FILE: DOG23.WMV PAUL TOULETTE: I have been thought that this is Paul toe let: I have been taught that the Father created the world just like the Son and the spirit makes us whole. But are all three persons involved in creation? DR. ROLAND ZIEGLER: We have talked about the opera ad intra. We've talked about how God is in Himself, how He relates in Himself with other relations with other persons. And what you are asking now is what's called the opera ad extra. That is, the works of God outside of the holy trinity. That is, the works of God in space and time. And as you said, customarily we think, well, Father is the creator. The Son is the redeemer. And the spirit is the sanctifier. After all, isn't that the 34 structure of the creed? You have the first article of the creator, the Second Article of the redemption, and then you have the third article, sanctification. That's also the way how the three articles of the creed are headed into the explanation of the Small Catechism. And definitely that's a Biblical way to speak. Because the Father is, first and foremost, called the creator. It is Jesus who is called our savior. Our redeemer. And it is especially said of the Holy Spirit that He makes holy that He sanctifies. But does that mean that only the Father creates? That only the Son saves. Redeems. That only the spirit sanctifies? For that again we have to go back to the richness of holy scripture. And we see that scripture, although preferably talks about the Father being the creator, it also talks about the Son being involved in creation. Again, remember John 1, the prologue, where it says that everything that is created is created through the logos and nothing that is created without the logos. Remember also in Genesis 1 when the spirit is hovering above the waters. So if we look at creation, we see that the Father is the creator but the Son and the spirit are involved in creation. It's not so that only one person. Trinity does something and the other persons of the trinity are not involved in that, are somewhat idol or whatever. Rather, when God acts in history, then He always acts as the triune God. All the three persons of the trinity are involved in the work. The same is also true when we talk about salvation. Of course Jesus is the savior. But He is not the savior without the Father and without the Holy Spirit. After all, it is the Father who has sent the Son. It is the Father who has given His only begotten Son. It is the Father who was reconciled to the world through the Son. And also the Holy Spirit is involved in salvation because it is through the Holy Spirit that Christ was conceived. It is the spirit that rested on Christ. It is the spirit who comes upon Christ in His baptism. And if we look at the work of sanctification, we see that not only the spirit is the sanctifier. Because, of course, also Father and Son. Father and Son send the spirit. The Father elects us unto sanctification. The Son sanctifies us through His word. And as Paul says in I Corinthians 1, "He, Christ, is made unto us as sanctification." So we see creation, redemption, and sanctification are the works of all three persons of the trinity. That means we have to maintain both statements. It is Biblical talk to say the Father created, the Son redeemed, and the Holy Spirit sanctifies. And it would be unBiblical talk to say only the Father creates, only the Son redeems, only the spirit sanctifies. What we do here is called by the dogmaticians appropriation 35 or attribution. That is, the works of the trinity in time are attributed or appropriated to each person of the trinity. First and foremost, to each person. But they are not distributed. That is, the works are not exclusively the works of only one person. Otherwise, again, we would destroy the unity of God. Otherwise, we would say, oh, only the Father has created the world so you know the creator if you know only the Father. No. To really know the creator of the world, you have to know God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. To really know who has redeemed you, it's not enough to know only Jesus. But you have to know the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is the work of the entire trinity to sanctify us. To make us holy. Remember that Trinitarian movement from the Father to the Son to the Holy Spirit to include us in that and bring us back to the Father? In each of these stages, you might say, and I mean the first stage is actually that we are created to be in communion with Him. To be in fellowship with Him. In each of these stages, the entire holy trinity is active. Even if in the economy of salvation, in the history of salvation, each person has a specific task, you could say. But the person always acts with the other persons in the Trinity. We never ever encounter an isolated person of the trinity. In everything God does, we encounter Him as the triune God. So when we were taught that the Father created the world, that the Son redeemed the world, and that the spirit sanctifies the world, that's not wrong to say it. It's good Biblical language and good catechetical language. It only would get wrong when you'd say only the Father did it. A little bit more Latin. The dogmaticians said that the opera ad extra ******* (sed indivisum,) which means the works of the trinity to the outside are undivided. You cannot distribute them, you cannot divide them up and say this is only what the Father does, only the Son, only the Holy Spirit. (End of DOG23.WMV.)