For what other light of God can be named, in which any one sees light, save an influence of God, by which a man, being enlightened, either thoroughly sees the truth of all things, or comes to know God Himself, who is called the truth? Such is the meaning of the expression, In Your light we shall see light; i.e., in Your word and wisdom which is Your Son, in Himself we shall see You the Father.
—Origen, De Principiis, 1.1.1.
There is not, nor cannot be any colour at all to say, that God doth love sinners extra Christum, or destinate Eternal life to them without a mediator. When God in free Election resolves with himself, such individual persons shall by an effectual Call be united to Christ as members of his Body, and being such, shall be washed in his blood, filled with his Spirit, and at last crowned with his everlasting Salvation; when he resolves, every grain shall come through Joseph’s hands, every particle of Grace, every income of the holy Spirit, every glimpse of Divine Favour, every beam of glory in Heaven, shall pass through Jesus Christ’s hands; nay, through his very Heart-blood and crucified Flesh unto the Elect, Doth he now love them extra Christum? Doth he yet destinate them to Eternal life without a Mediator? Undoubtedly he doth not. If therefore you ask me, what necessity there is of Christ’s merits, I must answer, That all Grace and Glory, Sanctity and Salvation, Faith and Fruition are thereby purchased and procured for the Elect. The pure fountain of Election rises of itself in the Will of God, but the gracious streams thereof issue forth through the bleeding Wounds of Christ.
– Polhill, Edward. The divine will considered in its eternal decrees and holy execution of them by Edward Polhill … Esquire (London: Printed for Henry Eversden, 1673), 81-82. (Click on the book for info on the modern re-print edition of Polhill’s works.)
The God who created and sustained us is also he who re-creates us in his image. Grace, though superior to nature, is not in conflict with it. While restoring what has been corrupted in it by sin, it also clarifies and perfects what is still left in it of God’s revelation. The thinking mind situates the doctrine of the Trinity squarely amid the full-orbed life of nature and humanity. A Christian’s confession is not an island in the ocean but a high mountaintop from which the whole creation can be surveyed. And it is the task of Christian theologians to present clearly the connectedness of God’s revelation with, and its significance for, all of life. The Christian mind remains unsatisfied until all of existence is referred back to the triune God, and until the confession of God’s Trinity functions at the center of our thought and life.
– Herman Bavinck, God and Creation, vol. 2 of Reformed Dogmatics, 4 vols., ed. John Bolt, trans. John Vriend (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004), 330.
The current Ordained Servant asks, How is the Trinity a vital to the the church’s praxis?
Contents
