“And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Mat 3:16-18
Introduction
The word “Trinity” itself does not appear in the Bible but rather, the doctrine of the Trinity is a progressive revelation throughout Scripture. It is hinted at in the Old Testament and solidified in the New Testament. It was then formulated into a creed (The Nicene Creed) by the early Church. The term “Trinity” was coined by Tertullian (A.D. 165-220).
When, Polycarp, the disciple of John the Apostle was martyred in 155 A.D. he said these words:
“I glorify you, through the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, through whom to you, with him and the Holy Spirit, be glory both now and for the ages to come.”
The teaching of the Trinity is often seen as too complicated or even as a hindrance to telling others about the Christian faith. But when we think like this, we miss not only the foundation of our faith but also its beating heart.
One of the most important things we know about God is that He is love. He doesn’t just have love – He is love! However, as author Michael Reeves puts it, “…the truth is that God is love because God is a Trinity.”
Reeves further explains:
“Father", (Jesus) says, “you have loved me before the creation of the world.” (John 17:24)
And that is the God revealed by Jesus Christ.
Before he ever created, before he ever ruled the world, before anything else, this God was a Father loving His Son (*a love we would later get to join into) ...
When you start with the Jesus of the Bible, it is a triune God you get. The Trinity then, is not the product of abstract speculation: when you proclaim Jesus, the Spirit-anointed Son of the Father, you proclaim the triune God."
What Is the Trinity?
The teaching of the triune nature of God is unique amongst all the world religions. All three main branches of the Christian Church (Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant – including Evangelicals) agree on and hold tightly to this doctrine of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
But before we go any further let’s learn what the Bible teaches about the Trinity. We’ll start with one theologian’s concise but effective definition:
“God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God.”
Now let’s break that down:
God Is Three Persons
“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” Mat 28:19
Each Person Is Fully God
The Father – 1st Person of the Trinity “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” Matthew 6:9
The Son – 2nd Person of the Trinity “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
This particular teaching – that Jesus is uncreated and fully God – is often attacked. There are many other Scripture passages that teach that Jesus is fully God but that is another blog altogether!
The Holy Spirit – 3rd Person of the Trinity “You have not lied to man but to God.” Acts 5:3-5
There Is One God
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (Jesus reiterates this in Mark 12:29 and so does Paul in 1 Corinthians 8:5-6)
The Relationships of the Trinity
It’s very important to understand that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were not made or created! The real difference between the 3 Persons of the Trinity is not their eternal nature or deity but in how they relate to each other.
The Father is eternal (Psalm 90:2)
The Son is eternally begotten of the Father (John 3:16)
The Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son (John 15:26)
We can use the sun as a bit of an illustration. Light comes from the sun (like Jesus comes from the Father), and heat comes from both the sun and light (like the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son)!
The true doctrine stresses the diversity of the Persons of the Trinity and the unity of God’s one essence.
Since we our made in the image of our triune God, we too thrive on healthy relationships in unity.
“No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illuminated by the splendour of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the One… When I contemplate the Three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided light.” Gregory of Nazianzus
What the Trinity Is Not
In seeking to understand more of what the Trinity is, it is helpful to understand what it is not.
Here are three of the main errors that have been taught about the Trinity over the centuries:
Modalism claims that there is one Person who appears to us in three “modes”. One example is that the Father is the mode of God in the OT, the Son is the mode of God in the Gospels and the Holy Spirit is the mode of God in the here and now. But we clearly see all the three Persons of the Trinity in one place at one time in our text for today. Jesus also converses with his Father (see John 17).
Arianism denies the full deity (or Godhood) of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit claiming they were created beings, made in time and space. This type of teaching is seen in Jehovah Witness’ doctrine.
Tritheism claims there are three individual gods. This is basically polytheism and it is what some accuse Christians of teaching. But we remember the clear teaching that God is one. As Jesus said, “I and my Father are one.” (John 10:30)
What Is the Nicene Creed?
The Nicene Creed of the 4th century is perhaps the most important creed of the Church.
A church creed is kind of like a statement of faith but from early Christianity (roughly the first 500 years). It articulates what the Scriptures teach and is agreed upon across a wide variety of Christian churches.
The Nicene Creed was undertaken when many church leaders came together in 325 A.D. at the lakeside town of Nicaea in modern day Turkey. There were a few leaders who were questioning the reality of the Trinity and whether Jesus was fully God (specifically a bishop named Arius). There were also those who strongly upheld the Trinity as taught in Scripture (like the great theologian, Athanasius)
After the meeting of Nicaea, the matter was settled with a vast majority agreeing that the teaching of the Trinity was in line with Scripture and that Jesus was indeed fully God incarnated in the flesh*. The Nicene creed is still held by all the major branches of Christianity of today.
Let’s read how these early Christian leaders summed up the Trinity in the Nicene Creed. Here are three portions:
“We believe in one God, the Father, the almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through him all things were made…
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets…”
Can We Fully Explain the Trinity?
The short answer is no.
No analogy we come up with will fully explain the deep and mysterious truth of the Trinity. After all, God is infinite and we are not.
We’ve all probably heard of the egg analogy (It is a shell, a white and a yolk but one egg). There is also the analogy of water. It can come in 3 states while still being the same essence – Liquid, Solid (ice) and Gas (steam). What is really interesting is that all three of these states can exist at one time – this is called the Triple point of water. These analogies can be helpful but they still fall far short of fully describing the Trinity.
However, in his great work, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis had an interesting illustration to help us begin to understand what we cannot understand.
“You know that in space you can move in three ways – to left or right, backwards or forwards, up or down. Every direction is either one of these three or a compromise between them. They are called the three Dimensions. Now notice this. If you are using only one dimension, you could draw only a straight line. If you are using two, you could draw a figure: say, a square. And a square is made up of four straight lines. Now a step further. If you have three dimensions, you can then build what we call a solid body: say, a cube – a thing like a dice or a lump of sugar. And a cube is made up of six squares.
In other words, as you advance to more real and more complicated levels, you do not leave behind you the things you found on the simpler levels: you still have them, but combined in new ways – in ways you could not imagine if you knew only the simpler levels…”
“In God’s dimension, so to speak, you find a being who is three Persons while remaining one Being, just as a cube is six squares while remaining one cube.”
The Trinity and the Gospel
As we mentioned at the beginning, the Biblical statement “God is love” (1 John 4:8 &16) takes on a whole new meaning when we think of Him as a Trinity. God did not need humans to love or to love him – The Father, Son and Holy Spirit had already always loved each other. Then, out of an abundant overflow of that love, God decided to create us so that – astonishingly – we could partake in that sacred and beautiful love.
We strayed from that love and begin to love ourselves instead of God. But God did not end it there – His abounding Trinitarian love redeemed us as well. This is seen in the gospel, and, when it comes to the gospel, we see again all three Persons of the Trinity playing crucial roles.
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Galatians 4:4-7
The Father sent the Son into the world to redeem mankind and later raised Him from the dead.
The Son obeyed the Father, putting aside some of His divine rights but none of His divine essence. He died on the cross for our sins and rose again.
The Holy Spirit was sent by both the Father and the Son to ignite the Church and indwell Christians and empower them to live for God and enjoy Him.
In other words, the Father purposed redemption, the Son accomplished it and the Holy Spirit applies it to us personally.
So, once again we see that the triune nature of God is not only the foundation of our faith – it is the beating heart of it.
Nicky Cruz, a former New York City gang leader who came to Christ, once said this:
“I have always believed in the doctrine of the Trinity but I had never experienced God personally as Three-in-One. It was merely a doctrine in which I believed, but now it has become a truth of everyday life… The Trinity is not just a doctrine to be believed but an experience to be lived out.”
I hope and pray we can begin to experience, enjoy and wonder in awe at the reality of the Trinity.
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14
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*Although this period of time during the making of the Nicene Creed was marked by political – and even religious -unrest (and Constantine wanted some type of unifying creed), the wording of the creed was formed from the teaching of the New Testament and is now universally accepted by the Church.
Scholar, Michael F. Bird, confirms this, “In other words, (*the creeds of Nicaea and Constantinople) of the fourth century are not purely politically driven and radically innovative statements of faith. They are, instead, contextualized clarification of New Testament teaching.”
Sources & Further Reading
The Bible
“Delighting in the Trinity” by Michael Reeves / IVP Academic
“The Trinity: An Introduction” by Scott R. Swain / Crossway
“The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything” by Fred Sanders / Crossway
“Is Jesus Truly God?” by Greg Lanier / Crossway
“How God Became Jesus: The Real Origins of Belief in Jesus’ Divine Nature” by Michael F. Bird etc. / Zondervan
“Theological Retrieval for Evangelicals” by Gavin Ortlund / Crossway
“Historical Theology” by Gregg R. Allison / Zondervan
“Systematic Theology” by Wayne Grudem / Zondervan*
(*Note although I use Grudem’s Systematic Theology I do not subscribe to his doctrine of EFS or Eternal Functional Subordination of Jesus to the Father. It is very important to maintain the equality of all three Persons of the Trinity.)
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