Who is God? | Week 2

Intro

Main Point

The aim of Christian discipleship is love and worship of the triune God.

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Why the Trinity?

>> 2 points

[Illustration]

I remember going to a conference and an author to a book I’d read was one of the panel speakers. I was so excited to meet him. I walked up after the session and waiting briefly to speak with him. After introducing myself and complimenting his work, I mentioned that I was a big fan of J. T. English. I knew he and J. T. were friends from Seminary. After name dropping J. T., I blurted, “Ya, I love the trinity”.

I’d said it to be relevant, knowing J. T.’s work on Trinity. I’ll never forget the author’s response.

He kind of chuckled, and said, “Well, I certainly hope so!”

The reason this was embarrassing for me, beyond it being like someone meeting Taylor Swift and blurting, “Me like music!”

>> Was, at the time, I really didn’t love the Trinity. At best, it was a Theologically complicated puzzle I liked to return to once in a while, fit one or two of the thousands of pieces, give up, and come back to another day.

>> J. T. defines Trinity in this way:

The Trinity:

God eternally exists as one essence and three distinct persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each person is fully God, yet there is one God.

(p. 29). You Are A Theologian

IF:

Main Point

The aim of Christian discipleship is love and worship of the triune God.

THEN:

(1) We must know the triune God in order to love and worship Him

>> God is Trinity because that is who He has revealed Himself to be!

Finish this sentence (Write 5 things):

God is _____

(Wait 20 seconds)

Did anyone in this room say,

God is Love?

God is Great?

God is One?

God is Good?

God is the Good Shepherd?

What NO ONE said:

God is an egg

>> Shell, white, and yolk?

God is a three leaved clover

>> Stem and three leaves?

God is H2O

>> Solid, liquid, gaseous?

Is this the God who is worthy of love and worship?

>> If we wish to know God, we must know Him as He has made Himself known in His Word

How do we know these things to be true?

"God is love": those three words could hardly be more bouncy.

They seem lively, lovely and as warming as a crackling fire. But

"God is a Trinity"? No, hardly the same effect: that just sounds

cold and stodgy. All quite understandable, but the aim of this book

is to stop the madness. Yes, the Trinity can be presented as a fusty

and irrelevant dogma, but the truth is that God is love because

God is a Trinity.

— Delighting in the Trinity, Michael Reeves

When we know the triune God (the God of the Bible),

>> we know truly the good, great, merciful, loving God worthy of love and worship

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(2) Lose the Trinity, Lose the God of the Bible

The Trinity is a first degree issue. According to the Athanasian Creed (5th or 6th century), any who does not keep the Trinity “...whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.”

>> "Perish everlastingly”… that seems a bit extreme, doesn’t it?

However, one of the Key factors of the Trinity that must be acknowledged is:

The Trinity, above any other doctrine, distinguishes the One True God from any other idol of worship across human history

While Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons, and Christians may claim that

>> "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died and rose again, and through faith in him we can receive forgiveness of sins and gain eternal life."

It’s the Trinity that snags their theology and exposes it’s warped, human creativity

>> They don’t worship the same Triune God of the Bible

Two important aspects that must be simultaneously acknowledged:

Trinity = Oneness and Threeness

To make progress in our understanding of Trinitarianism, we will need to hold in tension two important instincts: oneness and threeness. Both are essential. Lose one of them and we lose orthodoxy… Heresy seeks to relieve the tension that the Bible demands. Orthodoxy requires us to hold that tension. God is one and three.

(p. 33). You Are A Theologian

Listen to this sentence again:

… Heresy seeks to relieve the tension that the Bible demands…

If the God of the universe reveals Himself as Father, Son, and Spirit, ever three and ever one…

>> We must be extremely cautious to go outside of Him for further revealing Who God is.

Analogies fall short (Water, egg, etc.)

God is not like anything in creation

It’s when we attempt to confine God to our understanding that we veer from who God has revealed Himself to be

Typically, we are more prone to create God in our image (Imagination), in part, to better understand Him

(Go to Pyramid Slide)

Modalism: God has three “modes” of being — Father, Son, and Spirit — Think H2O

>> Abandon the “threeness” of the triune God, and, you get Modalism

Tritheism (Polytheism): There are three separate gods — Father, Son, and Spirit — think the 3 leaf clover

>> Abandon the “oneness” of the triune God, and, you get Tritheism

Subordinationism: God has three persons which exist within a hierarchy — The Father is over the Son, the Son is over the Spirit, etc.

>> Abandon the Equality of the triune God, and, you get Subordinationism

God acts as One — One will, total unity

Let’s unpack this more by addressing a second question:

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What is the Triune God Like?

(2 Points)

(1) Who the Triune God Is speaks to What God is Like

(p. 44). You Are A Theologian

The Immanent Trinity refers to God in Himself—even before creation.

The Economic Trinity refers to how we see the Immanent Trinity revealed in redemptive history.

(p. 37). You Are A Theologian

Inseparable Operations: There is no act of God that isn’t undertaken by each person of God

We see this, most beautifully, in the Gospel:

The Father Initiates Salvation and sends the Son

The Son is sent by the Father and Accomplishes Salvation

The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son and Applies Salvation

The Doctrine of the Trinity is absolutely beautiful news if we want to know what God is like.

God is completely unified in the act of salvation and harmonious in the differing works of the Father, Son, and Spirit

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(2) The Triune God is of One essence

>> In other words, what characteristics or attributes that can be said of one person of the Godhead can be echoed for the other persons — “One in essence”

(See page 52 of You Are a Theologian)

What’s possibly most amazing about this, is, God has created you to share in some of these attributes!

They are differentiated by the words: Communicable vs Incommunicable attributes

>> What’s true of the Father is true of the Son and the Spirit, and vice a versa

>> Through the Spirit, we too share in the Communicable attributes unique to the Triune God!

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All of this said, The Doctrine of the Trinity is not a “set it and forget it” kind of doctrine — it is an essential revelation God has given us to know Him and Worship Him.

My favorite example of this goes something like this:

I love my wife. She’s 5’1”, blonde hair, blue eyes, loves golf more than I do, and spends the majority of her time developing AI for Microsoft. She’s a big movie buff (especially the theaters), loves snowboarding, and oh, She loves her work more than me, but, we make it work!

>> If any of you know Emily, you’d think I’ve lost my mind! NONE of that is true of her!

I know my wife better than any of you. But clearly, if I didn’t have a right knowledge of her, how could I properly love her?

And how could I be loved by an imaginary woman rather than the real wife I’ve been given?

We have been given a fellowship with a good, true, and beautiful Triune God who shows Himself most evidently in His love for us through the Gospel.

[Pray]