Sometimes, during our evening services, there is plenty of time for discussion. Recently, we were having a session looking at the name of God, and I was asked a question. I answered it as best I could, but I've been thinking about it some more since. I think I could have done a little better. In case this is helpful, I'll put it here.
The question was whether we could call God our creator, redeemer and sanctifier.
Yes
My initial response was that this is a biblical way to refer to God. We had been looking at the divine name in Exodus 3 and Exodus 6, and we had just observed that God's name is a way to refer to his character - it's not just a label. What's more, his name / character is tied up with his deeds. Our God is a God who sees his people's misery, who hears their cry, who delivers them from slavery, who brings them out from under tyrannical rule, who takes them as his very own special people, and who brings them in to the inheritance he has promised them.
So, to speak of God's name as "creator" or "redeemer" is fully within that very biblical way of thinking. We might begin our prayers, "O creator, ..." and so on.
A new Trinity?
But then the question was asked again, only a little more focussed: Might these labels be used instead of the traditional titles for the 3 persons of the Trinity? So, historically, we've called God "Father, Son and Spirit". Instead, might we not say that he is "Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier".
Hesitant
My initial response was that this would be unwise. The reason is that the Bible links all 3 persons to the creation. Specifically, Colossians 1 and Hebrews 1 describe the Son as the creator of everything, and Genesis 1 and Psalm 33 speak of the Spirit of God as present at creation and as the breath of God through whom creation sprang to life. The same points could be made about God our redeemer, and God our sanctifier - all 3 persons are at work in each.
So whilst we have 3 activiites of God, and whilst God is 3 persons, we cannot correlate those two lists. We cannot say that what distinguishes God the Father is that he creates, and so on.
Actually, ... No
I've since thought about this some more. And the answer is: No, we really can't do this.
It's to make a massive category error. And once you've seen the problem, it explains why my initial answer was the right one; it explains why you cannot correlate the 3 persons to these 3 activities. Here are two ways to look at this.
The first angle to come at it from is to say that Father, Son and Spirit are relational terms. Creator, redeemer and sanctifier are functional terms. The first set describe how two (or three) people relate to one another. The second set describe something that someone does.
The other angle to approach this from is to observe that Father, Son and Spirit describes how the 3 persons relate to each other. The Father is the Father of the Son. The Son is the Father's Son - eternally begotten. The Spirit is the Father's breath. And so on. These terms describe the internal relationships within the Trinity. Whereas the labels creator, redeemer and sanctifier describe how the 3 persons relate to the world out there. They created the world, they redeemed their chosen people, and they sanctified them. The terms describe the external actions of the Trinity. That's a huge difference, and it's a difference of category.
So if we were to replace the traditional names of the Trinity with these new, functional labels, we would end up saying that the first person of the Trinity related to the other two as creator. So the Son and the Spirit were created beings? We'd have to say that the second person of the Trinity related to the other two as redeemer. So God the Father needed saving? You see the problem. Or if you don't end up saying that, you end up saying absolutely nothing at all about how the 3 persons relate to one another.
If you go down this line, you end up disbanding the Trinity. Either the 3 persons of the Trinity become 3 Gods, who have no relationship with one another. Or the 3 persons of the Trinity become just one God, who can be labelled variously according to what they do. What you have completely lost is any concept that there is one eternal God who is 3 persons in perfect mutual relationship.
So it is biblical to speak of God as our creator, our redeemer and our sanctifier. But saying that doesn't in any way diminish the importance of speaking of the 3 persons as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
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