TRINITY 2021

2 Corinthians 13:14

Introduction

Bethany and I spent this past week in Florida celebrating our 12th anniversary. We went to Universal Studios to see Hogwarts and we went to Disney as well. Whether you’re perusing around Diagon Alley, exploring Star Wars land, or walking through Cinderella Castle, people love going to theme parks. Why? Because if you suspend disbelief, you will be captivated with childlike wonder. You can be the size of Woody and Buzz in Toy Story Land. You can pilot the Millennium Falcon. You can live your favorite childhood stories.

Unfortunately many people treat the Holy Trinity like they treat Mickey Mouse. Some act as if we must suspend disbelief on Sunday when we confess that we believe in the Trinity, but it doesn’t matter in real life. Last year Ligonier did their “State of Theology” poll where they surveyed Americans who are self-professing Christians. Of those surveyed only 53% of self-professing American Christians said they agree with this statement – There is one true God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.[1] That means 47% of self-professing American Christians deny historic Christian orthodoxy.

Today is Trinity Sunday, the final week of this trilogy of holy days that begin ordinary time. Two weeks ago we celebrated Ascension Sunday and last week we celebrated Pentecost. We celebrate Trinity Sunday every year because the Trinity is the foundation of Christianity. John Webster says there is“…an important sense [in which] there is only one Christian doctrine, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in its inward and outward movements.”[2]

Every single Christian doctrine can be boiled down to the Trinity – who God is and what he does. The way we speak about God is crucial and for 2,000 years when speaking of the Trinity, the church has used the language of one God in three persons. On this Trinity Sunday 2021 let us think carefully about who our God is. Let us behold our God is his beauty and mystery. Let our hearts be captivated with his simplicity and complexity.

One God

Let’s start with the confession that we believe in one God. The Bible reveals that there is only one God. That means we reject atheism, the teaching that there is no God. We reject atheistic naturalism, the teaching that the natural order is all there is. This is the reigning worldview of the American intellectual elite. The West has resoundingly rejected God. We believe that we are God. Any worldview that teaches that there is no God is sin.

We also reject polytheism, the teaching that there are multiple gods. The ancient Greeks believed in a petty pantheon of gods made in their image. The Egyptians, Babylonians, and basically every ancient Near Eastern culture were all polytheistic. There are many religions in the world today that are still polytheistic. Any worldview that teaches multiple gods is sin.

We believe in one God. This is no clearer than in Deuteronomy 6.4-9:

Hear, O Israel: YHWH our God, YHWH is one. You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Historically this pericope has been called the שְׁמַ֖ע (the Hebrew word, “hear”) and is used in Jewish liturgy to this day. This uniqueness of God is all over the Bible; one spot we see it recapitulated is James 2.19: You believe that God is one; you do well. James is one of the oldest New Testament books so from the beginning, Christianity inherited monotheism. We are monotheists, from the Greek μόνος, which means, “the only entity in a class—‘only one, alone.’”[3] And, of course, the Greek θεός, “God.” He is the one God, the only God. He is the “only entity in a class.” He’s completely other. Ontologically speaking there are only two types of being in existence: there is (1) creator and there is (2) creature. God is the only creator, and everything else is creature, creation. We must confess that there is one God. To confess anything else is outside the bounds of orthodox Christianity.

There is not no God. There are not many gods. There is one God who is the creator and sustainer of the universe. He created us and he saves those whom he wills. He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He is holy and he is love. We believe in one God.

It is important that we know, understand, and believe that there is only one God. And this is not merely academic. This should comfort our hearts. There is only one true God and we can know him. We don’t have to wonder. We don’t have to be unsure. We can know and worship the true creator. He has revealed himself in his Word.

Three Persons

But it is not enough to believe in God. Monotheism is essential, but it falls short of the glory of the Trinity. Judaism and Islam are monotheistic but they will lead someone to hell. Orthodox Christianity is Trinitarian. We believe in one God in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

With James, Galatians is one of the earliest New Testament books. In Galatians 4, under the inspiration of the Spirit, Paul writes:

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God (Gal 4.4-7).

In this earliest of Christian writings Paul says God sent his Son to redeem us. And then sent his Spirit to make us sons. So early on Christianity not only taught one God, but also three persons.

When I was in seminary I was a grader for Dr. Chad Brand. Dr. Brand explained how denominations tend to favor the different persons of the Trinity. High-Church worship tends to emphasize God the Father, at least in terms of magisterial worship. High-Church liturgy aesthetically accentuates the holiness of God. Low Church Protestants like Baptist and Bible churches tend to emphasize Jesus Christ. Pentecostal and Charismatic churches tend to emphasize the Holy Spirit. These denominations often neglect the other members of the Trinity. A church like ours historically would place greatest emphasis on the Son, but we don’t want to neglect the Father and the Spirit.

This is where a robust Reformed theology guards against Trinitarian discrimination. As Reformed Christians we understand the vocation of the Father. Scripture teaches that the Father leads the Godhead in initiating the eternal covenant and electing all of his saints in eternity past. The Father predestined us; he loved us in advance, through the Son, sealed by the Spirit. A Reformed view of Scripture is where the clearest patriology is found.

As Reformed Christians we also don’t have to be afraid of the Holy Spirit either. In fact, if you were to read the writings of John Calvin you would find that he says a great deal about the Spirit. He has been referred to as the theologian of the Holy Spirit.

Indeed there is distinct ontology and vocation for each member of the Trinity. Each person of the Holy Trinity has a distinct ontology, or identity. The Father is not the Son or the Spirit but the Father is God. The Son is not the Father or the Spirit, but the Son is God. The Spirit is not the Father or the Son, but the Spirit is God.

Each member of the Holy Trinity has a distinct vocation, or work. The Father elects and sends his Son and Spirit. The Son redeems; he is begotten by the Father and sends the Spirit. The Spirit is sent to sanctify those elected and redeemed. This diversity in economy flows from their ontology. This is why statements like what we read from the Athanasian Creed are the most faithful way the church has found to talk about the Trinity.

And how we talk about God is important. God has revealed himself as Father, Son, and Spirit. Question 25 of the Heidelberg Catechism asks, “Since there is only one divine being, why do we speak of three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?” The answer, “Because that is how God has revealed himself in his Word: these three distinct persons are one true eternal God.”

Several years ago there was a meeting of progressive Christians that voted to refer to the Trinity as “mother, child, and womb.” Feminists make statements like, “God is a woman.” But we must talk about God the way he has revealed himself. Scripture only ever uses masculine pronouns to refer to God. God has revealed himself as Father, Son, and Spirit and to speak of him in any other way is heresy.

Our doctrine of the Trinity doesn’t just affect how we think about God it also affects how we think about each other. Our imago dei anthropology is derivative of our Trinitarian theology. Humans are diverse to the glory of God. Men and women are both equally created in God’s image and yet called to different vocations in the home and in the church. All ethnicities are created equally in God’s image, and yet different in so many beautiful ways. God created this diversity to glorify himself and more accurately reflect his identity. Trinity Sunday reminds us of the beauty of diversity in how God made his people.

While there is diversity of the Godhead, there is also unity. The Holy Trinity works in concert, even as they have distinct roles. In Genesis 1 all three members of the Trinity work in creation. The Trinity works in redemption. There is a sort of recapitulation of the Genesis narrative at the baptism of Christ. When Jesus rises from the water, the Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove, and the voice of the Father comes from heaven (Matt 3.13-17). And then when Christ gives the great commission, he commands the church to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt 28.16-18).

The Father’s plan to elect and redeem a people in eternity past is affected by the Son in the incarnation. Jesus lived a sinless life, anointed by the Spirit, died as our substitute, bearing the wrath of the Father on the cross. The Scripture says that on the third day the Father resurrected Jesus from the dead (Acts 2.24 among many others). The Bible also says Jesus takes his life up again from the dead (John 10.17-18), and the Spirit resurrected Jesus from the dead (Rom 8.11). All three persons of the Holy Trinity resurrected Jesus of Nazareth from the dead.

You can see the beauty of the unity and diversity at work in our text from 2nd Corinthians 13.14. The grace we have in Jesus Christ brings us into the Love of the Father. The love is God is that community experienced by the Father, Son, and Spirit from eternity past. Because we’re adopted into the love of God, the Holy Spirit creates κοινωνία fellowship – a community working together for a common purpose.

Listen to Ephesians 4:

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift (Eph 4.1-7).

Trinity Sunday reminds us that as the family of God, the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit, we are to be unified in the gospel. God saved us from different political and socioeconomic backgrounds, different ethnicities, men, women, and children. We have diversity in opinion and experience and unity in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. May we hold to liberty in nonessentials, unity in essentials, and charity in all things.

Conclusion

We believe in one God in three persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We don’t have to suspend disbelief to embrace the Holy Trinity, in fact, we must believe it or else we are not Christian. But while we don’t have to suspend disbelief, we can still have that childlike wonder. When you explain the Trinity to a child they may not understand it but they accept it. With childlike wonder we can embrace and rest in the bigness of God.

Jesus says to come into the kingdom we must have faith like children. That doesn’t mean that we believe untrue things, but that we believe God even when we can’t understand him. Deuteronomy 29.29 says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. So much of the Holy Trinity is a secret thing; a mystery that belongs to God alone. And yet, in his kindness God has revealed a glimpse of himself. He is one God in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Hoy Spirit. And that belongs to us and our children forever.

[1]https://thestateoftheology.com/data-explorer/2020/2?AGE=30&MF=14&REGION=30&DENSITY=62&EDUCATION=62&INCOME=254&MARITAL=126&ETHNICITY=62&RELTRAD=62&EVB=6&ATTENDANCE=254

[2]John Webster, “The Domain of the Word”

[3] Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 590). New York: United Bible Societies.