How can we know the One True God without knowing him in his essence as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit? In the section (16-20) of chapter 13 Calvin writes concerning the distinction and unity of the three Persons who is one God. He begins by telling us that God is one though he is three persons. If we begin with God in Genesis 1 we find him as one yet already giving us a view of his threeness as he says in his creative words, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” When we come to Great Commission his triune nature is expressed clearly in the baptism formula, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Therefore his triune nature is expressed clearly. Paul tells us that there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” There is one God to illicit and beget one faith and one baptism to signify we belong to him alone. So as Calvin says, “For this means precisely to be baptized into the name of the one God who has shown himself with complete clarity in the Father, Son and Spirit. Hence it is quite clear that in God’s essence reside three persons in whom God is known.” We must then strive with all earnest thought and affection to know him in his essence in his three persons so that we may known him fully in his oneness.
The apostle Paul directs our thoughts and affections in Ephesians 1 when we see it is the Father who has blessed, chosen and adopted us as sons, the Son who has redeemed us, and the Spirit who has sealed us for a promised inheritance. But it is these distinctions of the persons of the Godhead that draw our thoughts and affections to his unity as the only God who has made us and who can save us. But when our minds and hearts are drawn along the lines of the unified distinction we must not let them wander into a supposed division. Calvin says, “Indeed the words “Father,” “Son,” and “Spirit”, may 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.” So we ought to have great reverence as we see these truths about God exposed and delight ourselves in thoughts like the one from Gregory of Nazianzus that Calvin quotes: “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.”
Calvin warns us against using human analogies to try to describe the distinction or differences that we see in the persons of the Godhead. However he is willing to draw some distinctions where he sees the Scripture leading the way. He says, “To the Father is attributed the beginning of activity, and the fountain and well spring 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.” He draws these lines of difference as the Scripture tells us the Son came forth from the Father and the Spirit from the Father and the Son. We must let our minds and affections toward God continue to be directed toward him as he reveals himself in Scripture, and be warned of Trinitarian skylarking whereby we invent our own boxes to fit his differences in or fancies to let his distinctions flow through our imaginations.
Calvin rightly teaches a doctrine of the Trinity that unites the three distinct persons of God in one simple essence that leaves us with a sober faith contemplating a mystery revealed though dimly. The Scripture is clear in leading Calvin and ourselves to this knowledge, though our understanding and affections will continue to grow as we apply ourselves to the knowledge of the Holy.
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