"Trinity #4 - Three in One" by Rod Bayley, 15 August 2010

[Danny]

The Westminster Confession of Faith, which is the arguably the
greatest of the reformation statements on doctrine, offers the
following about the Trinity: “There is but one living and true God. In
the unity of the Godhead, there is three persons of one substance,
power and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit. The Father is of none, either begotten nor proceeding; The Son
is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit eternally
proceeding from the Father and the Son.” Perhaps that confession now
strikes you with greater meaning, having studied the Trinity for the
past month, or perhaps it is still as ‘clear as mud.’ I want to
commence this last talk in the series by affirming again, that we
cannot know the infinite God fully with our finite minds, let alone
adequately express the Trinity within the limitations of the English
language. It is complex.

There is a story of the famous early church father, Augustine, that
one day when he was walking along the beach, he saw a young boy
digging a trench in the sand. He walked over to the boy and asked him
why he was digging a trench. The little fellow replied: ‘I am going to
empty the sea into my trench.’ Augustine continued his walk and mused:
‘So the lad thinks that he is going to empty the ocean into the little
trench he has made. Sometimes we are like that - we propose to
encompass the infinitude of God in the small limits of our mind.’ I
say that so that we continue to think about God with the deepest of
reverence and so save ourselves from the presumption that we have
everything worked out; NOT to suggest that we shouldn’t continue to
work at rightly understanding who God is from His word.

The trinity is complex, but it is also a crucial doctrine which we
must study and grow in our understanding of. Without a growing
understanding of the Trinity, we don’t understand who God is, and
therefore who we worship, we don’t understand our salvation or ongoing
growth as a Christian, or even how our love for others is to reflect
the relationships in the Trinity. It is one of the two greatest
mysteries of Christianity, the other being how Jesus can be fully God
and fully man. The famous American author and speaker, J.I. Packer,
once wrote: “Here are two mysteries for the price of one - the
plurality of persons within the unity of God, and the union of Godhood
and manhood in the person of Jesus.” On these two mysteries, all else
hangs.

This brings me to the first point on your outline: “God is one Being.”
Notice how the unity or Oneness of God is expressed in Deuteronomy
6:4-5:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5Love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength.”

This is a very important statement for the Jew, and is referred to as
the Shema, which is the Jewish word for ‘Hear’, the first word of the
verse. It was viewed as a Creed, an affirmation about God, and they
recited it twice a day. The Israelites were summoned by the Father to
hear His word. In fact, they were to hear the truth of God being one
Being, and then to respond to that truth in verse 5 by loving God with
all their being. Verse 4 could be rendered: ‘Yahweh who is our God,
this Yahweh is one.’ Yahweh, the Father, is incomparable, He is
singular. The God of Israel was completely different to the multitude
of gods worshiped by the Canaanites, including the many forms of Baal.
Yahweh is not the brand name of countless gods, He is one God, and
Yahweh is his personal name. This is clearly a monotheistic statement,
a one God statement.

Turning to the New Testament, notice again what is stated by the
apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 8:4b-6: “We know that an idol is nothing
at all in the world and that there is no God but one. 5For even if
there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed
there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’), 6yet for us there is but one
God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and
there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and
through whom we live.”

On first reading, this statement by Paul might seem to suggest that
Jesus is not God, only the Father, or that we have two gods here. But
look closely again and notice the parallels between the Father and Son
in terms of action and purpose, and the unity that is being expressed.
Verse 6 is another creed - a statement about God, like Deuteronomy
6:4. There is one God - the Father who is the Creator, and who One who
we live for. In referring to Jesus as Lord, rather than God, he is not
saying that Jesus is not divine, because he goes on to say that Jesus
is also the Creator, or the means by which the Father created. Jesus
is also the redeemer - the one through whom we live or have life. By
these following statements, which parallel the same actions as the
Father, we see that Jesus is also God, and so Lord is simply another
way of referring to Christ’s rule and divinity. The reason he uses the
two terms ‘God’ and ‘Lord’ is to parallel the Corinthians awareness of
many so-called ‘gods’ and ‘lords’ in verse 5. God and Lord are both
referred to as one, as unique. The Lord, who is also the Son, is also
One. This must mean that the One who is Lord and Son is also God. It
is a powerful affirmation that there is only one God - God is One.

This rules out many gods or polytheism by definition. In fact, that is
the context of Paul’s creedal statement here. It is against the
backdrop of the many pagan gods and lords mentioned in verse 5, who
are gods in name only, that Paul is writing. Corinth was full of
temples to various ‘gods’, and as a result was full of food that had
been offered to such idols. But as the Psalmist wrote in Psalm
115:2-4: “Why do the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’ 3Our God is in
heaven; he does whatever pleases him. 4But their idols are silver and
gold, made by the hands of men.” The idolatry which characterizes
Hinduism and animism, with their many gods or idols, and the
various offerings that are made at numerous shrines or holy sites are
ruled out by the revelation of God. Even atheistic Buddhism, which
does not pretend that Buddha was God, in practice produces many
temples and shrines where various offerings are made to appease the
animistic spirits which have simply overlain with Buddhist philosophy.
All is this is rejected by God’s revelation of Himself in the bible,
as the bible affirms over and over that there is no God but one.

That leads to another application though - what about Islam and
Judaism? These religions don’t trade in multiple gods and various
offerings to appease them. In fact, they are fiercely monotheistic,
and argue that Christians have become polytheists with their three-God
trinity. The concept of One God in three Persons has been a sticking
point for Jews for 2,000 years, and a stumbling block for Muslims for
around 1,500 years. How do we explain and defend the trinity to the
many millions of people who are adherents to these major world
religions? Well, we saw two weeks ago, that for Jews we have the
advantage of being able to point to the Old Testament, and show that
the promised Messiah was clearly to be divine (Ps.110:1; Is.9:6). The
best approach in apologetics, in defending and explaining the
Christian understanding of God, is always to use Scripture and to
focus on Jesus.

As for the Jew, so for the Muslim. Though Muslims view the bible as
deficient and corrupted, they have a level of respect for the bible,
and there are certainly numerous parallels, with Jesus and many of
Israel’s patriarchs being referred to in the Qu’ran. And so the use of
the Bible and Qu’ran, and a focus on Jesus, or the prophet Isa is the
best methodology. For the Jew the issue of the Trinity is one of the
full revelation of God’s word being accepted, rather than simply the
Old Testament. However, for the Muslim, it is establishing the
credibility and authority of the bible, as against finite human logic.
From the start of Islam, many of the arguments against Christian
doctrine related to Mohammed misunderstanding the bible, or arguing
that it was not logical. The Quran contains many errors about what
Christians believe and practice. One of the most significant is that
the Quran misrepresents the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
Muhammad mistakenly thought that Christians worshiped three gods: the
Father, the Mother (Mary), and the Son (Jesus), (Sura 5:73-75,116).
Although later Muslim scholars have grasped that this is not what the
bible teaches or what Christians believe, they still reject the
Trinity as Mohammed did, because they cannot logically accept that God
could have a Son. And so the fundamental problem is that the Christian
is arguing from God’s revelation, and the Muslim will argue from human
reason or logic. The Muslim assumption in the end is that we know
better than God who He is - Scripture has to submit to our reason.

This brings us to the second point on the outline: ‘God is three
persons.’ The diversity of God is affirmed in the trinity, as well as
His unity, as God is one Being, but three distinct persons. Notice
what the apostle Paul states in 2 Corinthians 13:14: “May the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit be with you all.”

This is one of several verses (Rom.8:11; 1 Cor.12:4-6; Gal.4:6; Eph.
4:4-6) which mentions all three Persons of the trinity. Notice that
they are mentioned in the order that reflects Christian experience.
First, there is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ which is
encountered as we heard the gospel, the message of reconciliation.
Then secondly, we come to know the love of God as we grasp that the
Father sent the Son to pay for our sin through his death and
resurrection. Thirdly, we experience the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit, which refers to the Spirit living within us, which gives us a
new relationship with God, and with other believers. We also see all
three Persons of our Triune God referred to in Matthew 28:19 - notice
what is recorded: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit.”

As Matt Meek noted in his sermon last week, here is a three-fold New
Testament formula for referring to God, which builds on the ‘Lord God’
formula of the O.T. It is one name, singular, not three names, and
therefore points to the unity of God, that God is One Being, though
three Persons. Unlike the concluding prayer of 2 Corinthians, the
context here is water baptism, as part of the discipleship process.
Baptism is a sign of belonging, of identification with God who has
saved us, and so we are baptised into the name of God - all three
persons of the trinity.

The historical struggle with God being One being but three Persons has
issued in a number of heresies. One of these is referred to as
modalism - that God is only present in one form at a time. That is,
God just changes mode or appearance as it were, and so at one point He
is the Father, and then He decides to take on flesh and appear as the
Son etc. It assumes that God is like Superman - you know how Clark
Kent and Superman couldn’t appear at the same time, and likewise with
other superheroes like Batman and Spiderman. So they need to change
quickly in the phone box, and then reappear in their other form later,
before anyone misses them. The two passages we’ve looked at in Matthew
28 and 2 Corinthians 13 don’t rule out this heretical thinking
categorically, as they are simply references to all three Persons of
the Godhead, not simultaneous appearances of them. But we do have a
record of all three appearing, as it were, or being present at once.
Notice what Mark records in Mark 1:10-11: “As Jesus was coming up out
of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending
on him like a dove. 11And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son,
whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Here is Jesus being baptised
by John the Baptist in the river Jordan, and as he comes out of the
water, the Father speaks, and the Spirit descends like a dove. And so
modalism is ruled out - God is simultaneously and eternally present as
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Well, this brings us to the third and final point on your outline:
‘Relating to our Triune God - some applications.’ As we draw this
series to a close, and think about what this complex but crucial
doctrine of the Trinity means for us today, I want to consider four
applications.

Firstly, understanding that God is one Being in three Persons is
crucial to our understanding of our salvation and sanctification, our
fresh start and our ongoing growth. Notice again what Paul writes in 1
Timothy 2:5-6: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men -
the testimony given in its proper time.” Jesus the Son is the one go-
between, the one middle man. The fact that Paul emphasizes Christ’s
humanity in this verse does not deny his divinity, which Paul infers
in verse 2 of the previous chapter, and who is called ‘Lord’ three
times in chapter one (1:2, 12, 14). A mediator must be able to
represent both sides equally, and so Paul is highlighting that Jesus
is uniquely qualified, because he is not only fully God, but also
fully man. I made the point from Hebrews 2 a fortnight ago, that
unless Jesus took on human flesh, we could not be saved. He gave
himself as a ransom in verse 6 - that is he died on the Cross in our
place. The term ‘ransom’ is a reference to Christ’s own statement in
Mark 10:45. He paid the price for our release - we were in bondage to
sin and judgment, and he delivered us through his death in our place.
Notice the fuller statement that Peter offers in 1 Peter 1:2: “Who
have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
through the sanctifying work of the Sprit, for obedience to Jesus
Christ and sprinkling by his blood.” Notice how each Person of the
Godhead is at work in differing but complementary functions in both
our rescue and our ongoing growth. The Father plans our salvation - He
elects or chooses those who will be saved, the Son is the means by
which we are saved, through the shedding of his blood on our behalf,
and the Spirit is given to us to bring us new birth. The focus of the
Spirit’s sanctifying work in this context is the once-for-all rebirth,
but he also continues to works in us and make us like our Saviour. We
grow as we obey Jesus Christ - we follow him as our Lord. So, notice
that the description of Jesus in this verse summarizes his
relationship to us - He is our Lord and Saviour. And so without an
understanding of the Trinity, which includes the Son being fully God
and fully man, we cannot understand how we are saved from our sin.

Secondly, understanding that God is one Being in three Persons is
crucial to our understanding of whom we are worshiping. Notice what
Jesus states in John 4:23-24: “Yet a time is coming and has now come
when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth,
for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is
spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” We
need to acknowledge that true worship of the Father is only through
Jesus in the power of the Spirit. Firstly, “God is spirit”, and it is
those who are born again through receiving the Holy Spirit, who can
and must worship their Father, as he desires to be worshiped, “in
spirit.” And secondly, this can only occur for those who accept the
revelation of God in Christ, who is the truth - it is only those who
acknowledge Jesus as Saviour and Lord who worship God “in truth.” And
so a person cannot claim to worship Yahweh rightly, unless they
acknowledge the divinity of the Son and Spirit through whom right
worship is enabled. The place for drawing near to God and
acknowledging his Kingship is no longer the temple in Jerusalem, nor
our modern day churches, but in the person of Jesus. As such, worship
occurs everywhere the Spirit is.

Thirdly, understanding that God is one Being in three Persons is
crucial to our understanding of prayer and how we address God. Jesus
taught his disciples to pray to the Father in Matthew 6, and so they
were to address Yahweh with the same familiarity as the Son, as like
us they have been adopted into God’s family as co-heirs with Christ.
In Philippians 4:6 Paul tells us to bring our prayers to God, which
refers to the Father in this context. We pray in the Son’s name, as
Jesus is our mediator who has opened the way for us to speak to the
Father through his death and resurrection. And so Hebrews 4:14-16
tells us that Jesus, the Son of God is our high priest who enables us
to “approach the throne of grace with confidence”, which is a
reference to the Father’s presence. We pray in the power of the
Spirit, who leads us and guides our words. As Romans 8:26 affirms:
“... We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself
intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” And so
Scripture’s pattern is to pray to the Father, through the Son, in the
power of the Spirit.

Lastly, understanding the trinity is crucial to our understanding of
God’s love, and therefore how we should love others. In 1 John 4:7-12
we read that God is love, which is understood through the Father’s
sending of the Son to die for rebels. The love expressed within the
Godhead is the model for how we are to respond to others, and it will
demonstrate we are God’s people. In verse 11 John writes: “Dear
friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
The Trinity is arguably the pinnacle of theology - the doctrine of who
God is. Like the Cross, we will never plumb the depths, because to
study infinity requires eternity