Not Manifold, But One
Chapter 2: Of God and of the Holy Trinity
1. There is but one only, living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, with out body, parts, or passions; immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will, for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and withal, most just, and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty.
If you wanted to learn the best tips about horse racing, who do you think you should talk to? The judges? The spectators? The bookies? Well, the best info about horse racing would come from the one running the race, hence the popular idiom: “straight from the horses mouth.” This phrase has come to refer to information directly from the source, or directly from someone with personal knowledge on a subject, which is rather important if you want reliable information, right?
Well, at least you would hope that people would think so, wouldn’t you? However, we live in an era where the most prevalent philosophy is that each person determines their own truth. That is, they look at the world and interpret events and realities in a way that suites them. This does not work, however. The world remains unchanged no matter how much I convince myself otherwise; I can say that the moon is made of cheese until I’m blue in the face and it will remain resolutely a planetary object made of rock. It doesn’t matter how much I want it to be made out of cheese, or how much I believe with all my heart; it just isn’t and never will be.
Unfortunately what I just described above, for a lot of people, is what they think faith is. I believing in something hard enough so that it becomes “true for me.” But this is not how the Bible describes faith in any way shape or form. Faith, according to God’s word, is hearing God speak, giving His words priority in one’s life, believing it, trusting Him, and acting on that trust. So that when God says “I am holy” it doesn’t matter what the world around us says;--it doesn’t even matter what I might like to think about God—the only reliable source of information about God is God Himself, and God declares in His Word that He is holy. So have you ever heard anyone say something like: “To me God is…” or “I like to think of God as…” or even “My god wants me to be happy…”? Maybe you've said something like this yourself. But what do these have to do with reality? If my doctor told me I needed to loose weight because my cholesterol is up, would it be reasonable for me to say "I don't want to think about myself as having a weight issue?" No, that would categorize me as a fool...so why do we think it is ok to do that with heavenly matters? There is also the problematic tendency that people have when forming their ideas about who God is to sculpt God in their own image. and Humanity has a long history of doing that. For example, consider the pagan gods of various mythologies, consider the god of Islam, mormonism, etc.; they all are the fabrications of humans and tend to behave like humans do. Some claim that such gods are the same as the God of the Bible, but in reality, they are all a reflection of the people who thought them up. The One true and living God who reveals Himself in the Scriptures is wholly different than humanity; His standards, His thinking, His moral character are all Holy and transcendent, meaning far above our grasp and experience. The Apostle Paul recognizes this when he declares:
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” -Romans 11:33-35
So how are we to obtain knowledge about God? Well, the only way we can do this is to receive it from the mouth of God, and that is what He has done for us both through the world He has created, and more specifically through the Scriptures He has given us. Yes, though God is infinitely Holy and beyond us, in His mercy He has condescended in order to make Himself known to us. What an amazing act of kindness! This means that I, a finite creature, can begin to understand who He is because He has described Himself with words I can understand!
Now, in the brief space left, I want to consider the immutability of God, His graciousness, and His justice. First, God’s immutability refers to the fact that not only does God not change, but He cannot change. He eternally is eternally the same. This means that God’s justice does not give way to His mercy: He is always eternally and perfectly just, and He is always full of mercy and compassion. Note the quotation from scripture which the WCF makes here: “...and who will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex.34:7a). This is important, because sometimes people think that in Jesus, God’s justice goes away and is replaced by His mercy, but that is not the case. God remains perfectly and wholly just; He will not let sin go unpunished. So how does a sinner find forgiveness from God, then? Well, no sin does go unpunished: the guilty sinner who calls on the name of Jesus will be forgiven because Jesus took that punishment on Himself in their place! That is the amazing glory of the gospel; not that God just arbitrarily forgives, but that Jesus willingly took the punishment for our sins on Himself, and that He gives us His righteousness in place of our guilt. This means that the Christian will not only be declared “not guilty” before God, but will also be counted as just in His sight because of Jesus’ perfect obedience which is counted as theirs. Praise the Lord!
I wish I could go into each of these descriptions of God one by one, but alas! I do not have enough space. But I encourage you to consider them closer, looking at the scriptures which the WCF references. There are also some excellent commentaries on the confession that I recommend looking into, such as Confessing the Faith by Chad Van Dixhoorn, or Truths We Confess by R.C. Sproul.
Well, at least you would hope that people would think so, wouldn’t you? However, we live in an era where the most prevalent philosophy is that each person determines their own truth. That is, they look at the world and interpret events and realities in a way that suites them. This does not work, however. The world remains unchanged no matter how much I convince myself otherwise; I can say that the moon is made of cheese until I’m blue in the face and it will remain resolutely a planetary object made of rock. It doesn’t matter how much I want it to be made out of cheese, or how much I believe with all my heart; it just isn’t and never will be.
Unfortunately what I just described above, for a lot of people, is what they think faith is. I believing in something hard enough so that it becomes “true for me.” But this is not how the Bible describes faith in any way shape or form. Faith, according to God’s word, is hearing God speak, giving His words priority in one’s life, believing it, trusting Him, and acting on that trust. So that when God says “I am holy” it doesn’t matter what the world around us says;--it doesn’t even matter what I might like to think about God—the only reliable source of information about God is God Himself, and God declares in His Word that He is holy. So have you ever heard anyone say something like: “To me God is…” or “I like to think of God as…” or even “My god wants me to be happy…”? Maybe you've said something like this yourself. But what do these have to do with reality? If my doctor told me I needed to loose weight because my cholesterol is up, would it be reasonable for me to say "I don't want to think about myself as having a weight issue?" No, that would categorize me as a fool...so why do we think it is ok to do that with heavenly matters? There is also the problematic tendency that people have when forming their ideas about who God is to sculpt God in their own image. and Humanity has a long history of doing that. For example, consider the pagan gods of various mythologies, consider the god of Islam, mormonism, etc.; they all are the fabrications of humans and tend to behave like humans do. Some claim that such gods are the same as the God of the Bible, but in reality, they are all a reflection of the people who thought them up. The One true and living God who reveals Himself in the Scriptures is wholly different than humanity; His standards, His thinking, His moral character are all Holy and transcendent, meaning far above our grasp and experience. The Apostle Paul recognizes this when he declares:
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” -Romans 11:33-35
So how are we to obtain knowledge about God? Well, the only way we can do this is to receive it from the mouth of God, and that is what He has done for us both through the world He has created, and more specifically through the Scriptures He has given us. Yes, though God is infinitely Holy and beyond us, in His mercy He has condescended in order to make Himself known to us. What an amazing act of kindness! This means that I, a finite creature, can begin to understand who He is because He has described Himself with words I can understand!
Now, in the brief space left, I want to consider the immutability of God, His graciousness, and His justice. First, God’s immutability refers to the fact that not only does God not change, but He cannot change. He eternally is eternally the same. This means that God’s justice does not give way to His mercy: He is always eternally and perfectly just, and He is always full of mercy and compassion. Note the quotation from scripture which the WCF makes here: “...and who will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex.34:7a). This is important, because sometimes people think that in Jesus, God’s justice goes away and is replaced by His mercy, but that is not the case. God remains perfectly and wholly just; He will not let sin go unpunished. So how does a sinner find forgiveness from God, then? Well, no sin does go unpunished: the guilty sinner who calls on the name of Jesus will be forgiven because Jesus took that punishment on Himself in their place! That is the amazing glory of the gospel; not that God just arbitrarily forgives, but that Jesus willingly took the punishment for our sins on Himself, and that He gives us His righteousness in place of our guilt. This means that the Christian will not only be declared “not guilty” before God, but will also be counted as just in His sight because of Jesus’ perfect obedience which is counted as theirs. Praise the Lord!
I wish I could go into each of these descriptions of God one by one, but alas! I do not have enough space. But I encourage you to consider them closer, looking at the scriptures which the WCF references. There are also some excellent commentaries on the confession that I recommend looking into, such as Confessing the Faith by Chad Van Dixhoorn, or Truths We Confess by R.C. Sproul.