Westminster Shorter Catechism Q&A #6

Q: How many persons are there in the Godhead?
A: There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. 
Matthew 28:19: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit 

How confused we can become about the mystery of the Trinity! We professed last week to be firmly grounded upon the idea that there is "but One only, the living and true God", and now we're talking about three persons, one God, and it's enough to make our heads spin. Is it any wonder that the other monotheistic religions often accuse Christianity of worshiping more than one God? The Christian Church has been clear though: We believe the Bible reveals one God in three persons. 

What does that mean, to worship and confess one God in three persons? People throughout the centuries have made attempts at explaining the mystery of the Trinity. They've used analogies that have, for the most part, come up short. Some throughout the history of the Church have gone so far in attempting to explain the triune nature of God that they've ended up abandoning Biblical truth. For example, some believe that God simply plays three different roles, or manifests himself in three different modes, at different times (the Modalist heresy). But this heresy denies what the Bible reveals: that there are three distinct persons in the Godhead, not simply three roles that God plays. We see this most clearly at the baptism of Jesus where we hear the audible voice of God, we see the Son being baptized, and the Holy Spirit descending as a dove. Others attempt to describe the Trinity by saying that the three persons of the Godhead are simply components of God (the Partialist heresy). The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they say, are each only part of God, but neither is fully God in and of themselves. Only together do they form the one true God. This heresy denies what Scripture plainly teaches, that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all fully and equally divine in their person. 

Despite the many errors and heresies that have popped up over the centuries in attempts to explain the tri-unity of God, the Church has indeed produced some helpful and biblical documents to help us understand the mystery of the Trinity. One of these documents is the Athanasian Creed. This creed is universally accepted by Christians as a concise statement of what the Bible teaches concerning the triune nature of God, and I hope that it will help us all to understand this great mystery a little more clearly so that we may worship the one living and true God more completely!

The Athanasian Creed: 

Whoever desires to be saved should above all hold to the catholic faith*.

Anyone who does not keep it whole and unbroken will doubtless perish eternally.

Now this is the catholic faith:

    That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity,
    neither blending their persons
    nor dividing their essence.
        For the person of the Father is a distinct person,
        the person of the Son is another,
        and that of the Holy Spirit still another.
        But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one,
        their glory equal, their majesty coeternal.

    What quality the Father has, the Son has, and the Holy Spirit has.
        The Father is uncreated,
        the Son is uncreated,
        the Holy Spirit is uncreated.

        The Father is immeasurable,
        the Son is immeasurable,
        the Holy Spirit is immeasurable.

        The Father is eternal,
        the Son is eternal,
        the Holy Spirit is eternal.

            And yet there are not three eternal beings;
            there is but one eternal being.
            So too there are not three uncreated or immeasurable beings;
            there is but one uncreated and immeasurable being.

    Similarly, the Father is almighty,
        the Son is almighty,
        the Holy Spirit is almighty.
            Yet there are not three almighty beings;
            there is but one almighty being.

        Thus the Father is God,
        the Son is God,
        the Holy Spirit is God.
            Yet there are not three gods;
            there is but one God.

        Thus the Father is Lord,
        the Son is Lord,
        the Holy Spirit is Lord.
            Yet there are not three lords;
            there is but one Lord.

    Just as Christian truth compels us
    to confess each person individually
    as both God and Lord,
    so catholic religion forbids us
    to say that there are three gods or lords.

    The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten from anyone.
    The Son was neither made nor created;
    he was begotten from the Father alone.
    The Holy Spirit was neither made nor created nor begotten;
    he proceeds from the Father and the Son.

    Accordingly there is one Father, not three fathers;
    there is one Son, not three sons;
    there is one Holy Spirit, not three holy spirits.

    Nothing in this trinity is before or after,
    nothing is greater or smaller;
    in their entirety the three persons
    are coeternal and coequal with each other.

    So in everything, as was said earlier,
    we must worship their trinity in their unity
    and their unity in their trinity.

Anyone then who desires to be saved
should think thus about the trinity.

But it is necessary for eternal salvation
that one also believe in the incarnation
of our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully.

Now this is the true faith:

    That we believe and confess
    that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son,
    is both God and human, equally.

     He is God from the essence of the Father,
    begotten before time;
    and he is human from the essence of his mother,
    born in time;
    completely God, completely human,
    with a rational soul and human flesh;
    equal to the Father as regards divinity,
    less than the Father as regards humanity.

    Although he is God and human,
    yet Christ is not two, but one.
    He is one, however,
    not by his divinity being turned into flesh,
    but by God's taking humanity to himself.
    He is one,
    certainly not by the blending of his essence,
    but by the unity of his person.
    For just as one human is both rational soul and flesh,
    so too the one Christ is both God and human.

    He suffered for our salvation;
    he descended to hell;
    he arose from the dead;
    he ascended to heaven;
    he is seated at the Father's right hand;
    from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
    At his coming all people will arise bodily
    and give an accounting of their own deeds.
    Those who have done good will enter eternal life,
    and those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.

This is the catholic faith:
one cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully.

*(The word catholic with a lowercase "c" means "universal" and refers to the true Christian church of all times and all places throughout history, which belongs to Christ alone.)

Westminster Shorter Catechism Q&A #5

Q: Are there more Gods than one? 
A: There is but One only, the living and true God. 
Isaiah 44:6: Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. 

Monotheism isn't unique to Christianity. Islam teaches that there is one God, Judaism teaches that there is one God. And while these religions have a perverted, limited, and downright wrong doctrine of the one, true God, it gives us a starting point in any conversation we engage in with a Muslim or Jew. But even beyond these religions, the Western world generally accepts this notion as well. When was the last time we heard a skeptic say, "Well, if there are Gods", or an atheist say, "I don't believe in the existence of Gods". Western society simply doesn't talk about God plurally. Not yet, anyway. It is a presupposition in our culture that as we discuss the existence and nature of God, we are talking about one God. However, in the undercurrents of the American way of life, and certainly in the mainstream spirituality of our culture, we can see that society is far from being monotheistic. In fact, for all practical purposes, our culture is essentially polytheistic.

As followers of the one, true, living God, we have to ask ourselves this question. Are we living in a way that is truly monotheistic? We may reject polytheism on the surface. We may reject the modern, pop-spirituality that we see around us, but are we fleshing this out? Are we living our lives in a way that brings glory and honor to the one true God, or, are we too, for all practical purposes, essentially polytheists? Let's be honest with ourselves. We worship many things as gods. As Calvin said, man's heart is an idol factory, and the Church is not immune to this reality. We worship ourselves, money, careers, success, status among other men, our material possessions, even our loved ones become objects of worship. And we shower our praise, adoration, and affections on these other gods. Not only do we worship them, we go as far as to put our faith in them. We trust these gods with our safety and security. We look to them for a sense of peace. We look to them for guidance and wisdom. You see, when we do this, when we worship these things as gods, not only do we steal from God the worship that only he deserves, we undermine the very foundation of the Christian faith! We do not live out our belief that there is one God, he is "the first and the last", apart from him there are no other gods. 

This realization about ourselves is painful, and it is ongoing. None of us will be free from idolatry until we are in Glory. But brothers and sisters, we must make every effort to break free from our polytheism. We know there is no hope, comfort, security, wisdom, or peace that comes from these other gods. We know that only in the one, true, living God do we find our eternal joy!  Let us pray every day that God, through the working of the Holy Spirit in us, would show us our idols so that we may repent and worship him alone! Let us pray that God would be, as CS Lewis put it, the great "iconoclast" in our hearts so that we would truly testify, both in our words and deeds, that he alone is God, and is worthy of our worship! 

 

Jesus Conquers For Us (Mark 1:12-15)

What is the main point of this sermon/passage? I hope that is a question you learn to ask every time you listen to a sermon. As a reminder, the main point this past Sunday was that Jesus, God’s anointed King, was sent by God to conquer our enemy by obeying in our place. He then invites us into his kingdom if we will repent and believe in the good news. 

Here is another question that I hope entered into your mind as you listened on Sunday:

Was Jesus Alone in the Wilderness?

I believe the answer to that question is yes and no. I emphasized the yes Sunday night to help us understand that Jesus’ tempting by Satan in the wilderness involved real suffering in a real battle with a real enemy. Jesus had no human friend with him to help him. He can identify with us in our temptations and our loneliness.

At the same time, Jesus was not alone. At this point Jesus still enjoyed perfect fellowship within the Trinity, and it was the Spirit who led him into the wilderness. But the text also tells us that the angels were ministering to him. The angels were with Jesus and were ministering to him throughout his time in the wilderness. This was another sign of God’s love and favor toward his Son. God the Father sent his angels to care for his beloved Son. Jesus remained sinless and had pleased the Father by obeying in our place.

This is a great encouragement to us. First, because Jesus did what we could not do. He obeyed where we sin, he succeeded where we fail, he conquered our greatest enemy, Satan. But the fact that the angels ministered to Jesus should also encourage us because the angels also minister to us today. The writer of Hebrews, speaking of angels, writes in Hebrews 1:14, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?” 

Beloved, God is with you today. He gave his own Son to live, die, and rise again in your place. And he has created supernatural beings to minister to you as you strive to glorify God in all you do while you look forward to Jesus coming again.

Westminster Shorter Catechism Q&A #4

Q: What is God?
A: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. 
John 4:24: God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

It is strange to me that the authors of the Westminster Confession of Faith and the shorter and larger catechisms have been criticized over the past 400 years for trying to "define" God. Dr. Sinclair Ferguson has said that the statements made within this section of the confession and catechisms are clear statements of Biblical orthodoxy which no true Christian can contest. Yet, many Christians have taken up issue. They feel as if the Westminster Divines have tried to make the infinite into a finite being that we can understand. That certainly was not their intention, though, and that is seen clearly in the fact that the Westminster Confession of Faith also says that God is "incomprehensible" (Chapter II). Rather, what the authors of the confession and catechisms have done is simply summarized what the Bible has revealed God to be. And it is in no way a complete list of his glorious attributes! 

But the importance of this question, I believe, is related to last week's question concerning what the Scriptures principally teach. The Bible overflows with revelations about God's character and nature, and as we pour over the pages of Scripture, our hearts and minds should overflow with love and affection for our great God. 

It is Jesus himself who defines God as spirit, and he himself  gives the command to worship him in spirit and truth. We should give some consideration to what it means to worship God in spirit and truth. For that, I leave you with the words of Pastor John Piper:

Worship must be vital and real in the heart, and worship must rest on a true perception of God. There must be spirit and there must be truth. . . . Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full (or half-full) of artificial admirers . . . . On the other hand, emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought. But true worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine. Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship."

Westminster Shorter Catechism Q&A #3

Q: What do the scriptures principally teach?
A: The scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. 
John 5:39: You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,

How many times have we heard people, both Christian and non-Christian, say, "well my god is..." and then they continue on to give a description of a god of their own creation? A good example of this is an article I recently read by a "progressive" theologian. The article, which was written to describe how progressive Christians understand the Bible, of course, gave lip service to the Bible. But then the article went on to say that progressives do not believe that everything the Bible says is true and accurate. And what part of the Bible did the author reject? Any part that presents God as wrathful, vengeful, jealous, and so on. See, these attributes, in his mind, are simply incompatible with his god. The author wrote of a god full of love, compassion, patience, faithfulness, grace and mercy (I'm not sure what mercy means when there is no divine wrath, but that's a whole other topic!). Yes, the Bible certainly does reveal God to be all of those things, but the Bible also reveals God to be perfectly just, jealous, and full of wrath towards the unholy. The author of the article was not using the Bible to shape his understanding of God, rather, he was forming his own god based upon a fallen, human understanding of what he believes God should be. He openly discredited parts of God's word as simply being wrong if those portions of scripture presented attributes of God that seemed to contradict his mold.

This approach to understanding God, of course, has huge implications on his theology. Along with defining the rules and parameters of who he thinks God is, he goes on to form a set of rules and parameters of how a Christian should live and act based upon his view of God. Because this author was able to discredit a God of wrath, he is essentially able to justify any lifestyle, any sin, anything he wants based upon whether he deems it loving, fair, or in lines with his notion of justice. 

We can all do this, can't we? We trust our fallen notions of fairness and justice, or love, or kindness, and then try to form a god who fits into our mold. It is idolatry, plain and simple, and here's the real kicker. Our own thoughts and opinions are not our guide to what we should believe concerning God. God himself has revealed his character and nature, and he has done it in the pages of scripture. Accept it as revelation, or reject it as revelation, but there is no middle ground here. The Bible alone gives us the revelation we need to know who God is, and if we seem to feel that there are contradictions in how God has revealed himself in the scriptures, then the problem is not in God's revelation, but rather, in our understanding of it. We are not free to simply cast aside portions of the Bible that we believe present God to be something we don't like. We must let the revelation of God mold and shape our understanding of God, not let our understanding of God mold and shape what we think the Bible says, or what God should or shouldn't be like. And once we are able to see who God truly is, as he has revealed himself to be in scripture, then we are able to see what duty God requires of us. In other words, you cannot have orthopraxy (right living) if you do not first have orthodoxy (right belief). 

How does all of this relate then to Christ's words in John 5:39? It's actually quite remarkable what Jesus is saying here. He reveals to us in these words that he is God in the flesh, and that he is the fulfillment of all Biblical revelation. The Old Testament laws and rituals? They point to him! Do we want to know what God is like and what he requires of us? Then look in faith to Jesus Christ himself! Look as his character, his attributes, his life of perfect obedience, and his substitutionary death on the cross.