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.

The acts of the Persons

The acts of the Persons in the Godhead are of three sorts.

1. Essential. All the Persons have equal hand in these acts. Opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa (“The external works of the Trinity are indivisible”). The outward works (which concern created things) belong to as much to one Person as the other, e.g., to create, to govern.

2. Proper. The personal properties, or internal works, are distinguished: the Father begets, the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

3. Appropriated. These are acts of office, more uniquely attributed to one Person than another (Ephesians 4:7). So the Father is said to “give” the Son, the Son is said to “redeem the world,” to be “made flesh,” and the Holy Spirit is the bond of union. God’s plan in the work of redemption was not only (some say) to exalt the attributes of His nature, but to glorify the Persons distinctly according to their appropriated acts.

Describing the differences

There is in the Trinity alius & alius (“another and another”), but not aliud & aliud (“another thing and another thing” (as there is in Christ)). The Father is another Person from the Son, but yet they all have the same nature and essence. They do not differ in their natures, as three men or three angels differ. Men differ in such a way that one may exist without the other, but the Father cannot be without the Son, nor the Son without the Father, such that there is the same numerical essence.

Though there is no inequality in the Persons, yet there is an order — the Father in the Son by the Holy Spirit. This is not as if there were so many partial causes, much less as if the Father were the principal cause and the others instrumental causes, but only mere order. A Person is a different way of having the same essence.

The Persons in the divine nature are distinguished from each other by some special or personal property. The personal property of the Father is to beget, that is, not to multiply His substance by production, but to communicate His substance to the Son. The Son is said to be begotten, that is, to have the whole substance from the Father by communication. The Holy Spirit is said to proceed, or to be breathed forth, to receive His substance by proceeding from the Father and the Son jointly (He is called both “the Spirit of the Father” and “the Spirit of the Son”). Only the Father begets, only the Son is begotten, and only the Holy Spirit proceeds (and both procession and generation are ineffable).

In the manner of working they differ. The Father works of Himself, by the Son, and through the Holy Spirit. The Son works from the Father by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works from the Father and the Son by Himself. There is one God such that there are three Persons in that one Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Something is attributed to one in the Scripture that cannot be said of all. The Son was made flesh, and the Son is begotten — this cannot be said of the others. The Son and the Spirit are sent — but this cannot be said of the Father. The Persons are each of them infinite, as each of them is God, yet there are not three Infinites nor three Gods (as per the Athanasian Creed, in use from around the sixth century AD). A Person is the divine nature distinguished by an incommunicable property, and though we cannot express the manner of this great mystery, yet we should believe it.

Jesus is God the Son

That Christ is God, is proved by Scripture and by reasons drawn from Scripture.

Clear texts of Scripture affirm this truth in so many words

“This is his name by which you shall call him: Jehovah, or The Lord our Righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:16), “The mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6). Paul refers to Him as “God over all, blessed for ever” (Romans 9:5). John says, “This is very God” (1 John 5:20). “Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). Thomas confesses, “My Lord, and my God” (John 20:28).

Evident reasons are drawn from Scripture

Divine names and titles are given to Christ. He is “the only blessed Potentate” (1 Timothy 6:15), “the King of Kings” (Revelation 1:5) and “Lord of Lords” (Revelation 17:14; 19:16). He is called “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15); “the brightness of his glory” (Hebrews 1:3); the “wisdom” of the Father (Proverbs 8:12 and 9:1); the “Word” of God (John 1:1; Acts 20:28; 1 Timothy 3:16); “the great God” (Titus 2:13); “the true God” (1 John 5:20); “God over all,” or “Blessed above all” (Romans 9:5); “the Most High” (Luke 1:76); “Lord” (John 20:28); “the only Lord” (Jude 4);. “the Lord of all” (Acts 10:36); “the Lord from heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:48); “the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8); the Lord of “heaven and earth” (Matthew 28:18).

The works of God are ascribed to Christ, even the principal and most eminent of all, which are proper to the Lord only. For example, the work of creation (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:10–12); the work of preserving and governing all things (Hebrews 1:2); the working of divine miracles (John 6:54 and John 5:21); redeeming mankind (Luke 1:68; Matthew 20:28; Ephesians 1:7; Revelation 1:5); sending the Holy Spirit (John 21:22 and 14:16). He forgives sins. He gives eternal life.

The principal and incommunicable attributes of God are given to Him. These include omniscience (John 2:24–25; John 21:17); omnipotence (Revelation 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; Philippians 3:21); eternity (John 17:5; Revelation 1:18; John 1:1; Isaiah 9:6); omnipresence (Matthew 18:20); unchangeableness (Hebrews 1:11–13; 13:8).

The worship due to God is ascribed to Him (Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 5:13) We are commanded to call on His name, to believe and trust in Him (John 14:1, 3:16, 6:40), to hope in Him (Isaiah 11:10). We are baptised in His name (Matthew 28:19; Acts 8:16).

The Gospel of John was written chiefly to prove the deity of Christ. Christ there gives a resolute and constant testimony of Himself, that He was the Son of God, and very God.

He is God by nature

Many heretics have denied the God-head of Christ, including Ebion, Cerinthus, Arius. Arians say that Christ is a creature. Arians and Socinians are more hostile to Athanasius than anyone else. Athanasius stood against three hundred bishops in a council (at Milan, in AD 355), and maintained the divinity of Christ against the Arians. He also wrote most copiously against the Arians, and solidly refuted their arguments.

Christ is God, not by office, nor by favour, nor by similitude, nor in a figure (as sometimes angels and magistrates are called “gods”), but by nature. By nature He is equal and co-essential with His Father. He is not God in any secondary or inferior manner, but in the very form of God is equal to Him, as the Godhead of all the three Persons is one and the same. The first Council of Nicaea was called in order to suppress the heresy of Arius, and the Nicene Creed was made.

The difference between Arius and the Council of Nicaea was one letter — whether Christ was homoiousios “similar in essence” or homoousios “same in essence” with the Father. The Arian heretic demands that Augustine shows where we read the word homoousios in Scripture. Augustine asks in reply, “What is homoousion if not, ‘I and my Father are one’?”

The Holy Spirit is God

The Holy Spirit is also God.

The names and titles of God are given to Him. Three times the apostle calls the Holy Spirit God (1 Corinthians 3:16–17). Taking the shape of a dove, and of tongues of fire, are acts of a distinct Person (Acts 5:3–4; compare Acts 1:16 with Acts 4:24–25; and Numbers 12:6 with 2 Peter 1:21). He is called the Spirit of Glory (1 Peter 4:14).

Divine attributes are given to Him. For example, omniscience (1 Corinthians 2:10–11; John 14:26), omnipresence (Psalm 139:7; Romans 8:9; John 14:26), omnipotence (Hebrews 3:7), eternity (Hebrews 9:14).

The works of the true God are given to Him. These include creation (Job 26:13; Psalm 33:6), the preservation and sustaining of all created things (Genesis 1:2; Zechariah 4:6); the work of redemption (1 Corinthians 2:10), the power of working miracles (Matthew 12:28; Acts 2:4), the power to raise the dead (Romans 8:11), the distribution of graces as He pleases (1 Corinthians 12:4), instructing the prophets (2 Peter 1:21), governing the church and making apostles (Acts 13:2, 20:28).

Divine honour and worship is given to Him. We are baptised in His name, as well as in the name of the Father and Son (Matthew 28:10). We are commanded to believe in Him, and call on Him. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall never be forgiven (Matthew 12:31), therefore He is no less to be worshipped than the Father and the Son.

The first Constantinopolitan Council (AD 381), which numbered 150 bishops, was assembled against Macedonius, who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit.

A truth to adore

This is a wonderful mystery to be adored and admired. Every one is bound to know it, with an apprehensive knowledge [grasping the truth of it], though not with a comprehensive knowledge [understanding it fully]. We must worship the Unity in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, as it is in the Athanasian Creed.

All the three Persons have a special hand in the salvation of a sinner, and every believer has a special interest in the promises of the Persons (John 5:19). The order of working in the Persons is suitable to the order of their subsisting (the Father is first in order therefore first in working, etc). Therefore adoption is reckoned by some theologians as the first of spiritual benefits, then redemption and sanctification.

We should walk in the love of them all (1 John 4:16; see John 5:9, 14:23, 16:27) and fear to offend them all, not only the Father, but the Son (Ezekiel 21:10) and the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).

We should praise God for revealing this mystery to us in His Word, and be assured that whatever He promises or threatens shall be accomplished, being confirmed by three witnesses.

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