The doctrine of the Trinity is a complex yet essential concept in Christian life and theology. Many believers struggle to understand its implications. But understanding this concept is important for any Christian because a good view of the Trinity is a safeguard against false teaching. Learn more in How to know and experience more of our Triune God Today — Why the Trinity is so essential.
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TL/DL/DW Why the Trinity is so Essential
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:14
Paul sums up his second letter to the Corinthians with this blessing that encompasses the entire Godhead.
…and it would take us a long time to properly unpack each of those statements.
The problem of talking about the Trinity…
1. How do I explain…
Grace of Lord Jesus Christ. How do you grasp a grace that’s from before the beginning of time? 2 Timothy 1:8-10.
Love of God - How do you explain the love that surpasses knowledge? Ephesians 3:19
Fellowship of Holy Spirit - How to comprehend the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children Romans 8:14-16 or that GOD is with us?
2. How I explain it can be heresy or easily lead to heresy. Which gets us to early creeds of the church.
3. Can bore you with the background for the Nicene Creed . There’s a lower place in heaven for anyone who bores you by talking to you about God and the things of God.
We know God is One. Can we agree there is only One God?
If God is One how can He be three?
Why does it matter?
It matters because a good view of the Trinity is a safeguard against false teaching. It matters because the more we understand the Trinity the more we understand the good news and the more we understand the good news the more we understand the Trinity.
Someone has said it this way: If you try to explain the Trinity, you will lose your mind. But if you deny it, you will lose your soul.
That’s what I was tasked with this week.
Let’s start with the grammar of God.
The Grammar of God
Grammar lays out the basic rules of a language and ensures we are speaking correctly.
Even though I took Gorilla Grammar in grade 8, it wasn’t until my second semester of Attic Greek that I finally understood what a participle was. English grammar is not that easy to get and almost impossible to understand. The grammar of God is like it in that…
There is a way of talking about God that is the only way it makes sense. It’s not easy to understand, but it’s the only thing that makes sense based on what we have in the Bible and history.
Trinity = tri-unity = 3 in 1 this can confuse people who know that 1+1+1 = 3 and realize we’re saying 1+1+1=1
But please understand it’s not a schematic to understand the inner workings of the creator of all.
God is God and we really can’t explain Him better than saying God is One. That’s the first rule of God Grammar.
The second rule is - The Father is God, The Son is God, Holy Spirit is God.
The Third rule of God Grammar is…
The Father is God and is not the Son and is not Holy Spirit.
The Son is God and is not Holy Spirit and is not the Father.
Holy Spirit is God is not the Father and not the Son.
And yet we insist and agree with Scripture that God is one.
Congratulations. You just started your journey to understand the Grammar of God.
Let’s start unpacking that a little bit and look at how 1+1+1=1 is the most logical conclusion with the evidence. We’ll move through this quickly and you can use the notes to study it more.
7 Reasons why 1+1+1=1 is the most logical conclusion
1. All three are called God
The Father 1 Corinthians 8:6, Isaiah 64:7, 1 John 3:1
The Son - Colossians 1:15, John 1:1, John 10:33,
Holy Spirit - Acts 5:3-4, Matthew 28:19, 1 Peter 1:1-2
2. Each one created everything
The Father - Genesis 1:1
The Son- John 1:3
Holy Spirit - Genesis 1:1
3. Each is everywhere present (omnipresent)
The Father - Jeremiah 23:24
The Son - Matthew 28:20
Holy Spirit - Psalm 139:7
4. Each of them are always with us -
The Father - Ephesians 4:6,
The Son - Colossians 1:27
Holy Spirit - John 14:17
5. Each is all-knowing (omniscient)
The Father - Romans 11:33
The Son - John 16:30
Holy Spirit - John 14:26
6. They are all all-powerful (omnipotent)
The Father - Jeremiah 32:27
The Son - Matthew 28:18
Holy Spirit - Romans 15:19
7. All Are Unchanging (Immutable)
The Father - Malachi 3:6
The Son - Hebrews 13:8
Holy Spirit - Haggai 2:5
8. They Are ALL Eternal
The Father - Psalm 90:2
The Son - John 1:1
Holy Spirit - Hebrews 9:14
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each called God in Scripture. In addition, divine attributes that can only apply to God are attributed to all three of them.
Only God is all-powerful, all-knowing, eternal, everywhere present, and unchanging. Yet the Scripture says these attributes belong to each member of the Trinity.
All three of them possess attributes that only God can possess. Therefore the three of them must be the one God.
CS Lewis had an illustration for God that the people at the Bible Project pick up on and use.
Your brain hurt yet?
Great. Know you have head knowledge. Now let’s look at how to experience more of our Triune God.
The Trinity is the very heart of who God is and it is one of the most incompressible things we can think about. Best way is use Biblical pictures of it…
In the Baptism of Jesus we see unifying purpose, with distinct roles. The Son goes into the water and Holy Spirit settles on him like a dove and the voice from heaven says this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
What scripture gives us is the relational dynamic between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When we talk about the trinity, we are fundamentally talking about relationship.
One God has eternally existed in three persons. The way we see these three persons primarily expressed in the Bible is in the way they relate to each other and in a unified and distinct way and function together. The relating is right in their titles - Father, Son and Spirit. A Father can’t be a father without a son, the Spirit equips and enables the Son and us to complete his earthly ministry.
If you want extra homework - speed read the Gospel of John and look for inter-trinitarian dynamics.
The Father sends the Son (Galatians 4:4-5). The Father and the Son sends the Spirit (John 15:26). The Spirit brings glory to the Son (John 16:13-14) and the Son points us to the Father (John 8:19). And the Father says, “Here is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 17:5). And the son says, “Don’t move a muscle in fulfilling the Great Commission, until the Father sends the Spirit with power.” (Acts 1:4-8) And the Son said “I am the Father are One” and then says “The Father is greater than I” The Son prays to the Father and the Spirit prays through us with groans that words can not express.
It’s mutual love, mutual edification, mutual glorification And why shouldn’t it be? Remember…
God is love. 1 John 4:8;16
God is light. 1 John 1:5
God is Spirit. John 4:24
God is good. Psalm 34:8
God is One. James 2:19
God is great. 2 Samuel 7:22
God is One.
God is One. God is Father. God is Son. God is Holy Spirit.
How do you experience more of the triune God? That’s a great question, I’m so glad you asked.
How to Experience more of our Triune God Tool
TRIUNE
T - Take time to know His unknownable love
R - Remember He’s always been Father and Son and Spirit
I - Investigate the hidden things of the One God
U - Understand His amazing grace for you.
N - Navigate the fellowship of Holy Spirit
E - Enjoy the otherness of God
T - Take time to know His unknownable love
Ephesians 3:19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
God is love. The Father is love. The Son is love. Holy Spirit is love. And because we are loved by God we can love others with the love He shows us. Perfect love that casts out all fear comes from God to us and we share it with others.
Never forget…
God is love. 1 John 4:8;16
What difference has God’s love made in my life this week?
R - Remember He’s always been Father and Son and Spirit
1 John 1:1-5 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy. This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
The implication for us is that we can rejoice in the revelation of God being triune. GOD - ever existing as the Son - became man and died in our place and rose again providing a way for us to friends again with Him. Eternity starts the moment we respond to the Spirit’s call and acknowledge He is Lord and goes on for forever.
Never get so familiar with that revelation that it leads to unbelief. Familiarity can lead to offence and offence to unbelief. (See Matthew 13:54-58)
You can’t be a Christian if you don’t understand the Trinity to some degree. You might not get God Grammar, but you know Jesus and Holy Spirit are somehow God. The better you understand the Trinity, the better you understand the gospel. The more you understand the good news, the more you understand the Trinity.
Remember…
God is light. 1 John 1:5
Have I been letting familiarity lead to offence and offence to unbelief?
I - Investigate the hidden things of One God
Ephesians 4:4-6 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.
If you think you know everything you need to know about God, you’ve just got tired of thinking. God is outside time and space and yet stepped into time and space and still steps into time and space because of his great love for people he made from dirt.
When Jesus was talking with the Samaritan women he revealed to her and us…
God is Spirit. John 4:24
Do I worship Him in Spirit and in truth?
U - Understand His amazing Grace for you.
2 Timothy 1:8-10 So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News. For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News.
Grace is God’s supernatural enabling of you to do something He wants you to do, but you can’t do on your own… think of salvation. His grace is sufficient for you and your situation. Whatever He calls you to do He empowers you to do. He empowers you to accomplish every good work prompted by faith.
Remember…
God is good. Psalm 34:8
Do I live knowing I have His grace to share His grace ?
N- Navigate the Fellowship of Holy Spirit
Romans 8:14-16 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.
The Trinity exists in mutual love, mutual edification, mutual glorification .
That’s why community is so important to Him. That’s why when God calls you to himself, he calls to you community. He’s always existed in the community of mutual love, mutual edification, mutual revelation. That’s what he wants for us, who he chooses to call His children.
We’re made to exist in a community of mutual love, mutual edification, mutual revelation of our good and great God.
It is a mystery how to do it, except we have Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth.
God is good - Psalm 34:8
and we’re to be kind to each other. (Ephesians 4:32)
God is love - 1 John 4:8;16
and we are to love one another. (John 13:34)
God is light - 1 John 1:5
and we are to bear one another’s burdens. (Galatians 6:2)
God is forgiving - Psalms 86:5
and we are to forgive one another. (Colossians 3:13)
Remember…
God is One. James 2:19 and Jesus prayed for you and me that we’d be one. (See John 17:20-21)
Do I live out the fellowship of Holy Spirit?
E- Enjoy the otherness of God
Psalm 145:1-3 I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. I will praise you every day; yes, I will praise you forever. Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!
No one can measure his greatness.
GOD took on flesh and camped out for a while. He died to make a way for us to be friends again with Himself and gave us His Holy Spirit to teach and empower and comfort us as we journey together.
Never, never, never, get comfortable with those thoughts. God is beyond time and space. That right there should make your brain hurt. If it doesn’t, spend time seeking a greater revelation of His greatness.
When He reveals a bit of his greatness and glory…it changes you for ever.
When I heard his audible voice tell me I was to a pastor… well it turned eventually into an understanding that to have a call as pastor didn’t mean I’d always be paid to be pastor but I’d always be a pastor doing whatever I did. Without that dramatic call, I could have convinced myself that my identity rested in my position. It doesn’t. Your identity is in Christ. What He says about you matters because He’s good and He’s great.
God is great. 2 Samuel 7:22
What difference in my life does it make knowing God is great?
Contemplating God’s greatness led David to praise. What does it do for you?
TRIUNE
T - Take time to know His unknownable love
R - Remember He’s always been Father and Son and Spirit
I - Investigate the hidden things of One God
U - Understand His amazing grace for you.
N - Navigate the fellowship of Holy Spirit
E - Enjoy the otherness of God
As we spend time in His presence reflecting on His nature, perhaps one of those questions stirred something in you to ask Him about.
What difference has God’s love made in my life this week?
Have I been letting familiarity lead to offence and offence to unbelief?
Do I worship Him in Spirit and in truth?
Do I live knowing I have His grace to share His grace ?
Do I live out the fellowship of Holy Spirit?
What difference in my life does it make knowing God is great?
Pray.