The Trinity in Theology
In the previous installment of this series, the biblical evidence for God’s triune nature was compiled and assessed. This survey established that while God is one, He exists in three persons, who are both united and distinct. In this installment, some of the questions and difficulties which naturally arise from the triune conclusion will be addressed.
It is important to note that so far, the Bible has served as the exclusive source for investigating and understanding the Trinity. While the Bible will remain the final authority and sole origin of trinitarian doctrine, this article will begin to use terms which are not biblical in origin but are employed by theologians to achieve clarity regarding what is true about God and His nature.
We will first examine the nature of the Trinity itself, looking at what unites the persons and what distinguishes them. Then we will examine the ways in which the triune God interacts with His creation.
What do the persons share? The persons of the Trinity share the same essence. This means that everything which makes God God is possessed by all three persons of the Godhead. The persons share the same will, intellect, and agency (Cooper, “Basics of Trinitarian Theology” 6:00).
What is unique to the persons? The persons of the Trinity are distinguished from each other by their relations of origin or source. The Father does not derive from any other person of the Trinity, but rather is the eternal source of both Son and Spirit (Cooper 18:00).
As one might expect based on the term “Son,” the Son is begotten from the Father in a way that is analogous to the relationship between a human father and son, but is far from being the same as a human paternal relationship. The Son, unlike human sons, is eternally begotten of the Father. There has never been a time when the Son has not proceeded from the Father (Cooper 19:00). This is what it means for Jesus to say that he is “of the Father”: “as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself” (Jn. 5:26).
The Spirit, similarly to the Son, is eternally breathed out, or spirated, by the Father. Not only is the Spirit clearly referred to as “the Spirit of God” at almost every point in Scripture, but Jesus also plainly states that the Spirit proceeds from the Father in John 15:26 (Cooper 20:12).
It is here that a point of significant divergence in the church’s historic understanding of the Trinity should be acknowledged. Western Christians broadly (i.e. Roman Catholics and Protestants) tend to teach that the Spirit also proceeds either through or from the Son, basing this claim on passages like Romans 8:9 and 1 Peter 1:11. For a variety of reasons both theological and ecclesial in nature, Eastern Christians (i.e. the Orthodox) teach that the Spirit only proceeds from the Father. While the controversy is worth much discussion, no more can be said about it in this piece. Because I am a Protestant and a Western Christian, I will proceed with the understanding that the Spirit proceeds from the Son in some sense.
This then, is how the persons of the Trinity are distinguished from one another. While the persons are completely united in essence, meaning that they have the same will, intellect, dignity, and deeds, they are distinguished from one another by their relations of origin. The Father is continually begetting the Son and breathing forth the Spirit. The Son is continually being begotten by the Father and breathing forth the Spirit. The Spirit is continually being spirated by Father and Son.
What common errors occur when describing the internal workings of the Trinity? The first error—partialism—is to say that the persons of God are parts of God, rather than each being the fullness of God (Swain 59-60). This understanding, because it divides God in whom there can be no parts, fails to communicate the truth about God (Deut. 6:4).
The second error—modalism—argues that God only presents Himself to creation in different modes—Father, Son, or Spirit—but does not actually exist in these persons within Himself. Thus, one can just as easily speak of the Father being incarnate or dying on the cross as one can of the Son, because there is no true division between the persons, merely different modes (Swain 82-83).
The third error—subordinationism—makes the opposite error as modalism, understanding the Son and Spirit to be lower, semi-divine creations of God, rather than fully God themselves. This error has taken many forms, and in some traditions (like the Jehovah’s Witnesses) still thrives today (Swain 83-84). Both modalism and subordinationism fail when one considers the full breadth of the biblical witness which clearly support both the eternal existence of all three persons (Gen. 1; Jn. 1) and the deity of Son and Spirit (Jn. 1; 2 Cor. 3:17-18).
How do the persons of the Trinity relate to the creation? Now that we understand how the persons of the Trinity relate to each other, we can examine how the persons relate to creation. The acts of the Trinity within creation are the main focus of Scripture. The entire story of redemption is a story of the relationship between the triune God and His creation (Cooper, “Economic and Ontological Trinity” 28:00).
It is in His acts where the internal unity of God manifests. Genesis 1 states that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1 ESV). Many Christians, when they imagine God acting in creation, likely imagine God the Father doing the creating. While it is true that creation is typically ascribed as a property of the Father, Scripture reveals that both the Son and Spirit are also agents in the act of creation. John 1:3 reveals that the Father created through the Son, and Genesis 1:2 describes the Spirit dwelling within creation when the earth was formless.
The truth of God’s unity reveals that when God acts, even if it appears that one person of the Trinity is exclusively undertaking the action, all three persons are fully involved in that act. This is called the doctrine of inseparable operations (Cooper 11:50).
This does not mean that each person undertakes exactly the same act as the others. The Son was made incarnate, not the Father or the Spirit. It does however mean that in the Incarnation, all three persons are moving together according both to their unity and to the distinctiveness of their persons: “all of God’s external works in creation, redemption, and consummation, are indivisible operations of the Trinity, proceeding from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit” (Swain 68-69).
The doctrine of inseparable operations may be news to some. Often the Bible speaks as if only one person of the Trinity is undertaking a particular action. The Father is often identified with making decrees, the Son with being the agent of salvation, and the Spirit as being the agent of sanctification. While it is true that Scripture sometimes appropriates particular actions to particular persons, this is done not to separate the actions of the unified Trinity, but rather to “manifest the personal properties of specific persons” (Swain 112).
While all three persons are involved in creation, the act of creation is often appropriated to the Father, because the generative act most closely resembles the Father’s role as the source of the Son and Spirit. While all three persons participate in sanctification, the act is often appropriated to the Spirit because sanctification is the process of having new life breathed into us, and to be breathed is the role of the Spirit within the Godhead (Swain 112-113).
To conclude: our triune God is completely united in his essence, sharing in intellect, will, and agency. When God acts, all three persons are fully at work. The only way in which the persons are distinct is in their relations of origin: the Father eternally begets the Son and breathes forth the Spirit; the Son is eternally begotten and breathing forth the Spirit; the Spirit is eternally breathed forth by Father and Son. The next and final installment of this series will examine the importance of the Trinity in the daily devotional lives of Christians.
Cooper, Jordan B. “The Basics of Trinitarian Theology.” Just and Sinner Podcast. Podcast Audio. May 6, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfQZ7226knQ&list=PLxaDcwyj YomyL3-dlgZ1qqjeo7vJaKBT7&index=2.
Cooper, Jordan B. “The Economic Trinity and The Ontological Trinity.” Just and Sinner Podcast. Podcast Audio. June 24, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p0ir65Lhto&list= PLxaDcwyjYomyL3-dlgZ1qqjeo7vJaKBT7&index=3.
Swain, Scott R. The Trinity: An Introduction. Crossway, 2020.