God: Two Processions, Four Relations, Three Persons

How is God the one God of Israel and Father, Son, and Spirit? How does that make sense?

The answer involves the biblical description of God as Father, Son, and Spirit, whose relations distinguish each from one another (e.g, Son of the Father). Connected to this, the Bible also teaches that the Son and Spirit proceed from the Father. 

Let me outline how the Bible speaks about God in these ways and before giving a formal explanation, so that you can get a handle on the doctrine of God in Holy Scripture.

Bible

Scripture names God: Father, Son, and Spirit. It also distinguishes God by the Father being the Father of the Son, the Son being the Son of the Father, and the Spirit being the Spirit of Both. And for added measure, the Spirit is not the Father or Son because the Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son (John 14:26; 15:26). 

The Bible also uses other analogies. The Son in John 1 is called the Word of God through whom all creation came into being. As the Word of God, he is the Word that creates: "Let there be light" and it happens that light came into being. That's the Word of the Father. The Spirit too perfects the creation by being the animating principle of humans (Gen 2:7) and co-creator (Ps 33:6). 

Theology

Such biblical descriptions have led Christians to conclude that in God:

(1) there is a procession of Word and Love according to intellect and will;

(2) there are four relations: paternity, filiation, spiration, and (somewhat confusingly) procession;

(3) there are three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit.

Number one follows the revelation of God in John 1 which the Father relates to the Son as Principle to Word. Intellect here refers to what one thinks. Since the Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son, as Jesus says, it would be weird to say that the Spirit is also Word or Son—then there would only be binary, not Trinity. So the Spirit can be said to proceed from the Father and Son not as the Son does from the Father by Word and intellect but by Love and will, since the Spirit communicates the Love of God (e.g., Rom 5).

Number two probably seems odd, but it simply uses words to describe what it means to be the Father of the Son (paternity), and Son of the Father (filiation), the Spirit of the Father and Son (procession), and the Spirit who proceeds from the Father and Son (spiration). Each relational term describes how the Bible speaks of the three persons of God.

Number three presents the most obvious categories since the Bible affirms that God is Father, Son, and Spirit. They are one God yet distinguished by how they relate to another: The Father of the Son, the Son of the Father, the Spirit of Father and Son, and the Spirit from Father and Son—the four relations above.

The two processions follow the Biblical language of passages like John 14:26 in which Jesus says the Spirit proceeds from the Father, and the general notion that the Son came from the Father.

[wp_paypal_payment]