Handout-Lesson-12-The-Trinity
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Lesson 12 THE TRINITY 1. This is the final installment in our study of Classical Christian Theism regarding the attributes of God. The object of our study has been of God Himself in the unsurpassable perfection of His Inner Being (ad_____________) and work as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in His outer operations (ad______________) in regard to creation. 2. So what is Classical Christian Theism? It is the doctrine of God marked by a strong commitment to the doctrines of divine aseity, immutability, impassibility, simplicity, eternity, and the unity of the divine persons. The underlying concept is that God (because of His____________________), does not derive any aspect of His being from outside Himself and is not in any way caused to be. 3. All theology begins with a___________________. Theologians only start theologizing when a dispute arises in the life of the church as to what is to be believed. In regard to the subject of this lesson the question is, how can the biblical teaching that God is one (Deut 6:4; Mk 12:29; 1 Cor 8:4; Eph 4:6; Jas 2:19) and yet three divine persons be understood (Mt 28:19; 2 Cor 13:13)? Or more specifically put, how can the one God be eternally self differentiated as Father, Son and Spirit without falling into the errors of modalism, tritheism or subordinationism? 4. Before our divine God ever created the universe, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit had perfect communion with one another as the ONE undivided Godhead with one divine___________________. The Father is a se, Jesus is a se, and the Holy Spirit is a se. And yet there are not three a se’s; but one a se. The insistence on the aseity of the Son is the foundation of the whole Christian faith and the earliest creeds. (Lesson 2 in this series) 5. Christians are Monotheists - the belief that there is only one God. Q. In what respect is God one? Answer: in respect of his nature and being; one essence, one divinity, one power, one____________, one intellect, one consciousness, one energy, one authority, one dominion, one sovereignty. Scripture reveals that there are, in that one divine essence, three eternal distinctions that are described as “persons”, known as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All three have identical attributes, and therefore they are one; not merely one in substance or essence, but one in purpose and will. 6. Each Person of the Godhead is fully God. But God is ONE God says the shema in Deut. 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one". The Father, Son and Holy Spirit each occupy the same divine “_______________”. Each shares the same eternal being. The Father dwells in the Son and the Son dwells in the Father. Father and Son dwell in the Spirit, who in turn indwells the Father and the Son. The unity of God is the three persons in their mutual interpenetration, often referred to as perichoresis (Gk. Peri= around and choresis= dance). 7. The way to explain how three-ness remains one is the attribute of Simplicity which says that God is not composite, God is not divided, God is not divisible into separate components, God is not dissolvable into pieces. The doctrine of divine simplicity protects the integrity and unity of God’s essence, and prevents us from calling personality (personhood) a divine _____________- it prevents us from collapsing into tritheism. We must hold to the unity of the divine essence as well as the distinction of persons. (Lesson 3) 8. The doctrine of the __________________actually arose in order to affirm certain things about the divinity of Christ, to answer the question “Who is Jesus?’”. And, it arose against a background assumption that God is one. The doctrine of the Trinity is revealed to us in scripture in the incarnation of God the Son and the outpouring of God the Holy Spirit. 9. Here is a simple model of the Trinity: One "________________" (essence) and Three"_____________" (persons). Classically the Trinity was defined in these terms: God is one in essence (being) and three in person. 10. We need to understand that the acts of the Trinitarian persons in their BEING, their eternal inner relations must be sharply differentiated from their DOING, their common outward actions toward creation. >BEING: The ontological (AKA immanent) Trinity refers to the one God as He is in Himself beyond and above all created time. The Trinity as the persons exist within their eternal relations to each other, their _________________life (also known as opera ad intra, a Latin phrase which means the inner acts of God). >DOING. The economic Trinity refers to the activity of each person in the external outworking of God’s plan in regard to creation (also known as opera ad extra, a Latin phrase which means the ___________________acts of God) - those activities and effects by which the Trinity is manifested outwardly in regard to creation, redemption and consummation. The economic Trinity is God revealed under the conditions of space & time, sin, and incarnation when Jesus took flesh. There is complete equality within the ontological Trinity, and yet there is clearly an ordering within the economic Trinity, with the incarnate Son taking the position of submission to the Father. 1 11. Just as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are inseparable in their unity, so they work inseparably (in harmony) as well. So, as God is one and three in BEING, so God ___________as one and three in DOING. This is known as the doctrine of inseparable operations which teaches that, because the three persons of the Trinity are one God, each person of the Trinity is operative in all of God's external works (opera ad extra) --from creation through redemption to consummation. In other words, the external works of God are undivided. 12. The three act in an indivisible but not an indistinct manner. And so, while their works cannot be divided, they can be distinguished. Because Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God, every divine act is the undivided work of the three. Yet if this is the case, why does Scripture frequently attribute certain actions (e.g., creation) to one divine person (e.g., the Father) without mentioning the others? The Doctrine of Appropriation answers this question by suggesting that actions performed by all three persons may be rightly ______________________(or “appropriated”) to one divine person in order to reveal that person more fully. When Philip asks Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father and it will be enough for us” (Jn 14:8), Jesus responds that “the Father who dwells in me does his works.” (Jn 14:10). Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus describes his own works as being the self-same works of the Father (Jn 5:17,19; 10:25-26,29-30; 14:10). In addition to that, to Christ is ascribed the very act of creation (Mk 4:41; 1 Cor 8:6; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2, 2:10) 13. So, the incarnation is of the Son (attributed/appropriation), but it is by the Trinity (inseparable operation). That is, Father, Son, and Spirit brought about the incarnation of the Son. The three persons of the trinity effect this work of incarnation, but only one person truly puts on the flesh. In the incarnation of the Son alone, the Son is _______________alone. 14. The early church wrestled with the appropriate language, and “persons” aptly speaks to the personality of the three members of the Trinity and also their relationship with each other; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit “co-inhere” as one essence, and yet there are ___________________(not divisions). One isn’t the other, but they’re equal in rank, equal in power, equal in glory, equal in majesty. 15. RC Sproul: The term person does not mean a distinction in essence but a different subsistence in the Godhead. The word person is equivalent to the term subsistence. In this word, we have the prefix sub with the root word, sisto, so subsistence literally means “to stand________________.” Each person subsists or exists “under” the pure essence of deity. Subsistence is a difference within the scope of being, not a separate being or essence. All persons in the Godhead have all the attributes of deity. 16. The term “person” ultimately indicates that “this one” is not “that one.” Hence, the term “person” signifies real distinction. So, the easiest way to distinguish the persons in the Trinity is how they eternally _________________to each other: by the Father’s paternity, the Son’s generation, and the Spirit’s procession or being sent. They can also be distinguished by their names. But they exist from eternity in each other, not separate from and alongside each other. Each of the three persons is distinct . all the while being identical and equal to the one God. There is distinction, there is difference, and there is identity, but you wouldn’t say Jesus is part of God. We say Jesus IS God! 17. “______________” is NOT the best way to speak of the eternal distinctions between the Persons of the Trinity. It can too easily undermine important doctrines like the Simplicity of God, the unity of the divine will, and the inseparable operations of the Trinity. 18. Person, in this doctrine, does not mean what person means in everyday American English. Our culture is so individualistic that to us that “person” automatically connotes “separate center of consciousness and will. The Classical position sees the divine Persons as “active subjects of the same nature”.