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Introduction
Trinity is something we confess in the Nicene Creed
Something assumed by most Christians
Is the very basic definition of Christianity
Was fought over
Yet most consider it abstract and unbroachable
Two questions emerge:
Where did this doctrine come from?
This speaks to the importance in believing it.
Is it a man-made doctrine?
Or is it “biblical”?
Supra-biblical?
Why is the doctrine important?
Even if it is to be believed, how is relevant?
Is it merely something we take on faith and never think on again?
Or might it have greater implications?
The Trinity: A History
Formalized in the council of Nicaea in 325 AD, and further revised in the council of Constantinople in 381 AD.
Even before these councils, the trinity, or at least “proto-trinity” is seen clearly in the writings of the Church fathers (e.g.
Athanasius, Cappadocians, Justin Martyr, Tertulian, Irenaeus, and Origen to a lesser degree)
But is it “Biblical”?
Did, e.g., Paul believe in the trinity?
Or St. Matthew?
Yes and no.
Again “proto-trinitarian”
Yet, though the Trinity is not explicitly in scripture, it emerges out of the meditation of the Church on God’s word
Firstly, a conviction that God is One, just as Judaism always believed
Deut 6:4
Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.
5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
Is 44:6
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.
But also that there are three persons who are properly called God
Father
John 17:3
And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent
Son
Heb 1:8
But of the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom
Col 2.9
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
Of course, John 1, which alludes to our passage in Proverbs 8
The Holy Spirit
Acts 5:3-4
“Ananias,” Peter asked, “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?
And after it was sold, were not the proceeds at your disposal?
How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?
You did not lie to us but to God!”
Thirdly, that these three persons are each different from one another.
The Father is not the son.
The Son is not the Father.
Nor is the Holy Spirit the Father or the Son.
Clearly Christ prays to the Father, and distinguishes himself from the father.
Our Passage, John 16:12-15
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are working in tandem together, each drawing us closer to God, and yet each one is distinct from the other
Aside from Scriptural support, these things are universally expressed through Christian worship
From the beginning of the church, we have worshipped Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet have also believed to worship One God
So the Trinity seeks to address these two things.
Firstly, to make sense of scripture.
Secondly, and more importantly, to order our worship.
Is worship of Christ appropriate?
Or is it Idolatry?
Thus the Nicene Creed and the concept of the Trinity
Nicaea and divine inspiration
Scripture given to and through the Church to be read by the Church.
No more spiritual reading than that which affirms the Trinity.
The Trinity: Implications
But why is the Trinity important?
Why does it matter?
Is it simply something to be accepted by faith, or might it have greater implications for us?
Firstly, it rightly orders worship.
It shows how to properly worship God.
It answers the question of idolatry.
Secondly, it has huge implications for Christology
Incarnation and Trinitarian theology
If Christ was not God, he could not save.
If he was not man, he could not save us.
Phil 2:6-8
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7 but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
The Trinity reminds us of Christ’s true divinity, which only heightens the depth of God’s love in the Gospel.
Thirdly, the Trinity is a beatific vision of God that invites us into the life of God.
The Trinity is important simply because it is a revelation of more of the God whom we love
It demonstrates both the beauty and incomprehensibility of God.
It informs how we consider ourselves as made in His image.
If the essence of God is loving relationship, then such relating becomes for us a way of mirroring God.
Disclaimer: It is dangerous to reason from creation to God.
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