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b. The distinctive property of the Father.
The personal property of the Father is, negatively
speaking, that He is not begotten or unbegotten, and positively speaking, the generation of the
Son and the spiration of the Holy Spirit. It is true that spiration is also a work of the Son, but in
Him it is not combined with generation. Strictly speaking, the only work that is peculiar to the
Father exclusively is that of active generation.
c. The opera ad extra ascribed more particularly to the Father.
All the opera ad extra of God
are works of the triune God, but in some of these works the Father is evidently in the
foreground, such as: (1) Designing the work of redemption, including election, of which the Son
was Himself an object, Ps. 2:7-9; 40:6-9; Isa. 53:10; Matt. 12:32; Eph. 1:3-6. (2) The works of
creation and providence, especially in their initial stages, I Cor. 8:6; Eph. 2:9. (3) The work of
representing the Trinity in the Counsel of Redemption, as the holy and righteous Being, whose
right was violated, Ps. 2:7-9; 40:6-9; John 6:37,38; 17:4-7.
2. THE SON OR THE SECOND PERSON IN THE TRINITY.
a. The name “Son” as applied to the second person. The second person in the Trinity is called
“Son” or “Son of God” in more than one sense of the word. (1) In a metaphysical sense. This
must be maintained over against Socinians and Unitarians, who reject the idea of a tri-personal
Godhead, see in Jesus a mere man, and regard the name “Son of God” as applied to Him
primarily as an honorary title conferred upon Him. It is quite evident that Jesus Christ is
represented as the Son of God in Scripture, irrespective of His position and work as Mediator.
(a) He is spoken of as the Son of God from a pre-incarnation standpoint, for instance in John
1:14,18; Gal. 4:4. (b) He is called the “only-begotten” Son of God or of the Father, a term that
would not apply to Him, if He were the Son of God only in an official or in an ethical sense, John
1:14,18; 3:16,18; I John 4:9. Compare II Sam. 7:14; Job 2:1; Ps. 2:7; Luke 3:38; John 1:12. (c) In
some passages it is abundantly evident from the context that the name is indicative of the deity
of Christ, John 5:18-25; Heb. 1. (d) While Jesus teaches His disciples to speak of God, and to
address Him as “our Father,” He Himself speaks of Him, and addresses Him, simply as “Father”
or “my Father,” and thereby shows that He was conscious of a unique relationship to the
Father, Matt. 6:9; 7:21; John 20:17. (e) According to Matt. 11:27, Jesus as the Son of God claims
a unique knowledge of God, a knowledge such as no one else can possess. (f) The Jews certainly
understood Jesus to claim that He was the Son of God in a metaphysical sense, for they
regarded the manner in which He spoke of Himself as the Son of God as blasphemy, Matt.
26:63; John 5:18; 10:36. —— (2) In an official or Messianic sense. In some passages this
meaning of the name is combined with the one previously mentioned. The following passages
apply the name “Son of God” to Christ as Mediator, Matt. 8:29, 26:63 (where this meaning is
combined with the other); 27:40; John 1:49; 11:27. This Messiah-Sonship is, of course, related