Basic Theology (8)
The Triunity Of God
Chapter 8
THE TRIUNITY OF GOD
Trinity is, of course, not a biblical word. Neither are triunity, trine, trinal, subsistence, nor essence. Yet we employ them, and often helpfully, in trying to express this doctrine that is so fraught with difficulties. Furthermore, this is a doctrine that is not explicit in the New Testament even though it is often said that it is implicit in the Old and explicit in the New. But explicit means “characterized by full, clear expression,” an adjective hard to apply to this doctrine. Nevertheless, the doctrine grows out of the Scriptures, so it is a biblical teaching.
I. THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
Unquestionably the Old Testament emphasizes the unity of God. However, there are clear suggestions that there are persons in the Godhead. Therefore, one might say that the Old Testament contains intimations that allow for the later revelation of the triunity of God. What are these intimations?
A. The Unity of God
The celebrated Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4, which became Judaism’s basic confession of faith, teaches the unity of God. It may be translated “The Lord our God is one Lord,” or “The Lord our God, the Lord is One,” or “The Lord is our God, the Lord is One,” or “the Lord is our God, the Lord alone.” This last translation stresses the uniqueness of God more than unity, but it implies oneness by ruling out polytheism. Other passages like Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 4:35; 32:29; Isaiah 45:14; and 46:9 insist on Israel’s loyalty to the one God.
B. Plural Words
We have already suggested that the plural name for God, Elohim, denotes God’s unlimited greatness and supremacy. To conclude plurality of persons from the name itself is dubious. However, when God speaks of Himself with plural pronouns (Gen. 1:26; 3:22; 11:7; Isa. 6:8) and plural verbs (Gen. 1:26; 11:7), it does seem to indicate distinctions of persons, though only plurality, not specifically Trinity.
C. The Angel of Yahweh
Though this designation may refer to any of God’s angels (1 Kings 19:7; cf. v. 5), sometimes that Angel is referred to as God, yet distinguished from Him (Gen. 16:7–13; 18:1–21; 19:1–28; Mal. 3:1). This points to personal distinctions within the Godhead. Since the Angel is called God, He could hardly be only a prophet, functioning in pre-prophetic times as the prophets did in later times (as Edmond Jacob suggests in Theology of the Old Testament).
D. Distinction of Persons
Some passages apparently distinguish persons within the Godhead.
1. The Lord is distinguished from the Lord (Gen. 19:24; Hos. 1:7).
2. The Redeemer (who must be divine) is distinguished from the Lord (Isa. 59:20).
3. The Spirit is distinguished from the Lord (Isa. 48:16; 59:21; 63:9–10). In these verses the Spirit is personal and active.
E. The Wisdom of God (?)
Many theologies (Berkhof, Payne, Thiessen) see the personification of wisdom in Proverbs 8:12–31 as referring to Christ and thus an Old Testament indication of the existence of the Trinity. However, it seems better to understand the passage not as an adumbration of Christ but as describing the eternal character of wisdom as an attribute of God.
How shall we evaluate the Old Testament contribution to this doctrine? Berkhof concludes that there is “clear anticipation” of the fuller revelation in the New Testament, but its use of the word “clear” may push this into an overstatement. More accurate is Payne’s conclusion that the Old Testament contains “genuine suggestions of the Persons that make up the Godhead.”4 We might also put it this way: the doctrine exists only in seminal form in the Old Testament. It is questionable whether, without the flowering of the doctrine in the New Testament, we would know solely from the Old Testament what those seeds were.
II. THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
Though the New Testament contains no explicit statement of the doctrine of the triunity of God (since “these three are one” in 1 John 5:7 is apparently not a part of the genuine text of Scripture), it does contain a great deal of evidence. That evidence lies along two paths: One insists that there is only one true God, and the other presents a Man Jesus and the Holy Spirit who both claim to be God. To emphasize the oneness while disregarding the threeness ends in unitarianism. To emphasize the threeness while disregarding the oneness leads to tritheism (as in Mormonism). To accept both leads to the doctrine of the triunity of God.
A. Evidence for Oneness
Like the Old, the New Testament also insists that there is only one true God. Passages like 1 Corinthians 8:4–6; Ephesians 4:3–6; and James 2:19 are clear.
B. Evidence for Threeness
1. The Father is recognized as God. No debate exists here, and a number of passages teach this (John 6:27; 1 Pet. 1:2).
2. Jesus Christ is recognized as God. He Himself claimed attributes that only God possesses, like omniscience (Matt. 9:4), omnipotence (28:18), omnipresence (v. 20). He did things that only God can do (and the people of His day acknowledged this, though sometimes reluctantly), like forgiving sins (Mark 2:1–12) and raising the dead (John 12:9). Further, the New Testament assigns other works that only God can perform to Christ, like upholding all things (Col. 1:17), creation (John 1:3), and future judging of all (5:27).
The last phrase of John 1:1 correlates true and full deity with the Word (Christ). The phrase is best translated “the Word was God.” Consistent exegesis forbids the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ translation “the Word was a god.” The word “God” does not have an article, and if it is to be understood as indefinite (“a god”) this would be the only time in John’s Gospel that this form was used, making it highly improbable on grammatical grounds that it is indefinite here. John could not have chosen a more precise way of expressing the truths that the Word was God and yet was distinct from the Father.
3. The Holy Spirit is recognized as God. He is called God (Acts 5:3–4), He possesses attributes that only God has, like omniscience (1 Cor. 2:10) and omnipresence (6:19), and He regenerates people (John 3:5–6, 8), an exclusive work of God.
C. Evidence for Triunity
Matthew 28:19 best states both the oneness and threeness by associating equally the three Persons and uniting them in one singular name. Other passages like Matthew 3:16–17 and 2 Corinthians 13:14 associate equally the three persons but do not contain the strong emphasis on unity as does Matthew 28:19.
III. SOME CONSIDERATIONS FOR A DEFINITION
A definition of the Trinity is not easy to construct. Some are done by stating several propositions. Others err on the side either of oneness or threeness. One of the best is Warfield’s: “There is one only and true God, but in the unity of the Godhead there are three coeternal and coequal Persons, the same in substance but distinct in subsistence.” The word “Persons” might be misleading as if there were three individuals in the Godhead, but what other word would suffice? The word “substance” might be too materialistic; some would prefer to use the word “essence.” Many will not know the meaning of subsistence, but a dictionary can remedy that (“necessary existence”).
Positively, the definition clearly asserts both oneness and threeness and is careful to maintain the equality and eternality of the Three. Even if the word “person” is not the best, it does guard against modalism, and, of course, the phrase “the same in substance” (or perhaps better, essence) protects against tritheism. The whole undivided essence of God belongs equally to each of the three persons.
John 10:30: “I and the Father are one,” beautifully states this balance between the diversity of the persons and the unity of the essence. “I and the Father” clearly distinguishes two persons, and the verb, “We are,” is also plural. “One” is neuter; that is, one in nature or essence, but not one person (which would require masculine form). Thus the Lord distinguished Himself from the Father and yet claimed unity and equality with the Father.
Traditionally the concept of the Trinity has been viewed from (a) an ontological perspective and (b) an economical or administrative one. The ontological Trinity focuses on the personal operations of the Persons or the opera ad intra (works within), or personal properties by which the Persons are distinguished. It has to do with generation (filiation or begetting) and procession, which attempts to indicate a logical order within the Trinity but does not imply in any way inequality, priority of time, or degrees of dignity. Generation and procession occur within the divine Being and carry with them no thought of subordination of essence. Thus, viewed ontologically, it may be said of the Persons of the Trinity: (1) The Father begets the Son and is He from whom the Holy Spirit proceeds, though the Father is neither begotten nor does He proceed. (2) The Son is begotten and is He from whom the Holy Spirit proceeds, but He neither begets nor proceeds. (3) The Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, but He neither begets nor is He the One from whom any proceed.
I agree with Buswell that generation is not an exegetically based doctrine. The concept it tries to convey, however, is not unscriptural, and certainly the doctrine of sonship is scriptural. The phrase “eternal generation” is simply an attempt to describe the Father-Son relationship in the Trinity and, by using the word “eternal,” protect it from any idea of inequality or temporality. But whether or not one chooses to use the idea of eternal generation, the personal and eternal and coequal relation of the Father and Son must be affirmed. Eternal generation should not be based on Psalm 2:7.
Procession seems to be more of a scriptural concept based on John 15:26. Berkhof defines it as “that eternal and necessary act of the First and Second Persons of the Trinity whereby They, within the divine Being, become the ground of the personal subsistence of the Holy Spirit, and put the Third Person in possession of the whole divine essence, without any division, alienation, or change.” The idea of eternal procession has to lean hard on the present tense of the word “proceeds” in John 15:26, an emphasis that is in my judgment misplaced. The verse does not really seem to relate anything about the mutual eternal relationships within the Trinity but rather what the Spirit would do to continue the work of the Lord Jesus after Christ’s ascension.
The concept of the economical Trinity concerns administration, management, actions of the persons, or the opera ad extra (“works outside,” that is, on the creation and its creatures). For the Father this includes the works of electing (1 Pet. 1:2), loving the world (John 3:16), and giving good gifts (James 1:17). For the Son it emphasizes His suffering (Mark 8:31), redeeming (1 Pet. 1:18), and upholding all things (Heb. 1:3). For the Spirit it focuses on His particular works of regenerating (Titus 3:5), energizing (Acts 1:8), and sanctifying (Gal. 5:22–23).
Even with all the discussion and delineation that we attempt in relation to the Trinity, we must acknowledge that it is in the final analysis a mystery. We accept all the data as truth even though they go beyond our understanding.
IV. ILLUSTRATION OF THE TRINITY
No illustration can possibly capture all that is involved in the biblical revelation of the Trinity. Most are at best only parallels of a “three-in-one” idea.
A common diagram attempts to picture the Godhead as one, yet showing each Person as God and also distinct.
Water may serve as a “three-in-one” illustration since it retains its chemical activity whether in solid, gas, or liquid state. There is also a triple point for water, a condition under which ice, steam, and liquid water can coexist in equilibrium. All are water, yet distinct from each other.
The sun, its light, and its power may help illustrate the Trinity. No one has actually seen the sun, just as no one has seen the Father. Yet we learn a great deal about the sun by studying the sunlight, just as we learn about the Father through Jesus Christ the Son who is the radiance of His glory (Heb. 1:3). We see the power of the sun as it is involved in the growth of seeds and trees and plants, and when asked what makes things grow, we say the sun does. The Holy Spirit is like the power of the sun, and He is God.