Gregory Nazianzen

Writing about the way God reveals his Triune nature over time, Geoffrey Wainwright, professor of theology at Duke, cites Gregory Nazianzus and Irenaeus, in the Dictionary of Theological Interpretation of the Bible (817). Consider first Gregory Nazianzus:

The Old Testament proclaimed the Father openly, and the Son more obscurely; the New manifested the Son, and suggested the deity of the Spirit; now the Spirit himself dwells among us, and supplies us with a clearer demonstration of himself (Gregory Nazianzus in his Fifth Theological Oration 26 [SC 250:326-27]).

God has revealed himself progressively, beginning with his oneness clearly and his threeness more subtly. Gregory’s comment affirms this distinction, but his language could lead to a misunderstanding. First, the New Testament itself gives ample revelation for discerning the Spirit as the third member of the Trinity (cf. Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 5:3-4; and all references that designate the “Spirit of God” or the “spirit of Christ”). We are not left seeking later revelation, the Scripture’s is sufficient. Even if the early church required many years and disagreements to approximate this doctrinal formulation, Pneumatology is derived from the Bible and not later experience.

Second, the Bible also teaches us that the Spirit does not “demonstrate himself” as Gregory Nazianzus indicates. Rather, the Spirit testifies of Christ and reveals to us the Father and the Son (cf. John 15:26; 16:13); amazingly, he does not glorify himself through self-revelation. Thus, it is not appropriate to say that the Spirit has been showing himself off during the church age. His operations in the church age are to exalt Christ, who in turn glorifies the Father.

More precisely, Irenaeus picks up the relationship between the Trinity and the progress of revelation when he writes:

[God] having been seen in bygone days through the Spirit prophetically, and then seen through the Son adoptively, shall be seen in the kingdom paternally, the Spirit preparing man for the Son of God, the Son leading to the Father, and the Father giving him the incorruptibility and eternal life that come from the vision of God (Irenaeus in Against Heresies 4.20.5 [SC 100:638-41]).

To know God prophetically, adoptively, and paternally… Wow! Consider the wisdom and benevolence of God to send the Spirit to inspire men to prophesy and prepare us for the Son, then the Son to come and manifest himself in the flesh in order to make provision for redemption and access to the Father, so that in the age to come we might enter into the presence of the Father, through the Son, in the power and purity of the Spirit. (By the way this should not deny the complementary truth that the Father and Son also prepared the way for the Son; just as the Spirit, sent from Father and Son, prepares us to encounter God at the eschaton).

Jonah 2:9 says, “salvation belongs to our God,” and considering the biblical storyline shows us without a doubt, that our salvation is a Trinitarian work. He has coordinated his redemptive acts and faith-producing revelation in such a way that when we come to understand salvation truly we realize that we encounter the Triune God (cf. Eph. 1:1-4; Rom. 8:28ff). The Father architects. The Son accomplishes. The Holy Spirit applies. There is no other salvation; there is no God: true salvation is Trinitarian and the true God in perfect unison to save.

What an amazing God! What an amazing salvation!

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

In The Holy Trinity, Robert Letham quotes Gregory Nazianzen’s cogent statement on the Trinity’s progressive revelation within the history of the Bible:

The Old Testament proclaimed the Father openly, and the Son more obscurely. The New manifested the Son, and suggested the deity of the Spirit. Now the Spirit himself dwells among us, and supplies us with a clearer demonstration of himself. For it was not safe, when the Godhead of the Father was not yet acknowledged, plainly to proclaim the Son; nor when that of the Son was not yet received to burden us further…with the Holy Spirit…[I]t was necessary that, increasing little by little, and as David says, by ascensions from glory to glory, the full splendor of the Trinity should gradually shine (Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity, 33).

Gregory’s insights draw attention to the the wisdom of Christianity’s Triune God as he has gradually revealed himself as he really is and always (read: eternally) has been–God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. While all three existed in eternity together, only in the fullness of time is Triune Godhead seen in his manifold perfections. For those who read and teach the Bible, it must be kept in mind that God’s revelation is accomplished over time, and that the unchanging deity of the Bible is more clearly disclosed at the end of the story than at the beginning. While Gen. 1:1, 2, 3 arguably contain allusions to all three members of the Trinity, their disclosure is opaque, at best. This does not make Scripture contradictory or confused; it must be read in time (diachronically).

The progressive act of Trinitarian revelation shows God’s wisdom in teaching us, finite creations, who he is through escalating stages of revelation (cf. Heb. 1:1-3). Until we see how redemptive-history develops the Trinity over time, we will not be able to fully appreciate the oneness and the threeness of God–one Trinitarian being, three consubstantional persons; co-eternal in nature, fully revealed in their inter-penetrating distinctives in time.

There is so much here to fathom. May we continue to marvel at the uniqueness, the mystery, and the revelation of our living and true God.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss