God’s attribute: Perichoresis

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.

1. What is Perichoresis
2. Biblical Proofs for Perichoresis
3. Theological Proofs for Perichoresis from other attributes of God
4. Implication

 

What is Perichoresis

1. 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]
2. 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]
3. Samuel Renihan:
   1. “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]
   2. 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]
4. John Frame:
   1. It is one of several “technical terms for the mutual indwelling of the persons: the Father in the Son and the Son in him both in the Spirit and the Spirit in both.”[5]
   2. Other terms for this doctrine include: Circumincessio, circumcessio and coinherence.[6]

 

Biblical Proof for Perichoresis

1. 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)
   1. Jesus here is speaking.
   2. Jesus says that “that the Father is in Me” showing the Father indwell in Jesus the Son.
   3. 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.
   4. Also this passage also record Jesus saying “and I in the Father” showing Jesus also dwells also in God the Father.
2. 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)
   1. 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”
   2. 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”
   3. 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)
3. 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)
   1. Jesus is speaking again here.
   2. Note the statement by Jesus on the mutual abiding of the Father and the Son: “I am in My Father”
   3. 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.
   4. 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!
4. 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)
   1. Here again we see Jesus and the Father are in each other: “just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You”
   2. 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.
   3. The moral and practical implication from this verse will talked about more later below.
5. 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)
6. 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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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

1. Be in awe of God! This is one of the way our God is unique.
2. 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)
   1. 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.
   2. “even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You.” (21)
      1. Here we see the word “even as” that is inviting comparison.
      2. The comparison is the relationship of the Father and the Son.
      3. Two statements are given of the relationship between Father and Son:
         1. “Father, are in Me”
         2. “I in You”
      4. The significance of both statements is that both are being close to one another.
   3. “just as We are one” (22b)= The “we” here is the Father and the Son.
   4. “I in them and You in Me” (23a)
      1. Jesus here first states His relationship to believes: He dwells in believes!
      2. Then Jesus gives another statement of His Father’s relationship to Himself: The Father is in Him.
      3. 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.
3. 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.