The Trinity

GOD IN THREE PERSONS:

THE TRINITY

How can God be three persons, yet one God?

EXPLANATION AND SCRIPTURAL BASIS

God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God.

1. The Doctrine of the Trinity Is Progressively Revealed in Scripture

1. Partial Revelation in the Old Testament.

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”  Genesis 1:26

“God, your God, has set you above your companions” Psalms 45:7

“And now the Lord GOD has sent me and his Spirit.”  Isaiah 48:16




        2.  More Complete Revelation of the Trinity in the New Testament.

“the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” 

Matt. 3:16-17

“According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood” 1 Peter 1:2




     B.  Three Statements Summarize the Biblical Teaching

1. God is three persons.
2. Each person is fully God.
3. There is one God.

1. God is Three Persons.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.”  John 1:1-2

“It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” John 16:7




        2. Each Person Is Fully God

“baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” Matthew 28:19

“Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit...?  You have not lied to men but to God.” 

Acts 5:3-4




       3. There Is One God.

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  Deuteronomy 6:4-5


       4. Simplistic Solutions Must All Deny One Strand of Biblical Teaching.


       5. All analogies Have Shortcomings.


       6. God Eternally and Necessarily Exists as the Trinity.




    C. Errors Have Come By Denying Any of the Three Statements Summarizing the Biblical Teaching

1. Modalism Claims That There Is One Person Who Appears to  Us in Three Different Forms (or “Modes”).

The fatal shortcoming of modalism is the fact that it must deny the personal relationships within the Trinity that appear in so many places in Scripture (or it must affirm that these were simply an illusion an not real).


        2. Arianism Denies the Full Deity of the Son and the Holy Spirit.

1. The Arian Controversy

“the first-born of all creation” Colossians 1:15

“only begotten”>>>325 Nicene Creed “begotten, not made”


        b. Subordinationism


        c. Adoptionism


        d. The Filoque Clause

led to the split between western Christianity and eastern Christianity in 1054


       e. The Importance of the Doctrine 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.”  Herman Bavinck


  3. Tritheism Denies That There Is Only One God.




D. What Are the Distinctions Between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?

1. The Persons of the Trinity Have Different Primary Functions in Relating to the World.

“economy of the Trinity”

God the Father - planned redemption and sent his Son into the world

The Son - obeyed the Father and accomplished redemption for us

The Holy Spirit - sent by the Father and the Son to apply redemption to us




        2. The Persons of the Trinity Eternally Existed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The only distinctions between the members of the Trinity are in the ways they relate to each other and to creation.  

“equal in being but subordinate in role”


       3.  What Is the Relationship Between the Three Persons and the Being of God?

Father, Son and Spirit each possesses the whole being of God and each is all of God’s being.

There is no difference in attributes between Father, Son and Spirit at all.  The only difference between them is the way they relate to each other and to the creation.


      4. Can We Understand the Doctrine of the Trinity?

The Trinity is a mystery...man cannot comprehend it and make it intelligible.  It is intelligible in some of its relations and modes of manifestation, but unintelligible in its essential nature...The real difficulty lies in the relation in which the persons in the Godhead stand to the divine essence and to one another; and this is a difficulty which the Church cannot remove, but only try to reduce to its proper proportion by a proper definition of terms.  It has never tried to explain the mystery of the Trinity but only sought to formulate the doctrine of the Trinity in such a manner that the errors which endangered it were warded off.  

Louis Berkhof

E.  Application

THE CHARACTER OF GOD: “COMMUNICABLE” ATTRIBUTES (PART 2

How is God like us in attributes of will and in attributes that summarize his excellence?

Attributes of Purpose

Will

God’s will is that attribute of God whereby he approves and determines to bring about every action necessary for the existence and activity of himself and all creation.

God’s Will in General:

the final or most ultimate reason for everything that happens

“who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will” (Eph. 1:11)

“For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created”
(Rev. 4:11)
James encourages us to see all the events of our lives as subject to God’s will.

‘if the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that’ (James 4:15)

Distinctions in Aspects of God’s Will:

Necessary will and free will:

What does God will necessarily?

He wills himself.

“I AM WHO I AM” or, “I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE” (Ex. 3:14)

God cannot choose to be different than he is or to cease to exist.

God’s free will includes all things that God decided to will but had no necessity to will according to his nature.

ex. creation & redemption


Secret will and revealed will:

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God; but the things that are revealed
belong to us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this
law” (Deut. 29:29).

God’s revealed will is sometimes also called God’s will of precept or will of
command.

God’s secret will is sometimes also called God’s will of decree.

“Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10) must be understood
as an appeal for the revealed will of God to be followed on earth.

When James tells us to say, “If the Lords wills, we shall live and we shall do
this or that” (James 4:15), he teaches that to trust in the secret will of God
overcomes prides and expresses humble dependence on God’s sovereign
control over the events of our lives.

Freedom

God’s freedom is that attribute of God whereby he does whatever he pleases.

“Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases” (Ps. 115:3).

Omnipotence (Power, Sovereignty)

God’s omnipotence means that God is able to do all his holy will.

God’s exercise of power over his creation is also called God’s sovereignty.

“Summary” Attributes

Perfection

God’s perfection means that God completely possesses all excellent qualities
and lacks no part of any qualities that would be desirable for him.

Blessedness

To be “blessed is to be happy in a very full and rich sense.

Paul calls God “the blessed and only Sovereign” (1 Tim. 6:15) and speaks of “the glorious gospel of the blessed God (1 Tim 1:11).


eulogetos - often translated blessed

makarios - which means happy

God’s blessedness means that God delights fully in himself and in all that reflects
his character.

“Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from
the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change”
(James 1:17)

Beauty

God’s beauty is that attribute of God whereby he is the sum of all desirable
qualities.

Glory

God’s glory is the created brightness that surrounds God’s revelation of himself.

This glory of God is the visible manifestation of the excellence of God’s
character.

God made us to reflect his glory. Paul tells us that even now in our Christian
lives we all are being “changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to
another” (2 Cor. 3:18).

THE CHARACTER OF GOD:

THE CHARACTER OF GOD:
“COMMUNICABLE” ATTRIBUTES (PART 1)

How is God like us in his being and in mental and moral attributes?

EXPLANATION AND SCRIPTURAL BASIS


A. Attributes Describing God’s Being

1. Spirituality.

“God is spirit” (John 4:24)

We should not think of God as having size or dimensions. He also forbids
his people to think of his very being as similar to anything else in the
physical creation.

God’s spirituality means that God exists as a being that is not made of any
matter, has no parts or dimensions, is unable to be perceived by our bodily senses, and is more excellent than any other kind of existence.

2. Invisibility.

“To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and
glory for ever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17)

God’s invisibility means that God’s total essence, all of his spiritual
being, will never be able to be seen by us, yet God still shows himself
to us through visible, created things.


B. Mental Attributes

3. Knowledge (Omniscience)

“God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.” (1 John 3:20)

God fully knows himself and all things actual and possible (past, present,
and future) in one simple eternal act.

4. Wisdom

“the only wise God” Romans 16:27

God always knows and chooses the best goals and the best means to them.
Wisdom is a moral and intellectual quality.

5. Truthfulness (and Faithfulness)

“The LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King…The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish
From under the heavens” (Jeremiah 10:10-11)

God always represents things as they really are. All of God’s knowledge
and words are true and the final standard of truth.

God will always do what he has said and fulfill what he has promised.

C. Moral Attributes

6. Goodness

“No one is good but God alone” (Luke 18:19)

All that God is and does is worthy of approval, and he is the final standard
of goodness.

7. Love

“God is Love” (1 John 4:8)

God is freely and eternally giving of himself for the good of others.

8. Mercy, Grace, Patience

“I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the LORD for his mercy
is great…” (2 Samuel 24:14)

God’s kindness toward those in misery and distress.

“I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on
whom I will show mercy” (Romans 9:15)

God’s kindness toward those who deserve only punishment.

“slow to anger” (Exodus 34:6)
God’s kindness in withholding punishment of those who sin over a period
of time.

9. Holiness

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3)

God is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own honor.

10. Peace (or Order)

“God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” (I Corinthians 14:33)

In God’s being and actions he is separate from all confusion and disorder,
yet he is continually active in innumerable well-ordered, fully controlled,
simultaneous actions.

11. Righteousness, Justice

“All his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
just and right is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4)

God always acts in accordance with what is right and is himself the
the final standard of what is right.

12. Jealousy

“For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it…My glory I will not give
to another” (Isaiah 48:11)

God continually seeks to protect his own honor.

13. Wrath

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
wickedness of men” (Romans 1:18)

God intensely hates all sin.