We are continuing through our study of the Nicene Creed (or more specifically, the Constantinopolitan-Nicene Creed of 381 A.D). Our studies took us through the first article or major doctrinal tenet - the oneness of God in being and He identified first as the Person of the Father.
We have in the last several posts dove into the second article of the Creed, the co-equality of the Son with the Father in His deity and their union as One God. Three descriptive phrases in the Nicene Creed express the Son's equality of essence with the Father.
First, The Son of God is "the only begotten, meaning He is eternally the Son because He is eternally of the same essence as the Father, while distinct from Him in identity. The Son's being begotten is why He is the Son and not the Father, just as the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son distinguishes Him from the first two Divine persons in the Trinity.
Second, the Son is "God of God", referring to how the Father and Son are not two deities but one deity, or what I call a "quantitative description" that highlights their Divine union.
Thirdly, the Son is "light of light", equal in glory and majesty with the Father.
As we pan out from that immediate context of the Creed we have covered so far, we see the overall section on the Person of the Son as confessed in His true deity and total humanity. I've subdivided the section into three broad divisions. I'll put in bold print what we've covered in this series, and then underline our focus for today regarding the Person of the Son.
1. The Deity of the Son.
"And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, through Whom all things came into existence."
2. The humanity of the Son.
"Who because of us men and because of our salvation came down from the heavens, and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man."
3. The 1st and 2nd Comings (or Advents) of the Son.
"and was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures and ascended to heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father, and will come again with glory to judge living and dead, of Whose kingdom there will be no end."1
In our time today we will look at that part of the Creed that describes the Lord Jesus Christ as "true God from true God".
What difference is there in saying Jesus Christ is "God of God" vs "true God from true God"?
It was in post #11 of this series that I had us look closely at the Nicene Creed's confession of the Son as being "God of God" here Growing Christian Resources: Post #11 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - The Nicene Creed's Meaning Of The Son Being "God of God". Some readers may wonder what if any difference is there between that line and our current focus of the Son being "true God from true God"? When I look at these two lines in the Nicene Creed, we find the noun "God" used in two different senses: a quantitative sense and a qualitative sense.
The first sense is what I call a "quantitative sense", meaning that the oneness of God's essence or nature is in view. To say the Son is "God of God" is describing the act of the Father eternally generating the Son. Eternal generation attempts to explain how the Son is distinct from the Father while being in union of equality and eternality with Him.
To put it another way, numerically we count one God, not two Gods, when using the language of the Son being "God of God" with respect to the Father. The Athanasian Creed helps us a little bit to grasp what I'm talking about now concerning the "quantitative sense" of the noun "God":
"For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit. But the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have one divinity, equal glory, and coeternal majesty."2
The second sense of the noun "God" is what I call a "qualitative sense". When we talk of the term "God" in this way, it refers to how each member of the Godhead (Godhead meaning "Divine Nature" or "Divine Essence" and "Member" meaning an eternal partaker of that Divine nature or essence) are each qualitatively bearing the totality of what it means to be God.3
Why we use phrases "God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit" to describe the Three Persons of the Trinity
When we use terms like "God the Father" or "God the Son" or "God the Holy Spirit", we're not postulating three deities. Instead, we're recognizing how each Person of the Trinity bears the totality of what it means to be God by nature. The Athanasian Creed again provides help in seeing what I'm calling "the qualitative use" of the term "God":
"Thus the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. However, there are not three gods, but one God. The Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Holy Spirit is Lord. For as we are obliged by Christian truth to acknowledge every Person singly to be God and Lord."
Another ancient Creedal Statements, the Chalcedonian Definition of the Son's two natures from 451 A.D, starts in this manner (note the language of "truly God").
"Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood."
Here we find the Chalcedonian Definition helping us further, showing how the Son as "true God" is "complete in Godhead" or completely God. Since the Divine nature or essence is indivisible, infinite, and eternal, it is impossible to speak of the oneness of God apart from either any members of the Trinity or the Trinity as a whole.
The Son as "true God of true God"
To say the Son is "true God of true God" speaks not only of the totality of Divine perfection the Son is in His Deity, but also how He eternally relates to the Father as Begotten to Begetter. For the Father, He eternally relates to the Son as unbegotten to begotten. Theologian Fred Sanders in a conference message entitled "Very God of Very God" notes about this phrase in the Nicene Creed:
"God from true God means that within the reality of God there is this relation between these two (the Father and the Son").4
Theologians refer to this act of relating as "eternal relations of origin", meaning that begetting and being begotten are what alone distinguishes the Father and the Son from one another.
As I noted at the start, although co-equal in every respect, the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father. Nevertheless, the Father is true God by nature and the Son is of the selfsame Divine nature, ever being true God in every respect.
How "true God from true God" is a good commentary on Jesus Divine identity in Scripture
As I said already, the phrase "true God of true God" is expressing what I noted earlier, a "qualitative" description of how each Person is by nature God in their own right. In John 1:1 we read this qualitative use of "God" describing the Son: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
The term "Word" is in reference to the Person of the Son. Normally in the New Testament, whenever we see any of the other Divine Persons mentioned, God the Father will often be referred to as simply "God" to express Him in this qualitative sense, much like the Son.
Hence, to say "The Word was with God" is to say the Word was with the Father, who by nature is God. Likewise, to see John say "and the Word was God" is to say the Word was God by nature. These are qualitative statements in John's opening verse, captured in summary form by the Nicene Creed's usage of the phrase for the Son "true God from true God".
Closing thoughts:
As we draw this post to a close, we've noted how the Son is "true God of true God". We discovered the following entailments of this phrase.
1. The Son is truly God by nature.
To say the Son is "true God of true God" is to say He is in a qualitative sense the totality of deity, expressing every perfection as much as the Father.
2. The Son is truly God in the same way as the Father.
This phrase second captures how the Son in His eternal relation with the Father is "begotten" from Him. The other phrases preceding "true God of true God", namely "God of God" and "light of light" describe what we will discuss in later posts, namely how the Son is of the same substance as the Father or one in being. The phrase "true God of true God" is a qualitative statement, meaning that the Son's deity is inseparable from the Father's eternal generation of the Son.
3. The Son as "true God of true God" shows an eternal relating in action from Father to Son.
In addition to the Son's personal nature as God and His eternal relating to the Father as the only begotten Son, the phrase "true God of true God" shows movement within the Trinity between the Father and the Son. The Father begets or filiates the Son, with the Son in turn revealing the invisible Father in their shared glory (see John 17:1-5).
This phrase is appropriately in the center of the section on the Son's deity within the Nicene Creed. The totality of Him being God by nature establishes the overall Creed's confession that He is of the same substance as the Father, with both being one God by nature.
Endnotes:
1. Anything worth studying and benefitting requires careful thinking. My hope is this series of posts prove uplifting to the reader as well as informative. The whole point of the Creed was to offer a summary of essential Christian truths, as well as to provide a confession of faith across the centuries.
2. John 10:30 gives Scriptural authority for what this phrase in the Nicene Creed is attempting to capture, where Jesus says "I and the Father are One". Jesus taught His disciples about the union He and the Father have in deity by employing the "He is in me, and I in Him" language (John 14:11-12). That's using the noun "God" quantitatively, emphasizing that with respect to the Divine essence, the Father and Son are "One".
3. The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit are each Divine subjects (called "Persons" or "personae" from the Latin Church Father Tertullian or "hypostases" from the Greek speaking church fathers like Gregory of Nyssa). These Divine subjects act in unity of will, power, and intellect (not as three centers of consciousness as if often expressed among contemporary theologians).
4. Fred Sanders: True God from True God. Readers will find this lecture from Dr. Sanders to be an excellent summary of our focus phrase "True God from True God". This particular quote is at about the 29:15 mark in the video.
