With Christians everywhere, we
worship the only true God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - who is both one
essence and three persons. Why is this important? The Trinity is one of the
great mysteries of the Christian faith. Our limited minds can't understand how it works, but this is how God has revealed
himself in Scripture. The nature of God as Trinity is hugely important for our faith practice.
What is the biblical basis for this identity? Throughout the Old Testament, the
Bible is clear that God is one. Deuteronomy 6:4, says, “Hear, O Israel, the
Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Many other references in Hebrew Scripture
affirm God as one. In the New Testament, our understanding of God changes signficantly.
Jesus shows up and says he is
God, and he is connected to God as the Son. The opening to the gospel of John
is a chief example of that relationship. “In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) John 1:14 affirms that
Jesus is the Son as well as the “Word” referenced in John 1:1. The same
relationship between Jesus and the Father is revealed in places like John 17 as
well. God was one in the Old Testament, but in the gospels a second identity as the
Son appears.
By the end of the gospels,
however, Jesus introduced the Holy Spirit as the Comforter who would enter
the world upon Jesus’ departure. Jesus describes the Holy Spirit with
attributes that only God possesses. In the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit is
described again and again doing the works that only God can do. Paul often
refers to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God.
How do we reconcile the
revelation of the Old Testament that God is one, and the three-fold revelation
in the New Testament that describes God as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit?
Should we assume the difference is an error and pick one over the other? That’s
unnecessary. While our minds can’t understand competing truths, it doesn’t mean
that they aren't still true. Since we believe God is not a liar or deceiver and we
believe the Scripture is infallible, then it is safe to believe that God is
both One and Three.
The Early Church leadership
through hundreds of years of discussion, debate, and fights worked out a few
convictions regarding the Trinity. There are too many to list, but here are a
few:
a) God is of one essence, or
substance, and yet three persons. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy
Spirit is God.
b) Each member of the Trinity, though, is fully God. In each member of the Trinity the other two members exist
mutually as well. In the Father exists the Son and the Spirit. In the Son
exists the Father and the Spirit, and in the Spirit exists the Father and the
Son. This they called perichoresis or coinherence. It’s an important addition that
ensures the unity of the Godhead.
c) There is no hierarchy within
the Trinity (subordinationism), nor is the Trinity just the one God putting on
three different masks (modalism).
There is much more to be said
about the doctrine of the Trinity that can’t be said here, but a really good question
many people ask is, “This sounds more academic than helpful. What is the
significance of this doctrine for my life?” Good Calvinist know that we don’t
explore the nature and character of God simply for our own practical benefits.
We explore the Scriptures to seek to know God and, thereby, more effectively
give him the glory he is due and to live in obedience to him. Though like must
studies of Scripture, the bounty of God overflows to us in a very personal and
practical way.
For instance, the nature of God as Trinity reveals the very personal God we worship. It gives God
personage. We discover God is not a thing, a cosmic force, an energy, or some
other inanimate, impersonal entity. God is both above Creation and
transcendent, but at the same time he is willing to come near to us in a most
personal way. In the marketplace of world religions, you will see notions of God as
aloof, indifferent, or impersonal. The God of Christianity stands apart as a
personal God.
In keeping with this personal
identity, the Trinity shows how much God values relationship. The
interrelatedness of the Triune God and the sending of the Son and Holy Spirit both
point to a God who places great value on relationship. The God of Christianity is intensely
interested in a covenant relationship with us. Consider Genesis 17:7, “And I
will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you
throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and
to your offspring after you.” The reason he makes that covenant? It is because
he loves us. Look at Deuteronomy 7:7, “It was not because you were more in
number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you,
for you were the fewest of all peoples.” He does not make a covenant because it
is practical or beneficial to him. He makes covenant because he loves and
desires relationship with us.
Lastly, the nature of the
Trinity confirms that God is deeply personal even to the point of suffering. When do we know that a person is a deep, close friend? When he or she is with us in our suffering. When someone enters our suffering, we know they are
fully committed to us. God shows in his Triune nature how deeply he loves us.
The need for the Incarnation was
not a surprise to God. The Son existed from the beginning of time. There never
was a time when the Son didn’t exist. In a sense, the Son was the Crucified God
from the beginning. God voluntarily joins in the suffering of a people who had
not yet existed. No other religion worships a god like our God. The notion of
God suffering is seen as ridiculous by other religions. Either their gods are
too removed from human suffering to care or they actually require human
suffering in order to be satisfied.
Theologian Jürgen Moltmann helps
us understand the suffering God. He writes, “All this constituted the scandal
of Christianity…the scandal of the cross, the scandal that God should become
man in order to suffer and die and rise again, that God should suffer and
should experience what death is… It was revealed to us when God sent his Son so
that he might redeem us by suffering and dying. It was the revelation of the
divine nature of suffering.” (Moltmann, Trinity and the Kingdom, p. 38) There
is only one Crucified God, and that is the Triune God of Christianity.
What does it mean to follow the
personal, suffering God? For starters, we don’t need to ask, “Where is God when we suffer,
when we hurt?” Now we know that he is already there in our suffering. His
suffering preceded ours. He entered it voluntarily and has defeated it. Those
who suffer have a confidant, fellow pilgrim in him. He knows what it is to
suffer.
We are at our best when we model
the character of God. Because God suffered for us, we should ask ourselves, “Are
we willing to suffer for others?” Compassion is in one sense a voluntary entering into the suffering of others. Can we say that we have shown compassion
for those who suffer as God has done for us? I applaud that compassion in the
thousands of young adults who are working to end slavery as inspired by the
Passion conferences. We saw it in Wiliam Wilberforce who dedicated his life to
end slavery in the British Empire. We saw it in the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
who left the safety of London to return to Germany to stand with the German
Christians of the Confessing Church. We saw it in Mother Theresa who denied
herself many basic comforts to be with those who suffered on the streets of
Calcutta.
The Trinity is key to the heart
of the Christian faith. A personal God seeking relationship with us even to the
point of his own suffering. How humbling is that?! Are you seeking that
relationship and offering the same to the world?
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Book of Confession references:
Apostles Creed; Nicene Creed; Westminster Confession, 6.011 – 6.013; Shorter
Catechism, Q’s 4-6; Confession of 1967, Part 1.
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Here is a link to a video made by one of our church members on this topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9NkZViC7jk.
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Here is a link to a video made by one of our church members on this topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9NkZViC7jk.
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