Theology Proper

Intro

[Opening Video: St. Patrick’s Bad Analogies]

I wanted that video to confuse you a bit. The Trinity is this strange doctrine in Christianity that makes us super un-cool. It is weird as heck. Sometimes it makes it embarrassing to be a Christian. So we sideline it. But that video hopefully got two ideas across: This is an incomprehensible topic. Yet there are some things we can know.

Define Theology - Theo-Logos, the study of God. Not only the study of God, but the things in relation to God. Therefore, all things fall under theology. Science, math, languages, social studies, are all things that relate to God.

All theology hinges upon one idea: (Have students turn to this verse)

Deuteronomy 29:29 (ESV) “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

All knowledge falls under two categories: There are things we can know, and there are things we cannot know.

The essence of Spiritual growth is learning how to respond two those two categories. There are things I don’t understand about God and his creation, and my failure to understand them frustrates me. It is outside of my grasp, comprehension, and God wants me to surrender and accept that there is forbidden knowledge. On the other hand, there are things he has given me to know and understand. Things in the Bible, and those he wants me to pursue with all my being and own. They belong to me, and sometimes I don’t realize that. I skim parts of the Old Testament because I forget that those parts are part of the small raindrop that is the knowledge he gives. Mixing the two categories is dangerous. I will neglect answers God has given me and be distracted with finding answers to things God has forbidden.

Jane – Wants to understanding everything about God that she grows uncomfortable with the parts she doesn’t understand. She has a big issue with the problem of evil and God being in control, so she decides to believe in Open Theism. But then she hears about this Trinity thing. That is logically irrational. That can’t be how it is. It’s like believing in Santa Clause and the tooth fairy. So she shaves that off. She picks and chooses the parts of God she wants and sooner or later the God she believes in is one that only exists in her imagination and exists to serve her rather than the other way around. Jane has an issue with God’s incomprehensibility.

Bob — Thinks God is so incomprehensible that he we can’t be sure about anything about him. When he sees someone speak with confidence about God, he has a problem with that. He says “that’s your interpretation.” He sees religion as being full of dogmatic people who are confident in things they don’t really know about nor have any way of knowing. That’s the point of faith. We believe in the same things as Buddhists, Muslims, and Hindu’s he thinks. It’s just about whatever makes you a good person. Bob has an issue with God’s knowability.

Summary: I must be content with what is incomprehensible, and pursue that which is revealed. When we try to bring down the things we do not know, we risk communicating God less than who he is.

Nothing makes an example of this more than the Trinity.

The Christian doctrine of God that deals with his very nature and person.

Athanasian Creed:

…That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity,     neither blending their persons     nor dividing their essence.         For the person of the Father is a distinct person,         the person of the Son is another,         and that of the Holy Spirit still another.         But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one,         their glory equal, their majesty coeternal…

  And yet there are not three eternal beings;             there is but one eternal being.             So too there are not three uncreated or immeasurable beings;             there is but one uncreated and immeasurable being.

God is one God who is personal, there are not three Good’s, three heads to God, three manifestations of God, one God.

Yet three persons. Father, Son, Spirit. They are not each other.

*[Display Trinity Diagram]

All of Christianity hinges upon Jesus’ resurrection. But the resurrection is only possible if Jesus was God. But it is only possible for Jesus to be God if God is “the Trinity.”

Matthew 28:19 ESV

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

What do we do with the Trinity? Why are we focusing on this?

Because you were made to know God. Above all other purposes. But like in any relationship, you should have right expectations of what you are in for.

There are unknowable parts.

There are knowable parts.

John 17:3 ESV

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” - A.W. Tozer

4 Principles to Guide Your Journey in Knowing God (Deut 29:29)

1. We must prioritize the Glory of God

Romans 11:36 ESV

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Define glory: The weighty honor, excellent reputation, or value of something.

The most important thing to the Trinity is the glory of each person within the Trinity.

Illust: We are always enjoying glorious things. We love stuff that is cool, epic, beautiful, worthy, lovely. We are people all about displaying things that we believe are worthy of attention. Social Media is a tool we were given to show the world what we find most cool, most worthy of praise. This is what life is about.

Oh wait, there is an issue. When you go to someone’s social media account, what most likely are you to find pictures of?

We love glory. We want people to behold us as beautiful.

That’s not a wrong desire. However, it is just misplaced.

Is placed there like a wife’s desire is placed for her husband to love her. You were made for relationship.

You were made to be in relationship with God. That you would see him and find him beautiful and that he would see you and find you delightful.

John 17:4–5 ESV

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

However, we must remember that what we define as good is not the same to God. God’s ultimate good is his glory.

Each member of the Trinity is not selfish, rather each person is concerned with glorifying the other members.

John 16:13–14 ESV

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

The Trinity: The Trinity’s ultimate goal in making all of creation and history is to glorify one another, yet they have invited us into that goal. God’s definition of the greatest good is not the same as mankind’s definition, which is why we get upset that God runs things the way he does.

Isaiah 48:9–11 ESV

“For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.

Application: When it comes to knowing God, we must learn to prioritize what he prioritizes. He is working towards his glorification, and he wants to glorify you. When we realize that’s what God is about and all things in relation to God are about that, the world begins to make more sense.

2. We Must Accept the Incomprehensibility of God (“The secret things belong to the Lord.”)

So many people have issue with Christianity because they say “I could never believe in a God who _________.”

… allows disasters.

… allows murders.

… commanded the Israelites to kill.

*When we get to the point that everything God does has to make sense to us, that means we have put ourselves as judges of him.

God’s Nature is Incomprehensible

God has no creator. No beginning, no end. He has no limits to his power. No limits to his knowledge. Such a being cannot be comprehended because we measure everything by our reality. We measure things by their begining and end. We measure them by their limits. God cannot be measured. Rather, he is the absolute by which all else is measured.

Psalm 8:3–4 ESV

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

Isaiah 40:15 ESV

Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.

Isaiah 40:18 ESV

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?

Isaiah 44:6 ESV

Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.

Isaiah 45:15 ESV

Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.

God’s Purposes are Incomprehensible

Isaiah 40:28 ESV

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.

Isaiah 45:5–7 ESV

I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, 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. I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.

Isaiah 55:8–9 ESV

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

3 Words on How God’s Incomprehensibility Makes us Feel

Small - His glory outweighs ours.

Stupid - His wisdom makes ours seem foolish.

Scared - His power makes us feel helpless.

No concept is more uncomfortable than this: God does not live in my universe, I live in his. God is not supposed to make sense to me. God is not supposed to do what I define as good, what I define as right. He does what he does and that determines what is good.

That is scary, unless my God is good and he loves me.

Attempts to Reduce God:

Atheism - There is no God.

Agnosticism - If there is a God, we cant know him.

Polytheism - There are many gods! None of them are all powerful.

Deism - There is a God, but he doesn’t care what we are doing down here.

Pantheism - God is creation. “Paint with all the colors of the wind.”

The Trinity: We don’t know how he works. I must be okay with this being mystery. This is the ultimate doctrine that makes your heart go one of two ways. Are you okay with God being God? Are you okay admitting there is a being out there who is so incomprehensible and you are completely subject to whatever he desires? We aren’t okay with that, until we learn he loves us.

Conclusion: There are secrets of God, forbidden knowledge, that I do not get to access. God’s nature is glorious, and all his purposes work towards displaying his glory.

3.. We Must Delight in the Knowability of God (“but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever”)

Despite God being incomprehensible, there are things that you can know. Not only that, these things are specially revealed to you. You can have certainty about them! They belong to us and they are to be shared!

God Has Spoken

Isaiah 45:19 ESV

I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right.

Hebrews 1:1–2 ESV

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

The Means by Which God Has Revealed Himself:

General Revelation - God revealing himself to all people through creation. (Psalm 19:1-6)

As people observe the creation, they can see a creator. In the same way when I see a painting, I see that there is a painter.

General revelation holds all mankind accountable. If you live in creation you are held responsible for God and will be judged by him. Being on a deserted island does not mean you get a get-out-of-judgement free card.

However, it is not enough to save. We cannot learn about the person of Jesus or salvation or faith through the clouds.

Special Revelation - God revealing himself to particular people through Jesus Christ and His Word. (Psalm 19:7-11)

God, who makes all of creation run, sometimes makes exceptions to the way he usually runs things and these are called signs, wonders, or miracles.

What must happen for someone to be saved? God must put special revelation in their midst. His Son, his word, his signs and wonders are all examples of God reaching towards his people.

Matthew 11:27 ESV

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

The Trinity: Though God is incomprehensible that does not mean he is not personal. I don’t understand the Trinity, but I am content knowing what I do. Which is nothing more or less than each person being God, yet none of them being each other. The Son came down to you to make God known. The incomprehensible became the comprehensible out of love. The Holy Spirit dwells personally within those who believe. This great God lives within you now!

Conclusion: God has moved towards me so that I can know and experience his gory.

4. We Must Live Out the Attributes of God (“That we may do all the words of this law”)

As I learn about God from the Bible, I learn how he thinks. Then I start to think like him. When I start to think like him, I imitate him.

However, this is hard because there are some areas where I have some things in common with God, and some areas where I don’t. God is loving, I have love towards others. But God is everywhere, and I am in one place. How do we think about this?

All of God’s Attributes are not additions. His Whole being reflects his attributes. Pagan God’s each rule one area. God rules all areas.

All of God’s Attributes Can be sorted into two categories:

Some of these I must model. Some of these I must accept I don’t have.

Some of them are secret things, some are revealed to us.

Communicable - Attributes that I share some commonality with God in. While his attributes have no limits, mine do.

Goodness

Wisdom

Love

Mercy

Holiness

Peace

Justice

Jealousy

Wrath

Power

Glory

Incommunicable - Attributes exclusive to God alone

Independence - He does not need anything. But I need him.

Unchangeableness - He is the same. We change.

Timelessness - I live and operate within time, he does not.

Omnipresence - He is everywhere at all times, I am only one place.

The Trinity: In the same way that it seems like it’s impossible for the Trinity to exist harmoniously, so too does it seem like God’s attributes would be in conflict with one another. His love is not at war with his wrath, and his sovereighnty is not at war with his closeness. Every member of the Trinity possesses the fullness of all these attributes with not limit to them.

Conclusion: God wants me to look at him, behold his beauty, and imitate him. There are areas he asks me to trust him in as he does them alone, and there are areas he asks me to follow him as he leads me first.

Conclusion

Conclusion: The Trinity shows that God cannot be fully comprehended, but he can be known and adored. Jesus came as proof from the living God that you are seen by an almighty eye and loved.

Training Challenges:

Write down a list of areas you struggle to understand God in, whether that be His purposes or nature. Study one of those areas in the Bible.

Remove things you have set-up in your life (attitudes, objects, etc.) that point to your own glory and replace them with things that point toward God’s glory.

Spend each morning this next week praying about different attributes of God, just one attribute per day. Take that time to meditate on how great he is and what you need to learn from him.

Isaiah 45:15–19 “Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior. All of them are put to shame and confounded; the makers of idols go in confusion together. But Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity. For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the Lord, and there is no other. I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right.”