Trinity

(Help yourself and grab a bottle of tootheys super dry for the love of God..)

Christian faith is a belief in God who is three in Persons but is essentially one, as ingrained in the doctrine of the Trinity.  In short, for a man to be saved, a Christian basically depends fully on the works of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who are in unity, but never “confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance” (as reflected in the Athanasian Creed on the subject).

The doctrine of the Trinity is a biblical doctrine since God Himself reveals through the Scripture that there is but one true and living God (Deuteronomy 6:4). Human mind doesn’t by itself grasp this concept due to our limitation. It is therefore crucial that Christians submit under the authority of the Scripture for this doctrine to stand.

The doctrine of the Trinity presumes relationship. Within the Godhead, relationship exists eternally, one that triumphs in other-person-centeredness and so defines the characteristic of any true relationships. For example, the Scripture reveals that the Father loves and gives all things to the Son (John 3:35). The Son does all that please the Father (John 8:29). The Spirit in turn always takes the things of the Son and shows them to the believers (John 16:13). This is without doubt a picture of the relational and loving Godhead.

“The Persons of the Trinity are very closely related, yet they remain distinct but not separable.” (pg. 78). Jesus said that he is in the Father and the Father is in him (John14:10). Despite intimately related, the distinction is still maintained. The same could be said of the relationship of the Spirit to the Father and the Son. The Spirit is occasionally referred to as the Spirit of the Father (John 15:26) or the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7). The unity is also reflected in the work of God in the world, which is not divided. Jesus bore our sins in his body (1 Peter 2:24). However, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19).  And the perfect sacrifice that Jesus offered to the Father was through the eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14). This doesn’t rule out however, the fact that we can still ascribe God’s work to any of the Persons of the Trinity. For example, Jesus’ ministry includes casting out the devils. Yet he did it by the Spirit of God (Matthew 12:28). At the same time, Jesus only did the thing the Father had taught him (John 8:28).

The doctrine of the Trinity is the New Testament (NT) doctrine. As Christ came to the scene, he claimed equality with the Father. Those who had seen him had seen the Father (John 14:7). John 17 is a key chapter on the topic of the Trinitarian. Jesus acknowledged that everything he had was given to him by the Father. Though implied, the Spirit in this passage is “the bond between Father and Son and between God and the believer” (pg. 82). Moreover, Jesus himself expanded the phrase “the name of the Lord”, which was a term that his disciples had always been familiar with, into “the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” as he gave the great commission to them (Matthew 28:19). Also, Paul’s opening section of his letter to the Ephesians (1:3-14) introduces a redemption initiative by all the three Godhead. The Father fore-ordained, the Son redeemed, and the Spirit guaranteed our salvation with his seal, all to the praise of the glory of God’s grace.

The Old Testament (OT) has only glimpses of references made to the Trinity. This is largely due to this doctrine only finds its fullest revelation as the redemptive process is completed in Christ and the Spirit is poured out to the believers. Nevertheless, the OT still reflects this truth. In Genesis, God’s creation of human being was a unified work of the Godhead. Addressed with a plural at first, “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26), it was then addressed in singular on the same idea, “So God created man in his own image; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). A very clear indication of the Trinity in OT is found in Isaiah 9:6. It is a prophecy about the coming Messiah who is both God and man.  Jesus fulfilled this prophecy by being born to us as “a child or son”, yet was also referred to as the “Mighty God, Everlasting Father”.

The doctrine of the Trinity presumes order: Father, Son, and Spirit. Order doesn’t imply inequality, rather the nature of the order among the equals that is irreversible though in harmony (pg. 92). The Son does not strive to be the Father or feel inferior because he is not the Father. There can’t be any subservience since other-person-centeredness and complete love drive this orderly relationship. At the same time, equality is not sameness, nor disregard toward what is implicit in order. For example, Jesus said, “All that is mine is yours and yours mine” (John 17:10), but he also said, “The Father is greater than I” (John 14:28).

The doctrine of the Trinity gives shape to the significance of relationship as the ultimate reality. By implication, through this doctrine, we understand not only of God’s nature and his relationship to us, but also our own nature, and our relationships to one another. Personality is the property of each person. Without relationship however, personality won’t matter. It’s only in the context of relationship that trait values such as love, justice or wisdom can be experienced. Since these personal and relational values are manifested eternally in the eternal Persons, relationship of other-person-centeredness becomes the ultimate reality. All this says is that our relationship matters, whether with God or among human beings.

The doctrine of the Trinity helps us in understanding the incarnation of the Son. As Jesus only does what pleases the Father, he indeed makes the Father known to us by being born as a human yet remaining God while on Earth. Jesus represented God’s mind (Hebrews 1:3). The Word became flesh so that we may know God as Jesus is the expression of God (John 1:18). The Word however, is conveyed only by the breath (or the Spirit) to us, just like our spoken words are carried to others through our breath. But our breath by itself won’t matter much if it has no content to carry. So too, the Spirit only takes the things of Jesus, who is the expression of God and shows them to us (John 16:13).

The doctrine of the Trinity helps us in understanding the meaning of humanity being created in the image of God. Very simply, it means being created in relationship, just like the nature of the Godhead. We are given the personal attributes to enable us to relate, such as conscience, mind, will, language ability, etc.  For the relationship to flourish however, it also takes moral virtues to be present, such as love, kindness, faithfulness, etc. Sadly, since the Fall, sinful people (the Bible reveals that everyone is) have been very far from the image of God. The moral values have been lost altogether, though not the personal attributes. Instead of being at peace with God and serving one another, selfishness has taken place that we rebel against God and hating others. It was Christ who restored that marred image because he is the image of God (Colossians 1:15). The Spirit transforms us to reflect that perfect image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).

The doctrine of the Trinity helps us in understanding the essence of order. Since God is a God of order, the creation too was created in an orderly fashion. Genesis 1 recounts God creating the world and humanity to reflect this nature of the Godhead. Men and women therefore though created equal, stand in the order of relationship. If the order is confused, the relationship will be conflicting. It’s important to understand that the intention behind the order is so that headship and response being worked out in our relationship may reflect the truth that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is the man and the head of Christ is God (1 Corinthians 11:3). The church and Christian marriage must reflect this order, where leadership means initiatives in service than dominance and submission means grateful response to the services received than servility.

Reference:

Payne T., et all. Selected Works of D. Broughton Knox (Volume 1). 2000. Matthias Media, Kingsford.