could imagine. What Anselm tried to communicate is that God is completely other. He is a different type of being. He transcends genus and species. He is simply and magnificently God. God is “the fullness of Being itself, the absolute plenitude of reality upon which all else depends.”[5] Barrett wrote, “God’s essence is unbounded, immeasurable, unfathomable, and inestimable in every way. He cannot be his attributes more than he already is. He is his attributes absolutely. That is what it means to be perfect.”[6] God has no composition or imperfection or lack of fullness. All that is in God is God. He is full perfection and fullness of life.

Aseity

Since God is eternal infinite perfection, he doesn’t depend on anyone or anything. God is his own existence. God asked “Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine” (Jb. 41:11; Rom. 11:35). This lack of dependence upon anyone and the personal active supply of all good things perfectly by virtue of his existence is called aseity. Aseity is from the Latin a se which means “from himself.” All of God is from God infinitely and fully for all eternity. Aseity is foundational to understanding God.

As we speak of aseity, we declare not just that God has life, but that God is life. He is self-existent and self-sufficient. Furthermore, that self-existence and self-sufficiency is truly infinite or boundless. Everything in creation depends on something. God depends on nothing. God is that upon which everything else depends. God has life in himself and gives life to whom he pleases (Jn. 5:26). Everything in creation is lacking. God is fully supplying.

God’s aseity is assumed in Genesis 1 as the Creator makes everything by speaking it into existence. Paul taught God’s aseity in Acts 17. In contrast to the idols who were made to supply a physical representation to human desires and had to be maintained, God needs nothing from anyone. Rather, God is not “served by human hands” but “gives life and breath and everything to all mankind’ (Acts 17:24-25). Consequently, God is “the good without with there is no good.” God is “the beauty without which there is no beauty, the wisdom without which there is no wisdom, the righteousness without which there is no righteousness.”[7]

Simplicity

Since God is a se, he cannot be composed. He has no composer and no parts which compose him. God described his own nature saying, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deut. 6:4). God is not a collection of attributes. God is God. It is better, then, to say that God is love rather than God has love. God doesn’t just have love. God is love and every other “attribute” which we use to describe God. God is “simple” or “uncomposed singularity,” and this can be seen in the reality that God cannot lose any attribute he possesses.

There is, consequently, no difference between what God is and what God has.[8] We can’t take anything from God and still have God. We can’t add anything to God and still have God. God is. His attributes are ways of describing his singular essence. Augustine said, “God has no properties but is pure essence…They neither differ from his essence nor do they differ materially from each other.”[9] God is God not the composition of parts. There are no accidental attributes in God. Everything about God is God.

It is important to maintain divine simplicity. If God has been composed, then he must have a composer. If God has a composer, then it is the composer we should seek not God. If God has been composed, then we should ask when God was not all together? Which parts are essential to God? What if something happens to one part? Will God still be God? If God has parts, then isn’t God divisible and destructible rather than perfect? Are the parts in God opposed to one another? Does God feel tension or apprehension? If God is composite, then God is subsequent to and dependent upon his parts.[10] Stephen Charnock gave us a most excellent description of simplicity: “God is the most simple being; for that which is first in nature, having nothing beyond it, cannot by any means be thought to be compounded. For whatsoever is so, depends upon the parts whereof it is compounded, and so is not the first being.”[11]

But what of the attributes? If God is simple—just one—then how can we speak of God’s attributes? The attributes of God are like refracted through a prism. God is singular. When God makes and interacts which his creation, the creation experiences God in different ways. Those different ways in which we, the creation, experience God are called the divine attributes. We experience the providential care, love, justice, mercy, wrath, grace, and beauty of God. This doesn’t mean there are parts to God. Instead, these are different ways in which we experience the singular God. Augustine called this “simple multiplicity” or “manifold simplicity.”[12] God is not composed. God is one good thing that is described in many ways.[13]

IMMUTABILITY

Since God is eternal, self-existent, and simple, it impossible for God to change. “With him there is no variation or shadow due to change” (Js. 1:17). Malachi recorded for us, “For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed” (Mal. 3:6). 1 Samuel 15:29 says, “Also the Glory of Israel will not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind.” The unchangeableness of God may seem to make him impersonal and aloof. However, we do not sing that. One of our dearest hymns says, “Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.” Hebrews 6:17-19 shows us that our confidence in God’s promise is built upon the unchangeableness of God and the impossibility of God to lie—because he cannot change.

What would happen if God changed? If it were possible for God to change, then God would have potential. He could become. If God can become, then he is imperfect. Does God improve? Does God change his mind so that he holds a position that he previously was against? As we have already seen, God is eternal, self-existent, and simple. These characteristics of God imply his unchanging nature. Scripture itself teaches, in no uncertain terms, that God does not change. God is perfect fullness of life. In God, there is no potential. God is pure act (actus purus) or pure actuality. There is no passiveness about God. God is life in the fullest absolute sense. Thomas Weinandy described this fullness of life saying, “God is unchangeable not because he is inert or static like a rock, but just the opposite reason. He is so dynamic, so active that no change can make him more active. His is act pure and simple.”[14]

But what of the passages which seem to speak of God changing. If you check your Bible, you can find plenty of passages which say God changed his mind (Jer. 26:13, 19; Amos. 7:3, 6). Genesis 6:6 says God “regretted” or repented of making mankind. 1 Samuel 15:11 says God regretted making Saul the king.

So, there are passages which say God cannot change and there are passages which say God does change his mind. Perhaps, we should remember that God has revealed himself in ways that we can understand. God is pictured as having eyes, hands, fingers, and a footstool although he actually has none of those things. In reality, these are just ways to help us understand God in our terms.

We may compare the way we speak about God to the way we speak about the Sun. we know the Sun doesn’t go around the earth. We know the sun doesn’t rise or sit. We speak of the sun this way because this is the way it looks to us. The reality is that our relationship to the sun has changed. Our relationship to the sun changes, but the sun does not change. Apparently, this is similarly true for God. God says he doesn’t change, but as our behavior toward him changes our relationship to him changes. We may experience his love or we may experience his wrath. God need not change for those changes to be felt in us.

IMPASSIBILITY

As we continue thinking about God, we must study God’s emotions. If God does not change and is the fullness of life, we would not say that God has emotions like we have emotions. The pantheon of deities filling the ancient and modern world all behave like people. Those pagan gods have wants, needs, and passions which the struggle with. These gods are passible—they have passions like ours. The God of the Bible is infinite, perfect, eternal, unchangeable, and he is therefore impassible—he doesn’t have passions like ours.

God cannot be changed from the outside. God cannot be changed from the inside. God is never tempted. God is never different. God is always the fulness of life and therefore the fulness of emotional joy and peace. God is not stoic like Captain Spock. God is full of life, full of goodness, full of love, full of joy.

What does impassibility mean for our relationship with God? Being the fulness of life, God does not become grieved or sad like we do. God does not become happy like we do. We grieve God when we relate to him in a sinful way. When God is described as being grieved, it appears to us as though he is undergoing emotional change. However, this is not the case. God is eternally perfect and therefore unchangeable. What is happening is that God’s singular essence relates to sinful people and saved people differently. Impassibility, then, does not rob us from a real relationship with a God who cannot feel. Instead, impassibility shelters us in God

[1] Aquinas, Summa Theologiae 1a.12.7.

[2] Matthew Barrett, The Undomesticated Attributes of God, 21.

[3] Augustine Lectures on the Gospel of John, tractate 38; as quoted in Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 2:48.

[4] Anselm, Proslogion 2 (Major Works, 87).

[5] Hart, Experience of God, 122.

[6] Matthew Barrett, The Undomesticated Attributes of God, 48.

[7] Matthew Barrett, The Undomesticated Attributes of God, 67.

[8] See Augustine City of God 11.10 and Trinity 7.10.

[9] Augustine, Trinity 6.7

[10] Aquinas, Summa Theologiae 1a. 3.7.

[11] Stephen Charnock, Existence and Attributes of God, 1:333.

[12] Augustine, Trinity, 6.4; City of God 12.18.

[13] Anselm, Monologion 17 (Major Works, 30).

[14] Thomas Weinandy, Does God Change?, 79.