The Triune God, Part 3.

On pages 142 to 159 Calvin explains the relationship between the Father, Son and Spirit. Here are the summary points.

1. True faith, as Calvin writes, "Ought not to gaze hither and thither ...... but to look upon the one God, to unite with Him, to cleave to Him" (Pg., 141).

2. There truly is only one true God, but this one true God is in three Persons. "Father, Son, and Spirit imply a real distinction - let no one think that these titles, whereby God is variously designated from His works, are empty - but a distinction, not a division” (Pg., 141).

3. The Bible makes this clear. (Zech 13:7; Jn 5:32; 8:16; 1:3; Heb 11:3; Jn 1:18; 17:5; 15:26; 14:26; 14:16).

4. Calvin expresses the "distinctions" between Father, Son and Holy Spirit in this manner. "To the Father is attributed the beginning of activity, and the fountain and wellspring of all things; to the Son, wisdom, counsel, and the ordered disposition of all things; but to the Spirit is assigned the power and efficacy of that activity" (Pg., 142).

5. These distinctions do not demise or destroy the perfect simple unity of God.

6. "The Son is one God with the Father because He shares with the Father one and the same Spirit; and that the Spirit is not something other than the Father and different from the Son, because He is the Spirit of the Father and the Son. For in each hypostasis the whole divine nature is understood, with this qualification - that to each belongs His own peculiar quality" (Pg., 143).

7. Though each Person in the Godhead has "his own peculiar quality", we do not concede that one is separated from the other by any difference of essence or substance.

8. Augustine explains: "Christ with respect to Himself is called God; with respect to the Father, Son. Again, the Father with respect to Himself is called God; with respect to the Son, Father. In so far as He is called Father with respect to the Son, He is not the Son; in so far as He is called the Son with respect to the Father, He is not the Father; in so far as He is called both Father with respect to Himself, and Son with respect to Himself, He is the same God" (Pg., 144).

9. The people of the church must always say, "We profess to believe in one God, under the name of God is understood a single, simple essence, in which we comprehend three Persons, or hypostasis" (Pg., 144).

10. Gregory of Nazianzus said, "I cannot think on the one without quickly being encircled by the splendor of the three; nor can I discern the three without being straightway carried back to the one" (Pg., 141).

The Triune God, Part 2

The Holy Spirit is our Comforter. Thanks be to God. Calvin, sometimes called the theologian of the Spirit, encourages the church by his words. Here are some highlights of what he says.

1. After explaining the deity of Christ Calvin turns to the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of God; a Person, a subsistence of the Triune God. He is God of very God, Spirit of very Spirit.

2. Moses attributes to him the work of creation (Gen 1:2). Calvin writes, "The beauty of the universe owes its strength and preservation to the power of the Spirit but that before this adornment was added, even then the Spirit was occupied with tending that confused mass" (Pg., 138).

3. His divine glory is seen in that He accompanies and empowers the prophets. (Is 48:16)

4. By His own energy, the Holy Spirit is the Person who regenerates and seals forever sinners who fell in Adam. This only God can do, therefore the Holy Spirit is the same in essence as God the Father.

5. God the Holy Spirit possesses all the holy attributes of divinity for the simple reason that He is God. ( 1 Cor 2:10; Rom 11:34; 1 Cor 12:10-11; 1 Cor 6:11; 1 Cor 12:4 etc.)

6. Scripture does not hesitate to designate to the Holy Spirit the name "God". Notice the truth that believers are the temple of God and the Person inside this temple is the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor 6:16)

7. Augustine said, "If we are bidden to make a temple for the Spirit out of wood and stone, because this honor is due to God alone, such a command would be a clear proof of the Spirit=s divinity. Now, then, how much clearer is it that we ought not to make a temple for Him, but ought ourselves to be that temple." ( see Augustine, Letters clxx.2).

8. The words of the prophets are the words of God.....God the Holy Spirit. (Is 6:9 cf. Acts 28:25-26)

9. Godly minds securely rest in the Scriptures teaching of the Deity of the Holy Spirit.

The Triune God: Part 1.

Chapter 13 has as its subject the divine Trinity. Scripture reveals the true God, idols do not. This true God is revealed as Triune; and Calvin spends a lot of time explaining from Scripture that the true God is one in essence yet three in Persons.

In the McNeill, Battles edition chapter 13 spans from page 120 to 159. Because of its length we will summarize the chapter in 3 parts.


1. God Almighty is an immeasurable and Spiritual Being. Yet, He has spoken of Himself to us, in a way we can understand, and know something of Him. As Calvin says, "God is wont in a measure to "lisp in speaking to us?" (Pg., 121). This "lisp" is found in Scripture and Scripture speaks of one true God who is in three Persons. In other words, the true God is a Trinity. The Triune God, "Father and Son and Spirit are one God, yet the Son is not the Father, nor the Spirit the Son" (Pg., 126).

2. Calvin's use of the term subsistence explains the most important conception in this doctrine. Here is an explanation of the term.
We first consider Person. Person, therefore, I call a "subsistence" in God's essence, which, while related to the others, is distinguished by an incommunicable quality" (Pg.,128).
Next the word subsistence. “Subsistence” is something different than essence. Essence talks of unity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the same in essence, co-equal, co-eternal. However, Scripture tells us that the Father and Son are alongside one another, indicating that one is as personal as the other. This demands that there is a personal relationship between Father and Son and Holy Spirit.
Connect this to Jn 1:1. "He recalls us to the essence as a unity. But because He could not be with God without residing in the Father, hence emerges the idea of a subsistence" (Pg., 128).
Now, of the three subsistences I say that each one, while related to the others, is distinguished by a special quality. Calvin explains this relationship in 3 ways. (1) "Where simple and definite mention is made of God, this name pertains no less to the Son and the Spirit than to the Father. (2) But as soon as the Father is compared with the Son, the character of each distinguishes the one from the other. (3) And whatever is proper to each individually, I maintain to be incommunicable because whatever is attributed to the Father as a distinguishing mark cannot agree with, or transferred to, the Son." (all quotes above on Pg., 128)

3. Because God is 3 Persons there is an "economic Trinity" in God which has no effect on the unity of essence.

4. Lets consider Christ who is the "Word" which means, "The everlasting Wisdom, residing with God, from which both all oracles and all prophecies go forth" (Pg.,129).

5. "Unchangeable, the Word abides everlasting one and the same with God, and is God Himself.....Therefore we again state that the Word, conceived beyond the beginning of time by God, has perpetually resided with Him. By this, His eternity, His true essence, and His divinity are proved" (Pg., 130 & 131).

6. Christ is brought forward by the writers of the OT both, "as God and as adorned with the highest power, which is the characteristic mark of the one God" (Pg., 131). [Is 9:6; Jer 23:5-6; 33:15-16]

7. The N.T builds upon the information of the OT and both abound in telling the church that Jesus Christ is divine. Christ is the fulfillment of all things.

8. By His works and miracles we are illuminated to the truth that He (Christ) is divine. (See Calvin's writing on pg., 135-137. Excellent)