Gregory Nazianzen on the Trinity

December 15, 2008October 11, 2018 / davidsschrock

In The Holy Trinity, Robert Letham refers to T.F. Torrance’s assertion that John Calvin’s Trinitarian theology was developed, in part, by the Trinitarian formulations of Gregory Nazianzen. That is a mouthful, and an amazing pedigree–Gregory Naz, John Calvin, T.F. Torrance, Robert Letham (p. 267). Though Torrance’s connection between Gregory and Calvin has been debated by some (cf. Tony Lane), Calvin was at least familiar with Greg Naz, as is shown in the following quotation in Calvin’s writings.

I encourage you to meditate on Gregory’s unity and diversity held together in this Trinitarian reflection. Speaking of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the Cappadocian father writes:

No sooner do I conceive of the one than I am illumined by the splendour of the three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the one. When I think of any one of the three I think of him as the whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking escapes me. I cannot grasp the greatness of that one so as to attribute a greater greatness to the rest. When I contemplate the three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided light.

May we continue to delight in the immeasurable perfections of our Triune God.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Intimate Allies (pt. 2): Marriage and Evangelism

October 1, 2008October 1, 2008 / davidsschrock / 1 Comment

Evangelism: Marriage Depicts the Mystery of Christ and the Church

In Intimate Allies, Dan Allender and Tremper Longman show how marriage reflects to the watching a world a picture of the gospel, while at the same time for those Christian couples committed to growing in Christ-like conformity, it provides powerful opportunities for discipleship and sanctification. Consider first their observation on marriage’s gospel-depicting purpose(s):

Marriage must be a picture of or testimony to new birth. Marriage must reflect the fruits of new birth and the creative, Trinitarian God who is he author of life. In that sense, a marriage is the foundation of evangelism and the declaration of the possiblity of being a son and a daughter–being a member of the family of God. The central task of a marriage is first to create and offer life and then to take new life and shape it in the direction of maturity (79-80).

What an incredible vision of marriage! By participating in and continuing the work of creation in the world through child-bearing, marriage is a picture of new birth. Likewise, as life is cultivated within the marriage, and as the fruits of marital love are seen with runny noses and dirty feet, God’s program of filling the earth is accomplished. Consequently, marriage does not stand at odds with God’s plan of salvation, as some might assume from passages of Scripture like 1 Corinthians 7; rather, marriage is a primary means by which the Great Commission is accomplished. Consequently, marriages that seek to reflect the overflowing love of Christ and the church, provide a powerful lead in to gospel conversations and testimony to the greater, more perfect marriage–one that married and singles alike, can look forward to.

Paul in writing to the Colossians asked for prayer, that God would open a door for more effective service. He writes, “Pray for us also, that God may open a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison” (4:3). This petition is a model prayer for all missions-minded believers, and for the married couple who long to see their marriage be a means of evangelistic witness, it should fill their hearts with hope. For the very being of their marriage witnesses to the mystery now revealed–Christ and the church (Eph. 5:32). So married couples can and should pray with boldness that God would open doors of for the word of God, pried open by unbelievers witnessing the effect of Christ on their marriage.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

A Marriage Meditation

June 10, 2008June 11, 2008 / davidsschrock

This summer I am working on an applied ministry project with Dr. Randy Stinson that involves developing curriculum that considers ways in which marriage demonstrates the gospel to Christians and non-Christians. Though this project is just starting to take shape–there are many pages to be read and thoughts to be clarified–there has already been some excellent reading in Geoffrey Bromiley’s God and Marriage. Consider this marriage meditation:

Marriage has a christological origin, basis, and starting-point. In creating man–male and female–in his own image, and joinging them together so that they become one flesh, God makes us copies both of himself in his trinitarian unity and disctionction as one God and three persons and of himself in relation to the people of his gracious election. Analogically, what is between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and what ought to be and is and shall be between God and Isreal and Christ and the church, is also what is meant to be in the relation of man and woman and more specifically of husband and wife. Neither the intratrinitarian relationship nor the union between the heavenly bridegroom and his bride is a good copy of a bad original. Earthly marriage as it is now lived out is a bad copy of a good original (77).

It is amazing that as God allows husbands and wives to participate in this God-inspired union, we, as monogamous couples, are somehow reflecting, however poorly, the Triune God. In this, marriage is more than just an earthly construct, it is a portrait of the sublimist heavenly reality: a holy God sending his beloved Son to purchase and purify a radiant bride (cf. Song of Songs; Ezek. 16; Hosea; Eph. 5:22-33; Rev. 19:6-10). To God be the glory!