Chapter 13, Sections 16-20 Understanding the Trinity

I find it interesting to note how Calvin takes a passage such as Matthew 28:19ff, which some might use to demonstrate separation, and instead uses that same text to demonstrate unity. "God's essence," he says, "resides in three persons." In his discussion of the Oneness of God, we see again, in his use of Eph. 4 and Matt. 28, that Calvin is, above all else, an "exegetical" theologian. Many contemporary theologians could take a lesson from him. Even sound men, today, fail to ground their theological discussions in the authority of the Word, when this, above all else, is what is needed.

Nonetheless, as clearly as the unity of God is set forth in His word, so, too, is the threeness of God set forth. And can we find a better summary of the proper response to these corresponding truths than his quote from Gregory of Nazianzus?

"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."

In section 18, we are faced once again with the incongruity between the accusations constantly hurled against the man, and what we find when we read the thoughts of the man himself. Calvin, we're told, is one who does not fear to go beyond Scripture. He is all "system" and "philosophy". And yet, what do we find here?

"Men of old...confessed that the analogies they advanced (to explain the Trinity) were quite inadequate. Thus it is that I shrink from all rashness here...Nevertheless, it is not fitting to suppress the distinction that we observe to be expressed in Scripture."

That sounds, to me, very much like a man who does not wish to go beyond the Scripture, but at the same time, does not want to stop short of understanding all that Scripture does provide.

Oh, that we all would have such a balance!

It is interesting to note Calvin's short discussion of the "filioque" issue in section 18. This is one of the issues which was a cause of the division between East and West a thousand years ago, and remains a source of division between the Eastern Orthodox churches and Rome today. Does the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father alone, or from the Father and the Son? Calvin takes the entire controversy and boils it down to the teaching of one short passage, that being Romans 8:9-11.

"The Son is said to come forth from the Father alone; the Spirit, from the Father and the Son at the same time. This appears in many passages, but nowhere more clearly that in chapter 9 of Romans..."

In regard to the attempt to put too fine a point on particular aspects of Trinitarian doctrine, we would be wise to follow the advice given at the end of section 19 in which Calvin refers us to Augustine "On the Trinity".

"Indeed, it is far safer to stop with that relations which Augustine sets forth than by too subtly penetrating into the sublime mystery to wander through many evanescent speculations."