The 1689 Exposition Series:
- Part 1:Introduction: A Case for Confessional Christianity
- Part 2:Chapter 1: The Holy Scriptures
- Part 2a:“Controversies of Religion”
Theology Proper, or the doctrine of God, is the most challenging, yet most worthy of our efforts to be searched to the furthest depths as God has revealed and gifted to us in His Word.
“What I believe about God is the most important thing about me.”
—A.W. Tozer
This chapter will lay down the orthodox understanding of classical, trinitarian, Christian theism while revealing the character of the infinite God through His attributes and how He relates to His finite creatures.
“Certainly, the only safe course is to stay very close to the Word of God. Our only sure knowledge of God is gained from what the inscrutable and mysterious God has told us about Himself. God is too great for us to trust our own hearts to devise the truth about Him (Rom. 11:33–36). We must not indulge in rational speculation or personal opinion. A sense of our insufficiency must turn our souls to the Word of God in humble reverence as the only safe guide for our understanding of God.”
—Samuel Waldron, A Modern Exposition of the 2nd London Confession
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?’ ‘Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”
Romans 11:33–36
Paragraph 1: The Attributes of God
Though not categorized in this way in the confession, we can understand the attributes of God being divided into His communicable attributes — that which He shares or communicates to humanity — and His incommunicable attributes — that which are inherently unique and reserved to apply to Himself.
- Communicable: Love, Wisdom, Mercy, Goodness, and more
- Incommunicable: all of the Omnis, immutability (unchanging), infinity, absolute sovereignty, and more
The following are the theological designations laid out in this paragraph:
Singularity
“The Lord our God is but one only living and true God;”
This highlights God’s unity within His Trinity — that God is One. All of His attributes apply to each of His divine persons or subsistences.
Aseity
“Whose subsistence is in and of himself, infinite in being and perfection;”
Originating from Latin, God is a se, or “from Himself.” Synonymous with His self-existence or absolute independence, He is without cause. He is by the essence of His covenant name YHWH, or “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14).
Calvin on subsistence:
“When the Apostle calls the Son of God ‘the express image of his person,’ (Heb. 1:3), he undoubtedly does assign to the Father some subsistence in which he differs from the Son…This, moreover, is not a distinction of essence, which it were impious to multiply. If credit, then, is given to the Apostle’s testimony, it follows that there are three persons (hypostases) in God…The most literal translation would be subsistence.”
This marks a change from the Westminster Confession, which used the more common term person. Subsistence avoids much of the confusion (especially today) associated with the term person as it relates to the Trinity. God is not three centers of consciousness, nor does He have three wills, nor is He three beings. He is of one divine essence who IS, or subsists (not exists) as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Incomprehensibility
“Whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself;”
God’s essence is all encompassing of everything about Him — specifically His name, nature, works (creation, judgment, and redemption), invisibility, holiness, incomparability — He is infinite in preeminence.
“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.”
Psalm 145:3
Simplicity
“A most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto;”
Tied to His aseity and self-existence, God is not a “composition” of anything — not even the attributes we are discussing. He is who He is. We must not make a distinction between essence and attributes, but recognize that Scripture attributes different qualities to the divine essence (God is love, light, spirit).
“Without passions”: Divine Impassibility is something heavily debated, but is an essential inference drawn from God’s immutability, simplicity, and eternality.
Simply stated, we should readily recognize that God has affections which are bound in His eternal decree, or from within Himself, especially in a relational sense to mankind. This is contrasted with passions, which is to say that God, particularly Christ in His divine nature, is not subject to being influenced by any outside force. He is not capricious, able to be tempted, apathetic, or ever at the whim of His creatures.
It is our greatest comfort that nothing in all of creation can deter God from loving us because His love is wrought entirely within Himself.
Infinity
“Who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute;”
He is immutable as it relates to the manifold aspects of His infinitude listed above — the “most” in all of His communicable attributes.
God cannot be contained. He is beyond finding out, without beginning or end. He is entirely other and above all else.
“To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”
1 Timothy 1:17
Sovereignty
“Working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will for his own glory;”
This will be addressed more fully in the next chapter: “Of God’s Decree.”
God’s will is free and unchangeable, to His own glory, and is not contingent upon any foreseen condition.
Love
“Most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin;”
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”
1 John 4:9
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8
God is love, which is most fully beheld in the Triune work through Christ on our behalf — that the greatest would die for the least that “we should be called the children of God.” (1 John 3:1)
Justice
“The rewarder of them that diligently seek him, and withal most just and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty.”
An infinitely holy God, who still holds out mercy and grace to sinful humanity, will have infinitely terrible wrath upon all those who do not take refuge in His Son. How much more so for those who have heard the gospel and rejected it?
“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Acts 17:30–32
Paragraph 2: God to His Creatures
Continuing the line of thought from paragraph 1 in displaying God’s attributes, we will now see how God is in relation to His creatures because of these same attributes, or the expression of that which flows from Him.
God is independent and self-sufficient to His creatures
Having already looked at His aseity, we must now apply this to how God relates to His creation. In creating all things it is not as though He is lacking in anything by engaging in creation. He is, “having all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself, is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creature which He hath made.” (Job 22:2–3)
God is glorious in Himself apart from His creatures
“Simply put, the fact that salvation is by faith alone, grace alone, and Christ alone, without any meritorious contribution on our part, ensures that all glory is God’s and not our own. Likewise, the fact that Scripture alone is our final authority. . .protects the glory of God against every human conceit.” —David Van Drunen
We often speak in terms of “giving glory to God,” but more clearly we are only ascribing His glory to Him which comes from Him, and not adding anything to Him — “nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon them.” (Romans 11:34–36)
The Scriptures describe God as “glorious.” They attempt to do so through various observations about Him, but do not actually define what glory is. This is in part because glory is not so much an attribute as it is inseparable from His essence. It is the summation of all that He is and all that He does.
Soli Deo Gloria
What do you think of when you hear “glory”?
God has dominion over His creatures
God being the first, primary cause in all of His providence — “He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things.”
This necessitates that God has the only right over His creation to do with it as He pleases — “and He hath most sovereign dominion over all creatures, to do by them, for them, or upon them, whatsoever Himself pleases.”
There are many examples in Scripture in which God works through the means of His creatures, but also against, above, and without them (see 5.3). Chapters 3–6 will expand on this.
Consider our passivity in creation, Adam in his imposed probation, Sarah giving birth beyond childbearing years, Jonah’s journey to Nineveh, Nebuchadnezzar’s humiliation and restoration (Daniel 4:25, 34–35), Mary conceiving by the Holy Spirit, the vessels of wrath and mercy in predestination, the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart, the orchestration of the crucifixion, and many more.(John 15:26; John 16:14; 1 Corinthians 2:10–11)
God is omniscient of His creatures
Omnis (all) scientia (knowing) — “in His sight all things are open and manifest, His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to Him contingent or uncertain.”
God’s knowledge of humanity is not in any way contingent upon what man chooses to do in the future. His knowledge is complete and certain down to the most intimate detail. (Hebrews 4:13)
Consider then how very practically this should influence our disposition in coming to Him in prayer and confession of sin:
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’”
Matthew 6:7–13
God is utterly holy before His creatures
“He is most holy in all His counsels, in all His works, and in all His commands.”
Man often presumes to preside in judgment over God, questioning His intentions, grumbling at His providence, doubting His goodness — but this is nothing short of blasphemy. God is entirely separate, ontologically in a class by Himself, the very opposite of common, and in that stands above us in all of His wisdom, works, and decrees. (Isaiah 46:8–10)
“Which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”
1 Timothy 6:15–16
God has exclusive rights over His creatures
“To Him is due from angels and men, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience, as creatures they owe unto the Creator, and whatever He is further pleased to require of them.”
God as our Creator may require whatsoever is due Him from us, and has prescribed to us in His holy Word the only proper way of worshipping Him (Ch. 22, 29, 30), serving, and obeying Him (Ch. 16, 19).(Revelation 5:11–14)
Our foundational relationship to God is as our Creator, and that is the principle means in which fallen humanity suppresses the truth about God in our unrighteousness (Romans 1) and “exchange the glory of the immortal God” (v.23) for every form of idolatry.
“So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”
Luke 17:10
Paragraph 3: The Triune God
Having described God by His attributes, and presented His relationship to His creatures, we will now dive deeper into God’s essence and how He subsists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We will explore the aspects of their unity as well as the peculiar properties distinguishing each person of the Godhead.
The doctrine of the Trinity is of the highest importance of our faith in worshipping the one true God and is the “foundation of all of our communion with God, and comfortable dependence on Him.” This doctrine is not the invention of many skillful men, nor theorizing about God, but is deeply embedded within, and extracted from, the entirety of the Word of God to reveal who God is.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”
Matthew 28:19
This section is a combination of the 1st London Confession and Westminster, and is a more expansive statement than either of them, heavily reflecting the same truths from the Nicene Creed. More details of the person of Christ will be examined in Chapter 8, Of Christ the Mediator.
The Unity of the Godhead
Having already looked at Calvin’s understanding of “subsistence” and the attributes of divine singularity, simplicity, and aseity in 2.1, we must be careful not to make the One true God into three separate deities. The Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4 begins with: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” (1 Corinthians 8:6)
The Bible overwhelmingly speaks of YHWH being the one true God, so when we speak of the different persons of the Trinity we must necessarily recognize that each person is of the single divine essence, co-equal, and co-eternal, or as the confession puts it: “of one substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence.” (John 14:11)
Herman Bavinck (in Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 2) affirms this doctrine, stating that “the divine essence is not divided in the three persons but is wholly present in each of them.”
“Yet the essence undivided” — in other words, each person is of the divine essence in its entirety. The Father is truly God, the Son is truly God, the Spirit is truly God.
But what about Jesus becoming a man? Didn’t He “empty Himself”? The primary text to be considered surrounding this question comes from Philippians 2:6–8.
Most theological debates are surrounding the “Kenosis,” relating to the Greek word kenoō, or what it means when Jesus was “emptied” and how it relates to His “equality with God.” The question is founded in reconciling how the eternal Son of God could become incarnate and still be both fully divine and fully human (the hypostatic union).
The main views are as follows:
- Orthodox/Traditional: Christ is one person with two natures “without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation” (Definition of Chalcedon) or “without conversion, composition, or confusion” (1689 8.2). Christ remained fully God in His incarnation, possessing all of His divine attributes, but limiting the expression of such as He willed. Christ became fully human, experiencing real emotions, suffering, and physical limitations. Each of these realities is essential to accomplish our redemption by defeating sin and death and representing humanity as the perfect mediator.
- Kenotic: Christ voluntarily (and necessarily) was divested of, or gave up, some of His divine attributes, such as omnipotence or omniscience, to be able to experience human limitations, suffering, and temptations. The Kenoticists over-emphasized the full humanity of Christ at the expense of His deity.
- Open Theism/Process Theology: Propounded by liberal theologians, they heavily draw from kenotic theory to argue that God is not omniscient relating to future events, and is developing over time. In the incarnation they would state that Jesus is emptying Himself of divine power to give way to human freedom. It can be argued that Arminian theology must necessarily deny divine simplicity due to their presupposing that God’s knowledge is contingent upon human decisions, and so Christ in His human nature must possess a will separate from His divine nature.
To revisit the question, what did Christ “empty Himself” of — “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped”?
Kevin DeYoung simplifies it as such: “Christ Jesus emptied Himself, not of His divine nature, not of His divine attributes, but of certain divine prerogatives” — that is to say, of certain privileges or rights as God by taking humanity upon Himself. He was in the form (morphe) of God, but took on the form (morphe) of a servant, and in that we are told to behold the greatest example of humility.
The Trinity of the Godhead
When we refer to each person of the Trinity, we are not implying a difference in essence, but in their unique, relational properties one to another. The confession borrows heavily from the Nicene Creed and uses the language of Scripture to describe to us the personal relations within the Trinity.
The Father
“The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding.”
“Of none” does not imply that the Son and Spirit are not equally self-existent or co-eternal, but that relationally the Father is not begotten of anyone and is without origin.
The Father is eternally unbegotten. The Father eternally begets the Son. The Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father. The Father glorifies the Son. (Psalm 90:2)
The Son
“The Son is eternally begotten of the Father.”
The doctrine of eternal generation speaks to the eternal, personal, and perpetual relationship in which the Son has always subsisted as the Son. This is not a temporal relationship such as in the incarnation, nor is it meant to be taken analogically in the same way humans relate to one another.
“Begotten”: Just as a human father communicates his essence (his humanity) to his son, so the Father communicates (eternally) His essence (deity) to His Son. This is what the Nicene Creed affirms when it says that Jesus is “God of God; Light of Light; very God of very God.”
The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. The Son is sent by the Father. The Son submits to the will of the Father (in His humanity) and glorifies the Father. The Spirit eternally proceeds from the Son. (John 1:1–3, 14; John 6:38; John 14:11)
The Holy Spirit
“The Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son.”
The Spirit is spoken of as proceeding, not begotten, from the Father and the Son — not by fragmentation or generation, but through their eternal relationship in procession.
“Proceeding”: “If we ask further what the procession of the Spirit means, and how it is distinguished from the Son’s relationship to the Father, we may well be incapable of a wholly satisfactory (and certainly of a comprehensive) answer. His relationship [to the Father and the Son] is distinct; yet both experience the Spirit in common in mutual union and communion. The mystery of the Spirit’s union thus points to the glory of the Christian communion with God. Our fellowship in the Spirit is with the Father and the Son…” —Sinclair Ferguson, The Holy Spirit
The Spirit is eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. The Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son. The Spirit empowers and glorifies the Son.
The One True God, the Holy Trinity in Father, Son, and Spirit, are “all infinite, without beginning, therefore but one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being.” This divine relationship in our creation, accomplishing and applying our redemption, and glorification is “the foundation of all our communion with God, and comfortable dependence on Him.”
(2 Corinthians 13:14)
“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”
The Gloria Patri (4th century Trinitarian Doxology)
This article is part of an ongoing series of confessional exposition through the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, seeking to recover its theology for the instruction and stability of the modern church.
Particularly Modern 