This is the last post of our series on the Trinity. See the Introduction, Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four.

REASONS WHY THE TRINITY IS CRUCIAL TO TRUE WORSHIP

I’M SAVED BY THE THREE IN ONE: Atonement is unable to be made by a creature. A creature can not be depended on for salvation. If Jesus isn’t fully God, then we cannot be sure we are fully saved. The ESV study Bible comments, “The Trinity makes the atonement possible. Redemption of sinful man is accomplished through the distinct and unified activity of each person of the Godhead: “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14). 

GLORY BE: When I was little I had a hard time in knowing who I should be thankful to; God or Jesus. Reflecting back on those days, I now see that my dilemma came from a bad understanding of God as the Triune One; apparently I was a little Adoptionist (see last post for an explanation of what that means. However, thinking rightly about the Trinity erases that dilemma. According to the Bible, to praise Jesus is to praise God. To praise the Father is to praise God. To praise the Holy Spirit is to praise God. To put it simply, God is glorified when God is glorified.

GOD IS BOTH INDEPENDENT AND LOVE: If God wasn’t Triune, then He could not be both loving and independent. If God is love (1 John 4:8), then he must have something to love. Being a lover requires that there is something to love. This would take away His independence because He would need something else to love in order to be a lover. Erik Thoennes observes that, “apart from the plurality in the Trinity, either God’s eternal independence of the created order or his eternally relational personal existence would have to be denied.” However, when we see God revealed as Trinity these problems are wiped away. God has always been a lover who is loved. He didn’t need to create something to love, but has eternally existed within a perfect, happy and blessed love relationship. In fact, this means that Man was created not because God needed anything, but so they may enter into the perfect love of the Triune God.

THIS IS WHO OUR GOD IS: Sometimes people shy away from speaking about God as Triune because they are ashamed of the mystery and think it may be unnecessary. This is wrong. At the end of the day, we have to understand that those who reject the Trinity reject God Himself. The Triune God is the only God there is; there is no other. We cannot deny, neglect or ignore this point and still call ourselves Christians. We must worship God as He is, not as we want Him to be.

TWO THOUGHTS

THE TRINITY IS GLORIOUSLY MYSTERIOUS: I am not about to say that the Trinity is easy. In fact, if anyone claims this get ready for one of those cheesy analogies as they explain to you why it’s easy, “God is like an egg…” We have to remember that no one can fathom the greatness of God (Psalm 145:3). When it comes to knowing God fully as He is, no one will reach that end because there isn’t any end to reach. God is infinite and unsearchable in glory. This is what will make heaven so mind-blowingly exciting because for eternity we will forever be in jaw-dropping amazement by who our God is and what He has done in Christ. Now don’t think this means we can’t know God truly. Yes, we can know God truly, but we cannot know Him fully as He is because there aren’t enough days in eternity. We must be ok with mystery because we will have to enjoy it for eternity as we find out more and more how much more there is to find out about God. 

COMPLEX AND YET UTTERLY CRUCIAL: The Trinity is well beyond human comprehension, but this does not diminish it’s absolute important in the Christian life and worship. Biblical Christianity stands or falls with the doctrine of the Trinity. Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck once said of the Trinity, “In the confession of the Trinity throbs the heart of the Christian religion: every error results from, or upon deeper reflection may be traced to, a wrong view of this doctrine.”

PERSONAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE TRINITY

THE TRINITY IS BETTER THAN THE GOSEPL: Fred Sanders comments, “There is something even better than the good news, and that something is God. The good news of the gospel is that God has opened up the dynamics of His triune life and given us a share in that fellowship. But all of that good news only makes sense against the background of something even better than the good news: the goodness that is the perfection of God Himself.” This is our hope. Forgiveness is only good because through it we get to the Triune God.

THE TRINITY HUMBLES US: When we remember God as Trinity, we should be humbled. Humbled in understanding that though we know God truly we will never fully grasp Him completely. God will never be exhaustively understood, but, as we know Him and love Him, He will always remain a glorious mystery.

THE TRINITY FILLS US WITH JOY AND COMFORT: It wasn’t only Jesus who wanted to come and save us, but the Father sent Him to be our Savior. The Spirit has willingly come to convict us, make us new, fill us and sanctify us through our life. As Peter said, Christians, “have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood…” (1 Peter 1:2). We are loved by one who has been Eternally Loving. Selah.

THE TRINITY MAKES SENSE OF OUR INSANELY RELATIONAL NATURES: Why are sleep overs so fun for kids? Because they are able to extend their hang out time with friends they usually only see in the daytime. Ever wonder why that people use every step of technology to make greater connections with one another? Phones, cell phone, email, AIM chat, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Skype, Facetime and the list goes on and on. Why? Because people are insatiably relational. We crave deep, abiding relationships with others. We want to be connected. We want to be known. We want to be loved. Why do we want all these things? Because we bear the image of a Triune God. We relational creatures have been made in the image of the Relational Creator. Our cravings for connection have their roots in our creation. Every longing for love reveals who made us.

THE TRINITY BECOMES OUR MODEL FOR ALL PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS: God has forever existed in blessed relationship. John 1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” I will say it simply, God is our model for relationships. He is the perfect lover we must strive to be like. As Jesus submits to the will of His Father, so should we willingly submit to those who are in authority over us. There are no power plays. There is no jealousy. No envy. No distrust. Just love. Our Triune God

beckons us, through the gospel of grace that has reconciled us to Himself, to walk as He does. He calls us to enjoy our new relationship found within His love and to reflect Him to others in how we relate and live.

Well there you go! I hope both of you learned a lot through this series. To cap it off I thought I would post a picture of my friend Steve Shaw’s tattoo which is a diagram of good Trinitarian theology.

Here is an english version:

Continuing our series on the Trinity. See the Introduction, Part One, Part Two, Part Three.

WHY SHOULD WE STUDY OTHERS MISTAKES?

A time tested method of teaching something right is to show how someone else had got it wrong. By looking at the mistakes or missteps of others we can find ourselves better equipped to step over the landmines that others hadn’t seen or ignored. In an effort to think rightly about God it is helpful to point out and address the places where some divert from the path of sound teaching.

So now that we have looked into the three biblical tenets of sound Trinitarian theology, let’s address where people often make mistakes in their thinking or teaching about the Glorious Trinity.

COMMON MISTAKES ABOUT THE TRINITY

ONE GOD WITH THREE MASKS (MODALISM)

This first mistake is probably one of the most common for well meaning Christians to fall into. This is the view that there is only one God who, at different times, shows up as the Father, the Son or the Spirit. According to this view, God is like an actor who disappears backstage in order to change customs and then comes back as a different character. Only one actor who plays different parts.

The technical term is modalism (also known as (modalistic monarchiansim; Sabellianism). The word modalism is used for this view of God because it proposes that there is one God who reveals Himself to us in three different modes. Sometimes he reveals himself to us as the Father. At others time he may put on the Son mask or show up as the Spirit, but at the end of the day this view of God isn’t Three in One but it is One who shows up in one of three ways; there is one God with three masks (modes).

So do we know this view isn’t what the Bible teaches? Well, before you read the next sentence, ask yourself which of the three biblical tenets does this view break? This view is wrong because it denies the second tenet we addressed. This view denies that God eternally exists as three distinct persons. The view of one God with three masks denies the view of one God who is three distinct persons. Jesus is not the Father, the Father is not the Spirit and the Spirit is not the Son. Modalism makes God into an actor who only plays different roles making it impossible for us to know Him truly. Also this view makes God dishonest because Jesus makes a distinction between Himself and the Father and the Spirit. If all these are really one God then I can’t help but think Jesus was laughing under his breath every time he “prayed” to the Father knowing the Father was only a role he plays.That’s sneaky. I don’t think Jesus is sneaky.

JESUS IS JR. VARSITY (ARIANISM)

In this view, Jesus is not the eternal God who has always been, but He (and the Spirit) are creatures made by the Father who alone is God (this is the view Jehovah’s Witnesses have). Jesus did exist before he came to earth but he has always existed. Sometime in eternity past, before the world’s creation, God created Jesus and granted him the title of “Son of God” and made him supreme over everything. This view is known as Arianism; the name being derived from its major teacher Arius who lived and taught this view back in third and fourth century. Arianism, although it claims Jesus is divine, denies that Jesus is fully God. Jesus, according to Arianism, isn’t full on Varsity God, but He is the Quarterback and Team Captain of the Jr. Varsity team.

Where does Arianism get off track? What biblical tenet of Trinitarian theology does this view neglect? Arianism denies the third tenet of biblical Trinitarianism which teaches that the Father, the Son and the Spirit are all fully God.

There are many reasons why this view is disastrous for people to believe. One, if this view is true then Jesus cannot be trusted fully because He is not the Trustworthy God. Another reason is that Jesus cannot save us if he is not God. Only God can bridge the infinite gap our sin has created between us and Him in His Infinite Holiness. To paraphrase one early Christian, “Man should pay for sin, only God can.” Lastly, Arianism makes anyone who worships Jesus into an idolator. Only God is to be worshiped (Exodus 20:3). If Jesus is not God, then all the Christians who worship him are nothing but pagan idolators.

JESUS GOT PROMOTED TO GOD (ADOPTIONISM)

When thinking about Jesus, some think that he was a really good dude who did righteous things with a good heart and God loved him so much and was so impressed with him that he promoted him to a position like Assistant God (does that make the Holy Spirit the Assistant to the Assistant Manager?). This view, also dubbed Adoptionism, thinks that Jesus was a man who God adopted as His Son at baptism and gave Jesus all the rights as the Son of God.

This view denies the second and third tenet of good Trinity thinking by denying God has existed as three distinct persons and by denying that Jesus is the eternal God. Jesus is not a man who became God, He is God who became man. His path wasn’t one of exaltation to a high place. His path was leaving His exalted state by coming to this fallen world to live a human life characterized by suffering. After the suffering of His soul He then was exalted to His position as our new King, Priest and Savior (Philippians 2:5-11).

THREE GODS (TRI-THEISM)

This view simply says there are three Gods who are separate from one another. This is wrong. Why? Because it completely denies the obvious scriptural teaching that there is one God. To believe this is to ignore the most obvious of all Trinitarian tenets. That’s all I got to say on that!

THINK BIBLICALLY, NOT SIMPLISTICALLY

Sometimes, with good intentions, we try to make up helpful analogies in order to explain the Trinity to non-believers or new believers so they can see there isn’t any contradiction in this glorious truth. But we need to understand something: the Trinity cannot be explained by analogies. Wayne Grudem observes that, “Although analogies are helpful at an elementary level of understanding, they all turn out to be inadequate or misleading on further reflection.” I have heard adults try and explain the Trinity to kids by saying he is like water, ice and condensation. But on close examination, this is an explanation a Modalist would use! One water that sometimes shows up as ice, water or steam. All analogies of the Trinity at some point fall short and mislead people into thinking wrong thoughts.

So what do we do? We hold to what the Bible teaches about the Trinity and maintain the three tenets we see God teaching us in his word. Don’t give shallow analogie, give solid truth. One way I attempt to do this with my middle school students is to teach them the three truths of the Trinity. I usually assure them that it isn’t something they’ll ever fully comprehend, but that they should see these three truths as good fences that keep them from believing wrongly about their God. I encourage them to hold these fences up in their minds and let God help them to grow in their understanding of His Glorious Triune Nature. I am not anxious that they fully comprehend the Trinitarian nature of God right now, but I am passionate about building them good fences they can safely grow in.