by Garrett Glende
After spending two weeks covering a few attributes of God, we now take a closer look at the essence of who God is. Although it is a difficult (actually humanly impossible) doctrine to fully comprehend, we still must seek to understand the trinity because it lies at the core of the doctrine of God. Many Christians discount it as something only theologians and seminary professors need to worry about, but the reality is that we are all theologians. We all have our own views about who God is, but the matter is not what we think of God, but rather what God says about Himself. If the Bible does reveal God to be trinitarian (which it does), then we must believe what it says and have our lives transformed in light of it.
Grudem supplies us with a simple definition of the trinity to work with for our purposes. He writes, “God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God.” The definition is clear and to the point, each word deliberate and purposeful. It declares the eternality of the Godhead, the deity of all three persons, the equality of all three persons, and the oneness of God. I think it would be helpful to follow along with Grudem’s outline, as he gives three statements regarding the nature of the trinity and defends them all using Scripture.
1. God is Three Persons
This is to mean that there is distinction among the three members of the trinity. God the Father is not God the Son. God the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and so forth. We know this from passages where we see interaction between the different persons, such as the baptism of Jesus where we see the Father speaking from heaven, the Son being baptized, and the Spirit descending as a dove (Matthew 3:16-17). Moreover, when Jesus institutes the great commission in Matthew 28:18-20 He tells the disciples to baptize them “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” signaling the diversity and triune nature of the Godhead. If all three were the same person, then Jesus is really saying to baptize “in the name of God, and of God, and of God.” There are also instances where the Son prays to the Father (John 17) and is empowered by the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1, Matt. 12:18). These things would not be if it were the case that God is one, yet simply expresses Himself differently at different times. God has always existed as three distinct persons, each one unique from the others.
The personhood of the Spirit has often been challenged, posing the idea that He is some sort of force or power. However, the Bible describes the Holy Spirit as a person, attributing to Him many personal qualities, such as the ability to be grieved (Eph. 4:30), the power to distribute gifts (1 Cor. 12:11), and the fact that He prays for all believers (Rom. 8:26-27).
2. Each Person is Fully God
It almost goes without saying the God the Father is God. The Bible doesn’t give any argument for His deity or existence. It simply opens with the statement, “In the beginning God…”
The foremost heresy among many cults is a denial of the deity of the Son. Here the Bible is also clear that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh, come down to save His people from their sin. John opens his gospel account testifying to the eternal deity of the Son: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Later on in verse 14 it is revealed to us that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John explains that the eternal logos has now exegeted the Father through His earthly ministry. The author of Hebrews extols Christ as “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3). The Son’s role in creation also attests to His divinity. Colossians 1:16 says that “…all things were created through him and for him.” We see that “all things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). Coupling these verses with the creation account in Genesis 1, it becomes clear to us that Christ was the agent through which the world has come into being, bestowing upon Him the title of God.
As mentioned above, it is common for many to degrade the Holy Spirit to someone less than God, when Scripture is quite clear on the issue. The Holy Spirit is mentioned alongside the Father and the Son as Jesus gives the great commission in Matthew 28. We also see the deity of the Spirit in Acts 5 when Ananias and Sapphira “lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back for [themselves] part of the proceeds.” Peter tells them that they “have not lied to men but to God” (Acts 5:4). The Holy Spirit, along with the Father and the Son, was involved in creation, as He “was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2). There are many other passages to point to, but the purpose of this article is not to exhaust what the Bible offers, but rather to provide a summary.
3. There is One God
The last basic truth that Grudem deems essential to understanding the trinity in a true way is that there is only one God. Christianity is a monotheistic religion at its core. God is one, and splitting Him into three Gods creates idol worship, as our devotion would be divided. This is not a difficult claim to defend, as Scripture provides more than ample support for monotheism. We see Moses’ call to Israel in Deuteronomy 6: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4). “I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God” declares the Lord in Isaiah 45:5. The New Testament also advocates that “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5). We worship one God.
Application
A true Christian will not deny any of the above truths. People who profess faith in any other God but the triune God of the Bible are seriously mislead and will ultimately pay the penalty for their false worship. We, as Christians, know that there is one God in three persons, yet the challenge comes when we examine our lives and see if they match up with what we confess. As many of the singles at LBC have been learning recently on Friday nights, our view of the role of the Holy Spirit is often much lower than it should be. In essence, we say with our lips that He is God, but our lives reflect that we believe Him to be an impersonal force. The Holy Spirit is just as much God as the Father and the Son are God, and we must treat Him as such.
The nature of the trinity affects the way we live our everyday lives especially as it relates to our prayers. We should pray (and live) by the Spirit, through the Son, and to the Father. Each member of the Godhead plays a specific role. Our prayers are empowered and guided along by the Spirit’s work in our lives, while the Son is the One through whom we have access to the Father (Heb. 4:14-16, 1 Tim. 2:5), to whom we live to glorify in all things (1 Cor. 10:31). So when we pray we must depend on the Holy Spirit to fill us and help us to pray in the Father’s will, but we can only do so because of the work that Christ has done on our behalf. In this way, we can reflect a proper understanding of the trinity in our prayer life.
The doctrine of the trinity should also influence the way we interact with others. The essence of it all is that God is in a relationship with Himself, so to speak. Although our relationships are different (two people as opposed to three), we can still mirror God in some sense. The marriage between a man and a woman reflects the relationship of the Father and the Son in that there is authority and submission, yet mutual love and equality between persons. When the husband does not love his wife or the wife lovingly submit to her husband, then their marriage reflects a faulty understanding of the nature of God. This principle can be applied broadly to all in the sense that God desires us to be in communities with one another where we can glorify Him and make known His character to others.
However confusing this doctrine might seem to us, we must submit to the teaching of Scripture, not our own understanding. If anything, the fact that we cannot fully grasp the mystery of the trinity should make us bow down in worship to God, for He truly is high above us. We must seek to live lives that honor God and mirror the fullness of truth revealed to us, specifically as it relates to the members of the Godhead. May our hearts and minds eagerly yearn glorify the triune God of Scripture, as He is most deserving of all our praise.