Thoughts on the Trinity - Jonathan Williams

 The Trinity is a topic that is vital to the Christian faith and it is something that many theologians, pastors and laymen have spent the generations talking about. It is something that is familiar to all of those who have placed their faith in Christ and those that have been raised in the church. We’ve been taught since our Sunday School classes as a child that God is One in His essence and Three in His persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Something that is not always asked is so what does that mean for me that God is a Trinity? Often this doctrine gets tagged on because we know that it is something that we have to believe and we have to teach people. In fact, in a seminary class I had I remember saying that the Trinity was an essential doctrine to salvation and people looked at me like I had a lobster coming out of my ear. But the early church thought this way, surely the people at the Council of Nicaea did and the Athanasian Creed tells us that without knowledge of the Trinity we can’t be saved in the first three lines! So, let’s ask the question, why is the Trinity something that I should care about?

 

There are many things that we can focus on with the Trinity of our God and how it has a practical effect to us but for now, two will do. First, the Trinity shows us that God doesn’t need us. Now, you may think, well that’s not a comforting thought at all but let us consider what that might mean that God doesn’t need us. As we look at Scripture we see that this is true. When God gives His name to Moses in Exodus 3, He gives the picture of the burning bush and then says I am who I am in Exodus 3:14. The point of the picture and God’s name is that He is self-sufficient. Like a fire that burns without consuming the bush, without using the bush as fuel, God requires nothing from the world that He has made. A.W. Tozer said it best, “Need is a creature-word and cannot be spoken of the Creator.” This means that the answer to age old question of the child, why did God make us, was it because He was lonely? Is no! He wasn’t lonely because we’re told in 1 John 4:8 that God is love! Since God is love we know that as my professor Dr. Kelly said, “the inner being of the one true God has always consisted in a rich, personal diversity within that profound unity: for God to be is to be in a relationship within Himself, an eternal relationship of three co-equal persons within one divine reality.” In other words, God is not lonely because in and of Himself He has a perfect, eternal relationship between three persons that are totally equal with one another. No one is ever shafted of attention, no one feels left out, no one is on the outside looking in. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are perfectly united and in a perfect relationship so that they need nothing and no one. The Lord did not create us or the angels because He needed a pal. 

 

That is amazing! Usually when we’re told I don’t need you then we feel like someone doesn’t care about us or want our help. But that is not the case with our Triune Lord. He doesn’t need us or our help but oh how He wants us to be with Him forever! Jesus prays in John 17:24 for us who the Father gave to Him to be with Him and to see His glory. This is right after Jesus has spoken about how united He and His Father are! So often we miss it but a God that doesn’t need us is a God that will not use us. That will never leave us nor forsake us! He cannot gain anything from us so He will never be rid of us! In our lives we’ve had people use us for what they could gain from us and then leave us cold and alone. But that is not the way of our Lord! He is One that doesn’t need us but chooses to be with us and not only that, but takes on flesh, dies and is raised just so that we are able to be with Him! Beloved, the Triune Lord may not need you, but He truly loves you deeper and more fully than anyone ever has. Not to gain something from you but to simply be with you forever. 

The second and final thing to see about the Trinity is our union with the Trinity. One of the greatest doctrines of the Christian faith is our union with Christ. That whenever we are saved by Christ, when we’re justified by Him we are also united to Him. This was one of the Apostle Paul’s favorite doctrines and he wrote about it many times in his letters to church. In fact, in Ephesians chapter 1 alone there are at least ten references to our union with Christ. We are told though, in a number of places in Scripture that the Lord Jesus Christ is not the only person of the Trinity that we are united to. We are told in John 14:16, 17 and 23 that not only does the Holy Spirit dwell within us but the Father and the Son will dwell within us as well. 1 John 4:7 through 21 we are told over and over again that God abides in us if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is because God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are connected and they mutually dwell together and the Trinity is indivisible. We can’t separate the members of the Triune Lord. Athanasius the great defender of the Trinity put it this way, “When the Spirit comes to us, the Son and the Father will also come to us and make their home in us. For the Trinity is indivisible.” We are so connected to the Lord that we are unable to fall away from our salvation. The Lord makes this clear in John 10:28-30, where He tells us that He gives His sheep eternal life and they will never perish, that no one may snatch them out of His hand nor His Father’s for they are one. Since we are connected to the indivisible Lord we cannot lose our salvation. 

 

What a great confidence! Christian it is not us that hold us in union with the Lord it is the very nature of God Himself. He has by faith and the indwelling of the Spirit connected us to Himself so that we would be inseparable to Him! Many times, we think it is up to us to keep us in a relationship with Christ. It isn’t! Of course, we must obey Him and of course we must show evidence of growth in the Christian life. But those things don’t keep us in union with the Lord those things are because we are in union with the Lord. It is because we are connected to Him that the Holy Spirit grows us in faith and brings obedience in our lives. It is because we are united to Him that we continue in the Christian life and we are sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 

 

The answer to the question why is the Trinity something I should care about? It is the basis of our entire hope. That the Father loved us who He did not need so much that He would send His Son to live, die and be raised on our behalf and send His Holy Spirit to unite us to Himself in such a way that we are inseparable from Him so that we can be with Him forever. Live in that hope that we are given in Scripture each and every day.