The Splendor of the Three-in-One God:
The Necessity and Mystery of the Trinity
R. Scott Clark, Ph.D.
First published in Modern Reformation, Vol.8, Issue 5.
"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one!" In contrast
to the polytheistic religions of her neighbors, Israel was made
deeply conscious of the fact that there is only one God (hence,
the term, "monotheism"). The monotheistic doctrine of God is at
the headwaters of the Christian faith, but it is the doctrine of
the Trinity which makes our doctrine of God distinctively
Christian. Islam, one of the world's fastest growing religions,
is monotheistic, but rejects entirely the doctrine of the
Trinity as unreasonable. Jewish critics have long regarded the
doctrine of the Trinity as polytheistic. Clearly the doctrine of
the Trinity is a stumbling block to vast numbers of people, but
without it we are no longer Christians. The Trinity is among
those doctrines by which heresy (as distinguished from error)
against the "catholic, undoubted Christian faith" is properly
judged (Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 22). Since the fourth century
AD, the agreement among orthodox, catholic Christians on the
essentials of the doctrine of the Trinity has greatly
outdistanced agreement on many other doctrines (e.g., the
doctrine of salvation). 1
Given the centrality to our faith of our teaching about the
Trinity, it is profoundly ironic that for most believers this
doctrine is practically disposable. In my experience, most North
American evangelical Christians when asked to state the doctrine
of the Trinity (if they can do it at all) will almost always
give a heretical answer. The most common heresy among Western
Christians has been "modalism," which is the notion that God is
not really one God in three persons, but rather only appears to
be three persons. This is what we often teach in our Sunday
Schools by way of the illustrations we use which imply that God
wears a series of masks (first Father, then Son, then Spirit) or
takes different forms under different conditions (e.g., water in
solid, liquid, and gas forms). 2
The Christian view of God is, as the Athanasian Creed teaches,
that:
...we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance.
For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son,
and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the
Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the
Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal.
As this creed continues, "the Father is Almighty, the Son
Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not
three Almighties, but one Almighty." In biblical, creedal, and
Christian teaching, God is one substance (Deut. 6:4). Whatever
it is which makes the Father to be God, is that which makes the
Son and the Spirit to be God: "Such as the Father is, such is
the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost" (Athanasian Creed).
At the same time, tri-personality is
also essential to the Deity: "For there is one Person of the
Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost" (Athanasian
Creed). It is possible to conceive of a god who is unipersonal,
but the history of theology shows that any such god would
necessarily be impersonal and so transcendent as to be
unknowable, which is practical atheism. 3
If we lose God's tri-personality we forfeit our Christology. We
believe that Jesus Christ is God the Son in the flesh, that he
is of the same substance as God the Father and God the Spirit.
We would also forfeit our Pneumatology (that is, the doctrine of
the Holy Spirit) since we also believe that God the Spirit is of
the same substance as the Father and the Son. If this is so (and
without these truths one cannot be a Christian!), then God must
be triune. As the Athanasian Creed puts it: "Unity in Trinity
and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped."
How this can be is a mystery, but it is a necessary mystery.
It is necessary because "we are compelled by the Christian
verity" to confess this doctrine. It is necessary because:
"Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that
he hold the catholic Faith. Which Faith except everyone do keep
whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish
everlastingly" (Athanasian Creed). It is a necessary doctrine
because our very destiny is at stake, not merely fine points of
doctrine.
The Necessity of the Trinity
The way one reads the Bible is intimately related to the God one
finds revealed there. Christians, being trinitarian, read the
Bible as a unity. That is, because God is one, the Scriptures
are one. If God is revealed to be triune in the New Testament we
should expect to find him so revealed in the Old Testament.
God's Word itself recommends this hermeneutic: 1 Peter 1:10-12
teaches us that the same Holy Spirit who inspired Moses and the
prophets also inspired the apostles as they interpreted the Law
and the Prophets for us.
It also means, as John 1:1 teaches us, that the Son has always
been God's Word. He did not become the Word only in the
incarnation, but rather he was the Word "in the beginning." More
than that, he was "with" God the Father, which means that he has
always been personally distinct from the Father. At the same
time the Word "is God" which means that God the Son and God the
Father are, as the Nicene Creed states, "of the same substance"
(consubstantial). Thus, the Apostle John teaches us not to read
the Son into the Old Testament, but to refuse to read him out of
it.
Hence, when we consider the fundamental Israelite confession
about God, "Hear O Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one" (Deut.
6:4), we understand that this unity not only permits but entails
tri-personality. Indeed, read from the perspective of the New
Testament-how else can a Christian read Scripture?-the Old
Testament is rich with trinitarian revelation. The New Testament
turns to several places in the Old Testament for its doctrine of
the Trinity. Psalm 110 is cited more than any other Old
Testament passage (see Matt. 22:44; 26:64; Mark 12:36; 14:62;
Luke 20:42-43; 22:69; Acts 2:34-35; Heb. 1:13; 5:6, 10; 7:17,
21). The psalm speaks of the accession and rule of a Davidic
Priest-King. The New Testament, however, focuses consistently on
the doctrinal teaching of the psalm and, therefore, regards it
as a promise of the ascension and inter-advental reign of
Christ. In that case, the primary reference of the psalm is not
(as Peter reminds us in Acts 2:34-35) to David, but to the
intra-trinitarian relations between the Father and the Son and
the outworking of those relations in redemptive history.
A second strand of trinitarian revelation in the Old Testament
is the revelation of the Son in the history of redemption in the
person of the Angel of the Lord (Malak Yahweh). When
the Angel of the Lord appeared he was treated not as a mere
heavenly representative of God, but as God himself; he did not
reject worship, but accepted it as only God can. (Typically it
is only after one has had an encounter with the Angel of the
Lord that one realizes that, in fact, it was no mere angel but
God himself; see Gen. 16:9-13; 22:11-18; 32:28-30; Ex. 3:2-6;
Judg. 6:11-14, 22; 13:22.) Both Augustine and Calvin interpreted
these manifestations as wonderfully cryptic revelations of God
the Son in a pre-incarnate state. 4
John 1:1-3 teaches that when Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth," we should understand
that creation occurred through the agency of God the Son and
that his work was essential to the act of creation because the
Creator God is triune.
The work of redemption was also a trinitarian work. Think, for
instance, of the deliverance of God's people from Egypt. On the
principle that the God who revealed himself to Israel is triune,
and that the Son has always been the Word (God's authoritative
self-revelation), we should consider that it was God the Son who
met Moses in the burning bush, and at the top of Mount Sinai:
"No one has ever seen God; God the only begotten who is in the
bosom of the Father, this one has revealed him" (John 1:18).
Jesus declared, "Anyone who has seen me, has seen the Father"
(John 14:9). The writer to the Hebrews teaches that Christ is
not only the "radiance of the glory" but the "exact
manifestation" of the "divine being" (hypostasis), "sustaining
all things by his powerful word" (Heb. 1:3).
Hebrews 12:18-24 contrasts Mount Sinai with that mountain to
which we have come. In so doing, however, it also tells us how
we should think about the God who revealed his "hindmost
quarters" to Moses. The mountain to which Moses came was covered
in darkness, fire, gloom, and storm. In the New Covenant
believers have come, however, to thousands of angels, to "the
church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You
have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of
righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new
covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word
than the blood of Abel" (Heb. 12:23-24). Notice how the writer
to the Hebrews uses a series of parallel expressions to drive
home the same point: "church of the firstborn" (i.e., the risen
Christ), "God, the judge of all men" who is "Jesus the mediator
of a better covenant." It was the Son who was revealed awesomely
at the top of Sinai, who met with the elders, before whom they
ate and drank, whom they "saw and did not die" (Ex. 24:9-11),
and it is the Son with whom we have to do today.
There is significant evidence that God the Spirit was also
active in creation. The New International Version is right to
spell Spirit with the capital "S" in Genesis 1:2. The "Spirit of
God was hovering over the waters." That such work is proper to
the Spirit is suggested in 1 Peter 4:14 which uses the same
image to describe the Spirit's relations to the New Covenant
temple people. By the analogy of Scripture we understand that it
was God the Spirit who guided us through the wilderness. The
pillar of divine presence, surrounds and protects God's people,
hovering over his creation and new creation, indwelling and
sanctifying, as he ever has. 5
God the Father was also active in creation, speaking the Word,
present in the redemption of Israel in the person of the Son, by
the power of the Spirit. Who else could have passed over Israel
for the sake of the blood of the lamb, but God the Father? One
has only to think of how the Father provided earthly manna for
his people and how he gave that ultimate manna which gives
eternal life to all who eat by faith (John 6:31-33). Certainly
one sees wonderful evidence of his providence throughout the
Hebrew Scriptures. At each turn the Father was meeting our
needs, with drink from the rock and food from heaven (Num.
20:11, 1 Cor. 10:1-4). All this establishes not only that God
revealed personal distinctions in the Old Testament, but that he
revealed himself as tri-personal.
The New Covenant Scriptures make explicit what was implicit in
the Old Covenant. We may begin with our Lord, himself a
trinitarian theologian. His conception of himself and of his
relations to the Father and the Spirit was unreservedly
trinitarian. This is not surprising given that he was himself a
member of the triune Godhead, God the co-eternal, eternally
begotten Son incarnate.
We have already reviewed Jesus' revelation of the personal
distinction between himself and the Father. He also made clear
that God the Spirit has his proper work drawing sinners to the
Son; "the Spirit blows where he will" and without the work of
the Spirit no one is able to see the Kingdom of God (John 3:8).
Christ's trinitarian consciousness is clearly evident in his
command to baptize in the triune name of God. "Therefore go and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..." (Matt. 28:19).
Notice that Jesus said, "in the name." This is a most
significant expression in Scripture. Out of the burning bush God
the Son revealed the divine name to Moses: I AM. God's name is
who he is in himself, and also who he is in relation to us, the
self-existent one. Thus, Herman Bavinck was right to say that,
in this passage, Jesus drew together all the trinitarian
revelation of God in Scripture. 6
Paul was equally explicit about God's tri-personality in the
benediction contained in 2 Corinthians 13:14 in which he named
each of the trinitarian persons: "May the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit be with you all." (This expression is doubtless
linked to the Aaronic benediction of Numbers 6:24-26.) This was
Paul's consistent language about God. Frequently he used the
noun "God" to refer to the Father (e.g., Rom. 1:1, 7, 8;
8:14-17; 15:5-6; 1 Cor. 1:3; 8:6; 11:3; 2 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:3;
Eph. 1:2, 17; 4:6; 5:20). He refers to the Son as "Christ" and
to the third triune person as the "Spirit." Read this way, his
epistles are replete with allusions to the Trinity.
It is no wonder then that the earliest Fathers of the Christian
church developed the biblical trinitarianism almost immediately.
This teaching was crystallized in the great ecumenical creeds:
The Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed (325 AD), the Athanasian
Creed (381-421 AD) and the Chalcedonian Definition (451 AD). 7
Against the Arians, Athanasius (c. 293-373), an Alexandrian
archdeacon, defended stoutly the doctrine of the eternal
generation of the Son. When Scripture says "only begotten God,"
it means that the Son has always been begotten of the Father
(see John 1:18). There has never been a point (remember we're
speaking of eternity) when the Son was not. The Son has always
been the Son and the Father has always been his Father. This
eternal begottenness of the Son does not mean, however, that the
Son is a creature. Because he is the same substance (homoousios)
as the Father and the Spirit, he was also uncreated.
The biblical and Christian doctrine of the Trinity is a
necessary mystery to the faith so that without it, there would
be no faith. It is necessary primarily because the Scriptures
teach it. Because it is a biblical doctrine, the creeds teach it
and for the same reasons our theologians have taught it. Despite
all the attempts by students to investigate it and despite all
the attempts by critics to level it, the doctrine of the Trinity
remains a glorious mystery.
The Mystery of the Trinity
"So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is
God. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God" (Athanasian
Creed). How can God be truly one-and also three distinct,
co-eternal, subsistences or persons is a mystery; and yet we are
bound to say that he is. To confess these truths is to commit
oneself to a great and glorious mystery-that is, something which
is necessarily true but which transcends our ability to explain
fully. 8
In this case, then, we must repudiate the root of the Arian
heresy: rationalism, the notion that one should believe only
that which one can comprehend entirely. With Athanasius, we know
that if "there was when the Son was not," the Son could never be
a Savior. He also knew that we can confess Jesus to be "very God
of very God" only if God is triune; otherwise we are
polytheists. "So we are forbidden by the catholic religion, to
say, There be three Gods, or three Lords" (Athanasian Creed).
As trinitarians we also acknowledge that it is possible to apprehend revealed
truths about God and to develop them, but it is not possible to comprehend him
in our formulae.
Therefore, it is impossible to remove mystery from the Trinity
and remain Christian. At the same time, it is also evident that
Christianity is a theological religion.
That is to say, it is not sufficient to quote Scripture in the
face of heresy, but rather we are morally obligated not only to
read Scripture carefully, but also to assemble its truths, to
make good and necessary deductions from scriptural truth to
edify God's people, and to array those truths against unbelief.
For example, our trinitarianism separates us utterly from
unbelief. There is no other article of the Christian faith which
so alienates unbelievers as our claim that there is one God in
three persons. When we come to the doctrine of the Trinity, we
Christians realize that we are completely dependent upon God's
Word for saving knowledge of God.
Since the patristic-creedal period, perhaps no theologian has
meditated on the Trinity more profitably than John Calvin
(1509-64). 9
With the breakup of the medieval Church, the sixteenth century
was littered with sects including anti-trinitarians. Calvin
responded to the unitarians by defending both God's
essential simplicity (God is one) and his tri-personality or
tri-subsistence (Institutes 1.13.2,
6).
He used the term subsistence to distinguish between the divine
essence and his tri-personality. These sorts of considerations
are sometimes developed under the heading ontological
Trinity, i.e., the Trinity regarding God's being. He
reminded us that there are certain attributes which belong to
each trinitarian person which are not shared among the persons
of the Trinity. Recognizing these distinctions is part of not
"confounding the persons" (Athanasian Creed). These properties
unique to each person distinguish (not separate) each person
from the others. For example, only the Father is unbegotten.
"The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten" (Athanasian
Creed). The Son, because he is such, is eternally begotten. "The
Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten"
(Athanasian Creed). Only the Spirit is able to proceed from the
Father and the Son. "The Holy Ghost is of the Father and Son,
neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding" (Athanasian
Creed). Considered distinctly, however, each divine person can
be said to be God "of himself," i.e., the Father, Son and Spirit
subsist of themselves. "And in this Trinity none is afore, or
after other; none is greater, or less than another" (Athanasian
Creed).
At the same time, Calvin also reminds us of another heading in
the doctrine of the Trinity, the economic
Trinity. This relates to the outworking of creation and
redemption. For example, it belongs to the Son to become
incarnate. It belongs to the Father to elect people to faith in
Christ. It belongs to the Spirit to draw sinners to Christ and
to sanctify them through the Word. Under this heading, we can
think of the Father primarily as the Creator. The first articles
of the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds both encourage this sort of
thinking. The Son can be said to have voluntarily subordinated
himself to the Father, for the sake of redeeming his people, and
the Spirit voluntarily subordinates himself to the Father and
the Son for the sake of sanctifying his people, as the Nicene
and Apostles' Creeds both teach.
Thinking in these categories does not imply, however, that
either the Son or the Spirit became less than they were,
otherwise we would be "dividing the persons" (Athanasian Creed).
Rather, these distinctions are a part of the administration of
salvation, not changes in the divine being.
Both the personal distinctions within the Trinity and the
trinitarian character of God's works of creation and redemption
witness to the fundamental unity in the divine being. They also
witness to the eternal fellowship and love which exists within
the Trinity. The Greek Fathers spoke of God's perichoresis or
what Francis Turretin called the "mutual intertwining" of the
persons of the Deity. 10
In this case, we know that the Trinity we worship is no static
deity, but rather that there are dynamic relations among the
Father, the Son, and the Spirit. It is out of that dynamic,
loving fellowship that both creation and redemption have issued.
Conclusion
The doctrine of the Trinity is of the essence of our religion.
We cannot and should not think of creation or redemption as
anything but trinitarian operations. This is a duty of the
Christian faith. Christianity is more than duty, however. Being
drawn to greater wonder and awe before the face of God is one
his best gifts. The Trinity reminds one that the Christian
religion is not about us, but about God and his glorious grace.
The Father to whom we pray is the eternal Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, and the Spirit in whose
power we pray is of the same substance as the Father and the Son
and he is their gift to us to draw us by Christ to the Father.
Since the Trinity is such a necessary mystery, though woefully
misunderstood or forgotten in our churches, how can we recover
this truth? Three sources have helped me. First, God's Word is
thoroughly trinitarian and it is the fundamental source of all
Christian teaching. Second, it was through meditating on the
Nicene and Athanasian Creeds that I began to read Scripture with
renewed trinitarian eyes. Third, the Athanasian and Nicene
Creeds also alerted me to the fact that Reformed theology is
unreservedly trinitarian. 11
It structures our theology. Calvin's Institutes (1559)
were laid out along the lines of the Creed. The Heidelberg
Catechism (1563) is in three parts, each roughly corresponding
to the work of the economic Trinity.
The benefits of reading the Bible in the communion of the saints
(e.g., Athanasius, Basil, Calvin) have been revolutionary.
Recovering the doctrine of the Trinity has delivered me from a
warped conception of God. I have learned again that there is no
other God than the God who is one substance in three
subsistences (persons); that the Christian is not entitled to
think of God in any other way than he has revealed himself
(Heidelberg Catechism Q. 25, 96); that with Calvin and before
him Gregory of Nazianzus (330-89) we must say, "I cannot think
on the one without quickly being encircled by the splendor of
the three; nor can I discern the three without being
straightaway carried back to the one." 12
For Gregory, for Calvin, and for us, to think of God as triune
is not a second blessing, reserved for the illuminati.
Rather, it is how anyone must think of God, for any other god is
an idol to be rejected. 13
Footnotes
This article originally appeared in the Sept/Oct
1999 edition of Modern Reformation and is reprinted with permission. For more information about Modern Reformation, visit www.modernreformation.org or call (800) 890-7556. All rights reserved. |
|
S. M. Baugh
R. Scott Clark
Iain M. Duguid
Bryan D. Estelle
W. Robert Godfrey
Michael S. Horton
Dennis E. Johnson
Hywel R. Jones
Peter R. Jones
Joel E. Kim
Julius J. Kim
George C. Scipione
Robert B. Strimple
David M. VanDrunen
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