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CPC Sunday School | Attributes of God 2 (10-1-2023)
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The main ideas from this information are: - Divine simplicity means that God is without a body, parts, or passions. - This concept has been confessed throughout church history, including in the Belgic confession and Westminster Confession. - The idea of divine simplicity is not a stumbling block because Scripture accommodates our understanding by using anthropomorphisms. - God's revelation of himself in a way that we can comprehend is helpful and allows us to appreciate and understand him better. - Worshiping God in spirit and in truth is a necessary implication of God being without a body. - The concept of divine simplicity has been widely accepted across various denominations throughout the ages. It does sound counterintuitive, right? You might be tempted to think well if anything God is not simple God is very complex But you'll see how that is not so as we go through the course. All right So this is simply what divine simplicity is very simply put all we're saying is God is without a body parts Or passions God has no body. God has no parts. God has no passions Okay, my experience has been that the first part God has no body that makes sense That's relatively easy. Would anyone say no God has a body. I'm a divine materialist God has a body would anyone say that I think most people would say yep, that makes sense We know God does not have a body Where it starts to get a little more confusing is when you add that God has no parts And then what starts to get even more a little unsettling is when you add that God has no passions That can be a little difficult to understand Okay, but before we explore it further and see how it's been confessed throughout church history. I purposely chose here. This is a Roman Catholic Cathedral there's a reason that I chose that that you'll see in a minute But let's just see how it's been confessed throughout the ages. Here's the Belgic confession We all believe at the heart we confess with our mouth. There's one simple and spiritual being which we call God It's no accident that they chose to put the word simple in there They mean something by that word very carefully chosen as far as us our own confession. We are on the hook Because Westminster Confession chapter 2 says this There's only one living and true God. He's infinite and being in perfection most pure spirit and visible and there's the definition of divine simplicity God is without a body. He's without parts. He is without passions right from Westminster Confession chapter 2 Here's Athanasius, so this would have been I don't know third fourth century. He's writing Athanasius says God is a whole and not a number of parts. This is how they would have spoken back then He does not consist of diverse elements and notice for Athanasius. It's impiety it's impious to deny this this would be a mark of of irreverence to say to not confess that God is without parts if he consisted of parts It will follow that he is unlike himself and he's made up of unlike parts. I know that last part is confusing Don't worry though. The hope is we unpack a little bit of that But one thing to understand is just this is this is this would have been absolutely just basic like very basic plain vanilla standard confession from the 2nd century up to 18th 19th century the church throughout the ages across all these all these swaths of denominations Your Roman Catholic would have confessed this Presbyterians Anglicans congregationalist. Yes, even Arminians Jacob Arminius is actually quite good when it comes to divine simplicity So this is standard fair from 2nd century to 18th century roughly, you know me I would blame of course the Enlightenment for why we lost divine simplicity But you should know what we're dealing with is been true and confessed century after century in the church Okay, so start with the first part God without a body God has no body. What's a good verse? Think of a really simple verse that would teach that the God has no body Alright ignore that Okay, what's it? What's a simple verse that would teach God has no body may be positively stated God is Spirit where and where's that? Where's that from? What's that John for yeah, John for right Jesus talking tells oh man, I don't know why it's in the way Well, I just ignore that yeah God is spirit those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth, right That's just stating positively the negative truth which is God has no Yeah, I don't think you can try I don't think it's gonna be able that you're gonna be able to get that off Are you rebooting it? You Yeah, yeah, all right Yeah, yeah, yeah, we all fail All right, so state of Navy you're right You're just saying God is spirit is the same way of saying that so now what you might say those Wait a minute. Wait a minute. We have several verses several instances of God with a body, right? Just think of the many many references that we have that God has hands and he has arms and fingers and ears and a nose and mouth and head legs and feet with many many many many many many verses that say here are the body parts of God God surely must have a body but we reviewed last time and I think most of us know this just intuitively That we said those are anthropomorphisms, right? we're just taking human characteristics that we all know and understand that we all see with our eyes and we're attributing those to To be any number of things, but in this case, we're attributing those to God right So it's not much of a stumbling block for us to say that God has no body One of the things to remember is that Scripture accommodates our Creatureliness. All right. God has revealed himself in a way that we can readily understand who he is Calvin has a great expression that God lists to us as Nurses would do with a little children right parents You know this if you're trying to explain something complex to your children, so you're explaining the two natures of Christ You don't start by saying here's the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ. You wouldn't say that to a two-year-old, right? You start very small Here's Christ as Holy God and Holy Man and on a bigger level, that's how Scripture talks to us, right? God is condescending to us. He's accommodating our creatureliness and revealing himself in ways that we can readily understand What God has revealed Aristotle put it this way the mark of true genius is to master Metaphor and in that sense you see the majesty of Scripture. I mean God has so perfectly revealed himself As the infinite eternal unchanging Incomprehensible God he's revealed himself in a way that we as creatures can comprehend, right? We know what hands are we know what arms are we know what legs are so it's it's so helpful The way God has done this, right? So for instance, we come across hands and we can think okay, that's denoting God's power God's nose right the aroma goes up into God's nose and he's satisfied. He's pleased That's denoting God's anger or his appeasement that God listens to us with his ears Very helpful. We can understand when I talk to you and you listen to me with your ears I get the sense how this person cares and God is so wonderfully revealed himself, even though he has no body in a way that we can appreciate and understand Maybe think of it this way think if we had no anthropomorphism at all in Scripture And all you have is God saying I'm really strong. No, really I mean, I'm really really really really strong Compare that to our redeem you with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with great act of judgment It's much richer. It's much more comprehensive. It gives us a better and clearer picture of who God is Okay, so summary God has no body Stated positively God is pure spirit, right? He is the most active Just think of how much bodies are limited right my my body's here I can only be in one place at one time. All right, if I move over here now, I'm in a new place I'm very constrained by time and space and locality and locomotion I'm very much creaturely in every way because I have a body So when we say God has no body God is pure spirit It's it's it's immediately attributing something great and glorious to God that is unlike us Where's our? like van Nate Noah Audrey this points for you for you all just think of where the other who else is in here back there Allie's just think of like when you Need something for mom and dad. What do you have to you like? I need something what do you have to do you have to walk through the house and you got to find where's mom? Where's dad one of the reasons you have to do that is because your mom and dad have a body Right there. Oh, they're only in one place. They can only be in one room at one time Do you see how great it is? God's not God is pure spirit. God is Where's God? Everywhere, right and one of the reasons that's true is because God is a pure spirit. So he's he's closer closer than Any human could be in that sense? All right, I already made that point Yeah, as the psalmist is where can I go from your presence right implied answer and nowhere? Charley puts it this way because God is spirit. He is most active What cannot so it's such a great spirit do for us All right in terms of thinking of God is spirit I Like the way he puts this just think of air air is a gliding substance. It spreads itself through all regions pierces into all bodies Fills head between heaven and earth. There's nothing but partakes of the virtue of air air being, you know He's thinking breath wind spirit Okay, so One thing one implication immediate implication when we confess that God has no body and that God is spirit The immediate implication is therefore we must worship God in spirit and in truth It follows from that that God is spirit. We must therefore worship God in spirit and in truth and turn up puts it this way the Evangelical state by which he just means The age we live in now the gospel age the spirit being poured out the age of the New Covenant Is more suited to the nature of God than any other Than such worship God must have he's acknowledged to be the true sanctifier and the quickener of the soul That's very much what separates us from any kind of pagan worship That we worship God in spirit and in truth All right, so there's God without a body went pretty quick through that because that's the least controversial Most easily understood part of divine simplicity any questions on God with no body Okay This gets a little more complex. Oh, yeah, go ahead Yeah, yeah sure Right, right Right, yeah Yeah And that's where we just you could point to like calcined on you could point to the confession the two distinct natures that remain Distinct that he so was and continues to be God and man in one person and you just you just have to flesh that Out with them, you know that the divine nature is not absorbed into the human nature The human nature is not absorbed into the divine nature. They're hypothetically you united in one person But yeah fair question to anticipate Okay, so this gets a little more complex God has no body simple now. We're saying God has no parts. God has no parts. All right So, what do we mean by the word simple in other words, you're saying simple as opposed to a complex a Compound something being formed of multiple parts, you know Take one two, three four parts you put them together in a compound in a complex. That's not a simple thing Right. So simple just means as opposed to complex as opposed to being formed of multiple parts. Does that make sense? Okay Maybe another way to think of it by contrast. All right, you are you're not simple and I'm not simple We are a complex. We are formed of parts. We have many parts. All right, you just think of a few of them There's many The man for instance is body and soul All right, we have body and soul or psychosomatic unities or you could say man is form and matter. I Have existence and I also have essence and you could go on and on and on right? We are not simple creatures We are formed of parts Maybe another even easier way to think of it is that nothing is simple. Okay, there's just a basic internal View of a watch. All right, look at all the parts that go into just a watch Right, so I couldn't hand you I couldn't hand you, you know, let me just pick some a balance spring This is this part. I guess balance spring. I couldn't walk up to you hand you a balance spring and go Hey, here's here's your watch Right, you'd say no, that's one part of a hundred other parts that make up a watch All right. The watch is very very complex in all of creation. It would be that way So just know the watch depends on its parts to be a watch Right again. I can't hand you a spring and say here's your watch or a gear and say here's your watch You would say no I need the gear and the springs and the wheels and I need all those things to come together To make a watch the watch depends on Parts to be a watch you remove parts the watch starts to become less and less it loses its watchiness Does that make sense? The watch depends on parts to be a watch and We're the same way right humans are the same way creations the same way. There's nothing in creation. That is simple So in that sense parts For creative things give being right once those all think you have to give your car You're going to go out and go into your car think of all the things in their car your transmission and your wheel and your tires and your engine and all those things come together and And now the car comes into existence as a car, right? It depends on parts to be To be what it is. This is for the kids kids think of it this way. How many parts do you have in? Terms of cells who knows from like science how many how many cells do you have in your body? What Aidan oh Did you say did you give an answer no What that Yeah, I think I one count I had was seven trillion So just think kids you are made up of Seven trillion parts you have seven trillion parts at least maybe more You have trillions and trillions of parts in you to make you what you are right you're very complex in that regard Okay Pretty amazing, right? But God is not that way. God is totally simple. God never depends on That which is not God in order to be God Right. There's nothing there's no part that comes together and goes. Okay. Now I have my godness Because I got all I got all my parts Hmm As Roman says for from him and through him and to him are all things and one sense you could say God Gives but he never gives away Right when God gives there's no diminishment in God. God is losing nothing, right? There's no no any is it zero diminishment in the being of God when God gives He's giving out of the fullness of who he is right if I give money I have less money I give time I have less time not so with God net never occurs with God And a very famous verse, we know this is Paul on Mars Hill. He's not served by human hands as though he needed anything So maybe here's another way to think of it. You wouldn't want to say this would be a bad example You wouldn't want to say oh, it's takes a part one part. Love one part mercy one part infinitude One part grace and you kind of throw them in a bowl and you swirl it around Into a divine soup and once you have that divine soup mixed then you have the fullness of who God is All right, that'd be a bad. You don't want to think of it that way That's that's adding parts to get to the being of who God is So the way it's classically expressed by theologians is simply God is his attributes God is his attributes Give an example to clarify that statement But first a word from Owen. Here's the way Owen puts it the attributes of God Which seem to be distinct things, right? I mean we seem to think okay, there's God's love. There's God's grace so on and so forth But all of them essentially are the same with one another and everyone the same with the essence of God There's a sense in the being of God They're all the same because God is one the Lord our God is one. He is simple So let's think about it in terms of this first, right? God is Love God is love. He is what he has. This is his attribute So in other words Owen is saying you don't want to think okay, there's God and then there's God's love All right. These are these are two two distinct parts. There's God and then you have God's love on in the other column And Think of it by contrast right you and I we might be loving on our best days, right? But you couldn't say you are love right? I couldn't go Brian Holland is love right, I Could say Josh is love We'd have to split that out into parts The best I could say is Josh is loving some of the time on good days, right? Love and though I say it love is not identical to your essence, right? You acquire love you increase in love you diminish in love, right? So again, it just reminds us we're not simple right we are not another way to say we're not perfect Right, we have us and then we have our love and those are very much two separate things Here's The way Bobbing put it who is great on this very similar way of expressioning God is what he possesses Right God never acquires love. He never has to put on love. He never has to increase in love All right. God is what he possesses Here's the way Augustine put it To be like for God to exist just for God to exist It's the same thing as for him to be wise or to be good or to be powerful Right one in the same thing is stated whether it be said that God is eternal immortal or just or good All right. Those are not parts of God. That's simply who he is in his essence Another way you could say it is simply that God has the most integrity of of all right He's perfectly integrated or maybe even better way to say that would just be God has no integrity At all because there's nothing to be integrated Right again, you're not saying let's take these parts and throw them into the divine soup and swirl them around Shake well now we have God. No, he's perfect Needing of no Needing of no integrity because he has no parts And Why that's good news, right? This is that is very much good news because If not, right, we couldn't maintain all these wonderful things about God his perfection his oneness his immutability He wouldn't be the highest love because again, there would be this subject who loves which is one thing God And then there's over there the love by which God loves which is another thing now You just have God is love and you could say the same about any of the other attributes God is holy God is righteous and so on and so forth So We don't have that God and then God's mode of love So in a refreshing sense, right you you do want to think through and again It's heady stuff. But once it sinks in you start to realize. Oh, okay. God's love for us is not complicated It's it comes simply from who he is and from the divine essence and his eternal perfection as father son and Holy Spirit Right. He does not depend on anything prior to who he is So another another way to think through this I Mentioned this earlier and this is an important concept God's essence and his existence are Identical God's essence and his existence are one and the same thing. That's a heady concept So, let's see if we can delve through it essence is what something is Essence is what something is Existence is does it exist or not? So kids? What's the essence of the Easter Bunny? Give me some give me some things about the Easter Bunny just definitional terms The bunny It's cute. It's what Emotional Oh Fictional. Hey, we'll get maybe hold that for the next part. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's about right So we have the essence of the Easter Bunny, it's furry. It's a bunny. It drops off eggs You know, we have all these things that go. This is the essence of the Easter Bunny That's one thing and then there's the second question. Okay, does it exist? It does the Easter Bunny have existence And Noah answered for us. No, it's fictional. So it has it has s is important to see here It has essence, right? It has an essence You could say the same of a unicorn you go on down the list of many things But it doesn't have existence right it does not have existence Now you probably say well, wait a minute Easter bunnies are not real right Pick something real but but if you think about it your existence is not Identical to your essence, right? When you die, let's say you die. You no longer exist. Does human nature carry on carry forward? Well, we still have human nature. What do you say? No when I die Human nature is human essence is gone. It's a wiped out. It no longer exists It's a wipe from the face of the earth. No, you'd say hey my existence can you can remove my existence and Human nature carries on just fine without me So you need to see how that is absolutely not so with God, right? That's impossible with God Cannot be said of God God necessarily exists and God's essence and his existence are Identical they are one in the same thing And if you ask me like can you give me an example of something else that is like that? I would have to say no, I cannot give you another example of anything else that is like that So again, it's heady, but realize you start to see whoa. This is uniquely Majestic to God there is nothing else There is nothing else like God and no one else like God, right? God is utterly different from everything and everything everyone else in all of creation It's a huge creator creature distinction only of God could it be said? His existence and his essence are one in the same and he's not made of parts It really isn't it's a majestic thing that really hopefully once you think about it, it does lead to adoration That God is simple. You can never plumb the depths of who God is. There's no one nothing like him in that regard Okay, so that's God with no body God with no parts Any questions that's a hard concept Admittedly, so any questions on God with no parts? Right Right Right Right Right, that's right Yeah, that's right Yeah, and that goes back like that Owen quote that to us they seem distinct but in the being of God one in the same Yeah fully integrated or again, maybe better said not integrated at all because there's nothing to integrate. Yeah Right, you've all kinds of problems Yep Right Right, yep, yep, exactly. Yep. I've got an upcoming slide on that but that's a great point anything else on God God with no body again relatively Relatively easy to understand and we probably all get yep. God has no body He's pure spirit God with no parts a little bit harder to understand any more questions on it But again, you're just saying God depends on nothing which is not God in order to be God God's existence and his essence are one in the same. You couldn't say that about anyone or anything else There's nothing else like that, right nothing Even if all even if every human on the earth died immediately, right? You could still say human nature just fine because it carries on in the mind of God But not so with God no one and nothing else is like him Okay Third part member is God without passions and I would say this is this is a hard. This is a hard one. Okay? But this is the part of the class where I try and convince you that God is not passionate about you ever And that's very good news. That is a very good thing. You you're gonna hopefully you say amen at the end of it. Yeah So what it's convinced he expresses just God is impassable God is impassable if you ever hear that term God has no passions Okay, and I think the difficulty with God with no passions is that you know, unlike God without a body I do think most people like or even think I need the idea of God who feels I need like a feely God and To say God has no passions kind of starts to connote. Ah, does that mean God is like is he unrelatable? Is he is he impersonal is he unsympathetic, you know, it strikes us is kind of weird to say God has no passions, right? Added to that evangelicalism has not helped us at all with our songs. I think this is a reason why You know, like I mentioned 19th. It was standard fare up until about 18th 19th century Like here's a song from Hill songs. This is even go back to Dan's class, but we sing songs like this, right? How many times have I broken your heart and this is referring to God, right? Did I I man, you know, I kind of reached up to the heavens and I and God is passable. I broke God's heart I acted upon God and I broke his heart And so of course if you sing enough of those songs for 50 years or so And then someone comes along says God has no passions like what are you talking about? I broke his heart. Of course. He has passions. Yeah Yeah so Again now you might say well, wait a minute Right, right or the passion of the cry. Yeah, exactly So again, you'd probably say wait a minute scriptures full of God's passions. You see all throughout scripture got regrets He's sorrowful. He's angry Grieved so on and so forth. So again, you've also got in terms of scripture Some confusing things that might seem to conflict with that but just remember Same thing that we did with body parts, right? Remember God's eyes and arms and legs, right? We we reviewed God has revealed himself in a way that accommodates us as creatures None of us stumble over God's revealing himself to have body parts. I would submit to you same thing when it comes to God's passions Same thing God has revealed himself in a way that rightly and correctly allows us to understand him But just as you would with these you wouldn't come to enough you wouldn't come to eventually come to enough verses on God's eyes and conclude. You know what? I think God probably does have eyeballs I just I saw enough verses. I think he's got eyeballs I would say same thing when you come to God's passions, you know, don't set yourself up to go You know what? I've come across enough verses God must must have passions same thing you do with God's body parts you do with God's passions Okay, here's a here's maybe a good way to understand it passions comes from the Latin word potty which means to suffer This is where we get our word patient pot the end patient. Who's the patient doctor walks into the room? Doctor is acting upon the patient patient is the one undergoing the change. I doctor come to you patient Here's the change. I'm going to I'm going to evoke in you by surgery or medication or whatever The patient is the one undergoing the suffering and so that's what we mean We're saying that never happens to God. We don't act upon God God is not the patient that we cause something in his being to feel or or to do. Okay? God cannot be acted upon or caused upon Right. He is the great actor. We don't cause something in God to be now. It doesn't mean you wouldn't say well, okay You're saying God doesn't care about sin. Is that is that what we're saying? God cares doesn't care for sin No, but what you are saying is we don't cause the care in God over sin All right, go back to God's attributes. God is holy. We don't cause that we don't stimulate that we don't work that in God Another analogy that may help forgive me I mean these analogies are they're always so imperfect but and it would break down but you can imagine fire, right? You go walk up to fire. You throw a piece of paper into the fire, right? That paper that paper is not causing something to be in the fire I'm sure at some level it is but just go with the analogy Well, you throw a piece of paper into the fire the fire just is right The fire is just doing what fire does the fire's essence is simply Doing its thing and it's the it's the paper that undergoes the change. It's the paper that is burnt up and God's essence is likened to that right? God's essence prohibits any becoming God doesn't ever become anything, right? He is eternally infinitely perfect, right? He's pure act we of course our natures do facilitate becoming right? We learn things we grow in things a dog's nature prohibits or allows for the dog to sit and shake a tree's nature allows for a tree to leaf and Bloom right you see all these things God's nature is totally unique in that. He is not acted upon and Move to any kind of passion Yeah already made that point right God's essence prohibits any becoming Another way to think that God is pure act right? You don't want to confuse God with no passions to mean Oh, are you saying God is inactive like are we saying God's like a rock? He doesn't ever move He doesn't ever do anything you want to say no just the reverse the exact reverse He is the most active. He is pure act Never acted upon right bringing all doing all things perfectly in accordance with his divine essence That is in itself perfect. I mean think of it this way. How awful would it be if God if God was moved? I think this way from not loving to loving Like okay today, I guess I'm gonna be loving or today. I guess I'm gonna be holier than I was yesterday today I'm gonna be just more just today than I was yesterday. That would be unthinkable of God in his essence and that's why God without passions is actually extremely good news very good news Right, maybe think of it by contrast imagine if God had fluctuations He was given to mood swings emotional highs Sickle feelings imagine if God was reactionary you could compare it say to the Greek gods Okay, the Greek gods were passable. They were very much possible. You could act you would you would be this dynamic Humans causing things to be in God's the gods respond to the humans. This is Ares God of War He was very quick-tempered. He was aggressive He had this thirst for conflict and you read through Iliad or the Odyssey You can see the way humans are acting upon these gods to cause passions in them and then the gods respond with passion That'd be horrible. I our God our God is not like that. That is not our God. He is pure act That's why impassibility is very good news The God reveals himself saying I am who I am. No one nothing else could ever say that Here's where you see it's particularly good news. I the Lord do not change therefore You are not consumed. You could take the negative that I do change Therefore you will be consumed right? That's what the Greek God would say who could be acted upon with passions Okay, so there's a brief word on God has no body God has no parts no passions questions on passions God having no passions Surely there's questions on this. Come on Sadie What's that Right Yeah, I mean so again all these things similar to like with the body, right? We would say we want to affirm holy human nature United into one person of Jesus Christ with the divine nature those remaining separate unconfused unmingled And yet hypothetically you needed in one person of Christ so everything you could say of human nature Accepting sin you could say of Jesus Everything you could say of God you would say of Jesus you defer both both those things united into one person. Yeah It's really Obviously the things that God hates and so you're saying, you know, God is objective and he's an impartial judge Right that he still hates those things, right? And so those things make him angry though, right? It's not just reacting It's just that's that's his natural You know, I think that's part of his nature, right? Yeah, what what divine with what God having no passions is trying to say is that we don't cause something to be in God That is not God and that is not there. Yeah, you have sir. I got reveals himself again Just as God reveals himself having hands Right God reveals himself as hey now now I'm angered right and those are real revelations So it's not like this is this is illusory or smoke and mirrors But we're saying in the essence of God who God is in his essence. He's not acted upon He's not caused to have a passion that was not there, right? So just as far as his anger being perfect How does that apply to us and striving to be, you know, perfect as God is perfect as your father in heaven is perfect Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Great question. Yeah I mean, there's definitely no command for us to be simple like we cannot we cannot be right we cannot you know We cannot get to a point where we have no parts Have no passions in a sense. You could say have no body, right? We are creatures. We're created that way So the perfection we're to strive for is generally considered the moral perfection to be like God We're created in holiness and righteousness and to be renewed in that more and more to be like God But at no point are we thinking? Okay, I'm going from my human essence. I'm gonna go I'm transitioning more and more to having a divine essence Net never happens ever like we are human and human we shall be You know, we are creatures and creatures. We shall always be Now definitely we would we would increase in being transformed one degree of glory after another But there's no shift of you know, I'm in my human essence now. I'm going into more of a divine essence Like that that never that does not happen Oh, yeah for sure for sure Yeah, for sure Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that'd be an appropriate way to think of it. Yeah. Yeah, you just wouldn't want to think of it like I'm being more and more simple the way God is simple because we're just not we are comp we are body soul We are existence in essence. We are we have you know, we have parts, you know And try and pursue, you know what you're talking about in terms of God and his attributes so maybe try to not show passions or try to You know present themselves in a way that's Unmoving where does where do we our best stop? I mean, I think it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's Yeah, well again, let me just clarify on when we say God has no passions the connotation is I realize this is okay God must be dispassionate and that's kind of what we all Like so in other words, maybe it sounds like I'm up here saying God is not passionate I'm not passionate about God. I'm not passionate about God. I'm not passionate about God I'm not passionate about God. I'm not passionate about God. I'm not passionate about God I'm not passionate about God. I'm not passionate about God Like so in other words and maybe it sounds like I'm up here saying God is you know, he's a rock he's inert He he's dispassionate in the way. We often speak of being dispassionate That's not what Pat God without passions is saying again. It's saying we don't act upon God the doctor-patient Dynamic does not get switched around Between God and man. All right. God is in heaven. We are we are on on earth So it's not it's not so much saying we should be like God by being Dispassionate because it's not so much with God without passions is trying to communicate So they're saying that God in his essence being perfect being simple is never acted upon And that he is his attributes and that part we can't we cannot be simply because we're not God Now we certainly can't imitate God as far as like I need to put on paper. God's patient I need to put on patience God's long-suffering. I need to put on long-suffering He's kind. I need to put on kindness, you know and imitate him as a creature. That's the key part I'm gonna imitate God in a creaturely way because that's all I am You know and all and all and all that I'll ever be so man is created to bear God's image, right? and so because We think about this in a practical way How are we going to be one of what more God like you're not going to be like the one who is the real image? You're going to see if you can reflect it more faithfully So, how do we do that you polish the mirror you remove thin you more accurately Yeah train the image bearer on the actual image So if I've got a mirror of mark and I want to show you all marks image if I have it askew Then I don't see the whole of mark if I have a dirty mirror We need to clean it so that as we're bearing that image reflecting back who the fullness of mark is It's firmly fixed directly at the object that we're trying to bear the image of and the mirror is faithfully Bearing the image in perfect quality. Yeah, that's kind of a practical way to say Well, what is it that we can do even prove that right? We're never going to be the image itself We're not going to have that substance We're talking about reflecting back who God's character actually is so in our actions the more faithfully we reflect what God would do in his manner I think that's kind of a helpful way to think about that And of course would cry right Christ is the image of the invisible God So we see like the perfection of this in Jesus Christ and that we are more and more conformed to his image Was there another question? Jacob Yeah, again you'd want to say right you'd want to affirm everything that we can say about Humanity humans we can affirm about Christ and the emotional. I mean there's a book by Forget who the emotional life of our Lord is the name of the book That's what that's a fine way to think of it like Christ had a fully Human the most human emotional life of anyone because he was perfect man, right? He was true, man He showed here is the way to have emotions, you know But you're predicating that of the human nature of Christ Again, everything we can say about it man can say about Christ everything we can say about God we say about Christ United in one person hypothetically united in the one person and those two natures are never they're not doing, you know It's like they're not doing this. They're not mingling together and being confused and and Yeah, just oh Do you have a question? When we say, you know to our children who disobey, you know, this displeases the Lord, right? Or right? Yeah, this is absolutely dishonoring to God right away that you know, right? You don't want to convey that you have the power to Right displace God's Displaced God's emotions, right? So is there a better way? We should know I think that's a totally I mean again Yeah, let's be clear on this. That's the right way to think I mean when we sin we are displeasing to God We are angering to God and this is the language God has given us and it's and it's not false I mean again, this is not smoke and mirrors and that's why that's why I try to make the point of saying We're not saying God does not care about sin We are saying we don't cause the care in God. We don't inject care. That was not there. We don't act upon God Creating something in God that was not there before and that's that's admittedly hard, right? How do you parse that out? And again, that's that is the like that's the wonder of Scripture God has accommodated himself to us the infinite Almighty God. He said here. Here's here's your little child's Drawing for you to comprehend who I am, you know, so it's totally to answer your point. Absolutely be absolutely right to say Your sin is displeasing to God and you're not You're not putting smoke and mirrors. That's 100% true. Yeah Think about all those Kings that did evil in the sight of the Lord, right, right, right. Yep. Yep, Eric It seems like something you said about just the utterly how God is under utterly unlike anything or anyone else creation and right kind of a primary outcome of this Idea of simplicity of God is that it just it just Should fill us with all right and worship right for the Lord I mean, that's I think what this one of the big things that this boils down to is that fair? Yeah at that 100% that is I mean much of the point of when you study these kind of things We all have and Dan touched on this last week. We tend to think God We start here and I go God is like me. He's just a bigger better version of me You know, like he's like me just better. This is this is attempting. We're starting here and going Oh God's holy other I'm he's totalitarian as they say in that like he's holy other and He in his divine essence is like unlike anyone or anything else and I very much am an image and it should be Yeah resounding worship as far as that goes so in that framework then Just can you comment on how we understand the Trinity? Yeah, God being an undivided. Yeah. Yeah, really. Yep. Also three persons. Yeah, absolutely, right? Yeah, you wouldn't want to say this is even I think helpful as far as that go, right? We're not saying here's the pizza. We now cut up three parts the three parts of God Father Son and Holy Spirit No simplicity would wholly affirm God's one divided essence and the only distinctions between the persons Are their personal properties their personal relations that the father eternally unbegotten the son eternally begotten the spirit eternally proceeding all one one in the divine essence the father being the fullness of the divine essence the son being the fullness of the divine essence the spirit being the fullness of the divine essence Totally clear, right Were you able to look historically and see it was this a struggle with the church in the last Hundred years or has this been a struggle for the church, you know? Yeah Yeah, no the the denials of this start to emerge 18th 19th century. Yes To me no coincidence around the Enlightenment. Yeah, but that's why I tried to make point This is stand like standard fare Second century up to there there about hundreds and hundreds of years of the church confessing God is simple. God has no parts. God has no passions So as far as uses real quick absolutely Eric to your point like it should it should lead us in immediate worship of God There is no one nothing nothing like God That's too long. So skip that To a sense evangelism. I mean you could obviously you wouldn't want to lead with hey God simple Let me explain that to you but like there very much is a sense in which you could say, you know, hey all the all the false gods that we are all chasing after like fickle gods I mean the Greek gods are fickle but think of all the modern-day gods of money and Pleasure and everything we look at it in Ecclesiastes are just as fickle and to say God is simple I mean you are saying like God is a rock unlike any other, you know got there's there's no one or nothing like God so in a sense Evangelism certainly God's comfort, right? And again, I want to make so this point is clear God without passion should not be confused to mean that God is Dispassionate the way we use the word, you know uncaring Stoic, you know immovable that that's not how you want to think of it. You'd want to say man. God is the most caring Because he's simple. He's he's perfectly caring. He's purely caring He what is was and always will be the most comforting and what refreshing news? I don't have to hike work God up into a frenzy to care about me, right? He does because it's according to his divine essence to do so. He can't not do it Right, that's that should be of immense comfort to us. It certainly inspires our own spirituality This is a point someone made earlier. We do tend to oppose we set God's attributes against one another Well guys, you know, is he loving or is he holy? Let's have a let's have a contest See which one wins is God good or is he just simplicity very much ignore You know cuts through that kind of nonsense and does not pick God's attributes against one another I already made that point. Yeah, the persons of the Trinity are not parts of God's essence. We made that point Yeah, I'll just end with this right and this will lead into actually what Paul's going to do next week How can we be absolutely sure that God's covenant promises will work on our behalf? if and only if God is utterly Self-sufficient at the level of his very being right from him to him through him are all things God depending on no one or nothing in order to be God, right? Like that that's a that's an amazingly refreshing point. And so that would lead into next week This idea that God is self-sufficient and of himself is called a seiyuji that God is self existent God has no parents. Yeah news flash. God has no mom and dad So Paul is going to be taking that next week and he will clarify any objections and confusion on a seiyuji, right Paul Alright any final questions on God without parts God without a body. So simplicity is just God has no body Pretty easy to understand. I think we all get that God has no parts There's not things that are coming together to form God No, he's eternally perfect and one and God has no passions, which we should not confuse to mean Oh God's Uncaring in some kind of way. No, he's the most caring right his passions if we want to use those that term are Perfect and have always been perfect and man does not Cause those passions to increase or to decrease So that's that's divine a word on divine simplicity it is it is it's it's admittedly it's a heady It's a heady concept, right? I don't want to sit up here and pretend like this is easy to understand if it's the first time you've ever heard of divine Simplicity, but hopefully you see if nothing else like wow. God really is unlike Anyone or anything else in his divine essence? All right All right, we'll pray have any father we do praise you indeed we confess there is none like you you are the eternal Perfectly undivided God existing as father son and Holy Spirit And we praise you that you have worked all things for our good that you have come down to save us in the person of Jesus Christ We praise you that he has loved us that he will always loved us We praise you that through the spirit we can come to you as children unto a father We praise you for what we're about to do indeed that we get to worship you Even as we said this morning, we pray that we would worship you in spirit and in truth For we confess that you are spirit and you have revealed yourself Such to us and given us your spirit that we might do so and so we pray that our worship would be pleasing to you and That we would as we all just said be more and more and more like you our maker our creator in Christ And we pray amen
