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The Persons of God |
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When we considered God’s triune existence, we said that the one divine nature was shared or individualized by three distinct persons. At this point we focus on the three persons sharing that one nature. As we do we need to keep in mind that each of the abilities and attributes considered under the heading “The Nature of God” are equally available to each of the three persons. Regarding those abilities, each person can use the power provided by the nature. Each person can access the same reservoir of knowledge and understanding and wisdom. Each person has the desires that stem from their shared nature. And each person has consciousness provided by the nature. As with the abilities, so too the attributes of the nature. For each person the nature is sufficient, dependable, good, and true.
In considering the distinct persons, we are focusing on the common characteristics, the abilities and attributes, possessed independently by each of the persons of the Godhead. Unlike the nature which is shared, these are characteristics that are not shared but are held in common as separate but equal possessions. This means that an attribute or ability that is true with respect to the Father or the Son or the Spirit is also true with respect to the other two persons. Each is a distinct person. But as such, they are alike. Thus, when we see in Scripture that the Father can communicate or can determine or is living, then we would can say that these characteristics are also true for the Son and Spirit.
As we consider the three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, we must keep in mind that the Son, unlike the Father and Spirit, is presently both divine and human. He, as a person, is giving individuality to two distinct natures. The person of the Son has individualized the divine nature from eternity. And now the same person also is individualizing the human nature he assumed at the time of the Incarnation. This means that characteristics true of the Son as a person are true as he individualizes both his divine nature and his human nature.
We are suggesting that the three persons of the Godhead are ontologically alike in every respect. That is, each person is in full possession of identical personal abilities and attributes.[1] Here “personal” refers to characteristics attributed to the person-parts of the being of God as opposed to the nature-part of God’s being. However, in saying that these characteristics are identical for the three persons is not to say that the three persons are identical in every respect. Frame writes, “The Trinitarian persons … are distinct from one another, and each has some property that distinguishes it from the others.”[2] There are distinctions among the three, distinctions that make these three persons different or unique even though they are each persons sharing the same divine nature.
For one example, consider that the persons each possess self-awareness or self-consciousness. Each is aware that he exists as a distinct divine person. However, while they have self-awareness as a common attribute, each one experiences only his own respective self-awareness. In this sense, there are three different self-awarenesses in the Godhead.
There is another property that is not experienced the same among the three persons. It is closely related to their self-awareness. That property involves the relationship of the persons among themselves. The Father has a relationship with the Son as does the Spirit. But only those two sustain such a relationship and even those are different. Similar statements may be made regarding the relationships of the Son and the Spirit. So, while each person has a relationship with the other two persons, each of these is itself unique.
A final example of the difference in experience of personal properties relates to the fact that the persons can act and when they do, they do so as individuals. An action on the part of one person is not that of the others. Consequently, only the person carrying out the act has the experience of doing so.[3] When one person acts, only that person can say, “I did.” The other two persons must say “you did” or “he did.”
What are the three persons of the Godhead able to do as persons? Recall that by ability I am highlighting those areas that involve what God can do or experience. Regarding the three persons, I will consider six such abilities. There is no attempt to be exhaustive here (which would be impossible anyway). The abilities here include those of a person that seem to be significant. As noted earlier, human beings, as personal beings, have these same abilities. But what is fully realized in the persons who are God is only realized in human persons in a limited way. The persons can think, emote, communicate, determine, act, and experience. We will consider each of these abilities in turn.
Earlier we considered the attributes of the nature. Among those attributes were included the fact that God is good and God is true. When we reflect on the abilities of the three persons, we will find that these natural attributes are echoed in their personal abilities. That is, what they do manifests that by nature they are good and true.
What are the three persons of the Godhead like as persons? How can we describe them? Similar with the subject of God’s nature, when thinking about the persons the term attribute refers what the persons are like. Recall that by “attributes” I am highlighting those things that indicate what God is. The attributes being considered here are three in number. The three persons are living, are self-aware, and are independent.
[1] This would not be the case if the doctrines of begetting and procession were true.
[2] Frame, The Doctrine of God, p. 704. Note that Frame speaks of “personal properties” as those that “belong to only one person” (p. 705). He distinguishes these from “attributes” which, he says, “belong to the whole divine nature and to all three persons” (p. 704f).
[3] The most outstanding example of unique experiences is the Incarnation. Only the Son has experienced humanity. The Father and Spirit know what it is like to be human, but only the Son has experienced being human.