01.10. The Trinity of God.

10. The Trinity of God.

Richer and more vivid still than in its characteristics, the Eternal Being comes to us in the revelation of its triune existence. In the holy trinity, the Divine Being and every perfection in that Being, so to speak, first comes into its own, unfolds its richest content, receives its deepest meaning. Only then do we know who and what God is; only then, above all, do we understand who and what God is for the guilty and lost child of man, when we know and can confess Him as the Triune God of the covenant, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In dealing with ׳ this part of our confession, a holy reverence and a childlike fear should be the mood of our mind more than ever. For Moses it was an awe-inspiring and unforgettable hour, when the Lord appeared to him in the desert, in a flame of fire, out of the midst of the bramble. When Moses saw the blazing fire from afar, which burned but did not consume, and wanted to rush towards it, the Lord stopped him and called out to him: Do not come any closer; take off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy land. And when Moses heard this, he was greatly afraid; he hid his face and feared to look upon the Lord, Exodus 3:1-6.

Such a holy fear is also fitting for us, when God reveals Himself to us in His Word as the Triune One. We must always remember that we are not dealing here with a doctrine about God, with a deductive concept of God, with some philosophical system about God. We are not dealing with a human proposal about God, which we or others have invented, and which we are now trying to dissect in detail and understand logically. But we are dealing with God Himself, the one and true God, who has revealed Himself in His Word, when He speaks of the Trinity. Just as He said to Moses: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, Exodus 3:6, so He also reveals Himself to us in His Word and makes Himself known to us as Father, Son and Spirit. In this sense the Christian church has always accepted and confessed the revelation of God as the Triune. Just look at our Twelve Articles of Faith. The Christian does not say therein that he thinks this way and that about God. He does not give a conception of God, nor does he declare that he believes that God has such and such characteristics and that such and such exists. But he confesses: I believe in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, and in the Holy Spirit; I believe in the Triune God. And with this he expresses that God, the living and true God, God as Father, Son and Spirit, is the God of his trust, to whom he has surrendered himself completely, in whom he trusts with his whole heart; God is the God of his life and of his salvation. As Father, Son and Spirit, God has created him, saved him, sanctified him and glorified him. The Christian owes everything to Him. And it is his joy and consolation that he may believe in that God, trust in Him, expect everything from Him.

What the Christian furthermore confesses about God is not enumerated by him in some abstract terms, but described as a series of deeds, wrought by God from time immemorial and in the present and in the future. These are works, these are miracles, which constitute the Christian’s confession; it is a long, broad, grand history, which he recounts in his confession; a history which comprises the whole world, in its length and breadth, in its beginning and progress and end, in its origin, development and destination; from its creation to the end of the ages. The church’s confession is a proclamation of God’s great works.

All these works are many in number and characterized by great diversity. But they also form a strict unity; they are connected to each other, give each other hands, prepare each other and flow into each other. There is order and progress, development and ascension in them. It goes from creation through redemption to sanctification and glorification. The end point returns to the starting point and is at the same time a pinnacle, which is elevated above the point of beginning. The works of God form a circle that aims upwards in spiral form; they are a connection between the horizontal and the vertical line: they move simultaneously forwards and upwards. Of all these works, God is the artist and the builder, the origin and the final goal; from and through and to Him are all things. He is the Creator and the Rescuer and the Finisher of them all. The unity and diversity in the works of God proceed from and refer to the unity and diversity that exist in the Divine Being. That Being is one and unique and simple; and yet it is at the same time triune in its persons, in its manifestations, in its operations. The whole work of God is one unbroken whole, and yet it contains the richest variety. The church’s confession covers the entire history of the world and includes all moments of creation and fall, of reconciliation and forgiveness, of renewal and restoration. It proceeds from God the triune and leads everything back to Him. That is why the Article of Faith of the Holy Trinity is the heart and core of our confession, the distinguishing mark of the Christian religion, the fame and the consolation of all true Christ-believers.

It has been the subject of battle and of spiritual wrangling throughout the ages. It is the precious jewel entrusted to the Christian church for preservation and defense.

If this confession of the Trinity of God occupies such a central place in the Christian faith, it is important to know on what basis it rests and from what source it has flowed to the church. There are not a few in our time who consider it the fruit of human reasoning and scholastic learning and therefore deem it of no value in religious life. They propose that the original Gospel, as proclaimed by Jesus, knew nothing of this doctrine of the Trinity of God, not only because of the word that later came to be used to designate this article of faith, but also because of the matter that this word sought to express. It was only when the original and simple Gospel of Jesus was brought into contact with Greek philosophy and falsified by it that the Christian church took hold of it. The Christian Church took the person of Christ according to his divine nature and also the Holy Spirit into the divine being, and came to a being, and came to a confession of three distinct persons in the one divine being. But the Christian church itself has always had a different idea about this. It did not see in the doctrine of the Trinity an invention of shrewd theologians, nor the product of Greek philosophy wedded to the Gospel, but a confession which was actually contained in the Gospel and in the whole Word of God, and which the Christian faith derived from the Revelation of God. To the question: Since there is only one divine being, why do you call the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? the Heidelberger Catechism gives this short and conclusive answer: Because God has revealed Himself in His Word, v.25. God’s revelation is the solid ground on which this church confession rests; it is the principle from which this doctrine of the one, holy, universal, Christian church has grown and been built up. God has revealed Himself in this way; and He has revealed Himself in this way, as a triune God, because He exists in this way, and He exists in this way because He has revealed Himself in this way. The Trinity in God’s revelation points back to the Trinity in His existence. This revelation did not happen all at once; it was not brought about and completed in a single moment. But it has had a long historical course, and has extended over centuries. It began at creation, continued after the fall in the promises and acts of salvation to Israel, reached its culmination in the person and work of Christ, in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the founding of the church; and it now stands firm throughout all ages and in the face of all opposition in the indestructible testimony of Scripture and in the rock-solid confession of the church. Because revelation has thus had a long history, the confession of God’s Triune existence has also progressed and developed. God does not change by it and remains eternally the same, but in the progress of revelation He always makes Himself more clearly and wonderfully known to men and angels; with His revelation our knowledge increases. When God begins to reveal Himself in the days of the Old Covenant, then at the outset the unity of God is certainly at the forefront of that revelation. For through the sin of mankind the pure knowledge of God was lost; the truth, according to the profound word of Paul, was suppressed in unrighteousness; even that which is evident of God in His creatures was thwarted by deliberations and darkened by the illumination of the heart; mankind everywhere fell into idolatry and iconoclasm, Romans 1:18-23. That is why the revelation had to begin by putting God’s unity in the foreground. It called out to mankind, as it were: the gods to whom you bow down are not the true God. There is only one true God, namely the God who created the heavens and the earth and all their host in the beginning, Genesis 1:1, Genesis 2:1, who made himself known to Abraham as God the Almighty, Genesis 17:1, Exodus 6:2,’who appeared to Moses as Jehovah, as the I am who I am, Exodus 3:14, and who, of his own free will, is the true God. Genesis 3:14, and who of free favour chose the people of Israel, called them and included them in his covenant, Exodus 19:4. The revelation thus had first of all the content: Jehovah alone is Elohim, the LORD alone is God, there is no other God but He, Deuteronomy 4:35, Deuteronomy 4:29, Deuteronomy 23:3-9, Joshua 22:22, Joshua 23:3-9, Joshua 22:22, 2 Samuel 22:32, 1Ki 18:39, Isaiah 45:5, Isaiah 45:18, Isaiah 45:21 etc.

Also for the people of Israel the revelation of the unity of God was urgently needed. For not only were they surrounded on all sides by Hebrew peoples, who continually tried to seduce them into apostasy and unfaithfulness to the Lord; but even in the Exile a large part of the people felt drawn to pagan idolatry and statuary and fell into it again and again, despite the prohibition of the Law and the warning of the prophets. That is why God Himself emphasized that He, the Lord, who now appeared to Moses and through Moses wanted to redeem His people, was the same God who had made Himself known to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God the Almighty (Exodus 3:6, Exodus 3:15). When He gave His law to Israel, He wrote above it: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and He strictly forbade in the first and second commandment all idolatry and idolatry, Exodus 20:2-5. As the Lord our God is one and only Lord, Israel must love Him with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, Deuteronomy 6:4-5. The Lord alone is Israel’s God, and therefore they may serve Him alone.

Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that the unity of God is so strongly emphasized, and forms, as it were, the first article of Israel’s constitution, with the progress of revelation in the fullness of the divine nature the diversity, in the unity of God the personal self-distinction comes to light. The name with which God is usually referred to in Hebrew already has some significance here. For this name, Elohim, is a plural form, and although it does not indicate the three persons in the divine being, as was often thought in the past, it does indicate, as a so-called intensive plural, the fullness of life and power, which is present in God. Undoubtedly the plural form is also related to this, of which God sometimes makes use when speaking of Himself and through which He makes distinctions in Himself that carry a personal character, Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 3:22, Isaiah 6:8. Of more significance is the doctrine of the Old Testament, that God brings about all things in creation and maintenance by His Word and Spirit. He is not a man who, with great effort, creates something else out of an existing substance; but He brings all things into being out of nothingness, simply by speaking. In the first chapter of Genesis this is depicted in the most exalted manner, and elsewhere it is no less wonderfully expressed and sung -. God speaks and it is there, He commands and it is there, Psalms 33:9. He sends His word and melts the ices, Psalms 147:18. His voice is on the waters, makes the desert tremble, makes the mountains prance like a calf, and bares the forests, Psalms 29:3-10. In this exalted description of God’s works there are two things - firstly, that God is the Almighty, that God alone by speaking brings all things into being, that his word is a commandment, Psalms 33:9, that his voice is with power, Psalms 29:4. But then, secondly, also that God does not accomplish all his works unconsciously and without thought, but with the greatest wisdom. The word that God speaks is power, but it is also the bearer of thought; He made the earth by His power, prepared the world by His wisdom, and expanded the heavens by His understanding, Jeremiah 10:12, Jeremiah 51:15. All his works are made with wisdom, the earth is full of his good works, Psalms 104:24. And that wisdom did not come to God from outside; but it was with Him from eternity, He possessed it as the principle of His way, before His works. And when He created the heavens, traced a circle over the surface of the earth, established the clouds from above, fixed the fountains of the earth, gave the sea its course and laid the foundations of the earth, then wisdom was already there, it was a fodder with Him, daily entertaining Him and always playing before Him, Proverbs 8:22-31, Job 28:20-28. God delighted in wisdom, by which He created the world.

Next to the word and wisdom, the Spirit of God acts as the mediator of creation. Just as God is Wisdom and at the same time has Wisdom, so that He can communicate it and show it off in His works; so He Himself is in His essence the Spirit, Deuteronomy 4:12, Deuteronomy 4:15, and has the Spirit, through which He can dwell in the world and be present in it at all times, Psalms 139:7. Without anyone having been his counsel, the Lord has produced everything by his own Spirit, Isaiah 40:13 f. That Spirit hovered over the waters at the beginning, Genesis 1:2, and remains active in all created things. By that Spirit God adorns the heavens, Job 26:13, renews the face of the earth, Psalms 104:30, makes man alive, Job 33:4, maintains the breath in his nostrils, Job 27:3, gives him understanding and wisdom, Job 32:8, and also makes the grass wither and the flower fall off, Isaiah 40:7. In a word: by the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their host, Psalms 33:6. This self-distinction of God is even more richly expressed in the works of re-creation. Then it is not Elohim, but Jehovah, not God in general, but the Lord, the God of the covenant, who reveals Himself and makes Himself known in miracles of redemption and salvation; as such He does not save and lead His people solely by the word that He speaks to them or has them speak to Him, but He also sends them the Angel of the covenant (the Angel of the Lord), who already appeared in the history of the patriarchs, with Hagar, Genesis 16:6 ff, Abraham, Genesis 18:1-33 ff, and the Holy Spirit. Abraham, Genesis 18:1-33 ff, and Jacob, Genesis 28:1-22/Genesis 13:1-18 ff, but especially in the deliverance of Israel from the house of Egypt He reveals His grace and power, Exodus 3:2, Exodus 13:21, Exodus 14:19, Exodus 23:20-23, Exodus 32:34, Exodus 33:2, Numbers 20:16. This Angel of the Lord is not on a par with the created angels, but’ is a special revelation and appearance of God. On the one hand he is clearly distinguished from God, who speaks of him as his angel, and on the other hand he is one with God himself in name, in power, in salvation and blessing, in worship and honor. He is called the God of appearance, Genesis 16:13, the God of Bethel, Genesis 31:13, alternates with God or the Lord Himself, Genesis 32:28, Genesis 32:30, Exodus 3:2, Exodus 3:4, carries the name of the Lord in his heart, Exodus 23:21, delivers Israel from all evil, Genesis 48:16, rescues Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, Exodus 3:8, cleaves the waters from the earth, and is the God of the Lord. Exodus 3:8, cleaves the waters and dries up the sea, Exodus 14:21, guards the people of God on the way, brings them safely to Canaan, makes them triumph over their enemies, Exodus 3:8, Exodus 23:20, must be obeyed completely as God Himself, Exodus 23:20, and always keeps himself in order around those who fear the Lord, Psalms 34:8, Psalms 35:5. And just as Jehovah, in the re-creation, carries out his redeeming work through the Angel of the Covenant, so, through his Spirit, he dispenses all kinds of gifts and powers to his people. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God is the source of all life, salvation and ability. He gives courage and strength to the judges, Othniel, Richt. 3 :10, Gideon, Richt. 6 : 34, Jephta, Richt. 11 :29, Samson, Richt. 14:6, 15:14; skill to those who fashioned the garments of the priests, and the tabernacle and temple, Exodus 28:3, Exodus 31:3-5, Exodus 35:31-35, 1 Chronicles 28:12; understanding and wisdom to the judges who, with Moses, bore the burden of the people, Numbers 11:17, Numbers 11:25; the gift of prophecy to the prophets, Numbers 11:25, Numbers 11:29, Numbers 24:2-3, Micah 3:8, etc.; and the gift of the Holy Spirit to the righteous, renewal and sanctification and guidance to all God’s children, Psalms 51:13, Psalms 143:10. In a word: the Word, the promise, the covenant, which the Lord made with Israel at the exodus from Egypt, and the Spirit, which He gave to Israel, existed throughout all ages and still existed after the Exile in the days of Zerubbabel in the midst of the people, so that they did not need to fear, Haggai 2:5-6. When the Lord brought Israel out of the land of Egypt, then He became to him a He-land. And this disposition of God towards His people was manifested in the fact that in all their distress He Himself was distressed (the suffering of his people as his own suffering); that he therefore He sent them the angel of His face to save them; that He redeemed them by His own hand.

He redeemed them by His love and mercy, and took them up and carried them throughout all the days of old; and that He also gave them the Spirit of His holiness to guide them in the ways of the Lord, Isaiah 63:9-12. The Lord in the days of the Old Covenant the Lord, through the High Priest, laid His threefold blessing upon the people of Israel, the blessing of the guardianship, of mercy and of the peace of the Lord, Numbers 6:24-26.

Thus already in the history of God’s leadership with Israel, and more and more clearly, the threefold distinction in the divine nature and works comes to the fore. But the Old Testament also contains the promise that a higher and richer revelation will follow in the future. Israel rejected the Word of God and blasphemed His Holy Spirit, Isaiah 63:10, Psalms 119:130. The revelation of God in the Angel of the Covenant and in the Spirit of the Lord proved to be insufficient; if God wanted to confirm His covenant and fulfil His promise, another, higher revelation was needed. And this was announced by the prophets. In the future, in the last days, the Lord will raise up from among Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord will put into his mouth, Deuteronomy 18:18; a priest, who shall be a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchizedek, Psalms 110:4; a king, of the house of David, 2 Samuel 7:12-16; a child of the hewn tree of Isai, Isaiah 11:1; a son, who shall reign as king and shall do justice in the earth, Isaiah 23:5. He will be a human being, the son of a woman, Jeremiah 7:14, without form or glory, Isaiah 53:2 f.; but at the same time he will be Immanuel, Isaiah 7:14, the Lord our righteousness, Isaiah 33:16, the Angel of the covenant, Malachi 3:1, the Lord Himself, who appears to His people, Psalms 45:8, Psalms 110:1, Hosea 1:7, Malachi 3:1, bearing the name of Wonderful, Counselor, Strong God, Father of eternity, Prince of Peace, Isaiah 9:5. And this appearance of the servant of the Lord will be followed by a richer dispensation of the Holy Spirit. In an extraordinary measure this Spirit, as the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, of counsel and of strength, of the knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, will rest upon the Messiah, Isaiah 11:2, Isaiah 42:1, Isaiah 61:1; but then, moreover, it will be poured out upon all flesh, upon your sons and daughters, your old and young people, your servants and maids, Joel 2:28-29, Isaiah 32:15, Isaiah 44:3, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Zechariah 2:10, and He will give all a new heart and a new spirit, that they may walk in His statutes and keep and do His rights, Ezekiel 11:19-20, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Jeremiah 32:38-41.

Thus the Old Testament itself indicates that the full revelation of God will be in the revelation of His triune nature. This promise and prediction is fulfilled in the New Testament. Here, too, the unity of God is the starting point of all revelation, John 17:3, 1 Corinthians 8:4, 1 Timothy 2:5. But out of this unity the diversity in the divine nature now emerges much more clearly; first of all in the great salvific events of the conception of the flesh, the fulfilment and the outpouring, and then also in the teaching of Jesus and his Apostles. The work of salvation is one whole, a work of God from beginning to end. But it still has three main moments: election, forgiveness, and renewal, and in these it points back to a threefold cause in the divine nature, to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The conception of Christ already shows us a threefold activity of God. While the Father gives the Son to the world, John 3:16, and the Son Himself descends from heaven, John 6:38, He is received in Mary by the Holy Spirit, Matthew 1:20, Luke 1:35. At His baptism Jesus is anointed with the Holy Spirit and openly declared by the Father to be His beloved Son, in whom He has all His good pleasure, Matthew 3:16-17, Matthew 12:28. The resurrection is a resurrection by the Father, Acts 2:24, and at the same time Jesus’ own act, through which He is powerfully proved to be the Son of God according to the Spirit of sanctification, Romans 1:3. And after his resurrection he ascended into heaven on the fortieth day in the Spirit which quickened him, and made himself subject to the angels, powers and forces, 1 Peter 3:19, 1 Peter 3:22. The teaching of Jesus and the Apostles is consistent with this.

Jesus came to earth to declare the Father and to make His name known to mankind, John 1:18, John 17:6. The Father’s name for God as Creator of all things was also used by pagans and has support in this sense in Scripture, Luke 3:38, Acts 17:28, Ephesians 3:15, Hebrews 12:9. Moreover, the Old Testament repeatedly refers to God as Father in His (theocratic) relationship with Israel, because He created and preserved it by His wonderful power, Deuteronomy 32:6, Isaiah 63:16. But in the New Testament a new, glorious light is shed on this Father Name of God. Jesus always makes an essential distinction between the relationship between Himself and others, the Jews or the disciples, to the Father. When, for example, He puts the Lord’s Prayer on the lips of His disciples at their request, He says explicitly: when you pray, speak thus, Luke 11:2; and when, after the Resurrection, He announces His imminent ascension to Mary Magdalene, He says: I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God, John 20:17. He knows and loves the Son in such a way and to such an extent that only the Son knows and loves the Father, Matthew 11:27, Mark. With the Apostles God is therefore always called in a special sense the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1:3. This relationship between Father and Son (Christ) did not begin in time, but is eternal, John 1:1, John 1:14, John 17:24. God is therefore Father in the first place, because He is Father to the Son in a completely unique sense; this fatherhood is His original, special, personal quality. In a derived sense, God is also called Father of all creatures, because He is their Creator and Sustainer, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Ephesians 3:15, Hebrews 12:9, of Israel, because it is the work of His hands through election and calling, Deuteronomy 32:6, Isaiah 64:8, and of the church and all believers, because the love of the Father for the Son passes to them through Christ, John 16:27, John 17:25, and they are adopted as His children and born of Him by the Spirit, John 1:12, Romans 8:15.

Thus the Father is always the Father, the first person from whom the initiative emanates in the essence of God, in the counsel of God, and in all outward works, in creation and maintenance, redemption and sanctification. He gave the Son to have life in himself, John 5:26, and makes the Spirit proceed from him, John 15:26. His is the intention, the election and the good pleasure, Matthew 11:26, Ephesians 1:4, Ephesians 1:9, Ephesians 1:11. In a special sense He has power and strength and glory, Matthew 6:13.

He especially bears the name of God, in distinction to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 8:6, 2 Corinthians 13:13. Yes, Christ Himself as Mediator calls Him not only His Father, but also His God, Matthew 27:46, John 20:17, and is Himself called the Christ of God, Luke 9:20, 1 Corinthians 3:23, Revelation 12:10. In a word, the first person in the Divine Being is the Father, because from Him are all things, 1 Corinthians 8:6.

If God is Father, this implies that there is also a Son, who received life from Him and shares in His love. Now the name of son of God was already in the Old Testament for the angels, Job. 38 : 7, for the people of Israel, Deuteronomy 1:31, Deuteronomy 8:5, Deuteronomy 14:1, Deuteronomy 32:6, Deuteronomy 32:18, Hosea 11:1, and especially also for the theocratic king, 2 Samuel 7:11-14, Psalms 2:7, in use. But in the New Testament this name acquires a much deeper meaning. For Christ is Son of God in a completely unique sense; He is exalted above angels and prophets, Matthew 13:32, Matthew 21:27, Matthew 22:2, and He Himself says that no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, Matthew 11:27. In distinction to angels and men He is the own Son, Romans 8:32, the beloved Son, in whom the Father is well pleased, Matthew 3:17, the one-born Son, John 1:18, whom the Father gave to have life in Himself, John 5:26. This wholly unique relationship between Father and Son did not arise in time, through the supernatural reception from the Holy Spirit, or through the anointing at baptism, or through the resurrection and ascension, as many have claimed, but it exists from all eternity. After all, the Son, who assumed human nature in Christ, existed as the Word in the beginning with God, John 1:1, was then already in the form of God, Php 2:6, richly and gloriously clothed, John 17:5, John 17:24, the reflection of God’s glory and the expressed image of his independence, Hebrews 1:3, and therefore in the fullness of time could he be sent, given, brought into the world, John 3:16, Galatians 4:4, Hebrews 1:6. Hence also creation, John 1:3, Colossians 1:15, and maintenance, Hebrews 1:3, and the acquisition of all salvation, 1 Corinthians 1:30, are ascribed to Him. He is not, as the creatures, made or created, but is the first-born of all creatures, that is, the Son, who has the preeminence and the rights of the first-born over all creatures, Colossians 1:15. Just as He is the firstborn from the dead, the firstborn among many brothers, and therefore the first among all and in all, Romans 8:29, Colossians 1:18. Although, therefore, in the fullness of time He took on the form of a servant, He was nevertheless in the form of God; and He is in all things like unto God the Father, Php 2:6, in life, John 5:26, in knowledge, Matthew 11:27, in power, John 1:3, John 5:21, John 5:26, in honor, John 5:23. He himself is God, above all things to be praised for ever, John 1:1, John 20:28, Romans 9:5, Hebrews 1:8-9. As all things are of the Father, so are they all through the Son, 1 Corinthians 8:6.

Both, Father and Son, are united and joined together in the Holy Spirit, and through him dwell in all creatures. God is Spirit according to his nature, John 4:24, and also holy, Isaiah 6:3; but the Holy Spirit is clearly distinguished from God as Spirit. Just as man, according to his invisible side, is spirit and also has a spirit by which he knows himself, so God himself is Spirit according to his being and also has a Spirit who explores the depths of that being, 1 Corinthians 2:11. As such it is called the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit, Psalms 51:13, Isaiah 63:10-11, in distinction to the spirit of an angel or a human being or any other creature. But although separated from God, from the Father and the Son, He nevertheless has the most intimate fellowship with both. He is called the breath of the Almighty, Job 33:4, the Spirit of His mouth, Psalms 33:6, is sent by the Father and the Son, John 14:26, John 15:26, and proceeds from both; not only from the Father, John 15:26, but also from the Son, for He is called the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of the Son as well as the Spirit of the Father, Romans 8:9.

Because the Holy Spirit is given or sent, poured out or tortured out of the Father and the Son in this way, He is often seen as a power or a gift which equips people for their calling and ministry; thus, for example, the Holy Spirit in Acts 8:15, Acts 10:44, Acts 11:15, Acts 19:2, comes to mind as the gift of glossolalia or prophecy. But many people wrongly deduce from this that the Holy Spirit is nothing but a gift or power of God. Because elsewhere He clearly appears as a person, who bears personal names, has personal qualities and does personal works. Thus in John 15:26 and John 16:13-14, although the Greek word for Spirit is neuter, Christ uses a masculine pronoun: He will testify of me and glorify me; and in the same place he also calls him by the name of Comforter and other Comforter, that is, the same name that is used for Christ in 1 John 2:1 and which has been translated in Dutch as Voorspraak.

Besides these personal names, all kinds of personal characteristics are also attributed to the Holy Spirit, such as selfhood, Acts 13:2, self-consciousness, Acts 15:28, self-determination or will, 1 Corinthians 12:11, and all kinds of personal activities, such as investigating, 1 Corinthians 2:11, hearing, John 16:13, speaking, Revelation 2:7, teaching, John 14:26, praying, Romans 8:27, etc. While all this is most clearly and magnificently expressed in the fact that He is placed on the same level with the Father and the Son, who are undoubtedly persons, Matthew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:13.

This, however, already contains more, and points to the fact that the Holy Spirit is not only a person, but also truly God. And also in this respect the Scriptures offer all those data which are necessary for this important confession. One only has to note that, in spite of the above-mentioned distinction between God and his Spirit, the two are constantly alternating in Scripture, so that it is absolutely the same whether God or his Spirit says or does something. In Acts 5:3-4 lying to the Spirit is called lying to God; in 1 Corinthians 3:16 the believers are called the Temple of God, because the Spirit of God dwells in them. In addition, various divine attributes, such as eternity, Hebrews 9:14, omnipresence, Psalms 139:7, omniscience, 1 Corinthians 2:11, omnipotence, 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, and also various divine works in creation, Psalms 33:6, maintenance, Psalms 104:30, and re-creation, John 3:3, are attributed to the Holy Spirit as much as to the Father and the Son. And with them He shares the same honour; He occupies a place next to the Father and the Son as the cause of salvation, 2 Corinthians 13:13, Revelation 1:4. In His name we are baptized, Matthew 28:19, and blessed, 2 Corinthians 13:13. And blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is even an unforgivable sin, Matthew 12:31-32. While all things are of the Father and through the Son, they all exist and rest in the Holy Spirit.

All these elements of the doctrine of Trinity, which are spread throughout Scripture, are summarized by Jesus in his baptismal commission and by the Apostles in their benediction. After his Resurrection and before his Ascension, Christ commands his Apostles to go and make disciples of all nations and to baptize them in the one name, in which, nevertheless, three different subjects have been revealed. Father, Son and Spirit are in their unity and distinction the complete revelation of God. And likewise, according to the Apostles, all salvation and blessedness for mankind lies in the love of the Father, the grace of the Son and the communion of the Holy Spirit, 2 Corinthians 13:13, 1 Peter 1:2, 1 John 5:4-6, Revelation 1:4-6. The pleasure, foreknowledge, power, love, kingdom and strength is the Fathers. The Mediatorship, the atonement, the grace, the redemption is the Son. The regeneration, the renewal, the sanctification, the communion is of the Spirit. The relationship of Christ to the Father is fully matched by the relationship of the Holy Spirit to Christ. Just as the Son speaks and does nothing of himself, but receives everything from the Father (John 5:26, John 16:15, so the Holy Spirit receives everything from Christ, John 16:13-14. As the Son testifies of the Father and glorifies the Father, John 1:18; John 17:4, John 17:6, so the Holy Spirit testifies of the Son and glorifies Him, John 15:26, John 16:14. Just as no one comes to the Father except through the Son, John 14:6, so no one can say that Jesus is Lord except through the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:3. Through the Spirit we have fellowship with the Father and the Son Himself. In the Holy Spirit, God Himself dwells in our hearts through Christ. If all this is so, then the Holy Spirit with the Son and the Father is the only true God, eternally to be praised. The Christian church has said yes and amen to this teaching of Scripture in her confession of the Trinity of God. It has not come to this rich and glorious confession without a long and fearful spiritual struggle. For centuries, the deepest experience of the spiritual life of God’s children and the boldest thinking of the Church’s fathers and teachers have been working hard to fully understand the revelation of the Holy Scriptures on this point and to reproduce it purely in the confession. And the church would undoubtedly not have succeeded in this fundamental work, nor would it have achieved any good results, if it had not been led by the Holy Spirit into the truth, and had not received in Tertullian and Irenaeus, Athanasius and the three Cappadocian monks, Augustine and Hilarius and so many others those men who, equipped with extraordinary gifts of Godliness and wisdom, had directed their steps along the pure path.

Nothing less than the very essence of Christianity was at stake in this battle of minds. And from two sides the congregation was exposed to the danger of being torn away from the solid foundation upon which it had been built and of itself being swallowed up by the world. On the one side was the direction of Arianism, so named after an Alexandrian presbyter Arius, who died in 336. He held the Father to be the only true and eternal God, because in the full sense He was unregenerate; but with regard to the Son, the Logos, who had become flesh in Christ, he taught that, because He had been generated, He could not be God, but was a creature, who, although before all other creatures, was like them brought forth from nothing and by the will of God; likewise with regard to the Holy Spirit, He was thought to be a creature, or only a power or gift of God. On the other side was the party of Sabellianism, thus named after a certain Sabellius, who lived in Rome at the beginning of the third century. He considered the Father, Son and Spirit to be three names of one and the same God, who, as his revelation progressed, had successively made himself known in various forms and guises( 1 ). In the form of the Father, God first worked as Creator and Lawgiver; then He worked in the form of the Son as Redeemer, and now He works in the form of the Holy Spirit as the Redeemer of the church.

While Arianism seeks to maintain the unity of God by placing the Son and the Spirit outside the Divine Being and reducing them to mere creatures, Sabellianism seeks to achieve the same goal by robbing the three persons of their independence and transforming them into three successive manifestations of the same Divine Being. In the first direction, the Jewish, deistic, rationalistic way of thinking is expressed; in the second direction, the ideas of Pagan pantheism (algodism) and mysticism are expressed. As soon as the church began to consider with some clarity the truth which later was laid down in the profession of the Trinity, these directions emerged on the left and right of it, and they continue to accompany it to this day. The congregation and each of its members must always be on the alert, on the one hand not to give short shrift to the one essence of God, and on the other hand not to the three persons in that divine essence. Neither unity nor diversity should be sacrificed to unity. To maintain both in their indissoluble connection and in their pure relationship, not only theologically in thought but also practically in life, is the vocation of all believers. In order to meet this calling, the Christian Church and theologians have begun to make use of various words and expressions which do not occur literally in Scripture. They have begun to speak of the one essence of God, and of three persons or modes of functioning in that essence; of trinity and triplicity; of essential and personal characteristics; of the eternal generation of the Son and of the descent of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son, etc.

There is no reason why the Church and theology should not use such words and expressions. For the Holy Scriptures were not given by God to the congregation simply to imitate them, but to experience them in all their fullness and richness, to absorb them into our consciousness and reproduce them in our own language, so that we may proclaim the great works of God. Moreover, such terms and expressions are necessary to maintain the truth of Scripture against its opponents and to safeguard it against all misunderstanding and error. History has shown throughout the centuries that lightly rejecting and dismissing these names and ways of speaking leads to various deviations in the confession.

Yet on the other hand, when using these names, we must always remember that they are of human origin, limited, imperfect, fallible. The Fathers of the Church have always recognized this; they said, for example, of the word persons, by means of which the three modes of existence in the Divine Being are indicated, that this word did not express the matter in an equivalent way but served as an auxiliary to maintain the truth and to cut off error. This word was chosen, not because it was correct in all respects, but because no other and better one could be found. So here again the word remains far behind the thought, and the thought again far behind the matter. Although we cannot keep the matter except in its imperfect form, we must never forget that it is not the word that matters in the first place, but the matter. In the dispensation of glory other and better names will certainly be put on our lips. The matter itself, what the confession of the holy trinity is about, is of the greatest importance, for mind and heart both. For by that confession the congregation upholds in the first place both the unity and the diversity of the essence of God. The Divine Being is one; there is only one Being, who is God and who may be called God. In creation and re-creation, in nature and grace, in church and world, in state and society, everywhere and always we have to do with the one, identical, living, true God. The unity of the world, the unity of humanity, the unity of truth, of virtue, of justice and of beauty, depends on the unity of God. As soon as this unity of God is denied or weakened, the door is open to polytheism. But this unity of God, according to the revelation of Scripture and the experience of the congregation, is not a subtle, empty unity, but a fullness of life and power. It includes diversity. And this diversity is expressed in the three persons or modes of existence of the Divine Being. These three persons are not merely forms of manifestation, but modes of existence in the Being of God. Father, Son and Spirit share the same divine nature and attributes; they are one being. But they each have their own name; they each have a special quality which distinguishes them from one another: the Father alone is the father, the Son the generation, and the Holy Spirit the output of both. The order of the three persons in all divine works corresponds to this order of existence in the Divine Being. It is the Father, from whom; it is the Son, through whom; and it is the Spirit, in whom all things are. From the Father, through the Son and the Spirit, all things originate in creation and re-creation; and in the Spirit and through the Son, they all return to Him. So we thank the Father especially for His electing love; the Son for His redeeming grace; the Holy Spirit for His regenerating and renewing power.

Secondly, with this confession the congregation is strongly opposed to the errors of deism (belief in one God without revelation), pantheism (idolatry), Judaism and paganism. There is always a twofold tendency in the human heart: a tendency to think of God as being far away and to detach oneself from God with the whole world, and also a tendency to draw God into the world, to identify Himself with the world and thus to deify oneself with the world. If the first tendency dominates in us, we are led to believe that in nature, in our profession, in our business, in our science, in our art or in the work of salvation, we can spare God and save ourselves. If, on the other hand, the second inclination is the strongest in our hearts, we change the glory of God into the image of some creature, we deify the world, the sun, the moon and the stars, or art, science and the state, and in the creature, in the creation of ourselves, we often pray for our own greatness. There God is only from afar, here only close by. There He is above, outside, separate from the world; here He is alone inside and united with the world. But the church confesses both: God is above the world, distinct from it in essence, and yet with his whole being in it at the present time and nowhere, in no point of space and for no moment of time separated from it. He is both distant and near; highly exalted and at the same time deeply ingrained in all His creatures. He is our Creator, who, distinct from his being, brought us forth by his will. He is our Redeemer, who saves us, not by our works, but by the riches of His grace. He is our Sanctifier, who dwells in us as in His temple. As a triune God He is a God above, and for and in us.

Finally, thirdly, this confession of the congregation is also of the utmost importance for the spiritual life. It is sometimes claimed, quite wrongly, that the doctrine of the Trinity is only a philosophically derived dogma and has no value for religion or life. The Dutch Confession of Faith saw it quite differently; it expressed it in Article IX: that God is one in Being and three in persons, all this we know, as well as from the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures, as from their effects, and especially from the one we feel in ourselves. It is true that we do not ground our belief in the Trinity on feeling and experience; but if we believe it, we perceive that it is closely related to the spiritual experience of God’s children. For believers learn to know within themselves the workings of the Father, the Creator of all things, who also gave them life and breath and all things. They come to know Him as the Lawgiver, who gave His holy commandments so that they might walk in them. They came to know Him as the Judge, who takes terrible pleasure in all the iniquity of mankind and never holds the guilty guiltless. And finally they get to know Him as the Father, who for Christ’s sake is their God and their Father, in Whom they trust in such a way that they do not doubt that He will take care of all their bodily and soully needs, and also turn all the evil that He grants them in this vale of woe to their best advantage; because He can do this as an all-powerful God and also wants to do this as a faithful Father. And so they confess: I believe in God, the Father, the Almighty, Creator of the heavens and the earth.

Thus they also learn to know within themselves the workings of the Son, who is the only begotten of the Father and who was received in Mary by the Holy Spirit. They are learning to know Him as their highest Prophet and Teacher, who has completely revealed to them God’s hidden counsel and will for their salvation. They have come to know him as their only High Priest, who redeemed them with the only sacrifice of his body and who always intercedes for them with his intercession with the Father. They get to know Him as their eternal King, who rules them with His Word and Spirit and protects and preserves them in their acquired redemption. And so they confess: I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, our Lord.

They also get to know the workings of the Holy Spirit, who resurrects them and leads them into all truth. They are learning to know Him as the Employer of their faith, who through that faith makes them partakers of Christ and all His benefits. They come to know him as the Comforter, who prays in them with unspeakable sighs and testifies with their spirit that they are the children of God. They get to know Him as the pledge of their eternal inheritance, which keeps them safe until the day of redemption. And they confess: I also believe in the Holy Spirit.

Thus the confession of the Trinity is the core and the main element of the entire Christian religion. Without it, neither creation, nor redemption, nor sanctification can be purely maintained.

Any deviation in this confession leads to an error in the other doctrines, just as, conversely, any misrepresentation of these articles of faith leads to a misunderstanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. We can then only proclaim God’s great works truthfully, when we acknowledge and confess them as the one great work of the Father, Son and Spirit. In the love of the Father, the grace of the Son and the communion of the Holy Spirit lie all the salvation and blessedness of mankind.