THE BELGIC CONFESSION OF FAITH – A Commentary – By
Dr. Chuck Baynard
The Belgic Confession of Faith, Article VIII
God Is One in Essence, Yet Distinguished in Three Persons
According to this truth and this Word of God, we believe in one only
God, who is the one single essence, in which are three persons, really, truly,
and eternally distinct according to their incommunicable properties; namely,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is the cause, origin,
and beginning of all things visible and invisible; the Son is the word,
wisdom, and image of the Father; the Holy Spirit is the eternal power and
might, proceeding from the Father and the Son. Nevertheless, God is not by
this distinction divided into three, since the Holy Scriptures teach us that
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit have each His personality,
distinguished by Their properties; but in such wise that these three persons
are but one only God.
Hence, then, it is evident that the Father is not the Son, nor the Son
the Father, and likewise the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son.
Nevertheless, these persons thus distinguished are not divided, nor
intermixed; for the Father has not assumed the flesh, nor has the Holy Spirit,
but the Son only. The Father has never been without His Son, or without His
Holy Spirit. For They are all three co-eternal and co-essential. There is
neither first nor last; for They are all three one, in truth, in power, in
goodness, and in mercy.
The Trinity defies mere human
wisdom, words, or even analogies to define and explain it. Every analogy fails miserably because there is nothing known
to man that be three distinct parts, yet of one essence. For example most have
heard the Trinity explained using water because water can be liquid, solid, or
gas. The truth here is not that they are three yet one, but they are three yet
one that cannot be divided in anyway. Water is a chemical compound of hydrogen
and oxygen it can be divided. Neither does the ability to be in three forms
explain anything because the Trinity is always spirit and not distinguished by
mode, which in this analogy depends on external circumstance, the temperature.
Modalism is the attempt to define the persons of the Trinity by their operations
as reveled to man or the “mode.” This is heresy in that it denies each is a
complete and separate person.
Calvin used the wording one
substance or essence and three subsistencies. This is much closer and perhaps as
close as we can get in human terms. Subsistence is a reference to the base and
essential property (essence) of a substance. It can be seen then as being the
essential of existence. Thus we have three subsistencies but one essence.
Later confessions will use wording
such as the Father ever existing, the son eternally begotten of the Father and
the Holy spirit eternally proceeding from the father and Son. This isn’t a bad
way to try and view the Trinity. The metaphysical and esoteric nature of the
Trinity leaves it just outside the reach of man to explain in more concrete
terms. However, God is spirit and spirit cannot be seen, touched, or tasted by
man.
As noted all three are properly
God and are co-equal in all things pertaining to the Godhead. This equality
however does not as some teach prohibit any subordination in the Godhead. We see
subordination of Son to Father several places in the New Testament when Christ
defers to the Father as inn example, “Thy will be done.” Neither the Son nor
Holy Spirit accomplish anything that is not in the eternal counsel of God as the
Father. This counsel Scripture declares was with none other than God Himself.
However the name God would of necessity have included Son and Spirit. We can
assign the “mode” or personalities involved to this subordination and not
infringe upon the fullness of each being totally and properly God. That is as
the operation of each is made manifest to man there is a subordination of Son
and Spirit to the will of the Father. The care here is not to rob either of
their place as being fully God and yet attempt to under how they can operate as
three persons and not break apart the unity of essence that is all three
persons.
If you don’t understand this you
are not alone, welcome to the club. God never bothered to explain Himself, just
that He existed. The only knowledge man can have about God is that which God
reveals about Himself. We then find that we can best explain God by His
attributes. Be care and do not separate God because different attributes appear
to be assigned to each person within the Trinity (see modalism above). A good
example of this is seen in the choice of words used here in the Belgic
Confession where it could be understood as some ancient heretics did that the
Holy Spirit is nothing more than the power of God and not of the same substance
or essence. The Confession isn’t in error here, but the wording can be seen as
careless by this generation. From the whole we know this was not the intent and
the author would have avoided any such wording if he thought it could be
misunderstood. This particular terminology was not repeated in later confessions
(The Westminster for example). Likewise, it would appear from the terminology
here that mode of operation is used to prove the Three have never assumed the
mode of the other. A presentation that leaves room then for the error of
modalism to spring forth, which is one of the errors, the confession is
expressly trying to refute. Our best theologians over the centuries after
struggling with the terminology have for the most part laid aside such attempts
and called it an area left within the mystery of God and accepted by faith.
One of my first year professors
used a common diagram of a triangle with each person of the Godhead assigned to
one of the points of the triangle, then explained that there was no place to
view the triangle from outside the triangle where you could ever see more than
two persons of the Godhead. Yet from within the triangle all three can be seen
and each at their own point of the complete triangle. The view from within the
triangle being the view of a believer. Another
way of showing that you can only see the Trinity by faith.
The important things to remember
are that all three are totally and properly fully God. The three are equal in
all things and all existed from eternity without beginning. The three cannot be
divided in essence in any way whatsoever and remain God. While attributes can be
distinguished in places, all three are one and their mode of operation does not
lessen the power or equality of any. Within the mode of operations we do see a
natural subordination, but not of person or equality of the essential essence.
Hear O’Israel, the LORD your GOD is One, stands fast as the way God revealed
Himself to man. From the very beginning God is spoken of in the Bible in the
plural and in the New Testament the doctrine of the persons within the Godhead
becomes clear but never is the word Trinity used to explain this three in one
God of Christianity. Three distinct and separate persons, co-equal in all
things, yet one God is what God has revealed and it is true.
Faith is substance of things hoped for and the essence of things unseen.
To the believer God has spoken and thus it is. To the unbeliever belong the
pitiful human attempts to reveal more of God than God has revealed of Himself.
