Post #13 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - What is meant by Jesus Christ being "true God of true God" in the Nicene Creed

Introduction:

    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. 

     

    

Post #12 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - Biblical Meaning Of The Son Being "Light of Light" In The Nicene Creed

 

Introduction:

    So far in our series on the Nicene Creed, we have looked at what theologians sometime refer to "the First Article", namely the confession of the Father as "One God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, of things visible and invisible." 

    We then began serval posts back looking at the "second article" of the Creed, the Person of the Son. The deity of the Son is affirmed in the following lines:

"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, 

the only begotten Son of God, 

begotten of his Father before all worlds, 

God of God, 

Light of Light, 

very God of very God, 

begotten, not made, 

being of one substance with the Father; 

by whom all things were made".1

     I've bolded the phrase "light of light" in the excerpt above, since it is what we want to cover in today's post. It is the middle phrase in the Nicene Creed's treatment of the deity of the Son. What we want to do to observe key Biblical passages that utilize this metaphor of "light" to explain what is meant by the Son being "light of light". We will look at four main headings to guide us through the Biblical witness.

1. The Son being "light of light" means His light refers to His uncreated deity.

2. The Son being "light of light" refers to He and the Father eternally relating within the Trinity.

3. The Son being "light of light" means He could perform redemptive acts as God.

4. The Son being "light of light" means the Father and the Son illuminating the New Heavens and Earth with unending, uncreated light as One God.

Biblical passages that reveal God being light.

    We begin with examples in the New Testament from each of the major Biblical authors in the New Testament letters. I begin here because it is this part of Scripture where the fullest revelation of the Trinity is given. I want to work back toward the Old Testament, since the New Testament authors draw so much of what they write from the Hebrew Scriptures. We will then loop back to statements made by Jesus Himself pertaining to He being the light of deity.

1. The Son being "light of light" means His light refers to His uncreated deity.

    We begin with the Apostle John in 1 John 1:5 "This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." This usage of the term "God" refers to the totality of the Godhead, the Divine nature that is found equally in all three persons of the Trinity. James, the half-brother of Jesus, wrote of the Father in James 1:17 "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." 

    Thus we are reminded that when we first talk of God as He is in His Divine essence, we cannot go far without also mentioning the Trinity, beginning with the Father. The relational source of and conveyance of the Divine nature of unapproachable light issues forth from the Father, to the Son, and then in turn the Father and Son to the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Son being "light of light" means His light refers to His uncreated deity.

2. The Son being "light of light" refers to He and the Father eternally relating within the Trinity.

    The New Testament authors squarely declare God is light, and the First Person of the Trinity, the Father, is in His Person the totality of that Divine light that characterizes what it means to be God. The Son too, being declared by the Nicene Creed as "light of light" also possess the fullness of this light of deity. Note Paul's words in 1 Timothy 6:15-16 "that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen."

    This remarkable text affirms that the Son is too the light of deity by nature in the same way as the Father. Hebrews 1:3 attests further: "And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." Other New Testament texts that assert what the Creed is attempting to summarize the Son to be as "Light of Light" in other words conveying the same idea: Colossians 1:16: 2 Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 1:16-17; Revelation 21:3l; and Revelation 22:5.

How the Old Testament develops the understanding of the Divine nature through the imagery of light

    What then does the Old Testament have to reveal about God being light? Psalm 104:2 gives this striking statement about Yahweh, Jehovah, with reference to the totality of deity that is the being of God: "Covering Yourself with light as with a cloak, stretching out heaven like a tent curtain." As we trace the revelation of God as light, we already get the sense of movement within the Divine essence of God. Habakkuk 3:4 "His radiance is like the sunlight; He has rays flashing from His hand, and there is the hiding of His power." 

    If we couple Habakkuk 3:4 to Hebrews 1:3, we see the Father radiating the light of Deity, and the Son being that very radiance. In the experience of the Old Testament Jewish nation, God revealed Himself as a "pillar of fire" by night and a cloud by day (Exodus 13:21; Exodus 14:20; Nehemiah 9:12). When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, light and fire was the expression He gave as the uncreated one sustaining the bush by not consuming it (Exodus 3:1-14).  Thus, the Son being "light of light" means His light refers to His uncreated deity, as well as 

referring to how He and the Father eternally relating within the Trinity.

3. The Son being "light of light" means He could perform redemptive acts as God.

   God as light includes His revelation as the Redeemer (Psalm 27:1; Job 29:3; Proverbs 4:18). It is this same God whose light of deity will illuminate the New Heavens and New Earth to light the way for the resurrected saints (Isaiah 2:5; 60:1-2; 60:19). The final revealed book of the Old Testament in our English Bibles, Malachi, predicts what would be the forthcoming Messiah, which Malachi ascribes as "the Sun of righteousness" (Malachi 4:2). Although the Old Testament's revelation is not as sharp, we can still resolve the conceptual imagery of God as a whole, along with Yahweh of Israel or God the Father, along with a Divine Personage having that same light, whom the New Testament reveals of course as the Son, Jesus Christ. One more point about Jesus being the "light of light" as expressed in the Nicene Creed.

4. The Son being "light of light" means the Father and the Son illuminating the New Heavens and Earth with unending, uncreated light as One God.

    Light then is associated with what it means to be God. As we return back to the Gospels, we find Jesus referring to Himself as that same light we've already explored (John 8:12; John 9:1-2). Jesus in His preincarnate state was revealed already as "The Light" who reveals the Divine glory of God to all in general revelation (John 1:9). The Apostle Peter notes how salvation involves Christ calling us out of darkness and into "His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9). 

    Jesus Christ the Son is "Light of Light", equal yet distinct from the Father of heavenly lights. As He shared with the Father uncreated light in eternity and in His pre-incarnate state, the same will still hold true in eternity future for Him as the incarnate Son of God. In church history, the late third century theologian Origen writes a striking set of comments on Jesus Christ being the very light and effulgence of Deity in his work "On First Principles", Book I, Chapter 1:

"For what other light of God can be named, in which any one sees light, save an influence of God, by which a man, being enlightened, either thoroughly sees the truth of all things, or comes to know God Himself, who is called the truth? Such is the meaning of the expression, In Your light we shall see light; i.e., in Your word and wisdom which is Your Son, in Himself we shall see You the Father."2 

    The Apostle John writes in Revelation 21:23 how the Son of God will shine as "light of light" for all the redeemed to see:

"And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb."

Key points about God being light from the Scriptures

    As we have surveyed the Biblical record regarding God as light, we have explored the following takeaways about the Son of God being called "light of light" in the Nicene Creed.

1. The Son being "light of light" means His light refers to His uncreated deity.

2. The Son being "light of light" refers to He and the Father eternally relating within the Trinity.

3. The Son being "light of light" means He could perform redemptive acts as God.

4. The Son being "light of light" means the Father and the Son illuminating the New Heavens and Earth with unending, uncreated light as One God.

    Before we conclude this post, we cannot forget the Person of the Holy Spirit. Scripture attests to how He as well is "Light". We know for instance when He came on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, He lighted upon those present as flames of fire. By the Scriptures which He inspired, the Holy Spirit enlightens our eyes (Psalm 19:8); our minds (1 Corinthians 2:10-13); while shining the light that shows us the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:19). 

Endnotes:

1. There two key terms in this part of the Creed that I underlined. The first as to do with the Son being "begotten" of the Father. We've spent a great deal of time in previous posts detailing the meaning of the term "begotten". The second underlined term that we will get to in later posts is "being of one substance", a translation of the Greek noun "homoousios", which was a term wrestled over in the events leading up to the Council of Constantinople in 381. The former term deals with the equality and distinctiveness of identity the Son has with the Father in the Trinity. The latter phrase "being of one substance" handles how the Son is an equal sharer, equal participate in the Divine essence with the Father, with both Divine Persons distinguished as Begetter and Begotten. 

2. CHURCH FATHERS: De Principiis, Book I (Origen)

Post #10 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - "Begotten of the Father before all worlds"

Introduction:

    The last two posts in this series  handled the proper translation of the term "monogenes" or "begotten" in the Nicene Creed. I devoted time to that one word, since it figures so prominently in the Creed's confession of the deity of the Son. 

    I will not review the arguments I made for showing why the term "begotten" is the best rendering of the underlying Greek term in the creed - "monogenes". The doctrine to which this idea of "begotten" points is the doctrine of the Son's Eternal Generation. Interested readers who want to review may review the last two posts here Growing Christian Resources: Post #8 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - "The only begotten Son of God" (P1 Arguments favorable to the doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son) and here Growing Christian Resources: Post #9 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - "The only begotten Son of God" (P2 Why the doctrine of eternal generation holds despite opposing arguments to it).

    What we want to deal with in this post is the Nicene Creed's phrase "begotten of the Father before all worlds". 

How the Creed explains the Son as "the only begotten"

    It may help us to lay out the phrases of the Creed that serve to expound the main phrase in this section on the deity of the Son, "only-begotten".

1. His expressed identity. 

"the only-begotten Son of God",  

2. His eternal generation.

"begotten of the Father before all worlds" (our focus today)

3. His equality of position with 

    the Father.

"God of God," 

4. His effulgent glory

"Light of Light," 

5. His essence

"very God of very God;" 

6. He as eternally uncreated

"begotten, not made," 

7. His equality of nature with the 

    Father.

"being of one substance with the Father," 

8. His eternal power with the Father

"by whom all things were made." 

What is meant by "begotten by the Father before all worlds".

    So why does the Nicene Creed go to the trouble to express the begetting of the Son as "begotten by the Father before all worlds"? As we labored in the previous two posts, the doctrine of the Son's eternal generation is in view. 

    Eternal generation tells us that in the Trinity, the Father has always eternally communicated the Divine essence and the specific identity of "son-ness" to the Son. Hilary of Poiteirs (310-367 b.c.) expounds this point in his book "On the Trinity", Book 3, chapter 1, section 3:

"He therefore, the Unbegotten, before time was begot a Son from Himself; not from any pre-existent matter, for all things are through the Son; not from nothing, for the Son is from the Father's self; not by way of childbirth, for in God there is neither change nor void; not as a piece of Himself cut or torn off or stretched out.....Incomprehensibly, ineffably, before time or worlds, He begot the Only-begotten from His own unbegotten substance, bestowing through love and power His whole Divinity upon that Birth."1

    As Hilary noted, The Father's eternal generating of the Son isn't a creative act as would be a human father begetting a child. Eternal generation is outside time, independent of time, before time, and thus had no beginning. This interrelating between the Father and the Son isn't a willful act. Creation is a willful act of all three Persons of the Trinity - with the Father decreeing it, the Son designing it, and the Holy Spirit delivering the final touches to complete it. Eternal generation of the Son by the Father originates eternally from within the eternal relation of the Father and the Son as Trinitarian Persons, sharing one, undivided nature.

    The doctrine of eternal generation teaches that without the Son there is no Father; and without the Father there is no Son. The Father's filiating or begetting of the Son has occurred eternally from within the Divine nature shared by both the Father and the Son. What may help us to explain the Nicene Creed's meaning here is by appealing to its predecessor, the Creed of Nicaea of 325 A.D. 2

      As the Council of Nicaea convened originally in 325, they crafted that original Creed, which in its section on the deity of the Son read as follows:

"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages.  Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of one essence with the Father by whom all things were made."

    The 325 A.D. Creed of Nicaea  is similar to the later 381 Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed which we are studying in this post series.

    At the end of the 325 Nicene Creed, a section that condemns the teaching of Arius is included. That section, called an "anathema", helps clarify the later 381 Nicene Creed's statement of the Son being "begotten of the Father before all worlds".

"But as for those who say, "There was when He was not", and, "before being born He was not", and "that He came into existence out of nothing", or who assert that "the Son of God is from a different hypostasis or substance", or is created, or is subject to alteration or change – these the Catholic Church anathematizes." 

    Both versions of the Creed are wanting us to be certain that when we confess the Son to be "begotten of the Father before all worlds", that it is not talking about a creative event. Rather, this is an act between the Father and the Son, within the Godhead, that has went on for all eternity, without beginning. 

    One more thing about this phrase "begotten of the Father before all worlds". The nineteenth century Church historian Phillip Schaff published his study of the Greek and Latin texts of the Nicene Creed of 381. As for the Greek text of this phrase, understanding the underlying Greek grammar can shed further light on what the Creed is trying to communicate. 

    I'll walk us through, phrase by phrase, the Greek text, along with an English translation, and then some explanation of what is happening in the grammar. Hopefully this will help us to slow down enough to soak in what the Creed means by "begotten of the Father before all worlds". 

Walking through the Nicene Creed's statement of the Son "begotten of the Father before all worlds". 

1. First Phrase. 

Καὶ εἰς ἕνα κύριον ἸΗΣΟΥΝ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΝ, 

"And in One Lord JESUS CHRIST"

    The word translated "and" (Καὶ) is a conjunction that connects two portions of the Nicene Creed. The first part is the opening statement about the Father as "Maker of Heaven and Earth, of things visible and invisible". What follows after the conjunction (the word "and") gives an overview of the Son's equality with Father.

2. Second phrase.

τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ, 

"The Son of God, the begotten one"

    The phrase translated "the begotten one" (τὸν μονογενῆ = ton monogenay) is what grammarians call an "appositional phrase", meaning the author(s) are explicitly bringing out the main feature that distinguishes the Son of God (τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ = ton hooweeon too theoo). He is not just any Son. He isn't merely a unique Son. He is eternally generated by the Father. It is this manner of the Son's relation with the Father that makes him distinct from the Father, with whom otherwise He is equal in all respects. 

3. Third phrase.

τὸν ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς γεννηθέντα 

"The One who from-within the Father is begotten"

    The definite article "the one who" (τὸν = ton) and the participle it modifies, "begotten" (γεννηθέντα = gennaythenta), are one unit of meaning "the one having been begotten". For interested readers, I'll put the grammatical details of this word translated "begotten" in endnotes of the end of today's post.3 

    As noted already, there is no God Father unless there is a Begotten God the Son. Jesus Himself taught this John 14:10 "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works." Now let's get to the final phrase of our overall focus in this post today of "Begotten of the Father before all worlds".

4. Fourth phrase.

πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων

"before all ages (i.e. worlds)

    The Greek noun τῶν αἰώνων (tone aionione) is translatable as either "worlds" or "ages". This is a Greek figure of speech referring to activity occurring before "time" or "history". In eternity, the Son was eternally generated from the Father. There was no creation of the Son, in other words. 

Final application.

    As we close out today, the main take-away of the Nicene Creed's phrase "begotten of the Father before all worlds" is to show the eternality of the Person of the Son. This section of the Creed is followed by eight other statements that amplify and clarify the overall doctrine of the Son's eternal generation from the Father. Establishing the Son's eternal pre-existence combatted the heresy of Arianism, which denied the Son's true deity, making him no more than a created being. In the next several posts we will explore the remaining statements that shed further light on the only-begotten Son of God in the Nicene Creed.  

Endnotes:

1. To read Hilary's chapter in his "On the Trinity", readers may access the link here CHURCH FATHERS: On the Trinity, Book III (Hilary of Poitiers)

1. The original Creed of Nicaea of 325 was drafted to combat the dreaded Arian Heresy. Arius taught that the Son of God was the highest created being of the Father. Arius was so subtle in his heresy that He even used the phrase "only-begotten" as evidence of the Son being created. For him, just as earthly fathers beget sons, it must be the case that the Father's begetting of the Son means "there was a time when the Son was not" - a favorite phrase of Arius. 

2. A participle in Greek is a "verbal adjective", meaning it is a descriptive verbal unit that tells us something about the Son - namely He is being begotten. Furthermore, the participle is in the "passive voice", meaning were told of what is happening to the Son, namely He being begotten. As a final note on this participle, it is in the "aorist", meaning it is portraying the whole act of the Son being begotten. Unless the participle is tied to a particular verb, there usually isn't any connection to time. 

    The article and its participle have between them the prepositional phrase that tells us whence the eternal generation of the Son flows - "from within the Father". The preposition "ek" (ἐκ) that is translated in most English translations of the Creed as "from" has the additional nuance in the Greek of "from within". What this means is that the Son is so intimately united with the Father that His begetting relation is "from within" the Father. 

Post #32 The Doctrine of God - P5 Divine Impassibility, Human Passibility, And How They Illuminate Our Understanding Of Jesus Christ And His Cross

Introduction:

    In our current doctrine of God series, we've spent some extra time exploring that particular perfection of God that pertains to His constant, unchanging emotional affections - the doctrine of Divine Impassibility (DDI). As a reminder, the term "impassible" refers to not being happened or affected upon from the outside. God's emotional life flows from what He is as the unchanging God and who He is as the Triune God. He is forever merciful towards the pitiable, wrathful towards sin, and just toward what is right. Impassibility tells me that God is never more loving nor was ever less loving, since that affection emerges from what He is as a loving God. For review, we can note what was looked at in the last four postings,

1. An introduction to DDI here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/12/post-28-doctrine-of-god-gods-constant.html

2. How Divine impassibility is related to God's unchanging nature or immutability here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/12/post-29-doctrine-of-god-p2-introduction.html

3. How DDI explains why God not suffering reveals Him to be far more in-tune with our sufferings than if He suffered in His Divine nature here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2024/01/post-30-doctrine-of-god-p3-divine.html

4. Then in our last post, we discussed how an impassible God still has affections, and how the Bible speaks of God's emotional life here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2024/01/post-31-doctrine-of-god-p4-divine.html 

    As we draw our exploration of the doctrine of Divine impassibility (DDI) to an end in this overall series on "The Doctrine of God", we need to understand how the Divine and human natures of the Son of God operate in how He expresses His emotions, and why that sheds light upon the meaning of the cross.  

 Understanding how the Son was Divinely impassible and human passible at the cross.

    We first need to understand the historic Christian confession of the Son's two natures. We can begin with the Chalecedonian Creed of 451 A.D. I'll cite its opening statements,

"We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [that is, sharing in the same nature] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial (sharing in the same nature) with us according to the Manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin."

    We note the opening line of how Jesus Christ is "truly God" and "truly man". In affirming the two natures of Christ, we acknowledge the Son having two ways of expressing His existence. His Divine nature is how He expresses Himself Divinely - without beginning, eternal, and unchanging. As we've argued in these last several posts, God by nature has a constant emotional life, with affections expressed from within himself and not imposed upon from the outside.  God always hates sin. He always loves those upon whom He set His affection and foreknew (Romans 8:29-31, Baptist faith and Message 2000 Article 5). He is always willing to show mercy, compassion, and pity. These expressions arise from the kind of God, God is. The Son, as truly God, was impassible.

    When the Son became incarnated as the man Christ Jesus, He expressed Himself humanly. To say "humanly" means being finite in knowledge, strength, and not possessing characteristics such as omnipresence. For our discussion here, the incarnate Son would express His affections in a passible way - just like ourselves - with the exception of sin. He ever remained the One Person, the Son, having two natures of which He partook, each with their own respective qualities. 

    One more creed, the Athanasian Creed, describes the two natures of Christ in the following excerpt that is relevant to our discussion in this post,

"Although he is God and man, he is not divided, but is one Christ. He is united because God has taken humanity into himself; he does not transform deity into humanity. He is completely one in the unity of his person, without confusing his natures. For as the rational soul and body are one person, so the one Christ is God and man. He suffered death for our salvation. He descended into hell and rose again from the dead."

How the Son's impassible Divine nature and passible human nature can help us better understand the cross 

   The cross is the place we go to see how well any understanding of the person of Christ holds water. It is at this juncture that we see the relevance of our whole discussion on impassibility (and its opposite "passibility"). 

    The Son, as truly God by nature, approached going to the cross impassively (that is, with constant emotions of mercy, justice, and love). Hebrews 10:5-7 tells us of what the Son was doing prior to His entrypoint into history via the incarnation. 

    As the Divine Person of the Son took unto Himself a truly human nature, He would suffer or be "passible" as a man. As man, the incarnate Son would experience what it was like to have pain, sorrow, and rejection happen to Him. As the man Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son would become "passible", undergoing His "passion", His "suffering", and having Divine wrath inflicted upon Himself. (see Isaiah 53:4-5). The sufferings of the Son of God would fulfill all the Old Testament predictions of He being "the Lamb of God" and "being a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief". He as God by nature would ensure that as the impassible God, He could always be the Savior who is always merciful, pardoning sin and forgiving the transgressions of His people (see Exodus 34:6-7; Psalm 136). 

    In short, the Son of God, as truly man, did indeed suffer for our sins. As truly God, He Divinely remained merciful, loving, and just. By Divinely offering Himself as the believer's High Priest and humanly as the Lamb of God, the ncarnate Son could fulfill both roles.  

Why affirming an impassible Divine nature and passible human nature in the Incarnate Son guards against heresy.

    Some may argue that the Father must have had a bad day when Jesus died on the cross. Yet whenever we look at the Trinity, and Divine impassibility, we must understand that God was in complete control of what all occured at the cross.  

    It was not that the Trinity was disconnected from the cross, since as we've already noted, the cross was pre-planned by the Trinity from all eternity. If for anything, the Father's sending of the Son was a constant expression of mercy and love, while also being an unchanging expression of His justice (see Romans 3:21-24).

    The Son, experiencing and undergoing the events of the cross as a man, did indeed suffer as a man. As the incarnate Son of God, his emotions as man would had been "passible" or subject to undergoing suffering. This understanding prevents us from succoming to an ancient heresy that suggested it was the Father who suffered on the cross (called "patripassionism"). The Father, Son, and Spirit were involved inseperably in the outpouring of wrath at Calvary. 

    As I noted earlier, the Son was both Priest and sacrifice. He as a Divine Person would had experienced the wrath of God, which includes feeling the sense of absence of God's blessing and favor. Mysteriously, in ways we do not comprehend, the incarnate Son would be both ever beloved and the very object of wrath all at once. Hebrews 7:26-27 perfectly captures my otherwise feeble attempts to grab hold of this point,

"For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; 27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself."

Bringing home some applications 

    By noting the two natures of the Son (truly Divine and truly human), we can preserve the Divine impassibility of the Son in His deity, while recognizing that as man, it was the Son alone who endured the suffering in the cross. I agree with R.C. Sproul who once noted about the hymn "And can it be", that rather than singing,

"Amazing love, how can it be, that thou my God shouldst die for me".

We ought to sing a change in lyrics which rightly focus upon the Son bearing our sins, suffering in His humanity,

"Amazing love, how can it be, that thou my LORD should die for me."

    Author Samuel Renihan, writing in a 2016 article for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, gives this pastoral application of Divine impassibility, and God's love shown at the cross,https://www.placefortruth.org/blog/trinity-impassibility-what-denied

"God cannot be moved to be anything other than what he is, he cannot be acted upon in that highest of metaphysical senses, nor is his existence time-bound like ours in which we interpret and react to objects. Furthermore, God’s love is immutably set upon his Son, Jesus Christ. Thus, those who are in the Son by faith cannot be separated from the infinite, eternal, immutable, and impassible love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:39)."

Closing thoughts:

    In today's post we attempted to further our understanding the doctrine of Divine impassibility (DDI) by seeing how it functions in three major areas. We first distinguished God's affections by how He expresses such impassibly. Again, to go back to author James Dolezal's descriptions in an earlier post, we can say God truly cares, and that He does so constantly or impassibly. 

    We secondly were reminded of how the Bible speaks of God in two ways, figuratively or analogically and directly as He truly is. Divine impassibility speaks of God as He truly is. In His relating to His creatures, their experience of God changing emotions shows the changes occuring with them as they transfer from being exposed to one emotional perfection to the next (from, say, wrath to mercy). 

    Then finally, we looked at the Son's two natures as God and man. We noted the differences between Him as Divinely impassible God and a truly passible man. As impassible deity, the Son constantly looked forward to accomplishing redemption, since He and the Father and Spirit, with one will, as one God, agreed upon the provision of salvation. The Son, as was appropriate to Him being the Eternal redeemer of sinners, would come be man for our sakes. By becoming a passible man, the incarnate Son could suffer and die in fulfillment of Scripture. 

    

Post #24 The Doctrine of God - P2 The Attribute of Divine Perfection, Reflections And Applications

Introduction:

    In our last post we began to look at the Divine attribute of God's perfection here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/11/post-23-doctrine-of-god-p1-gods.html. We had offered a provisional definition of God's Divine perfection, "God as the most perfect being is, in-and- of-Himself, incapable of improvement." Put another way, God is "completely complete". We noted in the last post how God's perfection can operate as a communicable attribute - something He shares with His creatures. In this post, we will explore the incommunicable side of this attribute. To remind the reader, an "incommunicable" attribute speaks of what is unique to God, unshared with His creatures.  

    The 11th century theology Thomas Aquinas devotes the fourth question of His massive work "Summa Theologiae" upon the subject of God's perfection. On three occassions Aquinas notes how God, in His perfection, "lacks nothing that is required to be God". What this means is there is no potential in God of becoming better or worse, stronger ror weaker, wiser or more ignorant. He is entirely Perfect. God does not need anything or anyone to supplement His wisdom, strength, or goodness (see Isaiah 43:10-11; Psalm 46:10-11; Romans 11:34-36; 1 Timothy 6:16). 

Nothing in all of creation is like God

    When we talk of God's perfection as an incommunicable attribute, one thing meant is this, nothing in all creation is like God. A.W. Tozer compares the life and intrinsic value of a little child lost amidst mountains as qualitatively different from all the vastness of such mountains. 

    Tozer tells the story of a group of hikers in the foothills to view a particular mountain. Along the way they are in awe of what they are seeing. For them, that whole mountain range is most supreme. Then suddenly, one of their company screams in panic, for their little three-year old daughter has wandered off. Suddenly the company of hikers become a search party, calling out her name. The little life of a 30lb child is of near-infinite value in comparison to what comparitively is now a large mound of rocks and dirt. When they find the little girl, everything is put into perspective. That mountain scene does not compare to the girl. Multiplied to an infinite degree, not all of creation itself is even close to the perfection of Almighty God. 

    Clearly nothing compares to God. Isaiah raises a rhetorical question in Isaiah 40:18 that points us in the direction of considering God in terms of His Divine Perfection:

"To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?"

I heard one speaker describe God in a lecture, 

"God is the only being who is explained by Himself within Himself. All other entities are characterized by requiring something outside of themselves to account for their existence. God, however, is alone in being His own reason for why He exists".

Why all other concepts of deity are mere idols compared to the One, Perfect God

    We've defined God's perfection, and have attempted to illustrate it. How then can we appreciate it? Why does the Bible labor to show that man-made ideas of deity are products of idolatry? 

    The questions raised earlier in Isaiah 40:18 (as well as the opening text Exodus 15:11) of "who is like God?" forces us to cross a boundary that reason alone cannot. For sure, faith alloyed with reason is needed. Yet, God's revelation from the Bible must be our guide to wing the precarious flight from our created realm to God in His infinite perfection. God's Word and so-called considerations of God's perfection of attributes (i.e. perfect being theology) will act as navigational controls in attempting to express God's perfection.

    Theologian Paul Helm describes what "perfect being theology" as starting with the assumption that God "is a being than which no greater can be conceived". By getting this fundamental thought of "what makes God, God" fixed in my mind, I can then proceed to work through what are often called "great-making properties" (that is, qualities that differentiates God from everything else). For instance, as I think upon God's omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, goodness, and wisdom, I draw from that central assumption that God alone doesn't merely contain such characteristics, but is completely complete (i.e perfect) in them. God has always had every attribute we've been discussing in this series, never acquiring them at some point. Some Scriptures that provide the basis for such "Perfect-being theology" are Genesis 22:16; Hebrews 6;13-14; 2 Samuel 7:22; Nehemiah 9:32; Jeremiah 32:18; Titus 2:13; Psalm 95:3; 96:4; 77:13; Exodus 18:11; Psalm 145:13.

     Whenever we speak of God's perfection, are we talking merely of a level above the highest archangel? As to perfection itself being a scale upon which we place people, galaxies and angels - is God somehow at the highest level of that scale? Or ought we consider God's perfection in a completely different sense? God is on a different scale of being - namely His own. 

    Theologian Keith Ward describes this quality of God as "Perfect Being" as: "having the consciousness to enjoy all things beautifully good." 

Isaiah 40:25 has God raising the question we observed in verse 18 of the same chapter:

“To whom then will you liken Me that I would be his equal?” says the Holy One."

    God's perfection (i.e. His quality of being "completely-complete" or "incapable of improvement") makes all other wanna-be deities not worthy of worship. The idols of antiquity were material deities made of precious metals and stone and the ideas of the human imagination. In the Greek and Roman Pantheons, the various deities were always subject to improvement. They each had deficits that required supplementing from their fellow deities.  

    The Apostle Paul critiques such a Graeco-Roman religious system in Acts 17:29 - 

"Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man."

    Is it no wonder that all other so-called deities are concluded as non-existent or human figments, somehow connected to the deceptions of the kingdom of darkness (see 1 Corinthians 10:18-22).
The God of the Bible alone is Perfect. 

God's perfection in relationship to His other attributes

    

 

   In terms of moral attributes, we call God's perfection "holiness". Holiness refers to the sum of all His moral attributes (goodness, wisdom, grace, justice, mercy, etc.,) in "perfect union" within His nature as God. Nothing can be added to nor taken away from God as holy. The prophet Micah comments on God's perfect being expressing such Divine moral qualities in Micah 7:18 - 

"Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, 
because He delights in unchanging love."

    Other attributes that describe God in His infinite existence are suffused with this quality of Divine perfection. God's Divine Aseity, which refers to His self-sufficiency and independence (from the Latin a se meaning 'from oneself'), expresses His perfection of self-sufficiency, as stated in Isaiah 44:6 - 

“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me."

    We could speak of other attributes. The point is that God alone is "completely complete" or "incapable of improvement" in regards to His perfection. 

    To summarize, Thomas Aquinas, in the section of his massive work "Summa Theologica" on the topic of Divine perfection, He comments on how God's perfection expresses how He possesses all excellencies of life and wisdom in-and-of Himself, never lacking nor in want. The sun may shine on various objects and possess the qualities of the objects upon which it sheds its light. Still, the sun exhausts its fuel and requires objects for us to appreciate its light. God on the other hand requires neither ourselves nor His creation, since His light is both inexhaustible and undiminished with or without us.  

Applying Divine Perfection To Our Everyday Lives

    So how can God's Divine perfection help me out in everyday life? Three areas come to mind.

1. Worship. 

    For one thing, God's Divine perfection means He is worthy of my worship. When I preach on Sunday morning, sing songs of praise or live daily for Him - I find He alone is worthy. Revelation 4:11 demonstrates how God's perfection is cause for worship around His throne in Heaven:

“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”

2. My thought-life. 

    The 11th century theologian Anselm of Canterbury described God in His perfection of being as:

"the greatest conceivable being, apart from which nothing can be greater conceived". 

    In other words, if I could think of a greater being, then that being would be God. How I think of God is related to my worship of Him. Remember, the God of the Bible is incapable of improvement. Hence, He alone is worthy of my thoughts, my time, my worship. The fact that God by definition is a being of which no other greater being can be imagined (since He possesses attributes like omniscience, omnipotence and all-goodness), then He alone is Perfect, since He is completely-complete or perfect. 

3. Knowing Jesus better.

    A final application of Divine perfection relates to how one thinks of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Divine Person of the Son came to incarnate Himself in true humanity (see John 1:14; Philippians 2:4-11; Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 2:11-14). Touching His divinity, Christ never changes (Hebrews 1:8) and is the same yesterday, today and forever (Revelation 1:8). By way of His incarnation, we discover that Christ took unto His Person a truly human nature so that I as a human being could somehow participate, have access to and enjoy the otherwise inaccessible Divine Perfection of which He shares with the Father and Spirit as One God (see Romans 9:5; 1 Timothy 2:5; 2 Peter 1:3-4). 

    Christ alone, as truly God and truly man, bridges by His Person the otherwise inaccessible, infinite divide between God in His infinite perfection and everything else.  Christ alone makes knowing God in salvation not merely a possibility, but a reality for those who by grace through faith trust in Him as Savior, Lord and Treasure (see John 14:6; Acts 4:12). 

Post #19 The Doctrine of God - God's Attribute of Peace (also known as "Faithfulness")

 

Introduction:

        In our study of the Doctrine of God, we have endeavored to cover as many attributes as possible. In today's post we are going to explore that Divine attribute of God's "peace" or order. Theologian Wayne Grudem gives the following defintion of "God's Peace", 

"God's peace means that in God's being and in His actions He is separate from all confusion and disorder, yet He is continually active in innumerable well-ordered, fully controlled, simultaeous actions."

Grasping the Bible's teaching on God's peace or faithfulness

    The Bible certainly attests to the "orderliness" of God in His nature. What Grudem calls "God's peace" or "orderliness" sounds very similiar to what others refer to as God's "faithfulness". God is not a haphazard God. Some brief meditations on the inner-workings of the Trinity will bring out the beauty of this Divine attribute. 

    For instance, the persons of the Trinity never contradict one another. When we get to a detailed study of the doctrine of the Trinity in future posts, we will study what is known as "the doctrine of Divine operations". "Divine operations" describes how the Persons of the Trinity each perform aspects of the works of creation and redemption without contradiction to each other. 

    In creation, the Father authorizes (1 Corinthians 8:6), the Son actualizes or brings everything into being (Psalm 33:6; John 1:1-3), and the Spirit animates or brings forth life and activity. All three Persons do so as the One Creator God (Psalm 104). 

    In redemption, the Father is the architect of salvation (Ephesians 1:1-6), the Son accomplishes redemption (Ephesians 1:7-9), and the Spirit applies such in saving faith (Ephesians 1:10-14). Such division of labor is all one act, by one God, who is three Persons (Ephesians 1:11; Romans 11:36). 

    The attribute of God's peace or faithfulness underwrites the Trinity's work in creation and redemption. God's faithfulness reveals why the Trinity is always in perfect union, and why the plans of God reach their intended goal.

Biblical Scriptures that highlight God's peace or faithfulness

     The prophet Isaiah gives a most apt word-picture of this perfection of God in Isaiah 26:1-4,

"In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; He sets up walls and ramparts for security. 2 “Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter, the one that remains faithful. 3 “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You. 4 “Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock."

    In the New Testament, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14:33 "for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints." 

    Also, in 2 Thessalonians 3:16 he notes,

"Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all."

    This orderly, peaceful, faithful God, is extolled or praised by Moses in Deuteronomy 7:9,

"Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments."

    The Psalmist says of God's peace or faithfulness in Psalm 36:5,

"Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies."

    The peace or faithfulness of God is most applicable as noted in Jeremiah's words in Lamentation 3:22-24,

"The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.”

    As one does a study of God's peace, orderliness, or what we are terming here, "faithfulness", the Scriptures are quite substantial. We've witnessed His peace in the Old Testament. The New Testament abounds with examples, with a sampling to follow below.

    In the New Testament, God's faithfulness explains why there is salvation (1 Corinthians 1:9). His peace or faithfulness protects believers when they avail themselves of Him in temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Thess 3:3). God's peace or faithfulness is a communicable attribute, conveyed by the Holy Spirit to the Christian (Galatians 5:22). We are told in 2 Timothy 2:13 that God's faithfulness outpaces us in those times we are unfaithful. 

    The Lord Jesus Christ as God incarnate is our faithful High Priest, representing the Christian (Hebrews 2:17; 3:2,6). We are told to "hold fast to Him who is faithful" (Hebrews 10:23). When the Christian suffers for Jesus' sake, they'll be preserved in their faith by Him who is faithful (1 Peter 4:19). The Christian has the promise that Jesus will forgive them when they sin (1 John 1:9). 

    We are told that the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard one's heart and mind in times of prayer (Philippians 4:19). In Revelation 1:5 and 3:14, we find Jesus attributed with this Divine attribute, called by the title "the Faithful witness". 

Why God's peace or faithfulness is enjoyed through Jesus Christ alone

      The word most often translated "peace" in the New Testament indicates the result of reconciliation accomplished by the incarnation of the Son of God. Jesus came the first-time to live, die, rise and ascend (see John 1:14-18; Philippians 2:5-11; 1 Timothy 3:15-16; 1 Peter 1:18; 2:21-22; Revelation 1:8, 17-18). He, as God, became the babe in the cradle; to be the Savior on the cross; to rise victoriously from the grave; to ascend in majesty. 

      The angels addressing the shepherds in Luke 2:14 state - 

“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

       There are eight songs or lyrical poems recorded in Luke's infancy narratives of Jesus' life in the first two chapters of his Gospel. Some of these songs have names derived from the 4th century Latin Vulgate translation which was used through the Middle Ages. The particular song in Luke 2:14 is called "gloria in excelsis deo" or "glory to God in the highest" or simply "gloria".     Christians from the early centuries following the Apostles recognized that the only source of peace is when we are focused on God through Jesus Christ - thus, "glory to God in the highest". 

      Whenever we think of "peace", we consider how Christ came into our world to bring about reconciliation between believing sinners and the Father (see John 16:33). Jesus came as the Mediator of peace with God (see 1 Timothy 2:5; 1 John 2:1-2). 2 Corinthians 4:5-6 reminds us - 

"For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."

       Such bringing together of God and man in One Person would be the pattern for the goal of salvation - reconciliation. To reconcile sinful man and Holy God results in peace. We read in Ephesians 2:13-18 

"But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, 16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; 18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father."       

         Consider Romans 5:1-5, which speaks more poignantly about this peace applied to the sinner at saving faith: 

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

Closing thoughts

          Years ago there used to be bumper-stickers that read: "No Jesus, No Peace / Know Jesus, Know Peace". Since Jesus came into our world over 2,000 years ago, hope, faith, joy and peace were made available to all who trust in Him by faith. God's attribute of peace is revealed to us and available only through Jesus Christ. He is our faith. He is our joy. He is our peace. He is faithful.