The Theology of the Holy John the Theologian Concerning the Divinity of the Lord Savior and the Dispensation of Our Salvation

The most elevated thought to which the human mind can attain is thought about God. It elevates the mind itself, and with the mind the whole soul, and finally all of human nature. And it is elevated not because the mind can grasp anything in God, but by the sole contact, as it were, of the mind with God, by its single striving into the realm of divinity with detachment from all creatures. In God all is incomprehensible—God’s nature, the Trinity of persons, the attributes of divinity, and his actions. The first sound thought of the mind about God is the consciousness of his all-sided incomprehensibility, together with an unshakeable conviction of his being, all-perfection, and all-activity in general in creatures and especially in mankind. The latter one cannot help but confess, but how all this exists in God and in what forms—this the mind is powerless to grasp. The apprehension of incomprehensibility in everything, even what is confessed about God, is the most elevated act of the mind, is the true expression of its humble and reverent worship of God.

God is incomprehensible. But since mankind, who is destined for communion with God, cannot exist without knowledge of God, and moreover so as to advance to this consciousness rationally and intelligently, God was pleased to reveal himself to him insofar as he can understand, for in what is revealed there remains much that is incomprehensible; only that is revealed which and to the extent that he must confess to attain his ultimate end. Glory to the Lord! Though in this almost everything is seen as in dim glimmer, like in fog; yet the whole sum of knowledge given to us is such that it suffices to guide mankind to his destiny. It is in this form a light shining in a dark place. The essence of all that is revealed to us about God and divine things is set forth by the holy John the Theologian in a few verses at the beginning of his Gospel.

He begins with the mystery of the holy Trinity, proceeds to creation, points to the primordial state of the forebears and their Fall, to the preparation of the fallen for the reception of the Deliverer and the manifestation of the Forerunner. Further he depicts the manifestation on earth of God the Word in the Incarnation and how by some it was not received but by others it was received, and what fruit they had and have who received him, and concludes by pointing to the preeminence of the Revelation given by the Son of God over all that preceded it, or the culmination in him of God’s revelations to us: for after the Son of God, who else could give us a more perfect revelation about God? The essence of all this revelation and the whole content of our confession can be expressed in the following few words: God, worshipped in the Trinity, saves us fallen through the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Only-begotten Son of his.

The true God is God worshipped in the Trinity, and there is no other God except the God who is triune. One is the true God, and this God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All the confession about the holy Trinity the holy Church depicts, in the words of the great Athanasius, in the following propositions: «Universal faith consists in this: that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.

For the person of the Father is other, the person of the Son is other, and the person of the Holy Spirit is other.

Yet the divinity of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one, their glory is equal, and their majesty is eternal. As is the Father, so is the Son, so is the Holy Spirit.

The Father is uncreated, and the Son is uncreated, and the Holy Spirit is uncreated. The Father is incomprehensible, and the Son is incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit is incomprehensible. The Father is eternal, and the Son is eternal, and the Holy Spirit is eternal.

Yet not three eternal, but one eternal; likewise not three uncreated and not three incomprehensible, but one uncreated, one incomprehensible.

Similarly, the Father is Almighty, the Son is Almighty, the Holy Spirit is Almighty; yet not three Almighty ones, but one Almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; yet not three Gods, but one God.

And likewise the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord; yet not three Lords, but one Lord.

For as the Christian truth compels us to confess each person separately as God and Lord, so universal piety forbids us to say that there are three Gods and three Lords.

The Father is by none created, not made, not begotten. The Son from the one Father is not created, not made, but begotten. The Holy Spirit from the Father is not created, not made, not begotten, but proceeds.

And in this Trinity there is no first or last, no greater or lesser, but the three persons are wholly coeternal and equal with one another; so that, as has been said before, worship must be offered to the Trinity in Unity and to Unity in Trinity.

Thus must understand the holy Trinity anyone who wishes to be saved» (Psalter with commentary).

Keep this confession in mind as you approach understanding the teaching of the holy John the Theologian about the divinity of the Son of God, lest somehow it occur to you that the Holy Spirit is excluded here. All that is said here about God the Son can and must be applied to God the Holy Spirit. The holy John does not mention him because he introduces us into contemplation chiefly of the Only-begotten Son of God, of whom all the Gospel speaks. God the Trinity is indivisible in himself, though distinct in persons; but our weak thought requires that the essence of the confession about each person be explained to it separately, so that it may then rise to the contemplation of their indivisibility in one divinity.