Our Need for the Triune God

The grand heresy, which might be said to have overspread the church for many centuries, was in substance this — that the salvation of sinful men, insofar as they might need salvation, was to be ascribed not to the one true God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, but to men themselves and to what they could do, or to what could be done for them by their fellowman and other creatures. This, more or less fully developed, was the great heresy which lay under the whole elaborate externalism of the medieval and Romish religion. Almost everything that is distinctive, either in the specific tenets and practices, or in the more general features and tendencies, of the full-blown popery with which the Reformation has to contend, might be traced back, more or less directly, to this great principle; while, on the other hand, almost all the particular features of the system tended to deepen and strengthen in men’s minds the comprehensive heresy in which they had their root and origin.

John Calvin saw that the only effectual way of dealing with this great perversion of the way of salvation — so well fitted to lead men to build upon a false foundation their hopes of heaven — the only way to overturn it root and branch, to demolish at once the whole height of the superstructure and the whole depth of the foundation, was to bring out fully and definitely the whole doctrine of Scripture concerning the place held in the salvation of sinners by the Father, by the Son, and by the Holy Ghost. He made it his great object to bring out and to embody the whole doctrine of Scripture upon these subjects, and accordingly Calvinism is just a full exposition and development of the sum and substance of what is represented in Scripture as done for the salvation of sinners by the three Persons of the Godhead.

It represents the Father as arranging, in accordance with all the perfections of His nature and all the principles of His moral government, and at the same time, with due regard to the actual scheme of redemption, choosing some men to grace and glory, and sending His Son to seek and to save them. It represents the Son as assuming human nature and suffering and dying as the Surety and Substitute of His chosen people — of those whom the Father had given Him in covenant — of an innumerable multitude out of every kindred and nation and tongue; as bearing their sins in His own body, and bearing them away; as doing and bearing everything necessary for securing their eternal salvation. It represents the Holy Spirit as taking of the things of Christ and showing them to men’s souls; as taking up His abode in all whom Christ redeemed with His precious blood, effectually and infallibly determining them to faith and holiness; and thus applying the blessings of redemption to all for whom Christ purchased them, and finally preparing them fully for the inheritance of the saints.

These are in substance the views given us in Scripture of the way in which sinners of the human race are saved. They are views which, as experience fully proves, are most offensive to the natural tendencies and inclinations of men’s hearts; and plainly as they are taught in Scripture, there is a constant and powerful disposition, especially when true religion is in a low or languishing disposition, to reject them or explain them away and to substitute in their room notions which more or less directly exclude or contradict them. They certainly had been thoroughly excluded from the practical teaching and from the whole plans and arrangements of the church at the period of the Reformation; while it is true, on the other hand, that these views, and these alone, overturn from the foundation the whole system of notions which then generally prevailed, and which so fearfully perverted the way of salvation.

We believe that it is impossible to bring out accurately, fully, and definitely, the sum and substance of what is taught in Scripture concerning the place which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost hold in the salvation of sinners, without taking up Calvinistic ground, without being in a manner necessitated to assert the fundamental principles of the Calvinistic system of theology. It is, we believe, impossible otherwise to do full justice, and to give full effect, to what Scripture teaches concerning the sovereign supremacy of the Father in determining the everlasting destiny of His creatures; concerning the death and righteousness of Christ, as of infinite worth and value, and as infallibly efficacious for securing all the great objects to which they are directed; and concerning the agency of the Holy Spirit in certainly and infallibly uniting to Christ through faith all whom the Father had given to Him, and preserving them in safety unto His eternal kingdom.

Those who reject or put aside the peculiar doctrines of Calvinism can, we think, be shown to be practically, and by fair construction, withholding from God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, more or less of the place and influence which the Scripture assigns to them in the salvation of sinners; and to be giving to men themselves, or at least to creatures, a share in effecting their salvation which the Scripture does not sanction. And when Calvinistic principles are rejected or thrown into the background, not only is something, more or less, of necessity taken from the Creator and assigned to the creature, but an opening is made, an opportunity is left, for carrying on the process of transferring to man what belongs to God to almost any extent, until the scriptural method of salvation is wholly set aside or overturned.

Men who profess to derive their opinions, in any sense, from the sacred Scriptures, must be substantially — whether they will or not, and whether they are aware of it or not — Socinians, or Arminians, or Calvinists. The distinctive characteristic of Socinianism is that it virtually invests men with the power of saving themselves, of doing everything that is needful for effecting their own salvation. Arminianism virtually divides the work of saving men between God and men, and is more or less Pelagian according to the comparative share and influence which it assigns to the Creator and the creature, respectively. Calvinism, and that alone, gives to God the whole honor and glory of saving sinners, making men, while upheld and sustained in the possession and exercise of all that is necessary for moral agency, the unworthy and helpless recipients at God’s hand of all spiritual blessings.

Calvinism not only withholds, in point of fact, from men any share in the work of effecting their own salvation and ascribes this wholly to God; but when rightly understood and faithfully applied, it prevents the possibility of any such perversion of the gospel scheme of redemption, of any such partition of the work of men’s salvation. And it is upon this ground that it was so thoroughly adapted, not only to overturn from the foundation the whole system of destructive heresy that had overspread the church at the time of the Reformation, but to prevent, insofar as it might be adopted and carried out, the possibility of the reintroduction of such a dangerous perversion of scriptural principles and arrangements.

Praise to the Triune God

The Triune Jehovah we praise,
In essence eternally one,
Who has, by the word of His grace,
His counsels eternal made known;
The Father, The Spirit, and Word,
As three in one God, and no more,
In Zion’s salvation accord;
Then let us this one God adore.

No change can take place in His mind;
His counsels are settled of old;
To Zion He’ll ever be kind,
And to her His glory unfold.
Though men, sin, and devils unite To drive the believer to hell,
Jehovah will put them to flight,
And Zion shall surely prevail.

In Jesus, and Jesus alone,
The church stands forever complete;
And whilst He remains on His throne,
He will not the weakest forget;
They’re His and shall ever be His,
And with Him in glory shall reign,
The Triune Jehovah to bless,
For ever and ever. Amen.

— William Gadsby

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