Romans 11:36 as a Declaration of Monarchia and Divine Simplicity

Q#45: Romans 11:36 speaks of divine simplicity, how?

TLDR: Continuing from where we left off on question #44 about Hebrews 1: Roman’s 11:36 gives us an another example of “personal identity” through expressing “monarchia.” The monarchy of the father is the range and rule of whatever God is. That is, is the range and rule of God different than God? Here in Romans, by attributing all things (“from Him, through Him, and to Him”) to one divine source, means, and goal in a single, indivisible monarchy, Romans 11:36 underscores that the Father, Son, and Spirit share the one divine essence without dividing it into parts. The universal scope of “from… through… to Him” shows God’s creating, sustaining, and fulfilling acts occur in one undivided reality-pointing to divine simplicity, where each Person is fully God in a distinct relational mode (unbegotten, begotten, proceeding). Here the father just is fully God. This monarchia continues to affirms and illustrates dimensions to what God is for us; “who” each Person is stems from these eternal relations of origin rather than separate properties. The simplicity comes into play in that God’s life, or monarchia or rule in this case illustrated and preserve the one divine being while acknowledging the real personal distinctions of Father, Son, and Spirit.

In Romans 11:36, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen,” Paul concludes his reflection on God’s sovereign plan for Jew and Gentile with a doxology that places God at the center and boundary of all creation. This verse can be read not only as a celebration of God’s reign over salvation history but also as a profound declaration of monarchia, understood as the one, undivided rule of God that encompasses the Father, Son, and Spirit. Such a reading upholds the doctrine of divine simplicity: there is one God who acts without parts or division, yet in distinct personal modes.

What we didn’t cover on #44 previously, when it comes to personal identity is that the New Testament has an exotic world view including how it uses the term God. This is why we’re studying monarchia here and the term isn’t even used in Romans. To further clarify: while “God” (θεός) is frequently used for the Father in Scripture, there is no biblical or theological requirement that “God” must exclusively refer to the Father. The New Testament continues the Septuagint (LXX) tradition of using both the terms “Lord” and “God,” while adopting a broader and more expansive worldview. Paul demonstrates this in Romans 8-11 in his treatment of the monarchia with whole chapters addressing the Holy Spirit, develops it further in the following Christological passages, and culminates it all with the focus on the Person of the monarchy.

Supplementing Romans 11:36, we find a foundational statement of God’s oneness in the Septuagint version of the Shema: “Ἄκουε, Ἰσραήλ, Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, Κύριος εἷς ἐστιν.” The Hebrew original affirms that God is one, while the LXX rendering underscores this as “Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” When the apostle Paul picks up these themes in passages like 1 Corinthians 8:6, he adapts the language to declare that “ἀλλ’ ἡμῖν εἷς Θεὸς ὁ Πατήρ… καὶ εἷς Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός.” In doing so, Paul places the Father and Jesus Christ together under the original Shema’s insistence that there is one God (εἷς Θεὸς) and one Lord (εἷς Κύριος). Here we see the early Christian conviction that the Father and the Son share the one divine reality, yet the Son does not supplant the Shema’s monotheism but rather unfolds its depths in a relational manner.

Hebrews 1 provides further insight into how the Son and Father unite in this single divine monarchy without dividing God’s essence. Hebrews 1:1–4 portrays the Son as “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature,” using language such as ἀπαύγασμα (apaugasma, radiance) and χαρακτήρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως (charaktēr tēs hypostaseōs, exact imprint of his nature). This implies that the Son shares fully in God’s being (ὑπόστασις, hypostasis) while remaining personally distinct as begotten, not unbegotten. Rather than introducing a second deity, the Son is the Father’s own radiance, “the same God” in an eternal, relational stance. Hebrews 1:8–9 further calls the Son “God” (θεός) and attributes to him an everlasting throne, clarifying that in the Son, we encounter the one God’s monarchy without fragmenting or multiplying divinity.

Returning to Romans 11:36, we notice that Paul’s triadic prepositions–“from him and through him and to him”–resonate with the same principle of monarchia found in the Shema and clarified in Hebrews. The Father, Son, and Spirit do not participate as subordinate agents in God’s monarchy; they fully are the one God, though each exists in a personal mode: the Father as the unbegotten source, the Son as begotten, and the Spirit as proceeding. This threefold personal distinction upholds God’s oneness while allowing for real relational difference. The monarchy belongs inseparably to the triune God because God is one in essence and three in personal modes. When Paul says that all things are “from him,” it aligns with scriptural affirmations of the Father as ultimate source. When he says that all things come “through him,” we can recall how Scripture assigns creation, redemption, and sustaining power to the Son and Spirit in perfect unity with the Father. Finally, when Paul says that all things go “to him,” it reinforces that the final end is God’s own glory, recognized by Father, Son, and Spirit as the single divine reality.

This doxological stance is firmly rooted in divine simplicity: no Person adds a separate part to God, and there is only one divine will, one divine act, one divine being. The emphasis on relational distinctions, rather than property-based distinctions, ensures that the Father, Son, and Spirit share the same essence without dividing God into parts or creating multiple gods. The Shema’s “one Lord” resonates seamlessly with Paul’s “one God and one Lord” and with Hebrews 1’s portrayal of the Son’s essential unity with the Father. Each text supports a single divine monarchy realized in three personal modes, thus preserving the biblical monotheism declared in the Old Testament while illuminating the relational fullness of the New Testament’s triune vision.

Hence, Romans 11:36, Hebrews 1, and the Shema all converge to affirm that there is one God–whose monarchy is not a composite collaboration but a single, indivisible act shared by Father, Son, and Spirit. By rooting the Son’s identity in eternal begottenness rather than dividing up divine attributes, Scripture maintains that the Son is fully God without threatening God’s unity. The Shema’s “Kύριος εἷς ἐστιν” frames the foundation of Israel’s monotheism, Paul’s “εἷς Θεὸς ὁ Πατήρ” and “εἷς Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός” illustrate how the Father and Son fit into this monotheism, and Hebrews 1 clarifies that calling the Son God does not produce a second deity. Through this biblical witness, we perceive that the triune God is one in being yet irreducibly three in personal relations, upholding divine simplicity under the banner of monarchia: from him, through him, and to him are all things, to him be glory forever. Amen.