Part 8 of 11 in the Doctrine of God series

1. Language: Nature and Person

Remember: 

• Incomprehensibility ≠ contradiction
• Terms may change and be used to mean opposite things over time. 
• Using the right terms wrongly < Using the wrong terms but believing the right things

Key Rule: Natures do not act. Persons act according to their natures.

The disastrous Enlightenment category shift: “person” redefined with emphasis on psychology and empiricism, focusing on self-consciousness, individual will, and autonomous agency. E.g. Descartes: “I think, therefore I am.”

2. God’s Oneness

• Simplicity in nature, Trinity in persons

Attributes

• All  that is true of the divine nature is true of each of the persons (i.e. all divine attributes)
• Athanasian Creed formula: The Father is [uncreated], the Son is [uncreated], the Holy Spirit is [uncreated], and yet there are not three [uncreated] beings, there is but one [uncreated] being.
• Athanasian Creed conclusion: Thus, the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God.  Yet there are not three gods; there is but one God. Thus, the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord.  Yet there are not three lords; there is but one Lord.

Other “Oneness”

• One divine act of being
• One divine knowledge/intellect
• One divine life
• One divine will
• One divine power
• One divine operation/action

3. God’s Threeness: Eternal Relations of Origin

• Divine Person: A distinct subsistence in the one simple undivided divine essence, distinguished only by eternal relations of origin.
• How are the three persons of the Trinity differentiated? Answer: eternal relations of origin (or personal relations). 
• Eternal: not created relations; they exist outside of time
• Relations: they describe personal distinctions within the Trinity
• Origin: they specify the ontological source within the Godhead
• Does anything else differentiate the persons ad intra?
• No → orthodox Christian trinitarianism.
• Yes → heresy
• trietheism (essence-based distinctions)
• modalism (modal distinctions)
• subordinationism (gradational distinctions)

Eternal Relations of Origin

4. Additional Trinitarian Doctrines

A. Doctrine of Inseparable Operations

• Augustine: “The works of the Trinity toward creation are indivisible.”

• All three persons act inseparably in every external work (creation, redemption, sanctification)
• There is one divine action, because the divine essence is one (simple)
• Example: Creation
• Gen 1:1-2: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
• John 1:3: “Through him [the Word] all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

B. Doctrine of Appropriation

• Because Scripture sometimes emphasizes one person in a particular work, a person may “appropriate” a particular work: 
• Creation (Father): E.g. Nicene Creed: “God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth”.
• Redemption (Son): E.g. “Christ, the Redeemer”
• Sanctification (Spirit): 2 Thes 2:13: “God chose you to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit…”
• Other examples: Election (Father), Revelation (Son), Illumination (Spirit)
• This does not imply that the other persons are not involved. Appropriation is about how we rightly speak about God’s works, not about separate actions. Per inseparable operations, each person participates in every divine act.

C. Doctrine of Perichoresis (Mutual Indwelling)

• Perichoresis is the real indwelling of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in one another, so that each person fully contains the other two without merging or losing personal distinction
• The persons are distinct but inseparable in essence and action. This is the natural corollary of divine simplicity and eternal relations or origin.
• John 14:10-11: “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.”
• John 17:20-21: “I [Jesus] pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you…”

Combining Inseparable Operations, Appropriations, and Perichoresis: The Spirit Dwelling in Believers

Main Point: The Spirit personally dwells in believers, while the Father and the Son dwell with us through the Spirit, participating inseparably in the one divine life and action.

• Inseparable Operations: The indwelling is a single divine act. Even though the Scripture emphasizes the Spirit’s role, the Father planned salvation and sent the Spirit and the Son accomplished redemption, enabling the Spirit to apply it.
• Appropriation: Scripture emphasizes the Spirit as the person who dwells in believers.
• Perichoresis: The Spirit’s personal presence in us is inseparable from the Father and the Son.
• E.g. Eph 3:16-17: “I pray that out of [the Father’s] glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”
• E.g. John 14:23: “If anyone loves me [the Son], he will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him.”