"With the Father and the Son He Is Worshipped and Glorified"

Our liturgy reveals our theology. The Nicene Creed reminds us that we worship and glorify the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is why we confess concerning the Holy Spirit: “with the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.” 

This statement recognizes and affirms the inherent trinitarian expression of biblical doxology and benediction. For example, when the Apostle Paul blesses God, he blesses the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Eph 1:3-14) and when he blesses believers, his benediction is trinitarian: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor 13:14). 

Likewise, when the Apostle John extends grace to his readers, the source of his benediction is the Triune God: “Grace to you and peace from him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before this throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth” (Rev 1:4b-5a). (The sevenfold spirit is the Holy Spirit.)

Following the biblical pattern, our language of prayer, praise, doxology, and benediction is trinitarian. Here we see a relationship between doctrine and worship, liturgy and creed. Right theology and right worship go together. Orthodoxy can be translated “right opinion or thought,” but it can also be translated “right worship.” Gregory of Nazianzus, whom I’ve quoted previously in these notes, reminds us that right worship is the end of right doctrine. He puts it succinctly in one of his theological poems: “The sum of the matter is this: worship the Trinity” (Poem 1.1.10, 74).

For Gregory, right theology and right worship motivates mission. He concludes a series of sermons on the Trinity: “To the best of my powers I will persuade all men to worship Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the single Godhead and power, because to him belong all glory, honor, and might for ever and ever” (Or. 31.33). 

With the Psalmist we cry out: “Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!” (Psalm 67:3,5). With the apostles and the Church through the centuries, we call on the nations to worship and glorify the Triune God: Father, Son, and Spirit.