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 PrintableVersion Believing in the Triune GodTim Chester explains how he came to write on the TrinityLet me explain how I came to write this. I was reading the Bible with two friends who are Muslims. Each week they faithfully came to my home and we discussed a passage of Scripture over a cup of tea. Many of their questions were about the Trinity: How can God have a son? How can there be three Gods and one God? The first time these questions came up I thought to myself, ‘Oh no, they’ve asked a question about the Trinity. What am I going to say? How can I move the conversation onto different ground?’ 1. An embarrassing truth?I was embarrassed by the doctrine of the Trinity. The more I thought about it, the more my attitude struck me as crazy. The living God is triune. It is madness to be embarrassed about the Trinity because that means being embarrassed about God! The triune God revealed in the Bible is good news and so the Trinity must be good news. And so I thought on. How is the doctrine of the Trinity good news? What I have written is my answer to that question. Studying the Trinity takes us deeper into God. To explore him is a wonderful adventure. To delight in him is our chief end. And so study tips over into worship. We are left with a profound sense of awe as we gaze upon our great God. And such worship leads on to godly living. 2. An irrelevant truth?Robin Parry says: ‘For many Christians the Trinity has become something akin to their appendix: it’s there, but they’re not sure what its function is, they get by in life without it doing very much, and if they had to have it removed they wouldn’t be too distressed’.1 Is the doctrine of the Trinity irrelevant? Looking round the church one might think so. Alister McGrath writes: ‘Most evangelicals do not talk about the Trinity at all’. In reality, however, the Trinity is anything but irrelevant. The doctrine of the Trinity is central to how we know God, how we can be rescued from sin, how we understand the life and mission of the church, and even what it means to be human. Michael Jenson says: ‘The doctrine of the Trinity underpins our very existence as Christians — it gives a unique shape to the Christian life’.5 There is a trinitarian structure to every part of Christian truth and Christian living. Walter Kasper calls it ‘the grammar’ of salvation.6 The Father creates through the Son (Colossians 1.15-17; Hebrews 1.2). God spoke the world into being and the Word he spoke was his Son (John 1.1-3). And the Son continues to be involved in creation, sustaining all things by his powerful word (Hebrews 1.3). God gives life to the first man by breathing ‘the breath of life’ into his nostrils (Genesis 2.7). The word ‘breath’ is the same word as the ‘Spirit’ or ‘wind’ hovering over the waters (Genesis 1.2). The creative Word of God comes on the breath of God. ‘By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth’ (Psalm 33.6). In a similar way, the work of salvation reflects the trinitarian activity of God. Throughout the Old Testament God appears to his people in human form (Joshua 5.13-15; Ezekiel 1.25-28) and his Spirit mediates his presence among his people (Nehemiah 9.20,30; Isaiah 63.10-14). When Jesus comes, he is sent by the Father (John 6.38-40; 20-21). He is born of a virgin by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1.34-35). At his baptism the Father speaks from heaven, commending his Son, and the Spirit descends in the form of a dove (Mark 1.9-11). Jesus conducts his ministry in the power of the Spirit (Matthew 12.28; Luke 4.14; John 3.34) — just as Isaiah had promised (Luke 4.18-19). On the cross the Father gives his Son to save us (John 3.16). The Son lays down his life for his people in obedience to the Father, but freely of his own accord (John 10.17-18). So we are reconciled to the Father through the death of the Son on our behalf (2 Corinthians 5.19). The Father raises the Son through the Spirit (Acts 2.24; Romans 1.4). The Son is now the mediator between God and humanity (1 Timothy 2.5). The Father sends the Spirit in the name of Jesus (John 14.16-17,26). And Jesus sends the Spirit from the Father (John 15.26). The Spirit applies the work of the Son to our lives. He brings conviction of sin, righteousness and judgement (John 16.7-11). He opens our eyes to recognise Jesus as Lord (1 Corinthians 12.3). Through the Spirit we are born again (John 3.5-8) and through the Spirit the Father gives us the new life of Christ (Romans 8.11). The structure of prayer mirrors the trinitarian structure of salvation. Although prayer can be offered to the Son and the Spirit, the norm in the New Testament is for prayer to be directed to our Father (Luke 11.1-13). The Son is always the mediator of prayer. We pray in Christ’s name for through his death we can draw near to God with confidence (Hebrews 4.14-16; 10.19-22). And the Spirit helps us in the act of praying, enabling us to call on God as our Father and interceding for us in our weakness (Romans 8.14-16,26-27).8 Likewise, worship is ‘our participation through the Spirit in the Son’s communion with the Father, in his vicarious life of worship and intercession.’9 Worship is not primarily what we offer to the one God, but the gift of participation in the trinitarian life. Christians offer a priestly ‘sacrifice of praise’ (Hebrews 13.15-16) through Christ’s priesthood (Hebrews 2.12; 8.2). Calvin says ‘Christ is the great choirmaster who tunes our hearts to sing God’s praises.’10 3. An unbelievable truth?I love mathematical puzzles and patterns. Do you know what you get if you key 1.2345678 into a calculator and hit the square root button? (You will have to try it if you want to find out!) For many people the Trinity is a mathematical trick; a rather improbable attempt to make 1 + 1 + 1 = 1. It is certainly true that the triune nature of God pushes our knowledge and imagination to the limits and beyond. But then, as Augustine said: ‘If you can understand it, it’s not God’.13 Peter Toon says: ‘It is important to recognise that the doctrine of the Trinity is a mystery. It is not, however, an absurdity, as some people have viewed it. Specifically, it is not asserted that God is one in the same respect in which he is three.’14 We are not making three equal one. We are saying that three divine persons share one divine nature. God’s oneness ‘is not a mathematical oneness … but a oneness consisting in the inseparable relation of Father, Son and Spirit, the (Persons). The doctrine of the Trinity has … nothing to do with attempting a mathematical innovation, apparently contradictory. We need not fear the doctrine of the Trinity. Less than 10% of the UK population go to church regularly, yet according to an 2003 ICM poll two-thirds believe in god. Some people find this surprising. Others see it as an optimistic sign. But the reality is that these people do not believe in God — not the true God. They believe perhaps in a god who made the world and now leaves us to its own devices or an all-pervading reality like ‘the force’ in the Star Wars movies. But they do not believe in ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Romans 15.6). We cannot talk about belief in God without asking which god we believe in. So many of the people who claim to believe in god do not believe in God — not the God who truly exists and has truly revealed himself in Jesus Christ. This also means that the god many people have rejected is not the true God. They have rejected another god — an idol of human making. Tom Wright says: ‘The “God” the great majority of people believe in is, pretty certainly, the deist god … distant, remote and uncaring … It’s not surprising that people who believe in the existence of that sort of god don’t go to church except now and then. It’s hardly worth getting out of bed for a god like that.’17 They are not involved with god because their god is not involved with them. But the Christian message is the good news that God is involved. The Father sent his Son into the pain and confusion of human history to reconcile us to himself and now he gives his Spirit to accompany us in the struggles of life. By telling the story of the triune God we invite people to know the God who both rules the world and has come close to us, welcoming us into his family. And that is a God worth getting out of bed for! Footnotes © Evangelicals Now - May 2005 |
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