Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: One God from All and to All Eternity

And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased."

Luke 3:22^NKJ

Question 10 of the Larger Catechism asks, “What are the personal properties of the three persons in the Godhead?”  It gives the answer, “It is proper to the Father to beget the Son, and to the Son to be begotten of the Father, and to the Holy Ghost to proceed from the Father and the Son from all eternity.”  As we consider these personal properties of the persons of the Godhead, let us remember the Bible teaches that God is Triune. The doctrine of the Trinity declares that God is one in essence or being, and three in subsistence’s or persons. In this question we are considering those qualities in the three persons of the Godhead which make them distinct from one another.

We must be careful not to confuse the personal properties of the Trinity with what is called the doctrine of the “economic Trinity.”  The doctrine of the economic Trinity looks at what God does in relation to His creatures in time, and how He does it: the division of labor among the persons of the Godhead, if you will.  By this doctrine we understand how the persons of the Godhead act differently in creation and redemption.  Thus, according to Scripture the Father sends the Son into the world, the Son accomplishes our redemption, and the Spirit applies it to us.  It would be erroneous, therefore, to say that the Spirit sent the Father into the world who accomplished redemption, which was then applied by the Son.  Thus, the doctrine of the economic Trinity helps us to think accurately about how God works among His creatures. 

Of equal importance is the doctrine of the “ontological Trinity.” Whereas the economic Trinity considers what the three persons do (economy), the ontological Trinity has to do with who the three persons are (ontology). The doctrine of the ontological Trinity therefore sets forth the different personal properties of the three persons of the Godhead, which distinguish them from one another: not according to their different workings, but according to who each one of them is. Thus, while the economic Trinity refers to what God does, the ontological Trinity teaches us how the persons of the Godhead relate to one another. 

With this distinction in mind, we can see that Catechism question 10, which we are now considering, is clearly speaking  the ontological Trinity. For the personal properties of the three persons of God address not how God works but who God is. In other words, there has always been and there will always be three equal but different persons in the one God. God’s Triune nature is inherent to who He is at the core of His being, in all of His perfections and attributes. God did not take on a mode of tri-unity for some economic purpose, but on the contrary God would be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, One God now and forever, even if He never created anything. Therefore, the ancient heresy of Sabellianism or Modalism: that God puts on variously three persons to accomplish His purposes in creation and redemption; is rejected.

The Catechism refutes modalism by declaring that the different personal properties of the persons of the Godhead originate “from all eternity.”  From all eternity the Father begets the Son (Joh. 1:18).  From all eternity the Son is begotten of the Father (Joh. 17:5), and from all eternity the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and from the Son (Joh. 14:26; 15:26; 20:22).  These personal properties describe the way in which our Triune God relates to Himself within His being eternally. God IS Trinity, God has always been Trinity, God will always be Trinity. 

Furthermore, the doctrine of the persons of the Godhead was not something made up to help us understand God. It is not a divine figure of speech or pedagogical tool. It is who God is and has always been. Therefore, it is inaccurate to speak of God as “Mother,” or that God could have revealed Himself to us as mother/daughter if He so chose. The Fatherhood and Sonship of God are not merely temporal, cultural, or semantical. On the contrary, God has revealed Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God in three persons because that is truly and really who God is. Human fatherhood and human sonship reflect God’s reality and not vice versa. Let us in awe bow the knee before our Triune God: one God in three persons, from all and to all eternity.