DELIGHTING IN THE TRINITY INTRODUCTION The Bible tells us that God is love. One preacher said that this is the greatest truth of the Bible. It may be. To know that God is love makes God seem warm and accessible to us and someone we want to get to know and be close to. But when we say that God is a Trinity how does that make God seem to us? This statement may make God seem mysterious and maybe somewhat distant. I ve been reading a book, Delighting in the Trinity, by Michael Reeves. The book s thesis is God is love because God is a Trinity. If we can see how God being a Trinity is the basis of knowing His love it will cause us to delight in the Trinity rather than treating the idea as something odd and something that we can never comprehend. So let s think a little more about the Trinity this morning. WHAT IS THE TRINITY The Trinity is a difficult concept to explain. Many theologians down through Church history have tried. The great Church leader, Saint Augustine, spent about 30 years, contemplating the Trinity and he wrote 15 volumes trying to explain the idea of the Trinity. The story goes that one day as Augustine was struggling to understand the doctrine of the Trinity he decided to go for a walk on the beach, where he saw a little boy digging a hole in the sand with a seashell. The boy then ran off to the ocean, filling the shell with water, and rushed back to pour it into the hole he had made. What are you doing, my little man, St. Augustine asked. I m trying to put the ocean into this hole, the boy replied. Augustine suddenly realized that this was precisely was he was trying to do to fit the great mysteries of God into his mind. Although we can t fit the great mysteries of God into our mind, we still need to seek understanding of the concept of the Trinity because this is how God has revealed Himself to us. To know God as God wants us to know Him we must deal with the Trinity. Augustine s short definition of the Trinity is:. the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit intimate [is] a divine unity of one and the same substance in an indivisible equality; and therefore that they are not three Gods, but one God: although the Father has begotten the Son, and so He who is the Father is not the Son; and the Son is begotten by the Father, and so He who is the Son is not the June 11, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 1
Father; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but only the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, Himself also co-equal with the Father and the Son, and pertaining to the unity of the Trinity. Did you follow that definition? God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is not three Gods, but one in unity. God is a Tri-unity. One God, three persons. When we are speaking of God we are referring to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. WHERE DID THE CONCEPT OF THE TRINITY COME FROM? Where did the concept of the Trinity come from? The word is not found in the Bible. Is it Biblical then? Yes, it is Biblical because this is how God revealed Himself to us in the Bible. God revealed Himself as One God in Three Persons. But He did this in a progressive way. In the Old Testament the emphasis was on the oneness of God. The classic verse on the oneness of God is Deuteronomy 6:4. Deuteronomy 6:4 NKJV "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! This is called the Shema after the word Hear in this passage. It is the basic theological statement of the Old Testament. God is One. There is only One God. And we are to love this one God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength as verse 5 states. The Orthodox Jews recite this verse twice a day, once in the morning and once at night. But even in the Old Testament there are hints that the Oneness of God is a Oneness in diversity. In the creation account the Bible says, Let US create man in our image, etc. The word for God Elohim is plural. The Spirit of God is separate from God yet does work only God can do. The Angel of the Lord is separate from God yet is called God. The Messiah in Psalm 110 is called My Lord and he spoken to by The Lord. These are only hints of the Trinity. B.B. Warfield, the great Princeton theologian of the late 1800s called the Old Testament revelation of God a chamber richly furnished but dimly lighted; the introduction of light brings into it nothing which was not in the it before; but it brings out into clearer view much of what is in it but was only dimly perceived before. The bright light of the Biblical revelation of God comes in the New Testament and it focuses on the coming of the 2 nd Person of the Trinity into this world. John 1:1 NKJV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. June 11, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 2
Here we have Jesus called God. In Jesus baptism we have the three Persons of the Trinity mentioned. Luke 3:22 NKJV And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased." All the New Testament writers assumed the fact that God is a Tri-unity of Persons. Two examples: 1 Peter 1:2 NKJV elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied. 2 Corinthians 13:14 NKJV (14) The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. The idea of the Trinity is based on how God has revealed Himself in the Scriptures. He is One God, but consists of three Persons. They are not three gods, as the Muslims accused the Christians of having, but are One God in three Persons; unity in diversity. What makes this so difficult to comprehend is that it defies the limits of our minds because there are no true illustrations of the Trinity in nature. Even the egg illustration falls short because there are three Persons, not three substances. Etc. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRINITY If the Trinity is that hard to explain or understand is it really that important? Yes, it is. Because we cannot know God as He wants us to know Him if we ignore the idea of the Trinity. For example, to know the love of God we must know what love is. To know God as love we must know how it is possible for God to be love and to love eternally. What was God doing before He created the world? What was God doing? God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was communicating love to each of the other Persons of the Trinity. Jesus mentions this eternal love in John 17:24 "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. The Father loved the Son. The Son loved the Father. And the Holy Spirit was the bond of love between the Father and the Son. Without God being a Trinity He could not love eternally. June 11, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 3
If you have a One Person God, as the Muslims have, what was God doing before the creation? We don t know what He was doing. We do know that He must have been a very lonely god. He had no one to love. If you say that he had to create the universe because He was lonely, or because He needed servants, etc. what you are saying is that God is dependent on something outside of himself to be god. This is not good. This is not the God I want to know, love, and serve. Because God is a God of love and his very nature is love, the Father and Son eternally shower their love on the other. God created the universe out of the overflow of His love that He may shower it with the love He has for the Son. John 17:26 NIV I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." God is love and He wants to shower others that He creates with His love the same love that is communicated within the Trinity. God created you in order to shower you with His love. But after the creation we see that the original sin was not only that Adam and Eve disobeyed God, which they did, but the reason was that they turned their love, that God had given them to love Him and others, back on themselves. They loved their own pleasure. They loved themselves more than they loved God. Eve saw the fruit that is was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she disobeyed because she loved herself more than God. This is the basis of all sin. This self-love rather than love for God. God created us to reflect his image and his image is an outgoing love for others. But God s love was not defeated by man s sin. He determined to overcome man s sin, man s self-love, by sending His Son to reconcile man back to God through his death on a cross. John 3:16 NKJV For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Romans 5:8 NKJV But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God the Father planned the salvation of His fallen image-bearers (mankind) because of His love for us by sending His Son. The Son accomplished that salvation because of His love for the Father and for His for us. The Holy Spirit applies that salvation accomplished by the Son and planned by the Father to the hearts of God s fallen image-bearers and pours out the love of God in our hearts. June 11, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 4
Romans 5:5 NKJV Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Without the Trinity we would not have the full salvation from our sins and be restored to live as God created us to live. Without the Trinity we would not know God as He is, love. We can only love God when we become aware of His great love for us. 1 John 4:19 NKJV We love Him because He first loved us. The importance of the Trinity is tied up with knowing God as love. We begin to get a glimpse of the true nature of God when we contemplate the love of the Father for the Son and the love of the Son for the Father and the love that God wants to shower us with by His Holy Spirit. Without the Trinity we would not know what true love is. Without the Trinity we would not know God as He is. Without the Trinity God would not be God! HOW THE EARLY CHURCH FELT ABOUT THE TRINITY The early church spent much time in prayer, discussion, and contemplation on how to express the Bible revelation of the Trinity in human language. Belief in the Trinity was the foundation of Orthodoxy. Listen to how one of these creeds places the highest importance on believing the Trinity. It is called the Athanasian Creed Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic[orthodox] faith. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled; without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Did you hear what he is saying? Athanasius of Alexandria believed that for a person to be saved he must worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity. You may say that this is over the top. Certainly this must be an exaggeration. Notice that it is not saying that you must understand the Trinity. Who can fully? But you must hold to the faith that worships the one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. We do know from the Scriptures that without the Trinity there would be no salvation. For God the Father desired salvation for His image-bearers. God the Son accomplished salvation by his life, death, and resurrection. And God the Holy Spirit applies what Christ as accomplish. And the end purpose of salvation is to be showered by the love of God so that we may reflect the His love by loving Him with all our hearts, minds, and souls and loving others as ourselves. June 11, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 5
CONCLUSION So what does the Triune God expect of us? He created us to be His image bearers. He created us to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. He created us to love one another and others. He created us to trust His salvation to break the power of the sin of self-love in our hearts and to turn to Him by turning to Jesus Christ His Son who accomplished salvation for us. When you speak of God you are speaking of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are to delight in the Trinity. We will be spending eternity delighting in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let s begin by delighting in Him now. Amen? Amen! June 11, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 6