This is the final block devoted to the Trinity.  I hope these last few articles have caused us to think more carefully about the wonderful, glorious Trinity.  God is the one and only one God, having three eternal persons of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Another way of saying this is that God is one in essence in three distinct persons.   In hindsight, maybe to tackle the issue of the Trinity in a church newsletter was a little overambitious.  As I look over what we have concluded in these last couple of months, it is clear we haven’t even scratched the surface of the depth of this doctrine.  We have considered how God is one.  We have considered how God is three by seeing that the Father is God and the Son is God.  One person remains, the Holy Spirit.  Do we know that there is a third person of the Trinity, known as the Spirit?  Yes, the Bible is clear.  Is this one called the Spirit just another way of referring to the Father?  No, he is a third person of the Trinity?  What is the role of the Holy Spirit?  He is a helper and a comforter.

          Having an entire article devoted to the Holy Spirit is ironic in itself.  We are shining the spotlight on the Holy Spirit, and that is precisely what he never wants in Scripture.  Everywhere we read of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament he is pointing to Jesus.  He doesn’t enjoy the spotlight, rather he wants to be behind the scenes giving Jesus the spotlight.  Bruce Ware, a brilliant theologian, has said, “In creation, redemption, and consummation, he willingly accepts the role of supporter, helper, sustainer, and equipper, and in all these respects he forsakes the spotlight.”  Paul says that it is by the very power of the Spirit that the Christian is even able to acknowledge Jesus as savior and lord.  “Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.”  How do you say Jesus is your lord?  It is by the power of the Holy Spirit.  He indwells the believer and the church so that we might glorify God.  He is our comforter and help.  He is our empowerment for missions and evangelism.  He is the source of the inspiration of Scripture and source of our illumination of Scripture.  He is an indispensable member of the Trinity seeking no glory for himself, but pointing to Christ to the Glory of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.  May we follow the Spirit’s example of humility and focus on Jesus Christ to the Glory of God the Father.

In Christ, 

Blain Craig

We have been thinking about the Trinity for several weeks.  We have rejected various heresies about the Trinity, while defending the biblical understanding of God.  We have said God is one in nature while having three persons.  We have seen God the Father is God, now we turn to Jesus.  Is Jesus actually God?  For a Bible believing Christian, that is almost a silly question.  Of course Jesus is God. 

Although the divinity of Jesus has been questioned by some throughout the history of the church, for the person who believes the Bible is true and authoritative, there is no question.  He is God.  The book of John is especially clear in teaching Jesus’ divinity.  John 8:56-59 is clear evidence, “‘Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.’ So the Jews said to Him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.’  Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.”  Why did they pick up stones to throw at him?  The answer is simply that he was claiming to be God.

The greater issue for the Christian is what we can learn from Jesus’ relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  It is amazing to consider that Jesus is actually God, yet he “did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,” (Philippians 2: 6b).  That verse certainly does not mean that during his time on earth Jesus ceased to be God.  It does not even mean he gave up his divine attributes.  It does mean that Jesus is the perfect example of humility and submission to the will of the Father.  He who was the very creator of the universe and equal to the Father in every attribute, has eternally humbled himself in obedience to the Father.  In coming to earth, he came to save lost sinners.  He died in obedience to the will of the Father.  He was the ultimate sacrifice for sin.  The only reason his sacrifice was acceptable is that he was both God and man.  He was fully God and fully man.  He was perfect in his obedience.  He was perfect in his death.  He was perfect in his resurrection.  He is perfect now as the eternal prophet, priest, and king.

In Christ, 

Blain Craig

Last week we examined the fact that God is one in both the Old and New Testaments.  This week we will consider the other side of the coin that God is also three distinct persons within the one God.  Our confession is this, “God is a Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, each an uncreated person, one in essence, equal in power and glory.”  Therefore in addition to teaching that God is one, the Bible should also teach that God is three.  The best way to understand this truth is to examine each of the persons in turn to discover whether or not the Bible actually makes the claim of deity for the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

          This week we will consider the Father.  For everyone who believes in God, the deity of the Father is never called into question.  It would be meaningless to try to prove the deity of the Father as we will the Son and the Spirit because we believe everywhere in the Bible God is mentioned at least the Father is being referred to.  The bigger problem related to the person of the Father is to think he is more God than the Son or the Spirit.  In other words, God the Father does not have more divine attributes than any other member of the Trinity.  What he does have is a different role.  His role is unique as Father.  Jesus prays that the will of the Father would be accomplished and that the kingdom of the Father would come, (Matthew 6: 9-10).  We have another example of the “positional supremacy” of the Father in 1 Corinthians 15: 28 which says, “When all things are subjected to him (speaking of Jesus), then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.”  What does that mean?  It simply means that there is a role of authority which the Father holds over the Son and the Spirit.  That does not mean the Father is more God than the Son or the Spirit, nor does it mean that there is not perfect harmony in the Trinity.  It is not as if the Father gets two votes and the Son and the Spirit get one vote each.  No, there is no voting in the Trinity.  There is pure, unadulterated unity in all things.  This is complicated and heavy no doubt.

          The important thing for us to remember is that the Trinity is not just some mysterious part of the Christian life for theologians to debate.  The perfect relationship between the members of the Trinity is a model for us to follow.  How perfect the Father’s love is.  That should be an example for earthly fathers in their love.  How willing the Father is to shine the spotlight on the Son, and how willing the Son is to shine it back on the father.  Our God is perfect beyond our comprehension.

In Christ,  
Blain Craig

How do we know God is a Trinity?  Everything we know about God must be grounded in the truth of his word.  God has written us a personal love letter in the pages of Scripture.  Just as we might reveal things about ourselves in a letter to a loved one, God has revealed some things about himself in his letter to us.  God tells us he is one and he tells us that he is three.  Many would say that is a nonsensical statement.  They would say he is either one or three, he cannot be both.  The simple truth is that the Bible has clearly said God is both one and three.  Over the next couple of weeks, we are going to think about what the Bible says that helps us know God is one and three.

          God is one.  The most famous verse telling us this truth is Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!”  This verse is the clearest statement of the truth that separated Israel from all of the other nations around them.  Israel was monotheistic.  That means they not only were supposed to trust in one God, they were supposed to believe in one God.  Now, often they were guilty of breaking God’s command to believe only in him, but that doesn’t mean there are really any gods other than Yahweh, the one true and living God.  Over and over throughout the Old Testament God reminds his people that he alone is to be worshipped.   "Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me.  Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; yes, let him recount it to Me in order; from the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place. Do not tremble and do not be afraid; have I not long since announced it to you and declared it?  And you are My witnesses is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.'" (Isaiah 44: 6-8).

          The New Testament does not change the fact that God is one.  James says, “You believe that God is one; You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.” (James 2: 19)  Even though Jesus is obviously God, and the Holy Spirit is God, never does the New Testament say, “You know, we were wrong, we thought there was one God, but now we see there are three.”  That never happens because God has always been one and will always be one.  Next week we will see from Scripture how He is three.

In Christ,

Blain Craig

We are continuing to focus on God as Trinity.  This doctrine is heavy and beautiful at the same time.  Brilliant theologians have invested their lives in trying to better understand the nature of God as Trinity.  The fact that we cannot really understand how God is three in one is evidence that he is Almighty God.  No human could conceive or contrive something so grand and complex as the Trinity.

          Last week we said what the Trinity is not.  God is not three gods, nor is he like superman, changing his appearance from the Father to the Son to the Spirit.  These beliefs are common misconceptions, but they are also dangerous heresies.  Let’s begin to think about what the Trinity is.  God is one God, he has one nature or essence that is in three distinct persons.  That means the Father is God, Jesus is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the spirit.  They are separate persons.  The danger in calling them persons is that we think of human persons with human personalities and human characteristics.  This is not what we are talking about when we say the person of Christ or the person of the Holy Spirit.  C. S. Lewis said he is beyond personality.  That is a good way of thinking about how God is three.  He is super-personal.  If we focus on the person of Jesus as a self contained independent personality like we would a human person, we can quickly lose sight of the unity within God.  See, without the Father and the Spirit, the Son ceases to exist.  That is very different from human relationships.  Unlike humans, the persons of God are grounded in His unity.  They are in perfect, eternal communion and undivided union.

          There is so much we could say about all of this, but an ancient theologian named Gregory of Nazianzen (there will be a test later) has said it beautifully in 381AD, “No sooner do I conceive of the one than I am illumined by the splendour of the three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the one.  When I think of any one of the three I think of him as the whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking escapes me.  I cannot grasp the greatness of that one so as to attribute a greater greatness to the rest.  When I contemplate the three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided light.”

In Christ,

Blain Craig