Posted at Reformation Scotland:
The year 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, arguably the most important creed ever written, and almost certainly the most significant theological anniversary of our lifetimes. If we are Christians, who is the Christ we confess? If we are God’s people, who is the God we belong to? The Nicene Creed (produced in AD 325) is the creed which provides the baseline for a biblically safe way for all believers to talk about who God is (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Every Reformed theologian is gratefully indebted to the Nicene Creed and relies on it unhesitatingly in articulating what the Bible teaches about the Trinity and about Christ. Edward Leigh (1602–1671), a lay member of the Westminster Assembly, is an example of this. In the following updated excerpt from his systematic theology, Leigh rehearses the basic truths about our great God and Saviour, closing with some suggested devotional responses.Our need for humility
God may be known by light of nature, but we cannot by the light of nature know the mystery of the Trinity, nor the incarnation of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 2:7–8). As Aquinas says, it is impossible by natural reason to come to the knowledge of the Trinity of the divine persons.
When one of the Church Fathers was meditating on the mystery of the Trinity, there appeared to him a child with a shell, ladling the sea into a little hole, and he asked what the child was doing. “I intend,” said the child, “to empty the ocean into this hole.” “That is impossible,” said the Father. “As possible,” said the child, “as for you to comprehend this profound mystery of the Trinity in your shallow capacity.”
Although the word “trinity” basically refers to any three things, yet in theological discussions it means the three Persons in the Trinity. This does not mean that God consists of three parts. There is a great difference between “trinity” and “triplicity.” Trinity is when the same essence has different ways of subsisting; “triplicity” is when one thing is compounded of three parts. The persons are three not in respect of essence, or divine attributes, but three in respect of personal properties. That is, the Father is of none, the Son is of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is of both — three Persons but one God.