The living God is the covenant God

The following is a excerpt from Herman H. Hoeksema's "Reformed Dogmatics," volume 1. This work is available on the Reformed Free Publishing Association website.

"The truth of the Trinity means that God is the living God.

"As the living God he is the covenant God. The idea of the covenant is not that of an agreement, pact, or alliance. It is a bond of friendship and living fellowship. Friendship is that bond of fellowship between persons, according to which and by which they enter into one another's life in perfect knowledge and love so that mind in knit to mind, will to will, heart to heart, and each has no secrets from the other. It presupposes a basis of likeness, of equality, for only like knows like. On that basis of equality, it requires personal distinction: for without this there is only sameness; there can be no fellowship. Both the equality and the personal distinction are in God because He is triune; the most absolute equality exists between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for these three are one in essence. In Him there is personal distinction between the three persons subsisting in the one essence.

"Thus the three persons of the holy Trinity completely and perfectly enter into one another's life. Their fellowship is infinitely perfect. They have no secrets from one another. There is no conflict between them. Their relationship is one of perfect harmony: the Father knows and loves the Son in the Spirit; the Son knows and loves the Father in the Spirit; the Spirit knows and loves the Father through the Son in Himself. The living God is the covenant God. That is the great significance of the truth that God is triune and that these three distinct persons are the one, only, true, and eternal God."