Trinity: Christology

The doctrine of the Trinity provides the Christian Church with the comprehensive grammar of God and salvation. Consequently, the Trinity is not one doctrine among others in the Christian confession—and a rather difficult and speculative doctrine at that. Rather, it is an articulation of the substance of the Christian faith. The doctrine of the Trinity, in other words, secures our belief that God truthfully revealed himself in the gift the Father gave by sending his Son in the flesh and by pouring out the Holy Spirit in order to draw his wayward creatures back to himself. By confessing that God is eternally one Being in three Persons, or by confessing that the Son and the Holy Spirit “are of one substance with the Father,” we are affirming in a compressed and precise way that the God who disclosed himself in the Scriptures and the economy of salvation is the God who truly is.

Christology, or the doctrine of the Person of Christ, should not be understood as yet another region of doctrine separate from the doctrine of the Trinity. Instead, the doctrine of Christ interlocks with the doctrine of the Trinity. It affirms that the divine and eternal Son or Logos took our human nature upon himself for us and for our salvation. In more striking language, an orthodox Christology confesses along with a group of sixth century Scythian monks that no one less than “one of the Trinity suffered in the flesh” for our salvation. By using the technical language of the Chalcedonian Definition that Christ is “acknowledged in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation,” the Church seeks to secure this truth about the person of the Savior: he is God in the flesh stooping to save his lost creatures.

The various formal and technical definitions and terms of Trinitarian and Christological doctrine must be understood in the context of this larger perspective:

Consubstantial (Gk. Homoousios)—This refers to the commonality of divine substance, which is one and identical in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We confess in the Nicene Creed that the Son is “of one substance with the Father,” and later tradition follows Gregory of Nazianzus in confessing the same of the Holy Spirit. By doing so, we are expressing our belief that the Son and Spirit are fully God no less than the Father.

Coequality of Persons—The three persons of God are fully equal as God. There are no gradations of nature in the Trinity.

Nature/Person—The distinction between divine person and nature leads us to what is most difficult to grasp in Trinitarian doctrine, namely, that God is One and Three, one in nature and three in persons. “Nature” refers to what something is, and this is common to the three persons. Each is fully God with no distinction in their nature. “Person” refers not to what a thing is but who (i.e. the individual). In Trinitarian doctrine “person” designates what is distinct and Three in God. So, while the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are identical as God (nature), they are nevertheless not identical with one another (person).

Relations of Origin—If the three Persons of God are identical in nature, what allows us to distinguish them? The Persons’ relations of origin allow us to identify what is distinct to each divine Person, their personal properties. The Father’s distinct properties are that he alone is unbegotten and he alone begets. The Son’s distinct property is that he alone is begotten (filiated). The Holy Spirit’s distinct property is that he proceeds (is spirated, breathed forth) from the Father and the Son. To sum up, the three are distinct in God solely because of their relations of origin: the Father is unoriginated, the Son is begotten and the Spirit proceeds. In every other way, they are identical.

Inseparable Operation—Because the Trinity is consubstantial, the work of the Trinity is inseparable. Put simply, divine action is done by the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.

Immanent Trinity/Economic Trinity—The immanent Trinity is God in himself, in the eternal relations of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The economic Trinity is God in his Triune relation to his creatures in time, through the incarnation of the Son and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Incarnation—This is the central doctrine of Christology, that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). “Flesh” has been interpreted in the Christian tradition to refer to all that belongs to human nature—body and soul. Therefore, the incarnation means that the Son of God became fully human.

Kenosis—We read in Philippians 2:6-7 that in the incarnation the Lord Jesus “being in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant.” The idea of kenosis, which means ‘emptying,’ comes from this verse. The traditional doctrine of kenosis holds that the emptying consists the eternal Son humbled himself, laying aside his divine prerogatives, by assuming a lowly human nature in order to submit himself to the humiliation of the Cross.

Two Natures—Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man. He was one Person but in two natures—divine and human. According to the Council of Chalcedon (451), the two natures are “without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.”

Chalcedonian Definition—This was the definition of a proper Christology that was published by the Council of Chalcedon in 451. It establishes the ground rules for an orthodox Christology.

Recommended Reading

Gilles Emery, O.P. The Trinity: An Introduction to the Catholic Doctrine on the Triune God. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2011.

Thomas F. Torrance. Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ. Downers Grove: IVP, 2008.

Doctrine

a. Creeds - Apostles, Nicene & Athanasian b. Trinity: Christology c. Salvation d. Sin, Suffering & Reconciliation e. Sacramental Theology f. Anglican Theological Method g. Office of Instruction/Catechism h. Heresies i. 39 Articles j. BCP 1662 as standard k. Theology of Mission