The Belgic Confession of Faith (9)

Article 8

In Matthew 3 we read about the Trinity. There the Father speaks of the Son and says, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.” We also see “the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him.” Thus the three divine Persons in the Godhead are represented and that is the subject of Article 8 of our Belgic Confession of Faith.

This is not an easy doctrine to explain, yet it is a very important one. One of our fathers called it “the essence and crown upon the divine revelation, and at the same time the greatest mystery.” It is the essence and crown of divine revelation that there is one essence and that there are three Persons. Is it very important that we believe in this doctrine? It is necessary to believe in the Son; it is necessary to believe and flee by faith unto Him since He is the only One who can redeem and save us. But is it also indispensable to believe that there is a Trinity?

God’s Word tells us that if we believe in God, we must believe in a triune God. There is one God, for in Deuteronomy 6:4 it says, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord.” Yet this God consists in three Persons. He is not divided into three Persons. There is no subordination, so that the one is the highest and the other a little lower and the other is completely subordinated; but there is a difference in order. We speak of the First Person, of the Second Person, and of the Third Person.

In the Athanasian Creed we read, “Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith; which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the substance.” The Persons may not be confounded. That which belongs to the First Person may not be ascribed to the Second Person. The Father was not born in Bethlehem, neither have the Father and the Son been poured out on Pentecost. If we were to do so, we would then confuse the three Persons in their personal properties. They also may not be separated from each other as if they are three Gods. Then we are acting against Scripture.

There are no specific examples in nature which can make it clear that God is one and yet three. Some have tried to do this by pointing to a tree which has a root, a trunk, and branches; but this is not applicable. In the Godhead there are not three parts; also there are not three different forms of appearance, such as with water which can be liquid, ice, or steam. A certain heretic, Sabellius, believed that there was one God but with three different faces. That is also not what God’s Word teaches.

Athanasius said of the Godhead, “For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.” The Second Person came in the fullness of time. The Third Person was poured out on Pentecost. “But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, and the Holy Spirit uncreate. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal. As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensibles, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty. And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty.” Then the Athanasian Creed also says, “He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.”

All are equal, all are incomprehensible, all are almighty, all are eternal. So they are One. Sabellius wished to emphasize that so much that he forgot that these Persons are distinct from each other. They are distinguished in their names, in their order, and in their manner of works.

A. Their names: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct.

B. Their order is distinct: First Person, Second Person, and Third Person.

C. Their manner of working is distinct: the Father working through the Son, the Son working by the Holy Spirit from the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son.

The three Persons are also distinguished in:

A. their personal properties, and

B. their personal works.

The three Persons have much in common. That is called their essential properties. They are all almighty; they are all incomprehensible; they are all equal.

However, they have personal properties in which they are distinct from one another. The personal properties of the Father are that He is the cause, the origin, the beginning of all things. If we go back to the beginning of all that is alive, then we must say the cause and origin is in the First Person. He began to work through the Son by the Spirit. He created through the Son. He generated His Son; He has begotten the Son. These are His personal properties. We can read of that in John 5:26, “For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.” The Son does not give it to the Father, but the Father gives it to the Son. The Father is the cause, origin and beginning of all things. All things are out of Him.

The Son is the Word, the logos, the wisdom, the image of the Father. As the Father has generated, so the Son is begotten with an everlasting begetting by the Father. In John 1:18 we read, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” All things are through Him.

The Holy Spirit is distinct with His eternal power and might and by the fact that He proceeds from the Father and from the Son. The Father is not made by anyone. He is neither created nor begotten. The Son is not created, but is begotten. The Holy Spirit is not created nor begotten, but proceeds from the Father and from the Son. These are the personal properties which distinguish the three Persons from each other.

These are not, however, “persons” in our sense of the word. If we have three persons, they are three and not one. They all have a heart, all three have a mind, and are three different persons. When we speak about one of the Persons of the Trinity, we mean:

A. there is in the divine Being but one indivisible essence (ousia),

B. but in this one divine Being there are three Persons or subsistences (hypostasis).

They are coessential, yet distinct from each other in their personal properties and works. Who is able to understand this mystery? May we rather learn to adore and to worship a triune God, also for His works.

The personal works of each Person of the Trinity are also distinct. Each Person has His own primary works. The Father has created all things, but the Son and the Holy Spirit are not excluded from it. In John 1 we read that “by the Word of God all things were made.” And we read in Genesis that “the Spirit of God moved upon the waters.” We must realize that each of the three Persons are not excluded from the primary work of the other, yet there is a different order. There are works which are especially ascribed to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Rev. C. Vogelaar is pastor of the Ebenezer Netherlands Reformed Church of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.

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