A Digest on the Trinity - Part 4: Eternal Processions

This article is the third in a series called A Digest on the Trinity.

In this article, we consider the issue of God’s diversity by looking at the eternal processions within God.

A residual issue from divine simplicity

In the previous article, we looked at the doctrine of divine simplicity and how it ensures that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one in the same God and not merely three separate instances of the one divine essence, since the divine essence is not the underlying reality of the divine persons and the divine persons do not merely possess the divine essence, but each is the one in the same divine essence in Himself.

The residual issue from simplicity is the question we try to answer in this article: if simplicity ensures that Father, Son and Spirit are one in the same God such that whatever each person is, the other two are, how are they distinct from one another? With such strong identity of being, how is any one person Himself without being either of the other two?

The solution to this riddle lies in the eternal processions within God.

Eternal processions

Traditionally, orthodox Trinitarianism has confessed that within the simple being of God, there exists two processions – the Son proceeding from the Father and the Spirit proceeding from the Father through the Son.[1] These processions are called eternal generation and eternal spiration respectively.

Apart from Scriptural language of procession such as John 8:42 where Christ said He “proceedeth forth and came from God” (KJV) and John 15:26, where the Spirit “proceedeth from the Father” (KJV), there is a dogmatic purpose to the doctrine of eternal processions: providing a way to distinguish between the three persons in radical unity of simplicity.

Here, I reproduce an analogy I found useful, borrowed from Reformed Arsenal: Imagine you have two trees in the garden. They are virtually identical in terms of leaves, bark, trunk, roots. Everything about them is identical – their leaves are of the same shade of green, they have the same number of leaves, even the ridges of their bark are all identical. If I were to attempt to identify any particular tree to you, I cannot do so by way of any of their attributes, since they are identical. The only way I can distinguish between those two trees would be by their positions – the left tree or the right tree. Yet, positional language is relational language – the left tree is only left in relation to the right one and the right tree is only right in relation to the left one.

In an analogical way, the three persons of the Trinity, though absolutely identical in attributes, will, power and acts, are distinguished from one another by way of their relations to each other, which are in turn grounded in the eternal processions. It is not even enough to distinguish them by their names of “Father”, “Son” or “Spirit” simply because there is a deeper question to it: why does each person bear His own unique name? In other words, why is the first person called the Father, the second called the Son and the third called the Spirit? The processions provide the answer.

Eternal generation

The first person of the Trinity is called the Father because He is the Father of the Son, whom He generates eternally. Conversely, the second person is called the Son because He is the Son of the Father, who generates Him eternally.

The Father stands in a father-son relation with the Son because of eternal generation. That is why the Son is called His Son (John 3:16; Rom 1:3; 1 Cor 1:9; Heb 1:2; 1 John 1:3; 2 John 1:3) and He is called the Son’s Father (Matt 26:53; John 10:29; 14:23; 2 Cor 1:3; Eph 1:3; 1 Pet 1:3). By virtue of this eternal generation, what we have is one who generates (Father) and one who is generated (Son). Because the one who generates (Father) cannot be the one who is generated (Son), we have predicated a distinction between these two persons.

Eternal generation is sometimes called eternal begetting, where it is said that the Father begets the Son and the Son is begottenof the Father. It is defined as: the eternal and necessary act of the Father, whereby He, within the divine being, is the ground of a second person like Himself by generating Him as His Son.

Eternal spiration

In the same logic, the third person of the Trinity is called the Holy Spirit because He is the Spirit of the Father and the Son, who together breathe Him eternally (the Greek word for “Spirit” is pneuma, which translates into “breath”).

The Spirit stands in a breather-breathed relation with both the Father and the Son because they together breathe Him from eternity. That is why He is called the Father’s Spirit (Gen 1:2; Exo 31:3; Isa 11:2; Matt 3:16; 1 Cor 2:11; Phil 3:3) and the Son’s Spirit (Rom 8:9; Gal 4:6; 1 Pet 1:11). By virtue of this eternal spiration, what we have is one who breathes (Father through Son) and one who is breathed (Spirit). Because the one who breathes (Father through Son) cannot be the one who is breathed (Spirit), we have predicated a distinction between these two/three persons.

Therefore, although the Father, Son and Spirit are the same God and therefore are the same being, having the same eternity, almightiness, glory and honour, we are still able to distinguish them and note that they are not each other.

Eternal spiration is defined as: the eternal and necessary act of the Father and Son, whereby they, within the divine being, are the ground of a third person like themselves by breathing Him as their Breath.

Qualifications on eternal processions

There are several qualifications we must note when speaking of the eternal processions.

The first is that these processions happen within the divine essence. Essences do not proceed from essences, but persons proceed from persons. Therefore, the processions happen within the divine essence, but not to the divine essence. The Son and Spirit proceed from the Father within the one simple and indivisible divine essence. That is why we can maintain the simple and indistinguishable divine essence with distinguishable divine persons.

The second is that these processions do not entail the Son or Spirit being brought into existence. Because the Father, Son and Spirit share the one same essence, none is created and all are eternal. What these processions entail is that in the acts of generating and spirating, the Father communicates His whole eternal essence to the Son and, through the Son to the Spirit, respectively. Therefore, we ought not to speak of these processions in terms of causes, but rather origin of relativity. Relative to themselves, the Son and Spirit are eternal God, but relative to the person of the Father, they are from Him.

The third is that these processions are eternal. Neither of these processions happen in time, nor did they have a beginning. The Father is eternally the Father because He eternally generates His Son and vice versa. The Spirit is eternally the Spirit because He is eternally breathed by the Father through the Son.

The fourth is that these processions are unlike human processions. Simply because they happen within God who is wholly unlike us, we cannot map our human experiences in parental generation or breathing into the being of God. That would an inappropriate way to do theology.

Implications of eternal processions

Real distinctions between the otherwise indistinguishable persons

As mentioned above, the most practical implication of the doctrine of eternal processions is that now, within the simple and indivisible being of God, the three divine persons are distinguishable from each other. We can confess via simplicity that God is absolutely and radically one, but confess via processions that within this one God, there are three who are not one another. We are able to do so because the processions are the grounds of their relations and their relations in turn ground our ability to distinguish the persons from one another.

Internal ordering of the persons

The processions provide an internal and irreversible order amongst the persons, not in terms of hierarchy or priority (for all are the same God), but in terms of distinction and relative origin. The Father is the first person in the Trinity because He is the relative origin of the Son and Spirit. The Son is the second person in the Trinity because He is relatively from the Father and the relative mediate origin of the Spirit. The Spirit is the third person in the Trinity because He is relatively from the Father through the Son. The Father cannot be second nor third, the Son not first nor third and the Spirit neither first nor second.

Foundation for understanding the external works of God

Recall in the second article that because the three persons share the one in the same essence, they work inseparably, i.e. every act of God towards creation involves the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. However, they work distinctly, according to their respective personal properties. The Father works as the Father, the Ingenerate; the Son works as the Son, the Generated; the Spirit works as the Spirit, the Breathed. That is why every act of God comes from the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit and always in this order. Why does the Father work through the Son? Because He generates Him. Why does the Father work through the Son in the Spirit? Because He through the Son breathes Him.

We will pick up on this idea in the next article.