theology-proper
+ NewThe Eternal Generation of the Son — John 5:26
John 5:26 is a key text for eternal generation: "as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself." The Son's life is the Father's own life, eternally communicated. Nicaea confessed the Son 'begotten, not made,' eternally from the Father, and Augustine guarded this against any temporal subordination. Aquinas treated generation as an eternal act of the divine intellect. The mutual life of Father and Son connects to the Logos who was with God in John 1:1 and to the radiance of God's glory in Heb 1:3. Generation is eternal, not an event within time.
The Aseity of God — Exodus 3:14
At the burning bush God names himself in Exod 3:14: "I AM WHO I AM." The divine name discloses God's self-existence — he depends on nothing outside himself for his being. Aquinas built his metaphysics on this text, naming God ipsum esse subsistens, being itself. Augustine contrasted God's unchanging 'I AM' with the mutable creature that merely becomes. Bavinck made aseity the root of all the incommunicable attributes. Jesus invokes this very name in John 8:58, "before Abraham was, I am," claiming divine self-existence for himself. The God who simply is stands behind the sovereignty of Eph 1:11.
The Sovereignty of God in Election — Ephesians 1:3-14
Eph 1:3-14 is one long sentence of praise: God "chose us in him before the foundation of the world," "predestined us for adoption," and works "all things according to the counsel of his will." Election is "to the praise of his glory." Calvin read this doxology as the warrant for the doctrine of predestination, and Augustine grounded adoption in unmerited grace. Barth reoriented the whole around election in Christ, 'in him' being the key phrase. The phrase "the counsel of his will" connects to the potter's freedom in Rom 9:18-21 and to the calling of Rom 8:29-30. Sovereign grace and assured glory are two ends of one purpose.
Creation Ex Nihilo — Genesis 1:1-3
Gen 1:1-3 opens Scripture with God creating "the heavens and the earth" by his word: "Let there be light." The church reads this as creation out of nothing — no pre-existing matter constrains the Creator. Augustine wrestled with the nature of time and the 'beginning' itself, and Aquinas defended creation ex nihilo as a truth of reason confirmed by revelation. Irenaeus had already used it against Gnostic emanationism. The creating word of 1:3 is identified in the New Testament with the Logos of John 1:1-3 and the Son of Col 1:16. Creation and redemption share one agent: the Word through whom all things were made.
The Image of God — Genesis 1:26-27
Gen 1:26-27: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness... male and female he created them." The imago Dei grounds human dignity, dominion, and relationality. Augustine located the image especially in the soul's rational powers, mirroring the Trinity, while Irenaeus distinguished image and likeness, the latter restored by the Spirit. Bavinck argued the whole person, not merely the intellect, bears the image. The plural "let us" has long been read in trinitarian light alongside John 1:26. The image marred at the fall of Gen 3:6-7 is renewed in Christ, the true image of Col 1:15.