Sermon Tone Analysis

Each Person is Fully God

What is an accurate way to describe each person of the Trinity?

God the Father is clearly God

It is evident through the Old and New Testaments, where God the Father is clearly viewed as sovereign Lord over all and where Jesus prays to his Father in heaven.

The Son is fully God

How can we question the deity of Jesus when we read this?

Christ is referred to as “the Word,” and John says both that he was “with God” and that he “was God.”

Where else do we see the words “In the beginning” occurring, and what follows it?

John is talking about something that was true before the world was made.

God the Son was always fully God.

Thomas echoes this in John 20:28:

Another confirmation of Jesus as God comes in Hebrews 1:3:

Hebrews 1:3 (ESV)

3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

“the exact imprint of his nature”.

He…Is…God.

The Holy Spirit is also fully God.

Once we understand God the Father and God the Son to be fully God, then the Trinitarian expressions in verses like Matthew 28:19 (“baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”) assume significance for the doctrine of the Holy Spirit because they show that the Holy Spirit is classified on an equal level with the Father and the Son.

Look at Acts 5:3-4:

Acts 5:3–4 (ESV)

3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?

4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?

And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?

Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?

You have not lied to man but to God.”

Up to this point we have two conclusions, both abundantly taught throughout Scripture:

1. God is three persons.

2. Each person is fully God.

There is One God

How may God’s are there?

Scripture is EXTREMELY clear that there is one and only one God.

Not only are the three different persons of the Trinity one in purpose and in agreement on what they think, but they are also one in essence, one in their essential nature.

In other words, God is only one being.

There are not three Gods.

There is only one God.

When God speaks, he repeatedly makes it clear that he is the only true God; the idea that there are three Gods to be worshiped rather than one would be unthinkable in the light of these extremely strong statements.

God alone is the one true God and there is no one like him.

When he speaks, he alone is speaking—he is not speaking as one God among three who are to be worshiped.

He says,

Isaiah 45:5–6 (ESV)

5 I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me,

6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.

1 Timothy 2:5 (ESV)

5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

Romans 3:30 (ESV)

30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

1 Corinthians 8:6 (ESV)

6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

James 2:19 (ESV)

19 You believe that God is one; you do well.

Even the demons believe—and shudder!

So, The Trinity is Like...

How do analogies fall short in explaining the Trinity?

All Analogies Have Shortcomings

Sometimes people have used several analogies drawn from nature or human experience to attempt to explain this doctrine.

Although these analogies are helpful at an elementary level of understanding, they all turn out to be inadequate or misleading on further reflection.

To say, for example, that God is like a three-leaf clover, which has three parts yet remains one clover, fails because each leaf is only part of the clover, and any one leaf cannot be said to be the whole clover.

But in the Trinity, each of the persons is not just a separate part of God, each person is fully God.

Moreover, the leaf of a clover is impersonal and does not have distinct and complex personality in the way each person of the Trinity does.

Others have used the analogy of a tree with three parts: the roots, trunk, and branches all constitute one tree.

But a similar problem arises, for these are only parts of a tree, and none of the parts can be said to be the whole tree.

Moreover, in this analogy the parts have different properties, unlike the persons of the Trinity, all of whom possess all of the attributes of God in equal measure.

And the lack of personality in each part is a deficiency as well.

The analogy of the three forms of water (steam, water, and ice) is also inadequate because (a) no single molecule of water is ever all three of these at the same time,17 (b) they have different properties or characteristics, (c) the analogy has nothing that corresponds to the fact that there is only one God (there is no such thing as “one water” or “all the water in the universe”), and (d) the element of intelligent personality is lacking.

It might be said that the Trinity is something like a man who is both a farmer, the mayor of his town, and an elder in his church.

He functions in different roles at different times, but he is one man.

However, this analogy is very deficient because there is only one person doing these three activities at different times, and the analogy cannot deal with the personal interaction among the members of the Trinity

Another analogy taken from human life is the union of the intellect, the emotions, and the will in one human person.

While these are parts of a personality, however, no one factor constitutes the entire person.

And the parts are not identical in characteristics but have different abilities.

So what analogy shall we use to teach the Trinity?

Although the Bible uses many analogies from nature and life to teach us various aspects of God’s character (God is like a rock in his faithfulness, he is like a shepherd in his care, etc.), it is interesting that Scripture nowhere uses any analogies to teach the doctrine of the Trinity.

The closest we come to an analogy is found in the titles “Father” and “Son” themselves, titles that clearly speak of distinct persons and of the close relationship that exists between them in a human family.

But on the human level, of course, we have two entirely separate human beings, not one being comprised of three distinct persons.

It is best to conclude that no analogy adequately teaches about the Trinity, and, on deeper reflection, we see that all are ultimately misleading in significant ways.

God Eternally and Necessarily Exists as the Trinity

When the universe was created God the Father spoke the powerful creative words that brought it into being, God the Son was the divine agent who carried out these words, and God the Holy Spirit was active “hovering over the face of the waters”.

So it is as we would expect: if all three members of the Trinity are equally and fully divine, then they have all three existed for all eternity, and God has eternally existed as a Trinity.

Errors in Interpreting the Trinity

Do doctrinal errors exist about the Trinity?

What are examples?

Throughout the history of the church, there have been some mistakes interpreting the Trinity that we should avoid.

Modalism

At various times people have taught that God is not really three distinct persons but only one person who appears in different “modes” at different times.

For example, in the Old Testament God appeared as “Father.”

Throughout the Gospels, this same divine person appeared as “the Son” as seen in the human life and ministry of Jesus.

After Pentecost, this same person then revealed himself as the “Spirit” active in the church.

Also referred to as Sabellianism (names after Sabellius who lived in Rome during the early third century AD).

Another term is “modalistic monarchianism” because it not only teaches God reveals himself in different “modes” but also there is only one supreme ruler (monarch) of the universe - God, who consists of only one person.

Modalism gains its attractiveness from the desire to emphasize clearly the fact that there is only one God.

modalism is an attempt to make the Trinity easy to understand.

Modalism makes God similar to a human being who plays different roles at different times, such as a man (for example) who sometimes works as a farmer, at other times acts as a mayor of his own town, and at other times serves as an elder in his church.

The same person is a farmer, a mayor, and an elder.

And if we say God is one person with different roles like that, there is no mystery in the Trinity, nothing difficult to understand.

The fatal shortcoming of modalism is the fact that it must deny that the three persons of the Trinity are distinct individuals, and it must deny the interpersonal relationships within the Trinity that appear frequently in Scripture (or it must affirm that these were simply an illusion and not real).

Thus it must deny three separate persons at the baptism of Jesus, when the Father speaks from heaven, the Son is being baptized, and the Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove.

Moreover, modalism denies the independence of God, for if God is only one person, then he has no ability to love and to communicate without other persons in his creation.

Therefore it was necessary for God to create the world, and God would no longer be independent of creation.

Arianism