XXIII. God's Power

A.     General, Psm. 24:7-8, Eph. 1:19-23, 3:20-21, 2 Chron. 20:6, Job 23:13, Prov. 21:30, Isa. 43:13, Dan. 4:35, Matt. 26:53, Phil. 3:21, Matt. 3:9, Heb. 1:3, Rom. 8:28. God has power over all others.

B.     God's Omnipotence

1.      God can do anything he pleases, Job 23:13, Psm. 115:3, 135:6, Isa. 14:24-27, 55:11, Dan. 4:35.

2.      Nothing is too hard for God, Gen. 18:14, Luke 1:37, Num. 11:23, Job 42:2, Jer. 32:17, 27, Zech. 8:6, Matt. 19:26.

C.    What God Can't Do

1.      Logically contradictory actions

2.      Immoral actions, Tit. 1:2, Num. 23:19.

3.      Actions appropriate only to finite beings (celebrating his birthday, taking medicine for a cough, buying shoes).

4.      Actions denying his nature as God (making another god equal to himself, abandoning his attributes).

5.      Changing his eternal plan.

6.      Making a stone so large he cannot lift it (I think this is an action in class #3 above).

D.    Definitions of Omnipotence

1.      God can do whatever he wants. (But this is true of some creatures.)

2.      God is able to do anything logically possible. (But some of the actions in C, 1-6 are logically possible.)

3.      God can do what is possible. (But possible for whom? Not creatures, but God. So this definition is tautological.)

4.      God has infinite power. (But power here requires further definition, if it is not to include the actions of C, 1-6.)

5.      God has power over all things. (Yes, but the question asked something else, namely, what can God do, in the course of exerting his power.)

6.      God has more power than anyone. (Scriptural, but same problem as #5.)

7.      God can do anything compatible with his attributes. (Like #3, tautological in a sense. But perhaps the circularity can be broadened. Or perhaps we don't need a precise definition. Perhaps it is enough to say that God can do everything Scripture represents him as doing, and much more.

E.     Absolute and Ordinate Power

1.      Nominalism

a.      God's absolute power is his power to do absolutely anything: logically contradictory actions, sins, etc.

b.      God's ordinate power is his power to do what he chooses to do.

2.      Hodge

a.      Absolute power is what God does apart from created means.

b.      Ordinate power is what he does through created second causes.

c.      In my view, this distinction is without Scriptural foundation and does not follow the historical usage of the language.

3.      Frame

a.      Absolute power is what God can do beyond what he actually does.

b.      Ordinate power is his power to do anything he chooses to do.

F.     Omnipotence and Redemption

1.      Typically in Scripture redemption contradicts our expectations. Gen. 18:14, Luke 1:36.

2.      So no Word returns to God void, Isa. 55:11.

G.    Power and Weakness

1.      Though omnipotent, God doesn't always accomplish his purposes with "brute strength," but often with weakness, 1 Cor. 1:25, 2 Cor. 12:9-10.

2.      Model for servant leadership: Matt. 20:20-28.

H.    God's Will

1.      As with "mind," not a faculty of decision-making, but the decisions themselves.

2.      Definition: what God wants to happen; what pleases him.

3.      Necessary and free.

I.        Antecedent and Consequent Will

1.      God prioritizes his desires, leading theologians to distinguish different levels of divine wants, desires, willings.

2.      Antecedent: what God values as good.

3.      Consequent: what actually happens.

4.      Usually, however, God's consequent will awaits the choices of man's (libertarian) free will.

J.      Decree and Precept

1.      This is the terminology favored by the Reformed tradition.

2.      However, God's "preceptive will" is similar to "antecedent will," and "decretive" is similar to consequent.

a.      "Preceptive:" what God values and commends to his creatures.

b.      "Decretive:" what in his eternal decree he determines to bring to pass.

3.      Will, pleasure, thought, counsel, etc. in decretive senses: Gen. 50:20, Matt. 11:25-26, Acts 2:23, Rom. 9:18-19, Eph. 1:11, Psm. 51:18, etc.

4.      In preceptive senses: Matt. 7:21, Eph. 5:17, 6:6, Psm. 5:4, 103:21, Matt. 12:50, etc.

5.      Desirable states of affairs that God does not foreordain to come to pass ("preceptive" in my vocabulary), Ezek. 18:23, 2 Pet. 3:9.

K.     Does God Desire the Salvation of All?

1.      If God desires repentance, then he desires salvation, its fruit.

2.      We should not reason that God cannot will something that doesn't take place.

3.      God expresses a desire for all to have the fulness of covenant blessing: Deut. 5:29, 32:29, Psm. 81:13-14, Isa. 48:18, Matt. 23:37, Ezek. 18:23, 31-32, 33:11, Isa. 45:22, 2 Pet. 3:9, 1 Tim. 2:4. (I don't think the last passage can be taken only as a universalism of classes of people.)

L.      A Third Will? "God's will for my life"

1.      Usually when people ask questions about God's will for their life work, marriage partners, etc., they are not thinking of either decretive or preceptive wills of God in the above definitions.

2.      But God does guide his people in these areas, giving them his Spirit to apply his Word (precepts) to their circumstances (decrees). This is an exercise of wisdom.

3.      Scripture speaks of God's will in this way, Rom. 12:2, Eph. 5:10, Phil. 1:9-10, Heb. 5:14.

 

XXIV. Lord of Time

A.     God's Infinity

1.      The term is rarely found in English translations of Scripture, Psm. 147:5 in the KJV being a rare exception.

2.      In Greek philosophy, it evokes the false transcendence discussed in VII.

a.      Plato and Aristotle: infinity is lack of distinct characteristics, so undesirable.

b.      Plotinus mentions (a), but also a more positive concept: infinity is "beyond" all the characteristics of objects in this world, beyond our knowing.

3.      For our purposes, God's infinity is best discussed under other headings, e.g.

a.      Eternity, God's infinity in regard to time.

b.      Immensity, God's infinity in respect to space.

4.      If we want to use the concept theologically, something like the following definitions should be employed:

a.      No creature can place limits on God.

b.      God's attributes are supremely perfect, without any flaw.

B.     God's Eternity

1.      Rarely used in Scripture as a divine attribute, Gen. 21:33, Deut. 33:27, Rom. 1:20, Eph. 3:11, 1 Tim. 1:17, Heb. 9:14.

2.      Many theologians have argued that God's eternity is supratemporality: existence beyond time itself.

a.      Boethius: eternity is God's "simultaneous and perfect possession of infinite life.

b.      Nominalists and Socinians opposed this view, insisting that God's eternity is merely existence in time, without beginning or end.

c.      In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, American Presbyterian theologians expressed some doubts: Hodge, Thornwell, Buswell, Killen.

d.      Cullmann vs. Barr on aion.

e.      Wolterstorff, "God Everlasting" (1975) inaugurates new phase of discussion:

(i)                 Productive acts in time, like creation, providence and redemption, presuppose a temporal cause, so God must be temporal.

(ii)               God's redemptive actions in Scripture are temporally successive, suggesting that he "has a time-strand of his own."

(iii)             Unless God is temporal, he cannot know propositions like "event A is happening now."

f.        Wolterstorff's view has become the consensus among Christian philosophers, and of process theologians and open theists. Paul Helm's Eternal God dissents.

g.      The strongest motive behind this development is an interest in maintaining libertarian freedom.

C.    Arguments Against Divine Atemporality

1.      The issue is not whether God has a temporal existence or a "time-strand of his own." In my judgment, Wolterstorff is right on those points. The issue is whether God's existence is merely temporal, or whether, in addition to his existence in time, he also exists beyond time in some sense.

2.      Vs. Wolterstorff's argument (i): it is not obvious that an atemporal being cannot bring about a series of events in a time sequence without himself being part of the sequence.

3.      Vs. Wolterstorff's argument (iii):

a.      If God exists atemporally, this sort of knowledge is simply inappropriate for him in his atemporal existence. Compare our earlier discussion of omnipotence: This is one of the things God cannot do, because they are inappropriate to a divine being.

b.      God knows all the facts expressed by these propositions, from his own transcendent point of view.

c.      God also knows these facts from perspectives within time, since he is present in all time.

4.      Arguments for God's mere temporality (i.e. temporality without supra-temporal existence) are also arguments for mere spatiality.

D.    Philosophical Arguments for Divine Atemporality

1.      Augustine: atemporality is a consequence of God's unchangeability.

2.      Augustine: if God is temporal, he must increase in knowledge as time goes on and therefore be less than omniscient at any time.

3.      Boethius: If God is temporal, he will not possess his entire life at once.

4.      Some: If God's eternity is merely temporality extending infinitely into the past and future, then the events of God's past would form an "actual infinite." But if an infinity of days, let's say, must elapse before creation, creation would never have occurred

5.      Some, like Norris Clarke, have argued that time is relative in Einsteinian physics. So if God is to be present in all time-frames, he must in some sense transcend them all.

6.      My evaluation

a.      #1: As we shall see, God is not unchangeable in every respect.

b.      #2: I don't see why a temporal God could not have perfect knowledge of the future.

c.      #3: What is meant here by "possession?" If God has perfect knowledge of past and future, does not that constitute possession?

d.      #4: This argument is the most plausible, but I hesitate to give dogmatic weight to it in the absence of biblical teaching.

e.      #5: I'm not competent to evaluate this, but in any case it would need biblical supplementation.

E.     Scripture on God and Time

1.      Nothing much can be derived from the aion vocabulary. On this point, Barr's arguments prevail over Cullmann's, in my view.

2.      Scripture doesn't say anything specific about God's relation to time.

3.      But Scripture does mention some limitations associated with time that God transcends:

a.      The limitation of beginning and end, John 1:1, Psm. 90.

b.      The limitation of change, Mal. 3:6. See later discussion.

c.      The limitation of ignorance:

(i)                 God knows past, present, future exhaustively, i.e. with equal vividness (see XXII).

(ii)               So his view of history is as supratemporalists describe it.

d.      The limitation of temporal frustration.

(i)                 Time never passes too fast, or too slow, for God (Psm. 90:4, 2 Pet. 3:8).

(ii)               So he does not experience time as a limit.

4.      Conclusion: His relation to time is more like the supratemporalist picture than like the temporalist one.

5.      Better still: he is Lord of time. The entire temporal sequence is under his domain.

F.     God's Temporal Omnipresence

1.      Yet God is also "in" time. He enters history and has a time-strand of his own.

2.      So he is temporal, but not merely temporal.

G.    God's Unchangeability

1.      In Greek philosophy, there was a search for something that remained constant during change.

a.      Parmenides denied change altogether.

b.      Heraclitus: the only unchanging thing is the logos, the rational order of mind and world.

2.      Scripture refers to God as unchanging, Psm. 102:25-27, Mal. 3:6, James 1:17.

a.      He does not change his mind, Num. 23:19, 1 Sam. 15:29, Psm. 110:4 (Heb. 7:21), Jer. 4:28, 20:16, Ezek. 24:14.

b.      His counsel stands firm, Deut. 32:39, Psm. 33:11, Isa. 43:13, etc.

3.      A God who relents

a.      Nevertheless, there are places in Scripture where God at least appears to change his mind: Ex. 32:9-14, 1 Sam. 15:35, Gen. 6:6, Joel 2:13-14, Amos 7:1-6, Gen. 18:16-33, Jonah 3:4, 4:1-2.

b.      How are these passages consistent with those quoted earlier?

(i)                 Relenting is God's mercy, part of his unchangeable divine nature. Jonah quotes the exposition of the divine name in Ex. 34:6.

(ii)               Divine promises of blessing and threats of judgment are typically conditional, Jer. 18:5-10.

(A)  Conditioned on the people's response.

(B)  Conditioned on intercessory prayer.

c.      How is this compatible with divine sovereignty?

(i)                 In Jer. 18:1-4, God's relenting is part of his freedom as a potter to do as he wishes with his clay.

(ii)               Conditional prophecies are expressions of God's preceptive will, not his decretive. See XXIII.

(iii)             Even God's decretive will takes human actions and prayers into account (see VIII, IX). In Amos 7:1-6, God's decree was to forgive Israel; but through the power of Amos's intercession, not without it.

d.      How is this compatible with the authority of the prophetic Word?

(i)                 When we understand these prophecies properly, they do not predict the future, but they offer alternative futures. They do not, therefore, predict falsely.

(ii)               Not all prophecies are conditional: 1 Sam. 10:1-7, Jer. 7:15.

4.      How is God unchanging?

a.      In his essential nature and attributes, Heb. 13:8, James 1:17, Heb. 1:10-12.

b.      In his decretive will, Psm. 33:11.

c.      In his covenant faithfulness, Mal. 3:6, Mic. 7:19-20, Psm. 89:34-37, Isa. 54:10, Heb. 13:8.

d.      In the truth of his revelation, Isa. 40:21, 41:4, 43:12, 46:10, Rom. 15:4, 2 Tim. 3:16-17.

5.      Unchangeability and Temporal Omnipresence

a.      When God enters time, he behaves to some extent as a temporal being. He does one thing on Monday, another thing on Tuesday. He responds to events on Monday as appropriate, to different events on Tuesday as appropriate. In that sense, he changes.

b.      This pattern exists even during the creation week.

c.      This changeability does not contradict the unchangeability discussed earlier.

 

XXV. Lord of Space, Matter, Light, and Breath

A.     God's Immensity: This is to space what God's atemporal eternity is to time.

1.      Explicit Scripture Texts: 1 Kings 8:27, 2 Chron. 2:6, Isa. 66:1-2.

2.      An Ethical Focus: don't presume that because of God's presence he will necessarily be on your side, Mic. 3:11, Amos 3:2, Jer. 7:2-8.

3.      Biblical Personalism: God is present as a whole person to every creature, so he is not limited to some spatial location.

4.      Lordship and Space: As with time, God relates to space as the Lord.

B.     God's Spatial Omnipresence

1.      God is not a physical being, but his power and knowledge are universal.

2.      Psm. 139:7-10, Acts 17:24-28

3.      Modes of God's presence

a.      In every place, as in the above texts (omnipresence proper).

b.      In special holy places, Ex. 3:5-6, 19:10-13, 20-23, tabernacle, temple, John 1:14, 1 Cor. 6:19, Eph. 3:17, Col. 1:27. In Heaven, a supreme theophany, Deut. 26:15, Psm. 11:4, 33:13-14, 115:3.

c.      Ethical presence:

(i)                 God far from the wicked, Isa. 59:2, Prov. 15:29, James 4:8, Psm. 73:28, Heb. 10:22. Or close to them in judgment, Amos 9:2-3, Jer. 23:23-24.

(ii)               With those of a contrite heart, Isa. 57:15. Believers can never be separated from him, Psm. 46:1, Rom. 8:39, Psm. 16:11, John 14:23, Rom. 8:9-10, 2 Cor. 3:17.

C.    God's Incorporeality

1.      Perhaps some hint in Luke 24:36-40, John 4:24, but not clearly indicated in a specific passage.

2.      However, it is evident that God in his atemporal and aspatial existence cannot be a physical being.

3.      Corporeality is also inconsistent with divine simplicity (XII).

4.      Existing in spatio-temporal omnipresence, God is analogous to one who has the whole universe as his body, but that conclusion must be resisted.

5.      Pantheism, panentheism unbiblical.

D.    Theophany and Incarnation

1.      The "Glory Cloud" (Meredith G. Kline, Images of the Spirit)

a.      This is the regular form of the theophany, Gen. 1:2, Isa. 6:1-3, Ezek. 1:1ff, 3:12ff, 10:1ff, 11:22ff, 43:2ff, Matt. 17:5.

b.      A manifestation of Heaven

2.      The Incarnation: a theophany, but much more.

E.     God's Invisibility

1.      God invisible, Rom. 1:20, Col. 1:15, 1 Tim. 1:17, Heb. 11:27, John 1:18, 5:37, 6:46, 1 John 4:12, 20.

2.      But God makes himself visible in theophany.

a.      "Man shall not see God's face and live," Ex. 33:20, 3:6, Job 33:11, Isa. 6:5.

b.      But people do see God, Gen. 16:13, 32:30, Judg. 13:22, Ex. 24:9-10, Isa. 6:1, Amos 9:1.

(i)                 Moses sees God's temunah (form), Num. 12:8, but Israel does not, Deut. 4:15.

(ii)               Seeing God in Christ, John 1:18, 14:9, 1 John 1:1-2, Acts 1:3, 1 Cor. 15:3-8, 2 Pet. 1:16-18.

(iii)             Paradoxical "seeing" in our experience, Heb. 2:9, 1 Cor. 4:18, Heb. 11:27.

3.      Some principles

a.      "God is essentially invisible" means that God is Lord of the visible: he can choose when, where, how, and to whom to make himself visible.

b.      God makes himself visible in theophany, permanently in Heaven.

c.      "No one has ever seen God—" apart from his voluntary theophanic revelation.

d.      It is right to be terrified in the presence of theophany. Apart from grace, the presence of God means judgment. But grace does abound.

e.      There is a difference between the invisibility of God in the Old Covenant (Deut. 4:15) and the visibility of God in Christ in the New (1 John 1:1-3).

f.        The visibility of God has an eschatological thrust: Matt. 5:8, 1 Cor. 13:12, 1 John 3:2, Rev. 1:7, Zech. 12:10.

F.     God's Glory

1.      The Glory-Theophany

a.      The theophany described above is God's "glory," Ex. 16:6-10.

b.      It is the great light shining from God's presence.

2.      Glory as God's Covenant Presence

a.      Regularly in contexts of praise, 1 Chron. 29:11, Psm. 24:7, Eph. 1:6.

b.      In Jesus' death, John 17:5, John 12:23, 13:31.

3.      In creation, Psm. 19:1

a.      Adam in God's image, glory, Psm. 8:5, 1 Cor. 11:7.

b.      Not a literal light. But we are to spread God's name, revelation, reputation, as lights in the world.

4.      In redemption: 1 Cor. 3:18, Rom. 8:18, 1 Cor. 2:7, 2 Cor. 4:6, 17, Heb. 2:10.

5.      In ethics: we are to glorify God. We cannot increase his glory in one sense, but we can enhance his reputation on earth, bringing praise (=glory) to him, 1 Cor. 10:31, Eph. 3:10, Matt. 4:14-16, John 8:12.

6.      Glory and the Trinity

a.      The Father Glorifies the Son, vice versa, in Johannine passages.

b.      The Spirit glorifies the Son, John 16:14.

c.      We are to imitate this mutual glorification, John 17:10, 22.

G.    God's Spirituality: Spirit is another name for the glory-theophany, but more.

1.      Power, Micah 3:8, etc.

2.      Authority

a.      the breath behind the Word, wisdom.

b.      The anointing of officers with oil.

3.      Presence in Blessing and Judgment

a.      Blessing, Psm. 139:7, 1 Cor. 3:16, John 3:5-8, Rom. 8:1-17.

b.      Judgment, Gen. 3:8, Isa. 11:1-4, 2 Thess. 2:8, 1 Pet. 4:13-16.

4.      The Spirit in Redemptive History

a.      Though he is omnipresent, the Spirit "comes" in a special way, especially at Pentecost, Acts 2.

b.      John 4:24 refers to that future coming of the Spirit in power. "Truth" is the truth of the Gospel of salvation in its New Covenant form.

 

XXVI. The Self-Contained God

A.     God's Aseity

1.      Bavinck's definition: God "is whatever he is by his own self or of his own self."

2.      Synonyms: independence, self-existence, self-containedness, self-sufficiency, absoluteness.

3.      Implies that God is also epistemologically self-attesting and ethically self-justifying.

4.      Biblical argument

a.      As Lord, God owns all things, Gen. 14:19, 22, Psm. 24:1, Psm. 50:10-12, Ex. 19:5, Deut. 10:14, etc.

b.      Everything possessed by creatures comes from God, Ex. 20:11, Neh. 9:6, Psm. 146:5-6, James 1:17.

c.      When we give something back to God, we give him only what he has first given us. We are stewards, Luke 12:42, 16:1-8, Tit. 1:7.

d.      When we give something back to God, he is not obligated to recompense us, Luke 17:10.

e.      So God owes nothing to any creature, Job 41:11, Rom. 11:35-36.

f.        So God has no needs, Psm. 50:8-15, Isa. 40:19-20, 41:7, 44:12-20, 46:6, Jer. 10:3-5, Hab. 2:18-20, Acts 17:24-30.

g.      So God is a se by nature, Gal. 4:8-9, Rom. 11:36

5.      Attempts of non-Christian philosophy to find something a se.

B.     Does God Have Feelings?

1.      Many emotional terms ascribed to God in Scripture: compassion, tender mercy, delight, rejoicing, pleasure, pity, love.

2.      Passion in God's address, Ezek. 33:11, Rom. 8:31-39, 11:33-36.

3.      Also in relatively calm speech: calmness itself is an emotion.

4.      No justification for a sharp division between emotions and intellect (DKG).

5.      Observations

a.      God doesn't have the physical accompaniments of emotions in human life—except as incarnate.

b.      Emotions respond to events, and have therefore been thought unworthy of God. But God, as we have seen, does respond to events.

c.      Much of what we call "emotion" in God is his evaluation of what happens in history. Often an appropriate evaluation will be strongly emotional.

d.      There are some emotions inappropriate to God: homesick, anxious about tomorrow, inwardly troubled by divided intentions, etc.

C.    Can God Suffer?

1.      Moltmann's three reasons for saying yes.

a.      The cross is "the basis and criterion of Christian theology."

b.      Love involves being vulnerable to suffering.

c.      The only answer to the problem of evil is that God suffers with us.

2.      God's emotional empathy with us (above) can be called suffering, for it includes, e.g., grief, Isa. 63:9, Heb. 2:17, 4:15.

3.      I agree with Moltmann that Christ's sufferings on the cross are the sufferings of God the Son.

4.      Response to Moltmann's three points

a.      The cross is central, but it doesn't require us to believe that God suffers some kind of metaphysical loss.

b.      Love involves reciprocity, but not necessarily susceptibility to injury. The Psalmist expresses love to God for his strength, Psm. 18:1, 31:23, 116:1, and Paul praises the omnipotence of God's love, Rom. 8:35-39.

c.      Yes, God does share our sufferings in Christ, Isa. 53:3-4, though there are other principles relevant to the problem of evil.

 

 

Part Six: The Triune God

 

 

XXVII. God, Three in One

A.     Trinitarian Basics

1.      God is One.

2.      God is three.

3.      The three persons are each fully God.

4.      Each of the persons is distinct from the others.

5.      The three are related to one another eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

B.     God is One

1.      Kinds of unity

a.      simplicity

b.      the unity of persons in the Trinity

c.      the uniqueness of God's nature ("generic" unity)

d.      the fact that there is only one of him ("numerical" unity). (Coalesces with the above in my view.)

2.      Related to his Lordship, Deut. 6:4-5, 4:32-35, 39, Deut. 32:39.

a.      Only one being can be fully in control, Deut. 4:39, 2 Kings 19:15, Neh. 9:6, Mal. 2:10.

b.      Only one being can be the supreme authority, Isa. 44:6-8, 45:21, James 4:12, Isa. 45:5-6.

c.      Only he is savior, Isa. 45:22, Rom. 3:29-30, Gal. 3:20, 1 Tim. 2:5.

d.      All God's attributes are unique and serve as ultimate standards. Only one being can have that prerogative.

C.    God and the Gods, Ex. 15:11, 18:11, 20:3, etc. Henotheism or monolatry?

1.      Scripture doesn't deny that there are beings other than Yahweh who have been called gods.

2.      The "gods" passages make that very point: the true God is sovereign over these lesser beings. There is only being with his powers and prerogatives.

3.      The ontological status of these beings is not always clear. Judg. 11:24, 1 Kings 18:27.

4.      Every part of Scripture opposes the notion that there are other beings somehow equal to God.

D.    Contemporary Critiques of Monotheism

1.      Moltmann opposes monotheism as "the monarchical concept of Greek philosophy." (= the philosophical One of Plotinus, Gnosticism).

2.      He is right to reject this kind of oneness, but monotheism is a misleading name for it.

3.      Elsewhere, he identifies monotheism with the idea of God as "the almighty ruler of the universe." This is a biblical concept, very different from the Gnostic.

4.      Moltmann's critique here is not against Greek philosophy, but against the biblical concept of God as Lord.

5.      In the course of this critique, he opposes some good things and some bad things.

E.     God is Three

Warfield: the Old Testament is "richly furnished, but dimly lighted."

1.      Plurals (Elohim, panim, etc.)

a.      Gen. 1:26—possibly a consultation of the "heavenly council."

b.      Appears to us as a rich diversity of form, movement, and sound.

c.      These don't imply any precise doctrinal content. But it is significant that the monotheist Jewish writers are not embarrassed by this kind of language. They see God, not as a bare unity, but as a unity of many things.

2.      Hypostatizations, personifications

a.      The Word of God

(i)                 Divine (XXII)

(ii)               Also distinct from God, Psm. 33:6, 147:18, Isa. 55:11.

(iii)             Identified with Christ, John 1.

b.      God's Wisdom, Prov. 3:19, 8:1-9:12. Also identified with Christ, 1 Cor. 1:30.

c.      God's Name

(i)                 Divine (XVII)

(ii)               God's means, Isa. 54:1, Psm. 23:3, Deut. 12:5.

(iii)             Fulfilled in Christ, Phil. 2:10.

d.      God's Glory, Deut. 26:15, Ezek. 43:4-7.

3.      Divine Persons in the OT

a.      God's Spirit

(i)                 Closely related to the glory, XXV.

(ii)               Divine, God at work in the world.

(iii)             Also a distinction between God and the Spirit, Gen. 1:2, Psm. 33:6, Job 26:13, Psm. 104:30, 2 Sam. 23:2, etc.

b.      The Angel of the Lord, Angel of God

(i)                 Not every angel is divine, Rev. 19:10, 22:9.

(ii)               But in many cases the angel is God, Gen. 16:6-13, 21:17-20, 22:11-12, 31:11-13, 32:30, 48:15-16, etc.

(iii)             But in Ex. 23:20 and 32:34, God distinguishes himself from the divine angel.

c.      The Messiah

(i)                 God's servant, Isa. 52:13-53:12.

(ii)               But only God can do the work of the Messiah, Isa. 59:15-20, 43:3, 11, Jonah 2:9.

(iii)             So the coming King is called God in Psm. 45:7, Lord in 110:1.

4.      Triads in the OT

a.      These do not specifically teach the Trinity, but the completeness suggested by the number three is fulfilled in the Trinity.

b.      Num. 6:24-26, cf. 2 Cor. 13:14.

c.      Isa. 6:5

d.      Isa. 33:22, threefold repetition of Lord, ascribing to him three offices.

e.      Jer. 33:2, Dan. 9:19, cf. Rev. 1:4-5, 4:8.

5.      OT Triads of Divine Beings

a.      Psm. 33:6

b.      Isa. 48:16

c.      Isa. 63:9-10

d.      Haggai 2:5-7

6.      The Divine Persons in the NT

a.      Clearly settled on Father, Son, Spirit as the names of the persons.

b.      No sense of innovation. They are worshiping Yahweh alone.

c.      In the NT, Trinity is "settled doctrine," Warfield.

d.      So no systematic, point-by-point exposition of the doctrine. "Overheard, rather than heard."

e.      From the beginning of the NT, three persons prominent: Matt. 1:18, 20, Luke 1:35, Matt. 3:16-17, etc.

f.        Richest Trinitarian passages in the Johannine discourse preceding Jesus' atoning death, 13-17.

g.      Matt. 28:19-21, 1 Cor. 1:14-15, Acts 2:33, 38-39.

h.     Paul makes rich use of Trinitarian formulations.

(i)                 Structure of Romans 1-8.

(ii)               Rom. 1:1-4, 6:4, 8:1-4, 8-9, 11, 14-17, etc: Paul frequently mentions the three persons together.

i.        Same for other NT authors: Heb. 2:3-4, 6:4-6, 9:14, 10:29-31, 1 Pet. 1:2, 4:13-19, 1 John 4:2, etc. Note Satanic counterfeit of the Trinity in Rev. 13.

j.        Two or three of the persons as common sources of blessing, Rom. 6:4, 1 Cor. 15:24-28, John 14:16, 18, 23, Acts 16:7.

k.      Apostolic greetings and benedictions, 1 Cor. 1:3, 2 Cor. 1:2, Gal. 1:3, etc. 2 Cor. 13:14.

l.        Distinctions of gifts arranged in Trinitarian fashion, 1 Cor. 12:4-6.

m.   Conclusion: all three persons bring us salvation and deserve equally our praise and thanks.

 

XXVIII. The Three Are God

A.     Functional and Ontological Christologies: Does Scripture assign to Jesus only divine roles, or also a divine being or nature?

1.      Scripture never makes such a distinction. Pollard: "It is questionable whether St. John gave any thought to the ontological nature of the Sonship." Carson: "same for the functional nature."

2.      Reymond: It is psychologically impossible "to be satisfied with an interest only in Jesus' functional significance and never question theontological issue that His functional significance forces upon them.

3.      As we have seen, the biblical writers are deeply interested in the ontological nature of God. It would be most strange if the NT writers had no interest in the ontological status of their own object of worship, Jesus Christ.

4.      One who performs uniquely divine functions must be God.

5.      Sometimes, as we shall see, Scripture speaks directly about Jesus' divine nature, over and above inferences from his functions.

B.     Taking Jesus' Deity For Granted

1.      Jesus' teaching in the Gospels is remarkably egocentric.

a.      He claims unique authority, ultimate power to judge, Matt. 5:11f, 17, 7:21-29, 11:25-27, 16:25, 13:41, 16:27-28, 24:31, 25:31-46.

b.      The "I ams" of John.

c.      "Follow me," Matt. 4:19, 8:22, etc. To all in Matt. 16:24, John 10:27, 12:26. In Matt. 19:21, following Jesus fulfills the Rich Young Ruler's responsibility to God.

d.      Loyalty to Jesus transcends honor to parents commanded in the Decalogue, Matt. 10:37, Luke 14:26, though he teaches people to honor parents, Mark 7:11 (1 Tim. 5:8).

e.      Do all things (including suffering) in the name of Jesus, Acts 9:16, Rom. 15:30, 2 Cor. 12:10, 3 John 7.

2.      Negative Evidence: Jesus never withdraws or modifies a statement, apologizes, repents, seeks advice, asks prayer for himself.

3.      Gal. 1:1, 10, 12, Paul puts Christ on the side of God in a contrast between divine and human authority. This reference is "casual" in the sense that the main thrust of the passage is not Christology.

4.      The salutations and benedictions, ascribing to Jesus the benefits of salvation that come only from God, Rom. 1:7, etc.

C.    Christ, the Covenant Lord (kurios): Jesus stands in the place of Yahweh as Lord of the Covenant, Rom. 10:9, 1 Cor. 12:3, Phil. 2:11.

1.      Like most divine names, kurios can sometimes apply to ordinary men. But Scripture shows plainly that Jesus' Lordship is unique.

2.      Mediator of the New Covenant, and its Lord, Matt. 26:28, 1 Cor. 11:25, Heb. 8:8, 13, 12:24.

3.      The LXX regularly uses kurios to translate Yahweh and Adon.

4.      The OT looks forward to a deliverer, somehow distinct from Yahweh, yet who also bears the title Lord, Psm. 110:1, Jer. 23:5-6.

5.      The NT regularly refers to OT passages containing Yahweh and applies them to Jesus: Compare Isa. 40:3, Matt. 3:3; Psm. 8:2, Matt. 21:16; Isa. 6:1-10, Matt. 13:14-15; Mal. 3:1, Luke 1:76, etc. I know of over twenty examples of this parallelism.

6.      Kurios as divine title of Christ:

a.      Even in the birth narratives, Luke 1:43-44, 2:11.

b.      John the Baptist, Mark 1:3.

c.      Lord of the Sabbath (!) 2:28 (Cf. Ex. 20:9-10, Isa. 58:13).

d.      For the demoniac, the Lord was Jesus, Mark 5:19f.

e.      Peter's religious awe of Jesus, Luke 5:8, cf. Isa. 6:5.

f.        Authority of the Lord, Luke 6:46, Matt. 7:28-29, 13:54, 22:33, etc.

g.      Climactic use of kurios, Matt. 22:43-46.

h.     Jesus the judge of all on the last day, Matt. 7:21-23, 25:37, 44.

i.        Thomas's confession, John 20:28.

j.        Jesus Lord of all, Acts 10:36, cf. Rom. 10:12.

k.      Paul: kurios is the distinctive title of the second person of the Trinity. (Theos or Pater represents the first person.), 1 Cor. 8:6, 12:4-6, 2 Cor. 13:14, Eph. 4:4-6.

(i)                 The fundamental Christian confession is "Jesus is Lord," Rom. 10:9, 1 Cor. 12:3, Phil. 2:11.

(ii)               The Lord on whom we call for salvation, Rom. 10:12-13, cf. Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21.

(iii)             The Lord of Glory, 1 Cor. 2:8 (cf. James 2:1).

(iv)             Paul is doulos, Christ's bondslave, Rom. 1:1, Gal. 1:10. Christians are "called to belong to Jesus Christ," Rom. 1:6.

(v)               The Resurrection marks a change in Jesus' Lordship, the beginning of his "state of exaltation." This change celebrates the accomplishment of salvation, Rom. 1:4, 14:9. A still greater Lordship awaits, Heb. 10:12-13, cf. 1 Cor. 15:25-28.

7.      The I Ams of John

a.      With predicates, 6:35, 8:12, 10:7-11, 11:25, 14:6, 15:1.

b.      Without predicate, 4:26, 8:24, 28, 13:19, 18:5-6 (!) as in Ex. 3:14.

(i)                 English translators usually supply "he," evoking the ani hu passages, Deut. 32:39-40, Isa. 41:4, 43:10-13, etc.

(ii)               That is not a wrong translation, and the parallel with the ani hu passages is itself significant.

(iii)             But there is no predicate in the original.

c.      Climax: 8:56-58: "Before Abraham was, I AM." A clear evocation of Ex. 3:14, leading to the Jews picking up stones to cast at him.

D.    Christ, the Son of God

1.      "Son of God" can be used for finite beings:

a.      angels, Job 1:6, 2:1, Psm. 29:1, 89:6.

b.      Kings, 2 Sam. 7:14, Psm. 89:26-27.

c.      Priests, Mal. 1:6.

d.      Israel, Deut. 14:1.

e.      Adam, Luke 3:38.

f.        Christians, Matt. 5:9, John 1:12, Rom. 8:14-16, etc.

2.      Acts 17:28: God is Father of all people by virtue of creation.

3.      But Jesus is Son in a unique sense.

a.      Fulfills other sonships above.

b.      The Son of God, Luke 1:31-32, John 1:34, 1 John 5:20.

c.      God's own Son, Rom. 8:3, 32, cf. John 5:18.

d.      "My Father," Matt. 25:34, 26:29, Luke 24:49, John 14:23, cf. Mark 8:38, 13:32, 14:36.

e.      Jesus distinguished his relationship to the Father from ours, John 20:17.

f.        Abba, Mark 14:36.

4.      His Sonship prior to ours; we become sons through him, John 1:12, 14:6, 17:26.

5.      Monogenes (only, or only-begotten?), John 1:14, 18, 3:16, 18, etc., agapetos (beloved), Matt. 3:17, 7:5, Mark 1:11, indicate uniqueness.

6.      Unique knowledge, fellowship, Matt. 11:25-27, John 1:18, 10:15, 17:1-5.

7.      The unique fellowship implies that Jesus shares the Father's knowledge, love, powers, prerogatives, John 5:18-23.

8.      His Sonship implies ontological deity.

a.      To Jews, a "son of" someone or something shared the nature of his/its parent. They understood that Jesus was claiming equality with God, John 5:18, 10:31, Matt. 26:63-66. Jesus affirms their interpretation in Matt. 26:64.

b.      NT references to Jesus' Sonship emphasize his equality with the Father (above, and John 3:35, 10:37-38). His Sonship is above that of the angels (Heb. 1:5).

c.      As with Lordship, Jesus Sonship is enhanced by the developments of redemptive history.

(i)                 He is Son by virtue of his Resurrection, Rom. 1:4, Acts 13:33 (Psm. 2:7).

(ii)               But also at his birth, Luke 1:35.

(iii)             And before he was sent into the world, John 3:17, 17:5, Gal. 4:4, etc.

d.      His Sonship is prominent in confessional passages of the NT: Matt. 16:16, cf. John 11:27, 20:31, Acts 8:37, Matt. 26:63-64, Mark 1:11, 9:7.

9.      Lord and Son overlap and presuppose one another, Lord emphasizing his relation to his people, Son his relationship to the Father.

E.     Jesus, the Christ

1.      Christ = Messiah = anointed

a.      prophets, 1 Kings 19:10.

b.      priests, Ex. 29:7.

c.      kings 1 Sam. 10:1, 16:13, 24:10.

2.      Jewish expectation: a descendant of David who would liberate Israel from Rome and re-establish Israel as a great power.

3.      The OT rarely uses the term Messiah (Psm. 2:2, Dan. 9:25-26), but does speak of a coming King greater than David, Psm. 45:6 (Heb. 1:8), Isa. 9:6, 59:15-17, Mic. 5:2, Zech. 2:8-11, 9:9-17, Psm. 110:1. In these passages, the coming of the Messiah is also the coming of God himself.

4.      Jesus' direct claim, Matt. 16:16-17, Mark 14:62, John 4:25-26, 11:25-27.

5.      Confessional language, Matt. 16:16, John 11:27, 1 John 2:22, John 20:31.

6.      "Jesus Christ" becomes a proper name, signifying the centrality of the Messiahship of Jesus in the mind of the church.

7.      As Christ, he fulfills all OT promises of deliverance, all OT offices.

F.     Jesus Christ is God (theos, morphe theou, theotes)

1.      Psm. 45:6, Isa. 7:14, 9:6.

2.      John 1:1

a.      Jesus existed before creation.

b.      He is creator, not creature.

c.      The chiasm of clauses 2 and 3 emphasize the deity of the Word.

d.      Does the absence of the definite article suggest a reduced meaning for theos ("a" god, "divine")?

(i)                 The absence of the article is to be expected in a predicate noun with "to be," even when it is definite.

(ii)               That is even more likely in passages like ours where the predicate precedes the subject: the Colwell rule.

(iii)             Following that linguistic custom is theologically useful here, for it draws attention to theos.

(iv)             In other similar cases, the reference to God in the fullest sense is indisputable: Mark 12:27, Luke 20:38, John 8:54, Rom. 8:33, Phil. 2:13, Heb. 11:16.

(v)               Note also verses 6, 13, 18 of this chapter, in which Theos lacks the article. Nobody would claim a reduced meaning of theos in these verses.

(vi)             Some argue that theos without the article draws attention to the qualities of God rather than his person. But that does not entail a reduced meaning of theos.

(vii)           A very strong argument is needed to prove that the meaning of theos changes from clause two to clause three. That argument has not come forth.

3.      John 1:18

a.      The manuscripts generally thought to be of higher quality read "one and only (or only-begotten) God."

b.      That is also the more difficult reading, which textual scholarship tends to prefer.

c.      Theos on that reading clearly refers to Jesus.

4.      John 20:28

a.      Not an oath-like expression of surprise ("Oh, my God!").

(i)                 Not vocative.

(ii)               Not in line with the context.

b.      In view of 20:31, we expect here a cogent confession of faith by an eyewitness to the Resurrection.

5.      Acts 20:28: the antecedent of he is Jesus.

6.      Rom. 9:5: pausing to offer a doxology to God, or description of Christ as theos?

a.      In a doxology, one would expect praised (eulogetos) to precede God (theos) as in 2 Cor. 1:3, Eph. 1:3, rather than to follow it, as here.

b.      The NIV translation fits the context: Paul speaks of the human ancestry of Christ, then of his divine nature.

c.      It is, of course, unusual for Paul to refer to Christ as theos, since he regularly reserves that word for the Father. But here, in a contrast between Jesus' human and divine natures, the exception is logical.

7.      1 Tim. 3:15-16

a.      The nearest antecedent of he in 16 is God in 15.

b.      But 16 clearly describes the incarnate life of Christ.

8.      2 Thess. 1:12, Tit. 2:13, 2 Pet. 1:1: "our great God and savior," or "the great God and our savior?"

a.      The Granville Sharp rule says that in this grammatical construction, the two predicates refer to the same person.

b.      Appearing (epiphaneia) in Tit. 2:13 refers only to Christ in the NT, never to God the Father.

c.      Similarly with other verses.

9.      Heb. 1:8: the writer clearly believes that God in Psm. 45:6 applies to Jesus.

10.  1 John 5:20: Christ is the antecedent of he, so Christ is "true God" and (as John 14:6 and 17:3) "eternal life."

11. Phil. 2:6

a.      Parallel between "form of God" and "form of a servant" requires us to take "form" as "essential qualities.

b.      So Jesus was fully God, but became really a servant for our sake.

12. Col. 2:9

a.      "Fullness of deity," possible polemic against the Gnostic polytheistic pleroma. Jesus is not one of many deities, but in himself is the entire fulness.

b.      Stronger than merely theos.

13. Why so few of these references?

a.      Remember, there are many other ways of expressing the deity of Christ.

b.      The NT is more interested in redemption than metaphysics. The real excitement is not that God has come in human form, but that he has come to save us. For that, the covenant term Lord is richer than the term God and is every bit as much a divine title.

G.    Other Titles of Christ

1.      Son of Man

a.      The title Jesus uses most often for himself. Others use it of him only in Acts 7:56, Rev. 1:13, 14:14.

b.      In general, a "son of man" is a man (Psm. 8:4-8, 80:17, Ezekiel).

c.      In the Christological use, refers to the glorious being in Dan. 7, who enters the presence of the Ancient of Days and receives worship.

(i)                 In verse 18, there is an identity between the Son of Man and the "saints." They come to possess the kingdom because the Ancient of Days pronounces judgment in their favor (22).

(ii)               In Jesus' use, the Son of Man is not the saints as a group, but an individual who rules both the church and the world.

(iii)             It is equivalent to other Christological titles: Son of God (Matt. 16:13-16), Lord (Matt. 12:8, Mark 2:28), the I AM (John 8:28).

(iv)             It is best to see the Son of Man in Dan. 7 as representative of the saints (as Jesus is the second Adam). It is because of his perfection that God pronounces judgment in favor of the saints. 

(A)  So the Son of Man has power to forgive sins (Mark 2:5-10, Luke 5:20-24, 7:47-49, Acts 5:31).

(B)  He "gathers his elect," Mark 13:27, for he has planted them as good seed on the earth (verse 37).

(C)  "Son of Man" often associated with Jesus' atoning death, (Matt. 8:20, Mark 8:31, 9:12, 31, 10:33, 45, 14:21, 41, John 3:14-15, 8:28), burial (Matt. 12:40), resurrection (Mark 8:31, 9:9, 31, 10:34), return (Matt. 16:27, 24:44, 25:31, 26:64, Mark 8:38, 13:26, 14:62, Luke 19:10, John 6:62), judgment (John 5:27), bringing us back to the picture of the Son of Man coming on the clouds in Dan. 7:13-14.

(v)               The Son of Man, therefore, is human, but not merely human. He has divine powers and prerogatives, rules as Lord over all human beings.

2.      Word, John 1:1-14, Col. 1:15-18, Heb. 1:2-4, Rev. 19:13. See Chap. 22.

3.      Image of God

a.      Applies to Jesus in a higher sense than to other human beings, 2 Cor. 4:4, Col. 1:15-20.

b.      So he is higher than the angels, Heb. 1:3.

4.      Savior

a.      Associated with human deliverers, Judg. 3:9, 15, 6:36, Isa. 19:20.

b.      But also a divine title in the OT, for only God can save us from our worst predicament, Isa. 43:11, 45:15, 21, 47:4, 49:26, etc.

c.      Jesus is savior in the highest sense, Luke 2:11, John 4:42, Acts 5:31, 13:23, Eph. 5:23, etc.

5.      Holy One

a.      Divine title in the OT, 2 Kings 19:22, Psm. 71:22, 89:18-19, often in Isaiah.

b.      In the NT, many (including demons!) bear witness: Mark 1:24, Luke 4:34, Acts 2:27, 13:35 (Psm. 16:10).

c.      Similarly, "righteous one" in Acts 3:14, 7:52, 22:14.

6.      Alpha and Omega, Isa. 44:6, Rev. 1:8, 17-18, 2:8, 21:6, 22:13.

7.      Images of God in XVIII applied to Christ: shepherd, rock, king, judge, bridegroom, lion, light.

H.    Divine Attributes of Jesus

1.      Every divine attribute mentioned in XIX-XXVI belongs to Jesus, and Scripture takes various pains to show us that they belong to Jesus in a way that they belong only to God.

2.      Love, John 15:13-14, Eph. 5:2, 25, 1 John 3:16, Rev. 1:5. Jesus' atonement uniquely defines the love of God.

3.      Compassion, Matt. 9:6, 14:14, etc.

4.      Peace, Isa. 9:6.

5.      Righteousness, Acts 3:14, 7:52, 22:14, James 5:6.

6.      Holiness (above).

7.      Sinless, John 8:46, 2 Cor. 5:21, Heb. 4:15, 7:26, 1 Pet. 1:22, 1 John 3:5.

a.      Even his enemies bear witness, Luke 4:34, 23:4.

b.      Hard to imagine close friends of a man describing him as sinless. In general, Scripture is very realistic about the sins of its major characters.

8.      Truth, John 14:6, 1:14, 1 John 5:20.

9.      Omniscience, John 4:16-19, 29.

a.      Knows the thoughts of people, even their hearts, Matt. 9:4, 12:25, Mark 2:8, Luke 6:8, 9:47, John 1:47, 2:24-25, 21:17, Rev. 2:23.

b.      Knows the future, Matt. 16:21, Mark 8:31, Luke 9:22, Matt. 26:24, John 13:38, 21:18-19, Matt. 8:11.

c.      Knows the Father as the Father knows him, Matt. 11:25-27, Luke 10:22, John 10:15.

10.  Wisdom, 1 Cor. 1:24, 30, Col. 2:3. Jesus does grow in wisdom and knowledge, and even in adulthood confesses ignorance of the time of his return (Mark 13:32). The apparent contradiction between his finite human knowledge and his infinite divine knowledge is difficult to understand, but it is surely similar to the apparent contradiction between his divine omnipotence and his human weakness.

11.  Power, 1 Cor. 1:18, 23-25, Phil. 3:21, Matt. 8:26-27 (Psm. 65:7, 89:9, 107:29).

a.      Jesus works miracles by his own power, not merely by asking the Father to work through him. Matt. 14:19, John 2:1-11.

b.      Authority, Matt. 28:18, Eph. 1:22, Col. 2:10, Rev. 1:18.

c.      Omnipresent, Matt. 18:20, 28:18-20, Eph. 1:21-23.

12.  Eternity, John 1:1, 3:13, etc., 8:58, Rev. 1:8, 11, 18.

13.  Immutability, Heb. 13:8, 1:8, 10, 12 (as Yahweh in Psm. 102).

14.  Glory, Isa. 4:2, John 12:41, 1:14, Luke 13:17, John 2:11, 14:19, 17:24, etc.

a.      The Lord of Glory, 1 Cor. 2:8, cf. James 2:1.

b.      Source of our glorification, Rom. 8:21, Eph. 5:27.

I.        Divine Acts of Jesus

1.      Everything the Father does, John 5:19, therefore what only God can do.

2.      Creator, John 1:1-3, Heb. 1:2-3, Col. 1:15-16, an act of God alone, Isa. 40:26, 44:24, 45:7, 12.

3.      Providence, Heb. 1:3, Col. 1:17. Also the work of God, Psm. 36:6-9, 22:28, 47:2.

4.      Miracles.

5.      Forgives sins, which only God can do (Isa. 43:25, 44:22, Psm. 130:4). Jesus forgives sins even against third parties and God, Mark 2:5-7, Luke 5:21, Acts 7:60, 5:31, 13:38, Col. 3:13.

6.      Final judgment, Matt. 7:21-23, John 5:22, Acts 17:31, 1 Cor. 4:4, 11:32, 1 Thess. 4:6, 2 Thess. 1:8-9, 2 Tim. 4:8, Rev. 2:23, 19:11.

J.      Jesus, Object of Faith and Worship, John 5:23, Matt. 28:9, 17, John 9:35-38, Phil. 2:10, Heb. 1:6

1.      The hymns of Revelation, 5:11-12, 7:10.

2.      Calling on the name, Gen. 4:26, 1 Cor. 1:2, Col. 3:17.

3.      Prayer to Jesus, and to the Father in Jesus' name, Acts 1:24, 7:59-60, 2 Cor. 12:8, John 14:13-14, Rom. 10:12.

4.      Object of faith, John 3:15-16, 6:29, 8:24, 16:9, etc.

a.      To believe in God is to believe in him, vice versa, John 12:44, 14:1.

b.      No other name, Acts 4:12.

c.      Total commitment, Matt. 10:35-37, 16:24-26.

K.     Wells: 30 instances in Paul's writings that identify Christ with Yahweh: as sanctifier, omnipresent, peace, righteousness, Gospel, church, kingdom, etc.

1.      Alpha and Omega, Rev. 1:8, 21:5-7, 22:13.

2.      Both possess the divine throne, Rev. 22:3, and titles, Rev. 1:17, 19:11, 13, 16, 22:12.

L.      Alleged Problem Passages

1.      Prov. 8:22

a.      This is not a Christological passage, and the relationship of wisdom to Christ should not be pressed in detail. Even if wisdom here is a creation, it may, like other created things, serve as a fit title for the uncreated Christ.

b.      The notion that God created his own wisdom is incoherent. Did God create it unwisely?

c.      Qanah here does not mean "create" but "get," as in 4:5, 7, 16:16, 17:16, 19:8, 23:23. God "got" wisdom for his actions as every wise person should.

2.      Mark 10:18: This passage does not deny Jesus' goodness, but actually summons the man to think of Jesus as God.

3.      John 14:28, 1 Cor. 11:3, 15:28.

a.      Jesus utters these words in the "state of humiliation."

b.      Jesus' ascension brings the Kingdom to a greater fullness of power. The Father'' work at this point will be "greater" than Jesus' own, John 14:12.

c.      The Father has a certain primacy in the Godhead, not according to nature, but according to role. He is the "fountain of deity," cf. XXIX, below.

4.      John 17:3: "only true God" is not in contrast with the deity of the Son, but, as common in Scripture, with the claims to deity of the false gods.

5.      1 Cor. 8:6: as elsewhere, Paul uses theos for God the Father and kurios for the Son.

a.      Kurios, as we've seen, is as much a divine title as theos.

b.      Note that both, in this passage, are objects of worship, agents of creation, and authors of the redeemed life.

6.      Col. 1:15-18

a.      Firstborn (prototokos) typically in Scripture refers to status and authority rather than on time of birth. David was "firstborn" though a younger son, Psm. 89:27. Cf. arche in Rev. 3:14, alpha and omega in Rev. 21:6, 22:13.

b.      In this passage, Christ is the creator, not a creature.

M.    The Deity of the Holy Spirit

1.      Triadic texts, Matt. 28:19, Rom. 15:19, 2 Cor. 13:14, Eph. 2:21-22, 4:4-6, Phil. 3:3, Rev. 1:4-5, 2:7. Here, the three are equal partners.

2.      Christ and the Spirit parallel, Acts 9:31, Rom. 15:30, 1 Cor. 6:11, Phil. 2:1, Heb. 10:29, Rev. 2:18, 29.

3.      Old Testament texts dealing with Yahweh, applied to the Spirit

a.      Ex. 25:1, Heb. 9:8

b.      Psm. 95:7-11, Heb. 3:7-11

c.      Isa. 6:9-10, Acts 28:25-28

d.      Isa. 64:4, 1 Cor. 2:9

4.      Spirit is God in Acts 5:3-4.

5.      Blasphemy against the Spirit the most serious form of blasphemy, Mark 3:28-29. In Scripture, blasphemy is always against God.

6.      Divine attributes

a.      Knowledge, wisdom, Isa. 11:2. Omniscient, Isa. 40:13, 1 Cor. 2:10-11.

b.      Grace and love, Rom. 5:5, 15:30, 2 Cor. 6:6, Gal. 5:16-17, Phil. 2:1, Col. 1:8.

c.      Living water, fullness of divine blessing, Luke 11:13, John 4:10, 7:38-39, Rev. 22:1, 17.

d.      Power of God, Judg. 14:6, 1 Sam. 11:6-7, Isa. 11:2, 40:6-7, Mic. 3:8, Luke 1:35, Acts 1:8, 10:38, Rom. 15:13, 19.

e.      Eternal, Heb. 9:14.

f.        Omnipresent, Psm. 139:7-10.

g.      Incomprehensible, Isa. 40:13.

h.     Holy: nearly 100 times in Scripture.

7.      Divine Acts

a.      Creation (therefore he is not a creature), Gen. 1:2, Psm. 33:6, 104:30.

b.      Judge, John 16:8-11.

c.      Giver of life, Gen. 2:7, Job 33:4, Psa. 104:30, John 3:5-8, 6:63, Rom. 8:11, 1 Cor. 15:45, 2 Cor. 3:6.

d.      Makes us aware of our adoption, Rom. 8:15.

e.      Makes us to be washed, sanctified, justified, 1 Cor. 6:11.

f.        Confers gifts on the church, Judg. 3:10, 6:34, 11:29, 1 Cor. 12:6, 11.

g.      The paraclete, the advocate, John 14:16, 26, 15:26, 16:7.

h.     The teacher, revealer, Num. 11:25, 24:2, 1 Sam. 10:10, 18:10, 19:23, 2 Kings 2:9, 2 Chron. 18:23, 24:20, Isa. 61:1, Mic. 3:8, Ezek. 2:2, 2 Tim. 3:16, Matt. 10:20, Luke 12:12, Acts, 1 John 2:27.

N.    Conclusion

1.      The issue is covenant Lordship, the Lordship of the Son and Spirit.

2.      Hence, worship and salvation (Athanasius), which are of the Lord.

 

XXIX. Father, Son, and Spirit

A.     The Distinctness of the Persons

1.      Sabellianism, Modalism

a.      One God, with three masks (prosopa), playing three roles.

b.      The actual divine nature is hidden from us (unbiblical transcendence).

c.      So this position is attractive to speculative thinkers. The orthodox view of the Trinity cannot be reached by human speculation.

2.      But in Scripture, the persons carry out transactions with one another: they send one another, converse, accompany, love, ascend to one another, etc.

B.     The Distinct Personality of the Spirit

1.      Scripture does connect the Spirit closely with God's power, as God's "breath" or "wind."

2.      But God's power is never impersonal. It is always directed by his personal plan, according to his wisdom. The Spirit represents that wisdom, Ex. 28:2, 31:3, 35:31, Luke 1:17, 1 Cor. 2:4, 12:8, Eph. 1:17, etc.

a.      The Spirit has a mind, Rom. 8:27.

b.      Impossible to substitute "power" for "Spirit" in Acts 10:38, Rom. 15:13, 1 Cor. 2:4.

3.      Though the Greek word for Spirit is neuter, NT writers use masculine pronouns to designate the Spirit, indicating the Spirit's personality, John 14:17, 26, 16:14, 1 Cor. 12:11. The pronoun "I" also appears, Acts 10:20, 13:2.

4.      Personal actions: comforting, revealing, inspiring, speaking, witnessing, hearing, sending, knowing, teaching, guiding, striving, interceding.

5.      If he is coordinate with the Father and Son in Matt. 28:19 and 2 Cor. 13:14, he must also be distinct from them, as they are from each other.

6.      2 Cor. 3:17-18: confusion between Christ and the Spirit?

a.      The "Lord" here is primarily Yahweh, from the allusion to Ex. 34:34 in the passage. Paul emphasizes that when we turn to Yahweh, we turn to Spirit, not law.

b.      But he also wants to say that turning to Yahweh is turning to Jesus. So Paul identifies both Jesus and the Spirit are with Yahweh in Ex. 34:34. This is not wrong, for as we have seen, the NT regularly identifies all three Trinitarian persons with Yahweh.

c.      This is confusing for our present purposes, for Paul doesn't indicate clearly that the identity of Christ and the Spirit is an identity of nature rather than personhood. But it is not Paul's purpose here to set forth Trinitarian distinctions in a precise way.

d.      Similarly in 1 Cor. 15:45, Rom. 8:9-11.

e.      The Spirit is "other" in John 14:16.

C.    Circumincessio (circumcessio, perichoresis, coinherence): the mutual indwelling of the persons.

1.      John 10:38, 14:10-11, 20, 17:21, Rom. 8:9, John 14:9, 10:30, 14:18.

2.      All three persons involved in all the "external" works of God: creation, providence, redemption, judgment.

3.      General division of labor: 1 Pet. 1:1-2. The Father foreknows, the Son sprinkles blood, the Spirit sanctifies. But all these require the concurrence of all three persons.

D.    Mutual Glorification

1.      John 8;50, 54, 12:23, 17:1, 7:18, 17:4, 16:14.

2.      Mutual deference, John 5:30, 6:38, 7:18; 3:35, 5:22-23, 26-27, 6:37, etc.

3.      A model of servant leadership, John 6:49-51, 55-56, 10:7-9; 13:1-17, Matt. 20:26-28.

E.     Substance and Persons

 

 

	Greek	Latin	English
One	Ousia, Phusis	Substantia, Essentia	Being, Substance, Essence, Nature
Three	Hypostases Prosopa	Personae	Persons, Subsistences, Modes of subsistence

1.      These terms are not sacrosanct, coming from philosophical, legal, and other sources rather than Scripture. Augustine, Calvin, and others had reservations about this language.

2.      At the same time, we should not reject terminology merely because it is extra-scriptural. The work of theology is to apply, not merely to repeat, Scripture.

3.      Ousia and hypostasis not clearly or consistently distinguished before the Trinitarian use of them.

a.      Even the original form of the Nicene Creed equated them.

b.      The terms could have been used in reverse ways, so far as the actual lexical data are concerned.

4.      But "one substance" sounded Sabellian to the Greeks and "three hypostases" sounded Arian or tritheistic to the Latins.

5.      Substance, Nature, Being, Essence is simply everything God is. The divine nature with all its attributes (Mueller).

6.      Hard to define person.

a.      Originally, mask, role; but that would be Sabellian.

b.      Boethius, "an individual substance of a rational nature." But that identifies person and substance.

c.      Many: a "relation" within God. But this is scarcely intelligible. How can there be relations with nothing to relate?

7.      Simplicity and complexity, as XII.

8.      Important relations between person in the Trinitarian sense and person as an attribute (Chapter II).

a.      In a sense, God is "one person" (Warfield, Van Til), but not the same sense in which he is three.

b.      But it is hard to specify the difference between the two senses.

9.      As his substance is personal, his persons are substantival, each a subject of predication.

a.      "Personal properties" of unbegottenness, begottenness, passive spiration.

b.      Again, hard to define.

F.     Ontological and Economic

1.      Ontological, immanent: The Trinity as it exists necessarily and eternally, apart from creation.

2.      Economic: The Trinity as it relates to creation.

3.      Sabellian and Arianism deny that the Trinity is ontological.

4.      Barth and Rahner insist that ontological and economic are identical.

a.      It is true to emphasize as they do that God reveals himself as he really is.

b.      The incarnate life of Jesus is an aspect of his life as eternal Son of God.

c.      The economic roles must be appropriate to their natures.

d.      But it is too much to deny any distinction. There is a difference between what God is necessarily and what he freely chooses to do in his plan for creation.

G.    Eternal Generation

1.      Jesus was "begotten" or "generated" in the womb of Mary. Is there also an eternal generation by which he is the eternal Son of God? The Nicene Creed answers yes. But what does this mean?

2.      Clearly, in some respects, Jesus' Sonship is different from human sonship, so his begetting would have to be different from human begetting, however analogous.

3.      What, then, is originated by the eternal begetting?

a.      The Son's existence? But he is God, so he has no origin.

b.      His deity? Calvin denied it: "derived deity" is an oxymoron. The Son is autotheos, God in and of himself.

c.      Calvin said that what was derived was his person, his Sonship. But what would that mean?

(i)                 It could be understood to mean that "Fatherhood" and "Sonship" are correlative terms, so that you can't have one without the other. But that would make the relation reversible: ultimately the Son would cause the Father's Fatherhood, as well as vice versa.

(ii)               So evidently Calvin has in mind an event somehow prior to Jesus' Sonship that brings it into being. What could that be?

4.      Biblical considerations

a.      If "begotten" is equivalent to "Son," then there is no problem. But, as we've seen, the theological tradition seems to have something more in mind.

b.      Monogenes: "only-begotten" or "unique?"

(i)                 Etymologically, the issue is between gennao and genos as the root of the term.

(A)  The modern consensus favors the latter, resulting in the translation "unique," but I am not convinced.

(B)  In any case, etymology does not determine meaning.

(ii)               On the question of usage, only-begotten still seems best. John 1:18 makes little sense the other way.

(iii)             On this understanding, monogenes justifies the language of eternal generation, but it tells us little if anything about the nature of that generation.

c.      The economic ought to be appropriate to the ontological, Jesus' human Sonship to his divine Sonship.

(i)                 That is, it is not arbitrary that the second person of the Trinity, rather than the first or the third, became incarnate through earthly generation.

(ii)               "Eternal generation," therefore, could be the name for whatever it is in God that makes this event appropriate.

(iii)             But it still doesn't tell us much about the nature of this generation.

d.      Biblically speaking, it is also important to consider in the same way the Son's eternal obedience and eternal glorification of the Father.

e.      But these should not be the subject of microscopic analysis and rigid enforcement as tests of orthodoxy. They are biblical hints as to the nature of the eternal relationship between Father and Son. Hodge, Dabney, and others wisely caution us here against being too confident.

H.    Eternal Procession: similar questions arise.

1.      We should expect to find a biblical hint about the Spirit, similar to that we found about the Son.

2.      The name spirit (breath) suggests derivation.

3.      John 15:26

a.      The "sending" here is temporal rather than eternal.

b.      But the "proceeding" (ekporeutai) is not the future sending of the Spirit on Pentecost, but something more constant (present tense).

c.      But does this refer to eternal procession, or to the way God regularly sends the Spirit to the world to do his business? I incline toward the latter interpretation.

d.      So the passage does not clearly teach eternal procession.

4.      Nevertheless, one might argue for eternal procession as I earlier did for eternal generation, interpreting it as the "eternal appropriateness" of the temporal procession of the Spirit.

5.      But on this understanding, Scripture gives us little information about the nature of eternal procession. Exhortations to theological modesty are in order.

I.        Filioque

1.      The Nicene Creed in 381 stated that the Spirit proceeded from the Father. But the Synod of Toledo in 589, influenced by the theology of Augustine added that the Spirit also proceeded "from the Son" (filioque). The Eastern churches were unhappy that the Western churches had changed the creed without their compliance. This difference eventually led to the split between east and west in 1054.

2.      John 15:26, if taken as I have, as at best an analogy of eternal procession, favors the western position. For though the Spirit proceeds from the Father, it is Jesus who sends the Spirit to the disciples.

3.      Nevertheless, eastern theology does give a role to Christ. They are willing to say that the Spirit comes through the Son or comes from the Father to rest on Christ; so their view does not discourage a Christ-centered piety, as some westerners charge.

4.      On our analogical basis, phrases like "Spirit of Christ" favor the western view.

5.      But it is dangerous to build doctrines on analogy on alone, or even on a single text.

6.      Recall:

a.      Scripture gives no precise definitions of substance or person.

b.      It gives no precise definition of generation or procession, or of the difference between these.

c.      The best argument for eternal generation and procession is an analogy, rather than specific Bible teaching or a deduction from Scripture.

d.      So theological humility is in order.

J.      Subordination

1.      The church has always denied ontological subordination. The three persons are equal in nature, power, and glory.

2.      There is, however, economic subordination, for in history, the three persons willingly submit to one another and glorify one another.

3.      Some have said that there is a third kind of subordination, that of role.

a.      Eternal, but not a hierarchy of nature.

b.      The Father is "fountain of deity," the first of the three persons.

c.      So it is eternally appropriate that when the Son enters the world, he is subordinate to the Father.

4.      Can one divine person be subordinate to another in this way without compromising the equality of his divine nature? Yes, because servant-leadership (XXIII) is a divine attribute.

5.      Feminists tend to deny this distinction of role, because they want the Trinity to be a model for egalitarian roles between the sexes. "Complementarians," who believe in the primacy of males in marriage and the church, tend to accept the distinction. But perhaps we should not try to make too much of this.

K.     Trinitarian Models

1.      Psychological: the persons are related as aspects of a mind.

a.      Augustine:

(i)                 intellect, memory, will;

(ii)               self-knowledge: unity of knower, known, knowledge;

(iii)             self-love: unity of lover, beloved, love.

b.      Aquinas nearly turns these analogies into a proof of the Trinity, though he disavows such intention.

c.      Barth, Rahner.

d.      Advantage: does most justice to the unity of God.

e.      Problem: doesn't do justice to the interpersonal transactions between the persons as described in the NT.

f.        How does one get sufficient distinction into a psychological model? Multiple personality?

2.      Social: the persons relate to one another somewhat as human persons in society.

a.      The Cappadocians, Richard of St. Victor, many recent theologians.

b.      Advantage: does most justice to the plurality of the persons.

c.      Problem: difficult to avoid tritheism. How may we find sufficient unity in the Godhead on this basis?

d.      Explore greater dimensions of unity between people, e.g., the solidarity of the human race in Adam.

3.      Neither model is perfect; both have advantages and disadvantages.

L.      Trinitarian Analogies, vestigia trinitatis

1.      These are evidences or illustrations of the Trinity in the created world.

2.      Barth denied the possibility of such, and most theologians have said that the Trinity belongs to special, rather than general, revelation.

3.      But I know of nothing in Scripture that rules out vestigia.

4.      The whole world reflects the glory of the Triune God.

5.      The world is one and many, reflecting the Trinity (Van Til).

6.      The odd, but compelling, ubiquity of the number three.

7.      The Lordship attributes and the resulting system of triads.

M.    Philosophical Analogies: Hegel, Van Til, Poythress.

N.    Trinity and the Lordship of God

1.      Worship and salvation were the main issues for Athanasius.

a.      If Christ is not fully divine, we have been worshiping an idol.

b.      If Christ is not fully divine, then we are not saved. Salvation is of the Lord.

2.      The Lordship Attributes

a.      Control

(i)                 To the Arians, if God touched the world directly, his deity would be in jeopardy.

(ii)               So he could only create the world through semi-divine mediators.

(iii)             In biblical Trinitarianism, God has nothing to fear from direct contact with the world.

b.      Authority

(i)                 It is God who defines himself, not human philosophy.

(ii)               If God's love were defined as his relation to the world, he would be relative to the world.

(iii)             But his love is defined by his intra-trinitarian relations, and is therefore a se, utterly divine.

c.      Presence

(i)                 Again, God is directly related to the world, without semi-divine mediators.

(ii)               So the persons of the Trinity enter our history and relate to us in ways analogous to the ways they relate to one another.

d.      So the doctrine of the Trinity is not an incidental addition to the doctrine of God, but is rather the doctrine of God as a whole, seen from an intra-divine vantage point, as God gives us a glimpse of his own inner life.

 

XXX. Does God Exist?

A.     We do need to know who God is before we can ask this question in the most informed way.

B.     God is clearly revealed in creation (Rom. 1).

C.    But if we are to recognize him as Lord, we must investigate the creation on his terms, as he wants us to.

D.    Traditional theistic arguments can be helpful.

E.     But faith comes from the Word and the Spirit.

F.     Scripture reveals a way of thinking that makes God central to everything.

G.    To someone who thinks biblically, the existence of God is obvious. Without him, no rational order, meaning, nothing. Every fact reveals God.

H.    So our study of the Doctrine of God is relevant to belief in his existence.

I.        We come to believe his existence, in the fullest sense, by believing in Christ through the Gospel.