Walking Through Westminster, WCF 2.3

Westminster Confession of Faith 2.3

"In the unity of the Godhead there be three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son."

Summary

      While there is only one God, there are three Divine Persons who are each rightly called God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are distinct in their Personhood, but united in their substance, power, and eternity, or their Godhood. The Father is neither begotten, nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; and the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Son being eternally begotten and the Spirit proceeding in no way means that they are creatures or had a beginning, since they are eternally God. This is the fundamental doctrine of the orthodox catholic faith. Anyone who denies the belief in the Trinity, as presented above, is in no way a part of the one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. Anyone who denies this teaching and teaches something contrary is a false teacher and worthy of eternal damnation. This includes Arians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Unitarians, Mohammedans, so-called “Jews”, Modalists, and all heathen religions, which are obviously false. While the Trinitarian reality is a great mystery, this doesn’t make it illogical or impossible to believe. Further, anyone who would claim that they will only believe in a god they can fully understand is asking for an idol, and truly worships themselves. 

Since humanity is made in God’s image, I believe we can sufficiently grasp this doctrine by considering humanity itself. There is only one human nature, what we might call “humanness”. Each human person has this human nature 100%. In other words, it is not the case that human nature is subdivided based on how many human persons there are. For example two human persons don’t split human nature, each taking 50%, but rather they each are 100% human, yet maintain their distinct personhood. In a greater way, each of the Three Divine Persons is 100% God, the divinity being neither shared nor subdivided, yet in such a way that each Divine Person maintains their distinct personhood; the Father is neither the Son nor the Spirit, the Son neither the Spirit nor the Father, the Spirit neither the Father nor the Son, and yet each of the Three is truly God and there is only one God.

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Walking Through Westminster, WCF 2.2

Westminster Confession of Faith 2.2

"God has all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself; and is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which He has made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon them. He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things; and has most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatsoever Himself pleases. In His sight all things are open and manifest, His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to Him contingent, or uncertain. He is most holy in all His counsels, in all His works, and in all His commands. To Him is due from angels and men, and every other creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience He is pleased to require of them."

Summary

      God is totally self-sufficient in every way. He has no need to get life, glory, goodness, or blessedness from anything else. Everything that is meant by those words and realities God has in and of Himself. God does not derive glory from any of His creatures; the word “derive” there meaning take from something as a source. God does receive glory from His creatures, but He is the source of all the glory which they then give back to Him. He is the sole source and foundation of all being, the Supreme Being not in the sense that He has more of a grasp on being than anything else, but because He is being Himself. In short, God depends on nothing else for His own existence, life, fellowship, glory, blessedness, etc. Every creature derives all of these things from Him in such a way that He loses nothing.

Because of His nature, He is sovereign over all things. He does everything that He pleases to do with His creation and He is right and good in everything that He does. He is all-knowing, nothing being hidden from Him, but all things being open and manifest. He knows all things, He knows them all perfectly, and He is dependent on nothing else for this knowledge. He is all-knowing, not merely in the sense that all knowledge is available to Him at His own leisure, but in the sense that all things are immediately known to Him always. He is not a librarian in a library filled with all knowledge, all things being merely available to Him for knowing, but rather He knows all things at all times. Nothing for Him is uncertain or contingent.

The overarching characteristic of God, as discussed in a prior section, is His holiness. He is holy, holy, holy in everything He does, everything He ordains, and everything He commands. Because of who He is, what He does, and how He does it, He is supremely worthy of worship, service, and obedience, in whatever way He chooses. Because of His supreme holiness, all the worship, service, and obedience that He requires is, by definition, holy. 

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Walking Through Westminster, WCF 2.1

Westminster Confession of Faith 2.1

"There is but one only, living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions; immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; and withal, most just, and terrible in His judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty."

Summary

         Although there are many things that are wrongly called “gods”, yet in truth there is only one being who deserves the title of God and rightly bears it: the Triune Jehovah (1 Cor 8:6). Every other so-called “god” is either a figment of man’s imagination, or is a demonic spirit who wrongly attempts to steal the title; a deceiver who tricks sinful, foolish men to worship them, rather than the one, true God. It is not the case that every heathen worships nothing; there may be some substance behind the idols, but every other god is just that: an idol; something that makes promises which it cannot keep, and which cannot even sustain its own life. The distinction is found in what follows in the section.

The true God is infinite in His being and perfection. He is not some tribal deity, nor is He confined to a particular geographic locale, as pagans wrongly suppose. Rather, He is the infinitely perfect, infinitely present God. In His substance, He is a spirit, invisible. He is not contained within a physical body, as some early believers wrongly supposed and as Mormons wrongly believe. He is immutable (unchangeable), meaning that He is not changed or altered by time, space, or experience. He is immense, so much so that He is actually incomprehensible. There is an important difference between God being comprehensible and apprehensible. God is not comprehensible, meaning that no other being can understand Him fully. But He is apprehensible, meaning that other beings can grasp Him, or lay hold on Him by faith. We cannot now and never will or could understand everything about God; only God can fully understand Himself. However, we can understand some things about God, insofar as He reveals them to us.

God is defined as being “most” of several things: most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, most loving. He is “most” at these things because He is these things. It is not the case that there is a scale of wisdom apart from God, and that He just happens to be at the top of the scale. He is wisdom. Wisdom is defined by His own nature. The same with holiness, freedom, absoluteness, and love. He is holiness. He is freedom. He is absolute. He is love. God isn’t just better at these things than we are, He is these things. Because of this truth about God, we know that He must work all things together, and that He must do so for good reasons, because goodness is defined by His own nature. He works all things together for His own glory, but also for the good of His people, which is why the section recounts how God’s greatness is also expressed in His love. Unlike the false idol of Mohammed and his followers, the true God is not only sovereign and immense and powerful and perfect, but He is also loving, gracious, merciful, longsuffering. He doesn’t merely possess goodness and truth, He abounds in goodness and truth. There is more goodness and truth in God than we would ever know what to do with. His greatness is expressed in His forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet, again unlike Mohammed’s false god, the true God doesn’t extend forgiveness arbitrarily. Rather, God’s greatness is seen in His sovereign, eternal plan to come in the nature of men and die for their sins, so that God might be just and the justifier of all who seek Him in Christ (Rom 3:25-26). 

But to all those who sinfully refuse to seek Him in Christ, God will not extend forgiveness, but rather righteous and terrible judgments. God must do this if He is to be just, and He longs to do it because He hates all sin. God has to judge sin. He has to punish wickedness. If He didn’t, He would cease to be just, and not be in accord with His own nature, which is impossible. It is not a question of whether or not God will judge sin. The question is whether God has already judged your sins in Christ, or whether you will stubbornly refuse to be in Christ and bear the judgment for your sins alone. In case we had any doubts or suspicions, the section ends with the guarantee that God will by no means clear the guilty, meaning extend arbitrary forgiveness without the shedding of blood. Men who dare to hope in arbitrary forgiveness from God outside the shed blood of Jesus are hoping in a falsehood and further damning themselves to eternal condemnation.

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