The Trinity

#3 The Trinity

Introduction

Turn to 2 Corinthians 13. Listen to the words Paul leaves his friends with in Corinth: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.” (2 Corinthians 13:14)

This is just one of the many references in the New Testament to what Christians call the Trinity.

In Matthew 28:19 the Apostles are instructed to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 2:18 Paul writes that in Christ we have access to the Father by the Spirit. In Galatians 6:4, it is said that God has sent the Spirit of his Son to cry “Abba” in the believer’s heart.

It would be a mistake to talk about the other attributes of God and not mention the Trinity. That’s because if we are not talking about the Triune God, we are not talking about the Christian God. It is popular to suggest that Christians worship the same God as the other two prominent mono-theistic religions, Judaism and Islam. But we don’t. To the follower of Jesus, “Trinity is the Christian name for God.”

The Son, whose coming along with the sending of the Spirit fully revealed the Triune nature of God, has said that to deny him is to deny his Father (Matthew 11:27). You either know God through Jesus, or you don’t know God at all.

This truth about God is central to not only who he is but who we are in relation to him. Let’s go to the Bible to think about how the theology of the Trinity was progressively revealed.

I. God is One God

That God is One is clearly demonstrated throughout the Bible. Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

Jesus Himself quoted this Scripture when He was asked by the Jewish scribes about the greatest commandment. He told them in Mark 12:29, “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”

The Unity of God is clearly taught from the very beginning of Scripture. Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

Not only have God’s people always understood that God is One, but since the Law was given, it has been forbidden to affirm multiple gods. Thus, Exodus 20:3 says: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

And God’s rhetorical question in Isaiah 44:8 could not be clearer. Listen to what God said through His prophet: “Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God.” The Scriptures are clear in their teaching: there is One and only One God.

II. God Is Three Persons

God is not only a Unity, He is also a Tri-unity, or Trinity. There is not only One God, there are Three Persons in that One God that are truly God.

The Trinity does not mean there are three beings. The doctrine of the Trinity has been compared to a three-leaf clover: three parts, one plant. This is the heresy of tri-theism. Each leaf is only part of the plant, not the whole. The Trinity does not mean that one person goes into three different modes. This is the heresy known as modalism. A common illustration is water, which can exist in three forms (liquid, ice and steam). The problem is that the water cannot be in these forms at the same time. The Trinity does not mean that God is only one person with three different names or titles. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Father.

God is one Being, and three Persons. God is a Plurality of Persons and a Unity of Essence. He is One “It,” but Three “I’s.” Who are these Three Persons?

A. The Father is God

First, Scripture reveals God as God the Father.

Turn to Matthew 6. Look at verses 26-32 (READ). Notice that Jesus uses the words “God” and “Father” interchangeably.

The fact that God has revealed Himself as “Father” does not mean that all men are his children. Jesus primarily used this title to refer to his relationship with the Father, and used it only of men when it is talking about God’s people.

Listen to this statement: “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” (Matthew 11:27)

Paul specifically refers to God as Father in Ephesians 1:2-3. Listen, “Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:”

B. The Son is God

Second, Scripture teaches that the Son is God.

Christians believe that Jesus is God. The references to Jesus’ Deity are not few and obscure, they are many and unmistakable. In the context of what was already revealed in the Old Testament, Jesus statement about his identity are remarkable.

Listen to Isaiah: “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another” (Isaiah 42:8). John 17:5: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”

In Isaiah 44:6, it says, “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.” Now turn to Revelation 1:17: “Fear not; I am the first and the last:”

We are all familiar with Psalm 23:1, which states “The LORD is my shepherd…” Christ boldly declared in John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd.”

The prophet Joel said that Yahweh would sit on the throne and judge all nations (Joel 3:12). And yet, we find Jesus in Matthew 25:31-32 saying this: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:”

Of course, Jesus not only claimed to be God, he demonstrated his Deity by forgiving people of their sins, by telling people to pray in his name, by cleansing lepers, raising people from the dead, and by rising from the dead himself!

C. The Spirit is God

Third, the Scriptures reveal God to be God the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is given the name of God. In Acts 5:3-4, Peter accuses Annanias and Saphhria of lying to the Spirit, and later says they lied to God. In 1 Corinthians 3:16 Paul writes, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

The Holy Spirit also performs the acts of God. This is true in creation. In Genesis 1:2, we read “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” It is also true in salvation: “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30)

The Bible also says that the Holy Spirit has the attributes of God. Paul wrote the Spirit is all-knowing (1 Corinthians 2:11), David said the Spirit is omnipresent (Psalm 139:7), and the writer of Hebrews said the Spirit is eternal (Hebrews 9:14).

Application

The Scriptures teach that there is One God, existing in Three Persons, Father, Son and Spirit. What do we need to take away from this?

First, we need to understand that acceptance of the Trinity is essential to a right knowledge of God. Not everything about God can be known: after all, he is incomprehensible. But what he has clearly revealed must be believed. We cannot discard anything God clearly shows us to be true about his nature. If it was important enough to reveal it, it is important for us to pay attention. Second, the Trinity is significant because we cannot appreciate our salvation without it.

The incarnation is trinitarian: the Father was the master architect behind the body the Son would assume (Hebrews 10:5) the Spirit prepared the body in Mary’s womb (Luke 1:35) and the Son inhabited the body. The life and ministry of Jesus has the Trinity stamped all over it. At his baptism the Father announced his pleasure in the Son, and the Spirit descended on the Son. In his temptation the Son was led into the wilderness by the Spirit, where he had to commit himself to the words of the Father. In his sacrifice the Son offered himself by the Spirit (Hebrews 9:14) to the Father (Luke 23:46).

Third, it is important to think about the Trinity because it is a humbling doctrine. This is so for at least two reasons.

The Trinity is humbling because we could have never thought of it on our own. Tozer said of the Trinity “Such a truth had to be revealed: no one could have imagined it.” Basic to God’s identity is his three-in-oneness, and yet we cannot know that he is like this by our intuition, or even his general revelation. “If the Father, Son and Holy Spirit had not made themselves personally known, we would not have attained knowledge that the one God is the triune God.” Second, the Trinity is humbling because it shows us God does not love us because he needs us. God was not lonely in eternity past, deciding to create us because he was bored, because he needed to love or be loved. The Father, Son and Spirit loved each other eternally in a perfect community for eternity. It’s impossible to wrap our brains around, and it is meant to be that way. But the point is we exist because of a free, unconstrained act of God. Every breath is a gift. That should really put things into perspective. We often confuse the things we love with the things we depend on. But God loves us simply out of sheer grace, not because we contribute something to him, and not because we deserve it.

Finally, the Trinity warns us of our tendency to skew the image of God. Think about the heresies we discussed earlier. It is easy to imagine three beings that are three persons. It is just as easy to think of one person with three different names or titles. Likewise, it can be convenient to think about God as three parts in some kind of analogy to humans being mind/emotions/will or some other formula. But the Father, Son, and Spirit are persons, not components or parts. Do you know what all of these heresies have in common? Each of them, in their own way, takes God off of his throne and brings him down to our level. The true doctrine of the Trinity makes it impossible for us to look at something lesser than God (whether it’s a cloverleaf, or water, or God forbid, ourselves) and say “God is like that!”