← Back to sermon library

CTF 2025 - Key Theological Concepts

Jim Butler · 2024-12-20 · 687 words · 5 min

CTF 2025 - Preview

Scratch that. Yeah. I'd say leave it. I'd say leave 
it too. Leave it, yeah. Okay. Pushing on that a little 
bit, do you want to speak to inseparable operations and missions 
appropriations? I don't know if it's going to 
come up in the conference, but it fits the background. Yeah, inseparable 
operation simply means that every work external to God is done 
by the living and true God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
As Cam said, it's not parceled out amongst the persons of the 
Trinity, but everything that happens external to God is done 
by one God. So it's not Yeah, there's no 
God Inc., there's no divvying out assignments. Appropriations 
are when we appropriate certain works to certain persons of the 
Trinity, not to show that there's a parceling out, but to show 
the glory of that person and the glory of God Most High as 
He is triune. So, appropriations are a helpful 
tool. or a strategy that comes from 
reading the Bible, we see things appropriated specifically, God 
as Creator, Son as Redeemer, Spirit as Sanctifier. But that 
doesn't mean that the Spirit isn't involved in creation or 
the Father isn't involved in redemption. They're just appropriated 
to shine the light on that person, and as well to shine the light 
on something that is true of God in Himself. The Father is 
unbegotten, the Son is begotten by the Father, and the Spirit 
proceeds from the Father and the Son. So, appropriations give 
us sort of a window by which we can look into God. Not exhaustively, not everything 
there is, but that order does affect how these appropriations 
are beneficial to us. And then I don't remember your 
third one. Jeremy Mishins. Mishins. Mishins speak concerning the 
Son and the Spirit in terms of their historical work in the 
salvation of sinners. Galatians 4, for instance, speaks 
about the Father and the fullness of the time God sent forth His 
Son, born of a woman, born unto the law. That's the temporal 
mission of the Son from the Father to save His people from their 
sins. And then on the heels of that, Paul speaks concerning 
the Spirit being sent by the Father, and as those who affirm 
the filioque, we would say, the Father and the Son. So, the Spirit 
comes in that temporal mission most vividly seen on the day 
of Pentecost to do the work of salvation, sanctification, and 
those sorts of things. Which, if you get a few of these 
things down, as we've said at the Saturday morning as well, 
seriously, 6 to 10 concepts, that, you know, it's not 60 to 
100. This is why ignorance concerning 
these truths is really, it really... isn't good, because nobody's 
asking you to split the atom, nobody's asking you to explain 
the innermost thoughts of God. But with six to ten helpful concepts 
that the church has recognized and utilized via their own hermeneutic 
throughout the history of the church, Not everybody's going 
to be James Dolezal, but you can certainly have a basic response 
to a Jehovah's Witness at your door that's questioning you about 
the doctrine of the Trinity. To just simply say, well, I think 
it's in the Bible, or my pastor says it's biblical, that's not 
legit. Peter tells us we need to be 
ready to give a defense to everyone who asks us, and I take that 
broadly. For a Jehovah's Witness, for 
an Arian, for a modern-day denier of the Trinity, we should be 
able to give some expression and definition to what it is 
that we believe. And once you jump into these 
creeds and confessions, and once you jump into classical theism, 
you will see and be convinced this was not an innovation of 
man. This was good exegesis of Scripture. When you read in the 
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word 
was God, and that Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Nicaea 
doesn't make that up. Nicaea helps protect what John 
writes under the inspiration of the Spirit.