Thankful Thursday

I had a free day today—no appointments or visitors—so I could spend the day working uninterrupted. I’m thankful that my life is often full of happy interruptions, but I’m also thankful for a solid work day now and then. I sewed and did laundry and cleaned the stove top and oven. I’m thankful for my new sewing machine and my old but still working washing machine and stove.  I’m thankful for my home and everything in it.

I’m thankful that my son returned safely from his trip to Germany and Poland. I’m thankful that he enjoyed himself and didn’t spend all of his money. 

I’m thankful that my little granddaughter lives close by so I can spend time with her regularly. Not every grandmother has that and I count it as a gift from God that I do.

I’m thankful for asparagus, a tasty spring blessing. 

I’m thankful for all these temporal blessings, and I’m thankful that the blessings of this world are not the only blessings I have. I’m thankful that all believers are priests, so that we have direct access to God without an earthly mediator.  I’m thankful for forgiveness of sins and the promise of a heavenly inheritance.

What about you? What are you thankful for?

Theological Term of the Week

priesthood of all believers
The teaching that every believer is a priest; therefore all believers have direct access to God without an earthly mediator, and are called to praise him and do good works as sacrifices to him.

• From scripture:

…[Y]ou yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5 ESV)

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9 ESV)

…so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 3:10 ESV)

• From The Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter XVIII:

  PRIESTHOOD OF ALL BELIEVERS. To be sure, Christ’s apostles call all who believe in Christ “priests,” but not on account of an office, but because, all the faithful having been made kings and priests, we are able to offer up a spiritual sacrifices to God through Christ (Ex. 19:6; I Peter 2:9; Rev. 1:6). … [T]he priesthood, as we have just said, is common to all Christians….

• From The MacArthur Study Bible Notes on 1 Peter 2:5:

  OT priests and NT believer-priests share a number of characteristics: 1) priesthood is an elect privilege (Ex. 28:1; John 15:16); 2) priests are cleansed of sins (Lev. 8:6–36; Titus 2:14); 3) priests are clothed for service (1 Pet. 5:5; Ex. 28:42; Lev. 8:7ff.; Ps. 132:9, 16); 4) priests are anointed for service (Lev. 8:12, 30; 1 John 2:20, 27); 5) priests are prepared for service (Lev. 8:33; 9:4, 23; Gal. 1:16; 1 Tim. 3:6); 6) priests are ordained to obedience (1 Pet. 2:4; Lev. 10:1ff.); 7) priests are to honor the word of God (1 Pet. 2:2; Mal. 2:7); 8) priests are to walk with God (Mal. 2:6; Gal. 5:16, 25); 9) priests are to impact sinners (Mal. 2:6; Gal. 6:1); and 10) priests are messengers of God (Mal. 2:7; Matt. 28:19–20). The main privilege of a priest, however, is access to God.

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: Is the priesthood of believer’s biblical?
2. Theopedia: Priesthood of All Believers
3. P. G. Mathew: The Priesthood of All Believers
4. David Hagopian: Trading Places: The Priesthood of All Believers
5. Bill Webster: The Priesthood of All Believers (mp3)

Related terms:

• priest (as an office of Christ)
• vocation

Filed under Ecclesiology.

Do you have a term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Trinitarian Math

One of the most common objections to the doctrine of the Trinity is that it is a mathematical absurdity. “It’s like adding one plus one plus one and getting one,” they say, “and we all know that’s not right!” Those who object that the Trinity is a contradiction because God can’t be both one and three are making the same objection.

Sometimes this objection is answered by appealing to the mystery. “It’s a mystery; the Trinity is incomprehensible” is the response, or maybe even “Math doesn’t work in the realm of the infinite and spiritual.” 

Here’s the thing: While I agree that God is incomprehensible and that the doctrine of the Trinity is a profound mystery that we will never completely understand, that’s not the way to answer this objection. If we appeal only to mystery when we are accused of being illogical, we are admitting, more or less, that there’s a possibility the doctrine is contradictory.

But God is a God of truth and reason, and it is because we are made in his image that we are reasonable beings. Scripture, as revelation from God, asks us to believe many things we can’t fully explain—things that are above our reasoning—but it never asks us to believe a contradiction or a mathematical absurdity.

It’s a belief that God’s truth can’t be contradictory that undergirds the historic formulations of the Trinity. Based on the testimony of scripture, the creeds and confessions are carefully formulated to avoid contradictions and mathematical absurdities. They do this by specifying that the oneness of the Trinity is in a different sense than the threeness. God is one as to his being or essence; or, as I prefer to think of it (although it’s not creedal language), God is one “what”. And how is it that God is three? God exists as three persons; He is three “whos”. Since the categories are different, the Trinity isn’t like adding one plus one plus one to get one, and the doctrine of the Trinity isn’t contradictory.

While I’m thinking about Trinitarian math, I’m tacking on this tidbit: We shouldn’t be thinking of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as “adding up” to the One being of God in the first place. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not each one-third of the being of God. To quote Grudem’s Systematic Theology,

[W]e must say that the person of the Father possesses the whole being of God in himself. Similarly, the Son possesses the whole being of God in himself, and the Holy Spirit possesses the whole being of God in himself, and the Holy Spirit possesses the whole being of God in himself.

Try to figure that one out. I don’t understand it, but I know it isn’t a contradiction.

Related post: Test your own understanding of the Trinity with a quiz on this biblical and historical doctrine. ( Answer key.)