In Defense Of The Trinity

Why This Topic?

This sermon has origination in my response to my mother converting to Jehovah’s Witness dogma. In response to my concerns I began to study both what the Jehovah’s Witnesses believe as well as study this doctrine of the Trinity as it is a primary area where error reigns.

As my mother and I began to discuss this topic I came to an understanding that my mother believed that Jesus was created by God, the Father, and did not exist prior. My mother did not believe this because this is what the Jehovah’s Witnesses taught, she had believed this for a long time.

The reality is, good people, regenerate people, can misunderstand the Bible and be in error.

I am not sure of my mother’s spiritual state; I do not see her clinging to Jesus and that concerns me.

Thomas misunderstood and rejected the bodily resurrection of Christ but, when confronted with the truth, he fell down and pronounced to that Jesus, ‘You are my Lord and my God.’

I touched on the issue around what does a person need to know and believe last year when I preached on the Eternality of Christ.

We must allow for simple faith that can even have misunderstandings, but when a person is confronted by the Word of God to truth their response to the truth should be one of belief, just like Thomas.

That belief may lag and struggle but it will come. It is those who continue in faith, not perfect faith, but faith that even weakly holds onto Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith.

Can We Understand the Trinity?

The short answer to this is absolutely we can understand the concepts of the trinity.

The long answer is we cannot fully grasp these concepts as they really speak to the majesty of God.

I cannot reduce God to my level for the sake of understanding.

Stuart Olyott puts it this way:

So we see that what God says about himself is clear enough. But it is all too wonderful for the human mind to grasp. We cannot take it in, for his thoughts and ways are so much higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8–9). We can see what the truth is, but we cannot explain how it can be so. Our minds are too limited.

The 1689 LBCF also reiterates this in chapter 2, paragraph 1 by saying, His essence cannot be understood by anyone but Him.

The reality is this is not an easy topic but we must both understand that we cannot reduce an infinite God into finite terms for the sake of simplicity, nor can we abandon the topic because of its complexity.

We must grapple with the deep things of God even though we will inevitably fail to fully understand God in His Persons.

Men can try to use analogies for this concept we call the Trinity, but even those fall short.

The clover is used - three leaves from one stem. However, this isn’t really an accurate depiction because the Trinity is three separate persons, yet one.

Another example was one I got from my wife - the egg: there is a shell, the white and a yolk, but all are the egg. Still can they exist independently and remain an egg? No.

These illustrations refer to one item, made up of three parts; but each part on its own does not constitute that item so these illustrations fall short, too, because they lend themselves to the misunderstanding called partialism.

Another illustration is water: it can exist as water, as steam and as ice but it is still water. However, each of these are represented by time and space, while our Triune God is infinite in all areas.

There are significant numbers of errors around the Trinity. Some of those errors are due to doctrinal bias and others due to doctrinal error.

One is disposed against the truth while the other just doesn’t understand the truth.

I wish I could share an image I have, it is a diagram of the trinity. Each is linked to the center (God) but each is independent, yet equal to one another.

TRINITY DIAGRAM

Why Is The Trinity Important?

It is important we understand this doctrine because the wrong Jesus or the wrong God cannot save us from eternal death; again, this does not demand perfection but grasping to a false person you call Jesus, one you have created in your mind, that person cannot save you!

The proper understanding of the Trinity cannot be divorced from a proper understanding of salvation.

If we know what the true doctrine looks like we will be able to spot when fake or false alternatives are offered.

Why is there confusion?

Confusion for well intentioned people comes from the finite grasping the infinite.

The Old Testament, by design, lends itself towards a monotheistic view of God

Genesis 1:1 LSB

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Who is God?

Is God a single person?

What does it mean for God to be one?

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 LSB

“Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one! “You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

This is also reiterated by Jesus and in James.

Men tend to think in human concepts: for example, when did I come into existence. You might respond, when you were born. That would be accurate. But when did God come into existence? He always was. Because of this, we cannot allow the Incarnation to cloud our theology regarding existence and time.

The New Testament sheds clearer light on this truth (though the Old Testament has clear statements of three Persons of the Trinity) and we must allow New Testament clarity guide our understanding.

What Is the Trinity? If God Is One, How Can He Be Three?

Augustine once wrote, “The New [Testament] is in the Old [Testament] concealed; the Old is in the New revealed.”

So we come to the question - what is the trinity?

Where Do We Find Answers?

The Word of God

Obviously, our answers need to be from the Word of God, and we will study some key passages today.

Studying various texts will give us truths from the Bible that will guide our understanding.

Confessions/Creeds

Confessions should not be ignored as they also have value; their value is well thought out expressions of truth that take into thought many passages.

Often, creeds are born out of controversy and in response too errors.

Our confession, the Second London Baptist Confession is one of these confessions that is an amalgamation of truth from a Reformed Baptist perspective.

Earlier creeds, like the Nicene Creed and Athanasian Creed, were a response to errors around the Trinity and the church came together to state truth. We should not exclude these creeds because of our fear of Romanism - much of Romanism, where we differ, was born out of the Middle Ages and then reaffirmed in the Second Council of Trent.

Books/Systematic Theologies

I will have some of these at the end as a recommendation.

Support For The Trinity

I had considered going through historical and present day errors in the Trinity in this message; however, that will actually be a future message.

Summary of this truth

The doctrine of the Trinity is the belief that there is one God who has revealed Himself in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three persons make up the one true God. These three persons are of the same substance, equal in power and glory.

The orthodox understanding of the Trinity additionally understands:

Lexham Survey of Theology The Trinity

The Bible also clearly teaches that the Father, Son, and Spirit are not identical with one another or merely different masks God wears according to particular times or functions. The Father, Son, and Spirit are “persons” who interact with one another and with us in distinct ways. Because each person of the Trinity is fully God, they share the same purpose and activity, but the ways they think and act are distinctive to each.

This first statement is more the positive side of this doctrine while the second is a response to errors in the trinity.

The reference to different masks is an attack against modalism, held by muslims, who say that there is only one person who expresses Himself in different ways.

The Oneness of God

The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, chapter 2, paragraph 1, states The Lord our God is one, the only living and true God.

There are many more truths stated about God in that paragraph but we must focus on what does it mean for the Lord to be one?

False religions, such as the Jehovahs Witnesses, focus on this to a fault. They equate Jehovah with the Father, alone, who created both the Son and the Holy Spirit. They also misunderstand what “begotten” of the Father means.

The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, paragraph 3

This divine and infinite Being consists of three real persons, the Father, the Word or Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three have the same substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence without this essence being divided.

Stuart Olyott was very helpful here:

What the Bible Teaches about The Trinity God Is One

What are we trying to say here? ‘God is one in His essential being or constitutional nature,’ writes Louis Berkhof. But what does that mean? It means that God cannot be divided or split up. You cannot have a collection of pieces which are less than God, put them together, and have God! He is not like a jigsaw. Nor is he like a human body, made up of many organs. You cannot add eternity and unchangeability and all-power and holiness together, and make up God. He is not made up of parts. He is indivisible. He is one. All of him is eternal. All of him is unchangeable. All of him is all-powerful. All of him is holy.

R.C. Sproul, in his book What Is The Trinity, says,

Before we can talk about the Trinity, we have to talk about unity, because the word Trinity means “tri-unity.” Behind the concept of unity is the biblical affirmation of monotheism. The prefix mono means “one or single,” while the root word theism has to do with God. So, monotheism conveys the idea that there is only one God.

Olyott makes another statement regarding the relationship of the Trinity

What the Bible Teaches about The Trinity God Is One

Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit being of ‘the same substance’. We shall not mean that they are composed of the same ‘stuff’. We shall mean that although they are distinct, they are the same one God. All that God is is the Father. All that God is is the Son. All that God is is the Holy Spirit. Each one is all that God is.

The Three Distinct Persons of God

Though God is one He is also three persons: the persons are God individually and corporately.

I cannot be exhaustive here - we could devote a message to each of these but I will give you a quick overview.

The Father Is God

Consider Matthew 6:9, whom are we to pray to?

Matthew 6:9 LSB

“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

When Paul is telling the Corinthians that there really is a God he writes (1 Cor. 8:5-6).

1 Corinthians 8:5–6 LSB

For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

To the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 4:6 .

Ephesians 4:6 LSB

one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

This is the same Father as spoken of in the Old Testament (Deut. 32:6; Isa 63:16; 64:8; Malachi 1:6; 2:10).

Deuteronomy 32:6 LSB

“Do you thus repay Yahweh, O people who are wickedly foolish and without wisdom? Is not He your Father who has bought you? He has made you and established you.

Isaiah 63:16 LSB

For You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us And Israel does not recognize us. You, O Yahweh, are our Father, Our Redeemer from everlasting is Your name.

Isaiah 64:8 LSB

But now, O Yahweh, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.

Malachi 2:10 LSB

“Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?

Jesus, the Son, Is God

In John 20:17 Jesus says, that He is our Father but differently than He is Jesus’ Father.

John 20:17 LSB

Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”

Jesus did not say, our Father, though He is our Father; Jesus refers to the First Person as the Father.

He is the Son, while we are adopted.

Olyott says this of the Second Person of the Godhead.

What the Bible Teaches about The Trinity Pre-existence

Of all the men and women who have walked this earth, only of Jesus Christ can it be said that his life did not begin when he was born. He existed before that time. He was in the beginning, and all things were made by him

Passages that are key here are John 1:1-3 and Colossians 1:15-18

John 1:1–3 LSB

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

Colossians 1:15–18 LSB

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, And in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

Another key passage is John 6:62, where Jesus says he will ascend where he was before. If He was not already in Heaven how could He go back there?

Consider John 17:5, which states that He shared the glory with the Father before Creation.

In John 8:58, He identifies Himself as the I AM, the ever present One.

Throughout His ministry Jesus claimed a continued ever-present existence from before Abraham’s time to that moment. And had not God described himself as ‘I AM’?

What else could Jesus be doing, but laying claim to deity?

The Jews did not believe the claim, but considered it a blasphemy—and took up stones to stone Him.

John 1:18 tells that when men have seen God they have seen the Son.

What He means is no one has seen the Father.

In the Old Testament we have the Angel of the Lord - these are Christophanies where Christ appeared to men prior to His incarnation.

We will see that the work of the Son is to reveal the Father.

John 10:30 is another key passage here, Jesus and the Father are one.

Frequently Jesus is referred to as Lord - this is linking Him to Jehovah/Yahweh of the Old Testament. In the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) the word Yahweh is translated as kyrios, Lord, in our English versions.

The link between Psalm 45:6-7 and Hebrews 1:8 cannot be reasoned away.

Psalm 45:6–7 LSB

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of joy above Your companions.

Hebrews 1:8 LSB

But of the Son He says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, And the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

Finally, there are key doctrinal passages such as Romans 9:5, Titus 2:13, Acts 20:28, and Colossians 2:9.

Romans 9:5 LSB

whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Titus 2:13 LSB

looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,

Acts 20:28 LSB

“Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

Colossians 2:9 LSB

For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells bodily,

I have consciously tried to stop referring to Jesus as Christ: Christ is His TITLE, it is a term referring to Annointed One. Jesus is His name, and I am trying (not in a legalistic sense) to consciously refer to Him as Jesus, who is the Christ.

The Holy Spirit Is God

Some have allowed Charismatics to dampen their appreciation for the Holy Spirit, some do not even regard Him as a Person.

The Holy Spirit is not merely a force or an influence that comes from God.

He is, indeed, a person, who is God in the same sense the Father and the Son are God, yet distinct.

Scripture speaks of Him as a Person

Dwelling in John 14:17

Teaching in John 14:26; Luke 12:12

Testifying in John 15:26; Acts 5:32

Convicting in John 16:8

Guiding, hearing, speaking, showing and glorifying in John 16:13-14

Speaking in Acts 8:29; 28:25; Hebrews 3:7

Sending in Acts 13:4

The Apostles say, it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us in Acts 15:28.

The Apostles regarded the Holy Spirit as a person

Of particular weight is Acts 5:1-4

In Acts 5:3 Peter says, why has Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit.

In Acts 5:4 Peter says, you have not lied to men but to God.

It is obvious, Peter regards the Holy Spirit as God and Scripture has captured this in inspiration.

We ascribe to Him deity by His works

In giving us the Word of God: we call Scripture theopneustos, God-breathed, in 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:21 says that men wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

In 2 Peter 1:20 the words private interpretation speak to its origin - God - and then verse 21 says that the Holy Spirit was the Person engaged in that activity.

In evangelism in sending the Apostles out - consider Isaiah 6:8-9 and Acts 28:25-27

Isaiah 6:8–9 LSB

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not know.’

Paul quotes this in Acts 28:25-27

Acts 28:25–27 LSB

And when they disagreed with one another, they began leaving after Paul had spoken one word, “The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying, ‘Go to this people and say, “You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; And you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, And with their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes; Lest they might see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I heal them.” ’

Who is the Lord in Isaiah 6? It is the Holy Spirit says Paul in Acts 28.

Attributes of God given to the Holy Spirit

He is Eternal in Hebrews 9:14

He is Omnipresent in Psalm 139:7-10

He is Omniscient in Isaiah 40:13-14; 1 Cor. 2:10-11.

He is Omnipotent in 1 Cor. 12:11; Rom. 15:19.

Finally, we baptize believers in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - all three persons of the Godhead.

Not All Are The Same

The first time I preached this sermon this point did not exist, I came to it later and saw that it should have been included, originally.

Within Olyott’s book he spends time looking at the acts unique to each Person in the trinity. He summarizes these points by saying

What the Bible Teaches about The Trinity Chapter 9: Blessed Trinity!

Generation is an act of the Father alone. Only the Son can be said to be begotten. Procession can be ascribed only to the Holy Spirit.

Within the Trinity there is an order (theologians call this the Ontological Trinity): all are equal, each is eternally God, none is lesser, but there is a relationship. Each is equally God.

The Father is not begotten by any other person.

The Son is the only-begotten by the Father, He reveals the Father

The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son

Within the Trinity there are acts or actions (the Economic Trinity):

Everything God does proceeds from the Father. Everything God does comes to pass through the Son. Everything God does is effected by the Spirit.

Consider Creation:

‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ (Genesis 1:1).

And yet it was his Son ‘through whom … He made the worlds’ (Hebrews 1:2).

It is clear that the Holy Spirit who effected the work (Genesis 1:2); He is even described as the Agent of creation (Psalm 104:30).

Psalm 104:30 LSB

You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the ground.

We might say of Creation: God the Father did it, through the Son, by means of the Holy Spirit.

In salvation:

God, the Father, eternally gave a chosen people to his Son, and sent him into the world to save them (John 6:37–40).

God, the Son, was delivered to death for their offences, and was raised again for their justification (Romans 4:24–25).

God, the Holy Spirit, brings these chosen ones into the enjoyment and benefit of what Christ has obtained for them (1 Corinthians 2:1–5; 1 Thessalonians 1:5–10).

The work of the Holy Spirit follows the work of the Son, just as the work of the Son follows that of the Father.

What Can You Do To Deepen Your Understanding?

Read the Bible, especially the Gospels, but particularly the Gospel of John

Study the doctrine

Books

What is the Trinity by David Wells

What is the Trinity by R.C. Sproul

What the Bible Teaches About The Trinity by Stuart Olyott

Experiencing the Trinity by Joe Thorn

The Deep Things of God by Fred Sanders is deep but fantastic

Creeds

The Nicene Creed

The Athanasian Creed

London Baptist Confession - chapter 2 is of primary value

Systematic Theologies

Berkhoff

John Gill

How Should This Change Your Life?

When you read the Bible: see the Oneness of the Godhead and yet the Persons within the Godhead.

When you read the Old Testament force on yourself a Trinitarian perspective.

Do not think LORD/Yahweh is only a reference to the Father, it is also used of the Son.

Realize you are suspect to doctrinal error

This is a primary purpose of Sunday School - teach doctrine.

Good people, with good intentions, end up in error.

Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormonism is full of former Baptists; the reason is Baptists are often theologically ignorant.

Purpose in your heart to deeper understand God

Start basic - learning the doctrine (What is the Trinity by both David Wells and R.C. Sproul)

Expand deeper with Stuart Olyott and Systematic Theologies

Proceed to the blessings of that doctrine with Fred Sanders and Joe Thorn.

If all of this was new to you today, take heart - if you are a believer the Spirit dwells in you and will lead you into all truth. Not truth at all times, but truth by the means of grace.

Closing Hymn: Holy, Holy, Holy

Benediction

2 Corinthians 13:14 LSB

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.