This is a series on the attributes of God.
Selected Scriptures
Purpose: In this session we shall look at what the Bible has to say about the doctrine of Perichoresis so that we would draw implications for our lives.
- What is Perichoresis
- Biblical Proofs for Perichoresis
- Theological Proofs for Perichoresis from other attributes of God
- Implication
What is Perichoresis
- According to Wikipedia etymologically this is a compound word: “”Perichoresis” is derived from the Greek peri, “around” and chorea, which refers to “a dance, especially the round dance with its music” or chorein, “to give way to””[1]
- James E. Dolezal: “Perichoresis is the ancient teaching that argues that each of the three persons indwells and is in interior to the others…Each person has its distinct indentity and being wholly in relation to the other two.”[2]
- Samuel Renihan:
- “Perichoresis is the doctrine that because the divine essence is common to each person of the Trinity, then the Father in the Son and in the Spirit, the Son is in the Father and in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in the Father and in the Son.”[3]
- Renihan also said “Another way to express this doctrine is to say that the three persons occupy the same ‘space,’ or mutually inhabit one another.”[4]
- John Frame:
Biblical Proof for Perichoresis
- Father and Son is in each other: “but if I do them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”” (John 10:38)
- Jesus here is speaking.
- Jesus says that “that the Father is in Me” showing the Father indwell in Jesus the Son.
- This might not seem amazing given that the Father is God and would be all present; but given Jesus is God given the Trinity, this shows the Perichoesis is true.
- Also this passage also record Jesus saying “and I in the Father” showing Jesus also dwells also in God the Father.
- Father and Son is in each other: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own, but the Father, as He remains in Me, does His works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.” (John 14:10-11)
- Here Jesus ask rhetorically why His disciples didn’t believe in the Perichoresis; note He said in verse 10: “I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me”
- After this rhetorical question Jesus in the next verse (11a) gave this command (imperative) to believe in the Perichoresis of the Father and the Son: “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me”
- This truth that the Father abide in the Son while the Son abide in the Father might be hard to believe; yet consider also the work of Jesus’ works and wonders as evidential weight for this doctrine as Jesus said “believe because of the works themselves” (11b)
- Father and Son is in each other: “On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I in you.” (John 14:20)
- Jesus is speaking again here.
- Note the statement by Jesus on the mutual abiding of the Father and the Son: “I am in My Father”
- Yet this truth of Jesus in the Father is evidenced by something that will happen “On that day;” what is the day Jesus is talking about? From verse 10 of Jesus talking about going away and that He (Jesus) will still live seems to suggest the Resurrection.
- Elsewhere the Scripture teaches how the Resurrection is proof for our salvation and future resurrection but here Jesus argues that the Resurrection attests to the fact that Jesus’ teaching of the Father and the Son abiding in each other is true if Jesus would resurrect from the dead!
- Father and Son is in each other: “that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17:21)
- Here again we see Jesus and the Father are in each other: “just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You”
- This verse also teaches that believers abide in God but that still doesn’t cancel out the teaching of the members of the Trinity abiding in each other.
- The moral and practical implication from this verse will talked about more later below.
- If the Father and Son abide within each other we therefore are not surprised to see a verse exists where the Father and Son are one: “I and the Father are one.”” (John 10:30)
- Given what we see in John 14:10-11 and John 14:20 teaching us the Father and Son abiding in each other we are thus not surprised to find that Jesus taught that to see Jesus is seeing the Father because the Father abides in the Son and shares the same nature/essence: “Jesus *said to him, “Have I been with [a]you for so long a time, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9)
Theological Proof for Perichoresis from other attributes of God
- God is Unique as was taught in our second session. While God’s uniqueness does not prove Perichoresis directly nevertheless it helps remove the objection that some may have that Perichoresis is hard to grasp, or we don’t see Trinitarian Perichoresis anywhere else in the world, etc. Rather if Perichoresis is true then this is one of the ways that God is different from other living being and things.
- God is Simple as was taught in our fourth and fifth sessions. God even as a Triune being cannot be divided and cut up into parts but must be of one substance unity and indwell in each other.
- God is immense as we taught in our sixth sessions. If God is all present everywhere and nothing creaturely can contain Him then each members of the Trinity if each member is fully Divine and have full Divine attributes would be “there” wherever the other Member of the Trinity is at. They are in each other!
Implications
- Be in awe of God! This is one of the way our God is unique.
- Unity: Passage: “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” (John 17:20-23)
- The Trinity is what Christians need to meditate upon, specifically meditating on the relationship of the Father and the Son, if we ae going to have true Christian unity. Jesus emphasize this with three statements.
- “even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You.” (21)
- Here we see the word “even as” that is inviting comparison.
- The comparison is the relationship of the Father and the Son.
- Two statements are given of the relationship between Father and Son:
- “Father, are in Me”
- “I in You”
- The significance of both statements is that both are being close to one another.
- “just as We are one” (22b)= The “we” here is the Father and the Son.
- “I in them and You in Me” (23a)
- Jesus here first states His relationship to believes: He dwells in believes!
- Then Jesus gives another statement of His Father’s relationship to Himself: The Father is in Him.
- It should be a profound meditation that the Father and Son are so close they are in each other and then are able to reside in believers simultaneously.
- When we see indwelling in things in creation and creatures and how things are inter-related these creaturely dwelling should remind us of the deeper Triune God and move us to respond by worshipping Him…yet also we should simultaneously thank God for creaturely dwelling and unity of things in the world and that ultimately our world isn’t all just chance driven fragmentations. Things like our spirit indwelling in our body (showing we are more than just physical bodies and we are not mere robots with no volitions), part of our circulatory system needing and being embedded even in our bone system with the creation of blood cells in our marrows, the closest of human marriage relationship of intimacy, the philosophical problems of the one and the many, and many more things shows us the creaturely indwelling in the world was made by this Triune God whose member indwell within one another!
[1] Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perichoresis#Etymology
[2] James Dolezal, All that Is in God (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2017), 125.
[3] Samuel Renihan, Deity and Decree (Seattle, WA: Kindle Direct Publishing, 2020), 100.
[4] Samuel Renihan, Deity and Decree (Seattle, WA: Kindle Direct Publishing, 2020), 100.
[5] John Frame, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 2013), 479.
[6] John Frame, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 2013), 479.
I’ll admit it. My brain hurts on this one. 🙂
Blessings for a stunning day.
Thanks for this outline on “Perichoresis.” I learned a new word today. This is a hard concept for our finite minds to grasp, especially us T-101 types, but we see the doctrine taught in Scripture as you demonstrate.
Brother thank you for reading this. Thanks for your comment. I normally don’t go on YouTube to look for this doctrine taught and it seems Catholics talk about this more than Protestants though I see some Reformed Christians also talk about it. I do think it is Biblical and focused on the Scripture and left the philosophical stuff out of this outline in terms of my concentration. When you were Catholic did they talk about this? Asking how much of it got to layman level versus scholastic talks among priests and more upper class educated adult Catholics
Today was actually the first time I saw this term. While I had 12 years of Catholic religious education, grades 1-12, the theology never went past the Baltimore Catechism level, a very, very basic understanding. Most Catholics today didn’t attend Catholic school and have even less of a grasp on RC theology (70% of polled Catholics don’t believe Jesus is really present in the eucharist, etc.)
New word, Perichoresis…so wonderfully beautiful! 🙌🙌🙌
Jim ~ thanx for sharing this. I have to confess that I had not heard about Perichoresis. But the definition was certainly known. 🙂
Donald thanks for reading this! I believe many Christians who read the Bible have an idea that this is true and Biblical especially from the Gospel of John though this doctrine isn’t as talked about as a single stand alone subject today. I’m most blown away to think that there’s applications for Christian life from an abstract attribute of God, showing how good theology is always practical amen?
AMEN!!!!!
[…] God’s attribute: Perichoresis […]
Thank you, Jim for both the Bible Study explanation and the post on the subject of GOD’s attribute of Perichoresis. It all boils down to faith that even if GOD is so mysterious, we know and accept that He is good and is our Triune GOD. What I understand in His attribute is rejecting the divinity of JESUS CHRIST is also rejecting the divinity of GOD the FATHER and the HOLY SPIRIT. Similarly, rejecting the HOLY SPIRIT is like rejecting all three Persons of the Trinity. Also, the Triune GOD’s work in our salvation is at times intertwined e.g. both JESUS and the HOLY SPIRIT have a role in the sanctification process and GOD the FATHER and CHRIST with justification. This attribute thus help explained a lot. Blessings to you and your family!
1. “ What I understand in His attribute is rejecting the divinity of JESUS CHRIST is also rejecting the divinity of GOD the FATHER and the HOLY SPIRIT. Similarly, rejecting the HOLY SPIRIT is like rejecting all three Persons of the Trinity.”
Wow I somehow didn’t add that part into the outline when I was editing and smoothing out the outline. Glad you shared that! That’s important.
2. “ Also, the Triune GOD’s work in our salvation is at times intertwined e.g. both JESUS and the HOLY SPIRIT have a role in the sanctification process and GOD the FATHER and CHRIST with justification.”.
Amen! Given the Triune indwelling within each other one shouldn’t be surprised at the intertwined work of the members of the Trinity for what you said such as sanctification and justification. I think also of Creation is the same way with the work of the Members of the Trinity!
Brother good comment! I really hope others would be able to read this! Thanks for joining in, hope the rest of your Wednesday was a blessing?
GOD willing, Jim! Knowing GOD more helps us not just to worship Him but rely on Him and understand His will for us. A blessing it was knowing GOD more through your one hour and 30 minutes of Bible study lecture.
Reblogged this on My Logos Word.
I don’t know how well this will translate from my head, to keyboard, to reader. That God moves as One is so beautiful and mind stretching to me. I remember when I first heard of this in my Trinity class, I couldn’t help but laugh that even if a person wanted to put God in a box, He would move right out of it as His movements cannot be contained (I was distraught to hear the NAR has been using the phrase “don’t put God in a box” in regards to their supernatural views, some conservatives have responded saying God resides in a box, the Bible-both miss the point of what I am saying, but I digress!). It’s not the Father moving One way, the Son moving another and the Spirit moving yet another, One God, Three Persons move together. How absolutely amazing! I think the dance concept works for us as well. We risk modalism as you mentioned, when we think too much of the One God we exclude the Three Persons and when we think too much of the Three Persons we run the risk of Tritheism in that we exclude the One. We constantly need to think of the One and then think of Three back and forth. Like I said, not sure how well this is translating from my brain to your ears!
How the Trinity indwells each other is most certainly a mystery I do not even want to try and solve/reconcile but I know that I am thankful that the Trinity forever indwells His people at the time of conversion. Only a hard heart isn’t moved to love, awe and worship of the Trinity with this attribute. Love and blessings to you, Nancy and kiddos.
Good comment! There is a right sense of God being outside the Box and a wrong use of the idea when it contradicts Scripture like with NAR.
I love this: “ We constantly need to think of the One and then think of Three back and forth. Like I said, not sure how well this is translating from my brain to your ears!”. I think it is well stated and well communicated; I think thinking of the Trinity is a dance too but in our thought of going back and forth with the One and the Three lol. Oh the glory of the Trinity and the relations of the Triune members! Glad you are able to join in the study, and share your thoughts here. How’s the weather and how is your dog with this cold weather?
Today is milder than it has been, praise the Lord. My dog likes being outside as little as possible right now. I am really thankful for Tom’s wisdom in regards to dogs paws and winter because I didn’t know that and that was happening with PQ. Praise God for this WP community!
The last application is a lot to chew on, for a doctrine that’s already a lot to chew on
This is the sort of thing that makes me feel like my head is going to explode. But then, if I had a God I could understand thoroughly, I would be suspicious that maybe I was just creating Him in my imagination.
Thanks for reading this!! This description of God I think is biblical but not often talked about and taught and I think a big part of it is how this is hard to grasp the Trinity. You are right God is different than us, it goes back to the first attribute of God we looked at in this series which is that God is unique than His creation and creatures. How we should worship Him for He is so unlike what we can imagine Amen???
Amen!
I’m glad you’re addressing this particular topic. I think it an important one. And I do think you are right in that Catholics are more likely to have heard this term than Prots.
For anyone looking for ‘extra credit’, the term is also used–though not very often–in Christology to describe the hypostatic union. In his excellent book Divinity and Humanity, Oliver Crisp addresses this and other important Christological concerns. The chapter on perichoresis was previously available in the Tyndale Bulletin, for anyone wishing to check it out:
Problems with Perichoresis
Wow awesome! I got Crisp’s book “The Word Enfleshed” a few weeks ago and seeing your link to his journal article is an extra treat! Have you heard of, read or have that book by Crisp? I downloaded you article for later. Thanks for sharing that! Didn’t realized you also have interests with analytic Theology! That is on top of your interests with New Testament studies and exegesis!
The only other Crisp work I have (or read) is God Incarnate. I like the way he writes.
Those passages does show this doctrine is Biblical though I don’t think about it often. Also the doctrine of God’s immensity does prove the members of the Trinity have to dwell within each other
Thank you for this great teaching, And for a new word “Perichoresis”
Thanks for reading this Crissy! I was trying to make it as easy to understand and biblically supported as much as possible in my presentation, hope you noticed that lol.
I did notice. 😁
I could understand it and I am not the brightest kid in the neighbourhood 😉
Up to this point in my Christian life I have never heard of this term, so glad I checked a couple of older posts on your blog
Why is this doctrine more in the past than today? Something is not right with the church today.
[…] then there is a role of ST. As an example there is the doctrine of Perichoresis. See my outline God’s attribute: Perichoresis in which I look not only at the biblical data to establish this doctrine but also other doctrines […]