Working alongside the Simplicity of God is the Aseity of God. It enables us to have some kind of inkling of what is meant when God says, ‘I AM that I AM’ (Exodus 3:6 ESV) and ‘The LORD our God, the LORD is One’ (Deut. God is truly the One and Only (see John 1:18 ESV). The distance between God the Creator and all of His Creation is infinite. It helps us conceive of the Uniqueness of God. With knowledge of the Simplicity of God we can have a greater understanding and appreciation of the other aspects of the doctrine of God. These ‘attributes’ are not added qualities they are who God IS. The Simplicity of God teaches us that God in His essence is equally all His attributes – thus God is Truth, God is Just, God is Holy, God is Infinite, God is Love, and on it goes. This ensures that we don’t fall into the contemporary trap of pitting one attribute over another, for example saying God’s essence is firstly and primarily Love over and above His other attributes. God is equally Justice as He is Love – and the same goes for all His attributes. None of God’s attributes can be divided into some kind of scale of importance. God is equally and simultaneously all that He is. Berkhof explains it this way - ‘It means that God is not composite and is not susceptible to division in any sense of the word.’ God’s essence and attributes cannot be divided. Essentially that means that God IS and is not composed of parts. He called it a ‘crisis of neglect’.Īlthough there is much truth to Packer’s observation there is a revival amongst some Christian writers on the importance of the doctrine of God. One aspect critical to a right understanding of God is that of God’s Simplicity.

Sadly, Packer himself in a lecture (given a couple of years ago) stated that, ‘Contemporary talk about God is confused.’ He was referring to the Evangelical Church at large. Over those 40 or more years I have noticed a shift in the focus given by the Christian public to the doctrine of God.

Packer went to be with the Lord. Fortunately for the Christian world we still have the legacy of that wonderful book that was fixed, centred and grounded in the doctrine of God. With the aid of Packer’s book, the Bible came alive with the majesty of God for who He is. I was confronted with great thoughts, grand thoughts, glorious thoughts, about the God I had now entered into a personal relationship with. In the pages of that book, I was presented with my God in whom I had recently placed my trust and hope. Packer’s best-selling Christian book, Knowing God, had recently come onto the market. I read that book with great intensity, unable to put it down. I remember it well - it was around the time I was converted, 1974 - J.

Best ji packer books