The Creed: The Trinity

Good morning Journey we are finishing out series called “The Creed” Right Beliefs for Right living. Because what we believe dictates how we live. Today I want to start by reading a quote from the Prince of Preachers Charles Suprgeon says this in his book “The Immutability of God”

There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, "Behold I am wise." But when we come to this master-science, finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth, and our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass's colt; and with solemn exclamation, "1 am but of yesterday, and know nothing." No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than the thoughts of God...

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe... The most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ, and him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.

Today we are going to dive into the foundational doctrine of the Trinity. The trinity in itself is not something that we can completely wrap our minds around, and to be honest there are sufficient answers to who and what the trinity is, but that does not mean that it is easy to understand or comprehend. But that does not mean that we should shy away from the subject. No. Instead we dive into the head first.

A question I was wrestling with this week when it comes to the trinity is this, “If we get our doctrine of the trinity wrong are most other doctrines wrong?” I have come to the conclusion that the answer is yes. Once the doctrine of the trinity is understood there is scarcely a doctrine that isn’t impacted by misunderstanding the trinity. How we view the trinity impacts our daily relationship with God and how God has ordered the world. The trinity is incredibly important and listen, its not just a doctrine for pastors, scholars, and theologians to understand. The trinity is for you to have a daily encounter with and you should have a basic understand of who the trinity is and how the trinity function. As I said spurgeon said before thinking about God, expanding out theological understanding isn't something to be afraid of, it is something to run after because in doing so it opens up our minds and soul to the things of God. And most people are afraid to do so because they don't think they can fully understand it. But just like anything else, you read, you learn, you study, you listen to podcasts, you broaden your ability to understand and know a subject better based on your interest and investigation.

Let me give you an example, in June of 2019 did any of you think you'd know as much about vaccines as you do today? In 2020 during covid people began to take their health seriously and do their own research when it comes to viruses, sicknesses, and yes vaccines. Now I am not a medical professional, but I am more educated on what's best for me than I was back then. Did it happen over night? Nope, years of reading, talking, research, sharing ideas with Karlee and others now I have a better understanding. But listen, I was confused and overwhelmed when I started. I'm not a doctor, I had no interest in the medical field, but that didn't keep me from studying. Most people didn't, dare I say you didn't, yet that didn't stop you. And now many of you know. We should be more passionate about knowing God and understanding him to the best of our ability. This morning I need you to get your thinking caps on and walk with me as we discuss what the trinity is in a more academic way ,what evidence we have for it in the bible, what the trinity is not  and how it impacts how we live. We will go fast.

What do I mean when I say the word Trinity? Let's start with the base fact that most people who disagree with the doctrine of the trinity bring up. These people will say that the word trinity is not found anywhere in the Old Testament, and nowhere in the New Testament. To their credit that is correct you will not find the word Trinity anywhere in the bible and that word was not coined until 170ad by an early church father named, Tertullian. But just because the word didn't exist does not mean the meaning or idea of the word did not exist. All throughout scripture we see the trinity at work and explained even though the word trinity is not found. This happens often in history where new words are created based on evidence or definitions. One of which is the Word Dinosaur was not created until 1842 by Sir Richard Owns who upon seeing “Great Fossil Lizards' he came up with the word dinosaur. Before it was just mythos about giant monsters. The same is true for the word Homsexuality which wasnt invented until 1868 in germany to describe men having sex with men and women having sex with women. People love pointing out homosexuality wasn't added to the bible until the 1940’s because it was a new english word describing what the bible condemned already. So just because a word does not appear does not mean the idea of that word does not exist. Rather the word Trinity is a great single word summarization of who God is.

Trinity is a word to describe God, who is God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit. As Chrsitians we are what is called, monotheistic in our belief. Meaning, we believe there is only one God, not many Gods like the hindus or ancient romans or greeks believed in. We get this because we believe in the Shema, which is the jewish profession of faith found in the old testament where part of it says, “ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” Deuteronomy 6:4. God make it clear again in Isaiah 43:10 when he says, Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. There is one God, not many Gods, and this is where it can start to become confusing. If there is only one God, how can there be God the Father, God the son Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit?

Great question and this is where the thinking cap come into play, and here is a great definition for us, “God is one in Essence, three in Persons'' This means that God the father, God the son, and God the holy spirit are all God, they do not make up parts of God, they in themselves are God. As theologian and apologist Norman Geisler has explained it, while essence is what you are, person is who you are. So God is one “what” but three “who’s.” - Essence and person are not the same thing. God is one in a certain way (essence) and three in a different way (person).

While the three members of the Trinity are distinct, this does not mean that any is inferior to the other. Instead, they are all identical in attributes. They are equal in power, love, mercy, justice, holiness, knowledge, and all other qualities

So God has revealed himself to us as one God, and made himself known as three persons on the trinity God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit. All throughout scripture we see this, in the Old Testament we see the Spirit of God being spoken about, this would be the Holy Spirit, the Angel of the Lord is used in reference to Jesus preincarnate. TRINITY IN SCRIPTURE In Genesis 1:1 it says “in the beginning God created” But then in Genesis 1:26 it says, “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,” Genesis makes it clear God created, but then they plural language hinting at the trinity. This makes sense because it says in John 1:1-5 “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John opens up his Gospel implying that the Word or the original Greek word is Logos. Logos was used in the Old Testament as a word to help us understand the fulfillment of God's will. So this word was personified through the incarnation of Jesus Christ, who was fully God and fully human. Jesus took on flesh and bone or the incarnation of God, and walked with us and died for the redemption of our sin on the cross and defeat of death by his resurrection from the dead. This passage also infers that Jesus was not created by God but rather, he has always been with God. Similar with the Spirit of God in Genesis 1:2 when it says, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

When Jesus gives his great commission to his disciples he tells them to “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, in what, the name the father, the son and the holy spirit”. Matthew 28:19 We see the Trinity in one scene when Jesus is baptized starting in Mark 1:10-12 “And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. 11 Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” We see each distinctive person of the Trinity here in this picture. One God, three persons. Jesus speaks to the deity of the Holy Spirit and how the trinity works in unison with each other in John 16:13-15 “13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

Paul uses trinitarian language in his 2nd book to the corinthians in 2 Corinthians 13:14 “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” and then Peter makes the salvation of the believer intimately associated with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit when he says “who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood 1 Peter 1:2.

The personhood of the Trinity is an honest view of how God has decided to reveal himself in the scriptures and can be seen all throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. Now as you can imagine this complex doctrine did not come about overnight, rather, it took centuries until we saw the first type of creed spoken a the Nicean Creed in 325ad which was further expounded upon at the Second Ecumenical Council in Constanenople in 381. When the early church fathers after prayerful deliberation, debates, discussions, carefully studying the scriptures crafted these words, “And [we believe] in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. In one Holy, Catholic (universal), and Apostolic Church.

Questions arise especially today why in the world did it take some 300 years for the church to come to a conclusion about a topic that we see is normative in 2024. The answer, early church fathers, mothers and christians alike, didn't take the scriptures lightly, and did not come to conclusions in a single google search. What we would think would take days, they took decades. This was brand new revelation from God, outlawed by the Roman Empire until 313ad and they had to figure out what was biblical and what wasn't.

For instance, there was a teaching going around at the time called “Modelism '' modern day take on this would be a Oneness view of the trinity. What is Modelism? It would be like the analogy I hear when trying to explain the Trinity when people say “God is like water, it can be a liquid, a gas or a solid.” that the persons of the Trinity represent only three modes or aspects of the divine revelation, not distinct and coexisting persons in the divine nature. this was condemned in 381ad.

Others viewed partialism, we see this example when people say God is like an apple. There is the shell, the yoke and the whites. But individually those are not an egg in and of themselves, that the three members of the Trinity are each “100 percent God” but not “100 percent of God.  That was also condemned.

Arian Controversy: This would be an example of people saying God is like a star who gives, where there is heat and light. Heat and light are not the star itself but merely creations of the star This theology states that Christ and the Holy Spirit Are creations of the father and not one in nature with him, meaning Jesus and the Holy Spirit are subordinate to God the father.

So you see how this could take years of studying, years or prayer and years of debating to finally get to a point where we can Scripturally say that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are all God in essence three distinctly different persons.

In fact there isn't a true real analogy that can ever comprehend or completely understand the Trinity. So here is the best way I can explain it: The trinity is a mystery that cannot be comprehended by human reason and can be understood only through faith and is best confessed in the athenatian creed which says that we worship one God in trinity and trinity in unity neither confusing the person nor dividing the substance that we are compelled by the christian truth to confess that each distinct person is God and Lord and the deity of God the father and son and Holy Spirit is equal in glory and co-equal in majesty. Can I make it any more clear?

So what's the point of all of this? This series is about right beliefs for right living, so how does having a correct view of the trinity change the way you live?

Application: You can have an intimate relationship with God and a Personal Relationship with each person of the trinity.

Which person of the trinity is the hardest for you to have a relationship with?

Whichever person of the trinity you struggle with the most work on it

God the Father: 2 Corinthians 6:18 - “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

You can have a relationship with God the father in knowing and understand that God loves you, he is your good father,

God the Son: Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, lived a sinless life died on the cross for your sins and rose from the dead defeating death on your behalf. It is putting your faith and truth in him that saves you from your sin, and he is the one whos teachings, along with the rest of the bible, that we follow and by following his teachings and commands we are changed by the holy spirit.

God the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit guides and directs you towards holiness and Christ-likeness. The relationship you have with the Holy Spirit is rooted in scripture as he inspired it, and He is a guide to be your helper in this world. You can pray to the holy spirit for wisdom, purity, integrity, honor and the like. The Holy Spirit is who changes you from the inside out.