Summer in the Systematics: Theology Proper (Part 9)

Transcript

JRS 19
08/28/2022
Summer in the Systematics: Theology Proper (Part 9)
Selected Verses
Jesse Randolph

Well, we are moving into our 9th lesson now, in our “Theology Proper” curriculum. And in this lesson, and in our final lesson, next Sunday night, we’re going to be covering as best as we can, given that we have less than an hour per evening, the doctrine of the Trinity. I tried to make it three lessons, it just seemed right, trinity, triune, three lessons. It didn’t work out, so we’re going to do a lesson tonight, a lesson next Sunday night, and wrap up our summer evening series, “Summer in the Systematics.”

Tonight, we’re going to look at biblical evidences for the Triunity of God. Meaning, what the bible teaches about the Trinity. And then next week, we’re going to look at various historical errors related to the doctrine of the Trinity, which of course, have cropped up in various ways over the centuries in connection with the teachings of various cult groups. But tonight, our topic is “biblical evidences for the Trinity.” If you’re taking notes this evening, we have two really, really simple points. In fact, you can take these down and take off if you want. Just kidding. You probably know what they are, you astute theologians out there. Heading #1 is “God is Three.” Heading #2, on the other side of your worksheet, is “God is One.” There’s a lot to work out though, as we fill in those points.

God is Three, there’s our first point there. Our thesis for tonight, if we could say it that way, is that the bible affirms that the one true God, though one God, exists in three Persons as a Trinity. Specifically, as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit. That is to say, He is Triune. To quote from the old Athanasian Creed, “We worship one God in the Trinity, and the Trinity in unity; we distinguish among the persons, but we do not divide the substance. . .The entire three persons are coeternal and coequal with one another, so that. . .we worship complete unity in Trinity and Trinity in unity.” This is basic fourth century Trinitarian grammar, rooted in the scriptures. You should study the life of Athanasius and see the lengths with which he fought, men like Areus, and various attacks on the orthodox view of the trinity. So, there’s the Athanasian Creed. Here's MacArthur and Mayhew, just reminding us that, “God is absolutely and eternally one essence subsisting in three distinct and ordered persons without division and without replication of the essence.” Main idea: threeness and oneness. Three distinct and ordered persons, one singular divine essence.

Now, I do need to say right out of the gate, that the word “trinity” is not specifically used in scripture. Rather, the word “trinitas” was first coined by Tertullian, the father of Latin theology in the fourth century. But here’s the question, our first question, though the word “trinity” does not appear in the bible, does the concept show up on the pages of Scripture? And the answer to that is, of course, absolutely! We’re going to start tonight with Old Testament evidences for the Trinity. And then we’re going to move into the New Testament evidences for the Trinity.

Starting with the Old, admittedly, a great emphasis in the Old Testament is on the unity of God.
Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!” Which makes sense, considering the various people groups that were surrounding the Old Testament Israelites were polytheistic. That is, they worshiped multiple gods. However, even though there is this focus on unity, the unity of God in the Old Testament, there are already many hints of plurality, meaning more that one persons existing within the Godhead, throughout the Old Testament.

For instance, we see God using plural pronouns when referring to Himself in various Old Testament passages. Genesis 1:26, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Genesis 3:22, “Behold, the man has become like one of us”, this is right after the Fall, “knowing good and evil.” Genesis 11:7, “Come, let Us go down”, this is the tower of Babel incident “and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” Isaiah 6:8, that heavenly throne room scene, says – “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?”
Now, in each of these passages, and there are more that we could refer to, we’re not told how many persons of the Godhead are in view here. So, what we don’t have from these four texts, for instance, is anything approaching a complete doctrine of the Trinity. But it’s very clearly implied in these passages, that more than one divine Person is involved. What these Old Testament passages do then is lay the foundation for subsequent revelation about the three-in-oneness of God, that is, the Trinity.

So, there is evidence of plurality within the Godhead based on the use of these plural pronouns. Another evidence for plurality of the Godhead, or within the Godhead, in the Old Testament, is that there are several places in the first 39 books of the bible, in which one reference to “Lord” is distinguished from a different reference to “Lord.” In the same thought, in the same sentence often. In other words, what we have are these two different members of the Godhead, being portrayed as either being in dialogue with one another, or as acting together.

Here's what I mean. Genesis 19:24, the Sodom and Gomorrah account, “Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.” There’s another one, Hosea 1:7, “I”, this is God speaking, “will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the Lord their God.” So, you’ve got God speaking, but also God referring to God. So, the question would be, well, which Persons of the Godhead are being referred to?
Psalm 45:6-7 – “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You”, there’s a capitol Y there, referring to deity, “with the oil of joy above Your fellows.” There’s at least plurality happening here, with these various references to God and to these capitol “You” and Yours”.

Further, we have other clear instances in the Old Testament, in which the Son (God the Son) is distinguished from God the Father.
For instance, Isaiah 48: 16, we have God the Son here, speaking through Isaiah the prophet, and saying “The Lord God has sent Me, and His Spirit.”
Or Psalm 2:7, here we have God the Father saying following of God the Son, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You.” Christ did not become the Son at the incarnation. Rather, He is eternally the Son of God.
Micah 5:2, “His goings forth”, speaking of God the Son, “are from long ago, from the days of eternity.”

Further, we have instances in which the Spirit is distinguished from God the Father in the Old Testament. Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” but then verse 2 tells us, the “Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” Genesis 6:3, “Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever’.” We see the separate references to the Lord and of the Spirit here. Psalm 51:11, “Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” Or Isaiah 40:13, “Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord?” Plurality is the idea.
We have other instances.

Another basis though for finding plurality in the Old Testament, plurality within the Godhead, and that would be those many different references in the Old Testament to the angel of the Lord. Many have taken, and I think we covered this in a very early lesson in this series, many have taken those angel of the Lord references to being preincarnate appearances of the second person of the Trinity. That is, the Lord Christ appearing before He appeared in the flesh at Bethlehem. We don’t have time to go through each of the angel of the Lord references tonight in the Old Testament. That’s going to be the subject of a different study, for a different series, somewhere around the year 2029. But to the extent that any of the Old Testament’s angel of the Lord references would be to the preincarnate Christ, they would, at minimum, point to plurality within the Godhead. Specifically, they would point forward to subsequent Trinitarian revelation.

I know I’m going fast; it’s going to get faster.

So, that’s a bit about what the Old Testament reveals. And how the Old Testament revelation that we have points to a more robust New Testament handling of Trinitarian truth. Here’s Louis Berkhof, he says, “The Old Testament contains a clear anticipation of the fuller revelation of the Trinity in the New Testament.” So, that’s the Old Testament portrayal of Trinitarian truth.

Now, while, if I can say it this way, Trinitarian crumbs are laid out for us throughout the Old Testament, the Trinitarian nature of the Godhead comes into even clearer and sharper focus in the New Testament.
And that happens in a couple of different ways. First, the Trinitarian nature of God, in the New Testament, is supported by the many general statements and allusions that are made to the three Persons of the Godhead in the New Testament.

For instance, several times in the New Testament, all three persons of the Trinity are described as being together, and as on par with one another. For examples at the baptism of Jesus, Matthew 3:16-17, we see the Spirit descends on the Lord, and then a voice from heaven (that of God the Father), identifies Christ Jesus as His beloved Son. And then we see Jesus, actually going and being baptized. In other words, all three Persons of the Godhead, the Trinity, are portrayed in that scene. Also in the upper room, in John 14:16, Jesus, God the Son, prayed that God the Father would send a Helper, God the Spirit, Trinitarian revelation. At the end of the first gospel (very pertinent to what’s happened tonight), Matthew 28:19, the disciples were told to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The three Persons of the Trinity are also linked together in other ways directly in the New Testament text. Like this one, 2 Corinthians 13:14, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit”, we see all three there, “be with you all.” Or if you were to look at Ephesians 1:3-14, there’s that very, incredibly long Greek sentence. And we see all three Persons of the Trinity involved in salvation, in that long sentence. Or 1 Peter 1:2, it says, “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ,” all three are referenced here, “and be sprinkled with His blood.” All of these references show that the idea of God being a Trinity are supported by many statements made directly in the New Testament, where the three Persons of the Godhead are linked together.

But that’s not all! Because there’s another key set of New Testament passages that we need to consider, as we develop our understanding of Trinitarian doctrine. These showcase the deity of all three Persons of the Godhead. As we’re about to see, all three Persons of the Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - are recognized as God on the pages of scripture. The easy one, we’ll do first, God the Father. God the Father is referred to as God throughout the New Testament. John 6:27, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” Romans 1:7, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Galatians 1:1, “Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead) . . .” So, God the Father is referenced as God, in the pages of scripture. That’s a pretty simple one.

Second though, the Son, God the Son, likewise is shown to be God throughout the New Testament. To start with, we see God the Son possessing the attributes of God. And there being many references. We know that God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is eternal. He existed before John, says John 1:15. He existed before Abraham, says John 8:58. He existed before the world came into being, says John 17 [verses 5, 24]. Colossians 1:15, a text we worked through this morning, says, He’s” the firstborn of all creation.” Which means He is preeminent over and is actually the Creator. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” He’s not only eternal in terms of the past though. God the Son is also eternal in terms of the future, Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

Christ, God the Son, is not only eternal though. He’s Omniscient. Again, an attribute of God, as we’ve seen through this study. He knows all things. John 16:30, “Now we know that You know all things”, this is a reference to Christ, “and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God.” John 21:17, Peter says to Jesus, “Lord, You know all things.” Colossians 2:3 says, in Him “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Jesus knew the history of the Samaritan woman [John 4:16-18]. The New Testament teaches us that He knew the thoughts of men [Luke 6:8; 11:17]. He knew the one who would betray Him [John 6:70]. He knew the time and the manner by which He would exit the world [Matthew 16:21; John 12:33; 13:1]. He’s all-knowing.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, the Godhead, is also omnipotent. So, He again, shares that divine attribute, highlighting the fact that He is God. He is “Mighty God”, says Isaiah 9:6, prophetically speaking of Him. We know that Hebrews 1:3 says, He “upholds all things by the word of His power.” That speaks powerfully to His omnipotence. We know that “all authority has been given” to the Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew 28:18. We know that He has power over demons, from the gospels [Mark 5:11-15]. He has power over disease [Luke 4:38-41]. He has power over death [Matthew 9:11-25; Luke 7:12-16]. He has power over the elements of nature [Matthew 21:19; John 2:3-11]. He’s all-powerful.

We also know that the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, is immutable, sharing yet another of the divine attributes. And as we’ve seen, to say that He’s immutable, means that He’s unchanging. Hebrews 1:12, speaking of the Son, “You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end.” Or again, Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

More, God the Son is Creator. Which would be a mark of deity. John 1:3, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” He’s the Creator.
Colossians 1:16 affirms this, “For by Him all things were created”, speaking of Christ, “both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for Him.”

So, Christ is the Creator. He’s omnipotent. He’s omniscient. He’s immutable. And not only that, as we’re going to see, He’s the upholder of all things. He didn’t just create all things; He upholds all things.
Colossians 1:17, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Or Hebrews 1:3, He, again this is referencing Christ, “upholds (the universe) all things by the word of His power.” You know, no mere man, no mere human, could cause the universe to come into existence. Or keep the universe in existence and keep everything in the cosmos in their proper place and order. Only deity could accomplish this.

Note, though, not only is Jesus shown to be God throughout the New Testament. He acted as God! He functioned as God. He forgave sins [Matthew 9:2, 6; Luke 7:47ff]. He raised dead people to life, the widow’s son [Luke 7:12-16], and Jairus’ daughter [Mark 5:35-43], and Lazarus [John 11]. He will execute judgment we know from the New Testament. He’ll judge believers, 2 Corinthians 5 [verse 10, Romans 14:10]. He’ll judge Satan one day [Genesis 3:15]. He’ll judge the wicked [Acts 10:42; 2 Timothy 4:1; 1 Peter 4:5]. He’ll judge the nations [Matthew 25:31; Acts 17:31]. He’ll raise the dead in the future resurrection [John 5:25-29; 6:39ff; 6:54; 11:25]. Each of these acts and deeds could only be performed by God Himself. So, each of these acts, when linked to the person of Christ, shows us yet again that Jesus is God.

Now, Jesus possesses not only the attributes of God. And He not only acts as God. But the names that are ascribed to Him in scripture further demonstrate that He is God. For starters, He uses several metaphors referring to Himself, which if nothing else, implied His supernatural origins and His deity.
John 6:41, He’s “the bread that came down out of heaven.” John 10:9, He says, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved.” John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life.” John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in Him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” And if you were here this morning, this ought to look familiar, He’s “the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God,” [Revelation 3:14]. Last, He’s “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end,” [Revelation 22:13] So, these names, these titles, these metaphors, further cement the fact that He is God, He is deity.

Further, the testimony of others confirms their understanding that Jesus is God. For instance, Jesus is referred to as Lord at various places in the New Testament. Now, we’ve seen, in a different part of this study, that the word “Lord,” “kurios,” does not always equate with deity. Rather, it can connote the meaning of a master or an owner. But there is no question that in several instances, those who referred to Jesus as Lord, clearly were doing so with the understanding that they believed Him to be God. Luke 2:11, “for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” John 20:28, doubting Thomas here exclaims, “My Lord and my God!” Acts 16:31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Philippians 2:11, “every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Not only is Jesus referred to as Lord though. He’s also called the Son of Man. A term which is often tied to deity, in that it is used in situations and in context which describe Jesus’ ability to forgive sins [Matthew 9:6], to execute judgment [John 5:27], to send out angels [Matthew 13:41], to give His life as a ransom for many [Matthew 20:28], and to return again to earth [Matthew 24:44; 26:64]. Those are all linked to scripture, the Son of Man.

He’s not only Lord though. He’s called the Son of Man; He’s also called the Son of God which, when tied to the context of using His name, is again a reference to His deity. He’s called the Son of God in the context of statements about His ability to execute judgment [John 5:22], to have life in Himself and bring life to those whom He will give life [John 5:21, 26], to give eternal life [John 10:10]. Those are all contexts in which He’s called the Son of God.

And then, not only is He called Son of Man and Lord and Son of God, there are multiple instances in the New Testament where He is called God. John 1:1, “And the Word was God.” Or again, John 20:28, Thomas says, “My Lord and my God!” Hebrews 1:8, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.” 2 Peter 1:1, the Lord is referred to as “our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” And then last, 1 John 5:21, “In His Son Jesus Christ.” John says, “This is the true God, and eternal life.” So all this to say, a biblical author like Matthew, was not at all acting out of line when in Matthew 1:23, he explicitly applied Isaiah 7:14 to Jesus. He indeed was born of a virgin. And He indeed was rightly given the name Immanuel, “God with us.”

So, what is this all pointing to? This is all pointing to the truth that Jesus is God. And why is that important for our discussion tonight? Because it demonstrates that not only is God the Father, God, but God the Son, Jesus, is God. So, at minimum what we’ve established so far, is that God is plural. We’ve at least established that the Godhead is dual. But to round out our discussion, we need to bring in the third Person of the Trinity, of course, God the Holy Spirit, as we seek to establish biblically that the God of Scripture is not merely dual, but triune. So, let’s shed a little bit of light through scripture on the Holy Spirit. And demonstrate the Holy Spirit is not merely, contrary to many different false teaching groups out there today, a force or a wind or a phantasm or a mere presence or a cause. Instead, the Holy Spirit is fully and truly God.

Now, there are several biblical proofs that can be offered in support of the truth of the deity of the Holy Spirit, in conjunction with what we’ve already covered so far. And those will help us to see that the God of the bible is a God of three persons, who share equally in the uncompounded, simple divine essence. So, we’ll look into this matter of the Holy Spirit being God. How can we know that the Holy Spirit is God?
Well, lets start with this very, I think, simple statement. We know the Holy Spirit is God because the Holy Spirit Himself has revealed this truth in the pages of scripture. Here are some of the key proofs and texts for the Holy Spirit being God.

First, there are various attributes of deity that are affirmed of Him, of the Spirit. He is eternal, Hebrews 9:14 refers to the Holy Spirit as “the eternal Spirit.” We also know He’s omniscient, John 14:26 says, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He” that’s the Spirit, “will teach you all things.” Now we know He’s omnipotent, that’s from Luke 1:35, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” We know that He’s omnipresent, “Where can I go from Your Spirit?” says Psalm 139 [verses 7, 8], “Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.” So, we know that He has various attributes of deity.

We also know that various works of deity are attributed to the Holy Spirit. That includes creation, Genesis 1:2, “the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.” Job 33:4, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” Psalm 104:30, “You send forth Your Spirit, they” that’s a reference to the natural elements of creation, “are created.”

The Holy Spirit’s deity is showcased not only in creation though, but in regeneration. John 3:5, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Or Titus 3:4-5, “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”

The Holy Spirit’s deity is also shown in His inspiration of the scriptures. “For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men,” says 2 Peter 1:21, “moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

And we also know that the Spirit’s deity is shown in His raising from the dead. Romans 8:11, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

Here’s another way we know the deity of the Spirit. It’s shown by the ways in which He is associated with both God the Father and God the Son. Matthew 28:19. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations”, what we are seeing tonight, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” And we’ve seen this one already, 2 Corinthians 13:14, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.”

Another mark of the deity of the Holy Spirit, is that He is expressly called God. Acts 5:3, the Ananias and Sapphira scene, it says, “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land’?” Then the next verse, Peter says, “You have not lied to men but to God.” That passage, Acts 5, clearly equates the Holy Spirit with deity.

Each of these demonstrates that the Holy Spirit, equally with God the Father and God the Son, is God. The Holy Spirit is not a thing, a force, a way or a presence. The Holy Spirit is a Person. And by the way, to borrow from a modern cultural buzz word, His preferred pronoun is “He.” He’s not an it or a thing. He is He. We refer to the Holy Spirit as “He.” He is God.

So, we’ve looked at both the Old and New Testament references, which establish that the Father is God, that the Son is God, and the Spirit is God. In other words, what we’ve seen thus far is, that the biblical witness to the Triune nature of God is clear.

What we’re going to do now, is move into a more expansive discussion of those passages where all three members of the Trinity are mentioned in the same breath. Which further underscores the Triune nature of God. For starters, Matthew 28:19, the Great Commission. You know, when we baptize someone at our church, as we’ve all witnessed this evening, some form of this declaration is used. “I now baptize you in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” And those words that we heard from Greg and Larry tonight are based on the words of Christ Himself in this passage. Where He commands His followers to baptize others “in the name of Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Now, interestingly the word “name” here, the word “name” that we see on this screen, that Jesus uses here is singular. He doesn’t command His future followers to baptize in the names of the Father and the Son and the Spirit as though the three persons are distinct Gods. Instead, He instructs those of us to baptize, to baptize in the singular name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, which highlights the fact that the three persons are in fact one God, sharing the same singular divine essence. Triunity, yet unity. Threeness, yet oneness. Three, yet one.

It's not just though this passage that we see all three of these names together. We’ve referenced this one a couple of times already, 2 Corinthians 13:14, the closing benediction of that book. And note the order in here, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Now, that literary structure is not accident. Rather, it denotes absolute equality. Note that the Son here is mentioned before the Father. Now, if the Son weren’t God that means it would have been blasphemous to mention the names of the Son and the Spirit in the same breath as God if they were not equal with Him. But, the fact that the Son is placed in this position in this passage is further evidence that He is of the same nature and character and goodness of God.

Other places we see that would be 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit… varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.” Spirit, Lord, God -- that doesn’t work unless all three are in fact God.
Or Ephesians 4:4-6, same thing, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.” Those three persons can only be placed in that order if all three is in fact God. So, we see from these passages that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are of one divine essence, and they dwell in perfect equality and unity.

However, the scriptures do teach also, that the Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct Persons, not simply one Person who reveals Himself in three different ways. Let’s go back to where MacArthur and Mayhue quote here, “God is absolutely and eternally one essence subsisting in three distinct and ordered persons without division and without replication of the essence.” A couple of places where we see this subsistence, these three different Persons, in addition to what we’ve seen already, would be Mark 1. Mark 1:10-11 is Mark’s account of the baptism of Christ. And there we see the Son is baptized, the Spirit descends, and again, the Father speaks from heaven. And I think I’ve already mentioned, but John 14:16-17, there we see the Son praying to the Father, the Father giving the Helper or the Holy Spirit, and then the Spirit is now sent to live within the believer. That’s clear from all those types of passages, that the Father, the Son and the Spirit are three distinct Persons. God is not three independent beings, not three independent or different Gods. Nor is God one Person who reveals Himself in three different forms or modes. Rather, what scripture teaches is that God exists as three distinct but equal persons, who share equally and perfectly in the singular divine nature or essence, and who dwell in perfect equality and unity.

We’ve covered a ton already, I’m going to drill down real fast, and you hit kind of a lightening round, of theological truth concerning the Trinity. And I know this is basic, but this is so fundamental, and this is so even debated today in certain Christian circles. So, I’m praying we get this locked in and right. If you don’t take any other notes tonight, take these down.

Trinitarian Truth #1, (lightening round) God is one. There are not different gods within the Trinity. That would amount to a heresy known as Tritheism, three gods. No, God is one.

Truth #2, God is three. The one God revealed in the pages of scripture exists as three Persons, Father, Son and Spirit. To use our phrase again, He “subsist[s] in three distinct and ordered persons.”

Here’s our next one, the distinctions between the three Persons of the Trinity are eternal. The relational distinctions between Father, Son, and Spirit are eternal distinctions. The nature of the eternal relationship between God the Father and God the Son is known as “generation.” While the relationship between Father and the Son on the one hand, and God the Spirit, is known as “procession.” That term “procession” as applied to the Holy Spirit has a very similar meaning to the term “generation” in connection with God the Son. The Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son in an eternal act. I’m going to try to get into that a little bit next week, when we talk about different views and even heretical views that have existed over church history. But generation relates to the Father/Son eternal relationship; procession relates to the Father and Son on the one hand, and the Spirit’s eternal relationship.

Truth #4, The oneness and the threeness of God is revealed on the pages of scripture. To be sure, the doctrine of the trinity, as often is said, is a great mystery. However, the doctrine of the trinity, as mysterious as it may seem and is, is not an outgrowth of mere speculation. Instead, it is an aspect of revelation. You know, we don’t develop our doctrine of the trinity from natural theology. We don’t look at a clover and say, oh, I see three heads to that clover, there must be a triune God. No, it’s because of biblical revelation, what God has revealed to us in the pages of scripture, we can see that He is triune. We may not understand how it works, or be able to comprehend the concept of Triunity, threeness and oneness, with our limited faculties. That’s ok. Our job is to recognize the truth of what scripture reveals, to believe those truths, and to communicate those truths to others.

Fifth, most illustrations used to explain the Trinity are woefully inadequate. You know, over the course of history, bible students and scholars have resorted to various illustrations in an attempt to explain the Trinity. And regrettably, most of those illustrations do more harm than good. You know, the common one is comparing the Trinity to water, which exists in three different forms - liquid, ice, and steam. But that’s actually a distortion of the Trinity, in that it suggests that God is one Person who appears in various different forms, or modes, which is the heresy known as Modalism, which we’ll talk about next week. It’s better instead, to affirm the oneness and the threeness of God without attempts to humanly illustrate, because that’s what scripture teaches. Well, those are some of the key Trinitarian truths.

I’m going to give you a few Trinitarian implications next. What are some implications we can carry away, knowing that God is triune?

Trinitarian Implication #1, the Trinity teaches us that God is relational. Father, Son and Spirit have existed together throughout eternity in a mutual relationship of perfect unity and love.

Well, Implication 2, the Trinity teaches us that God has no need. God did not make man or redeem people because He was lonely or needy, but rather, for His own glory, and out of a super-abundance of His wonderful goodness. The three Persons of the Trinity are perfectly satisfied in one another. There’s a song, I don’t know how old it is now, but it says something to the effect of, “He didn’t want heaven without us.” That’s total hogwash! I mean, give me a break! God had and has no need to be made complete by anything outside of Himself.

The Trinity teaches us that God is love, that’s Implication 3. Love is not merely an action. Love, as we’ve seen, is an attribute of God. And it’s an eternal attribute of God. It’s not something that began with creation. Rather, long before the universe was made, God was love, and God did love, and a perfect expression of that love was found in the Persons of the Trinity.

Fourth, the Trinity teaches us that our salvation is the work of God. The Father, who designed our salvation and who sent His Son to accomplish our salvation, is God. The Son, who is God incarnate (God with us), and upon whose work our salvation depends on the cross, is God. The Spirit, who indwells us and “seal[s] us for the day of redemption,” as Ephesians 4:30 says, is God. Each Person involved in our salvation is fully God. Meaning, our salvation is fundamentally Triune.

Fifth, the Trinity is a model for human relationships. The three Persons of the Trinity dwell together in pure equality and unity yet have different roles and functions. This is seen especially in the Son’s submission to the Father. Although eternally and ontologically equal with the Father, we know the Son submitted to the Father’s will in His incarnation. And “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross,” as Philippians 2:6-8 states. What this shows us, is that submission, in its proper context, is not demeaning to an individual’s integrity, nor is it a mark of inferiority. And that has special application for various aspects of our human relationships. For instance, in church life, as congregations submit to their leaders. In marriage, as wives submit to their husbands. In families, as children submit to their parents. In the workplace, as employees submit to their employers. All that goes under the heading, God is Three.

In about five minutes, I got to get through God is One.
That’s your second heading, God is One.

I’m going to also put this under the heading of Divine Simplicity. We’ve addressed this doctrine a bit. We’re going to get through it in about five minutes here. But to fill out your worksheet, the heading for number two is God is One. And I want to address with this part of the talk this question. Is the doctrine of divine simplicity in any way inconsistent with the doctrine of the Trinity? Before we answer that question though, we’ve got to start with some basic definitions.

What do we mean when we refer to the simplicity of God? It sort of sounds out of place, when we’re talking about God, doesn’t it? Why is that? Well, in our day, the word “simple” carries with it connotation of being easy to understand or unintelligent or foolish or slow or dim-witted. Words that certainly do not and should not come to mind when we think of the God of the bible. Obviously, we’re not thinking of those concepts. We’re not defining simplicity that way, when we’re talking about the simplicity of God. Rather, when we say the simplicity of God, we’re saying that God is not a compound being. He's not composed of parts. Rather, He is simple in the sense that He is without parts and without pieces. To say that God is simple is simply to affirm the truth of the singularity of the One God. The unity of God is how we described it earlier. Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!” Or James 2:19, “You believe that God is one.” This is a little out of context, “You do well.” What comes next? Even “the demons also believe, and shudder.” But look at that. “You believe that God is One. You do well.”

God’s simplicity is another way to refer to His Oneness, His singularity, but also His indivisibility, His perfect lack of composition. You’ve got to think about it. A part, by definition, is something that is lesser than the whole. A part, by definition, is something that, without which the whole would not be what it is. So, if something or someone is composed of parts, they necessarily need each of their composed parts to exist in the manner that they do. They need those parts to become the thing they’re supposed to be.

Not only that though, but if something or someone is composed of parts, it or they in this case, would require some external composer, distinct from the parts themselves, to cause it, or cause they, to become a comprehensive, unified whole. That all sounds super-philosophical. Let’s just boil it down this way. Think about building a model car or a model airplane. You know, there are various component pieces that come in the box before you build it. And there are various bonding solutions and glues that come in the box before you build it. But how do those pieces ultimately come together to build that car or that airplane? Through you, the builder, as you assemble and compose the car. So it is with anything or anyone that’s composed of parts. There necessarily must be something or someone bigger than them, superior to them, to bring each of their parts into a unified whole.

All of that means is that if God were composed of parts, He would both be dependent on His parts and the composer of His parts. Does that sound like the God of the bible to you? No. (I’m going to skip these quotes because they are very long. You can always pull these slides off our website later. But they undergird this idea of God being simple, uncompounded, without parts.)

Now, some have heard of this doctrine of “simplicity” and said, well, there must be some contradiction between the doctrine of simplicity, God being without parts, and the doctrine of the Trinity. Because He is three persons in one. That’s what Louis Berkhof here says. You see it in the very last part of this quote here, there are some theologians, who in their estimation, believe this conflicts with the doctrine of the Trinity. To Berkhof’s point though, is there a conflict? And we can understand why there might be such a question that arises. How do we reconcile the doctrine of God’s unity, His simplicity and His triunity? We do so as follows:

First, we acknowledge that the three Persons of the Trinity should not be considered three parts of the Trinity, with each person 1/3 of God. If under such a formula, if it were laid out this way, that would be a composite God. But as we’ve seen, He is not composite, He is simple. The Father, Son and Spirit are not parts of God. Rather, each Person is the one God in all His fulness. The Father is the one God in all His fulness. The Son is the one God in all His fulness. The Spirit is the one God in all His fulness.

Second, here’s the other thing that we need to know. The three Persons of the Trinity are not representations or manifestations of a larger being that we call God. Instead, the grammar of divine simplicity requires us to affirm that each divine Person is identical with the one God in all His fulness. There’s nothing that the Father is, that the Son and the Spirit are not, except for being the Father. There’s nothing that the Son is, that the Father and the Spirit are not, except for being the Son. There’s nothing that the Spirit is, that the Father and Son are not, except for being the Spirit. I know I’m dropping like real complicated truth right now, though we’re talking about simplicity. And I’m already over time, and I apologize. The main idea though is each divine Person is equally and identically the one true and living God.

I appreciate what Henry Clarence Thiessen (excuse me) says, trying to bring these concepts of the triunity of God and the simplicity, or the unity of God is how he phrases it, in his lectures on
‘Systematic Theology.” He says: “unity. . .is not inconsistent with the conception of the trinity, for a unity is not the same as a unit. A unit is marked by mere singleness. The unity of God allows for the existence of personal distinctions in the divine nature, while at the same time recognizing that the divine nature is numerically and externally one. Unity does imply that the three persons of the trinity are not separate essences within the divine essence.” To paraphrase, threeness and oneness can exist in the same Godhead. Because the three Persons,or the three personal subsistences, partake of the same, singular, simple divine essence.

So, to wrap up, we’ve seen here, point two, point one, that the same God, who is simple and uncompounded in His essence, is the same God who is Triune. The God who is one, is the God who is three. The God who is three, is the God who is one.
I’m going to leave it with Gregory of Nazianzus, the old Eastern theologian from the fourth century, and just drop it here. He says: “I cannot think on the one without quickly being encircled by the splendor of the three; nor can I discern the three without being straightway carried back to the one.” I think I’ve got to stop. We’ll stop there tonight. This is a lot to chew on for the rest of the week. As you think about the Trinity, next week, we’re going to get into some ancient and modern trinitarian heresies. That will be our closing talk for this “Summer in the Systematics.” Alright?

Let me pray. Lord God, we again give You thanks and praise for who You are. And as we study Your Triunity tonight, we are in awe. It is difficult to express these truths. It is difficult to process and understand these truths. But we know and have confidence that these truths are on the pages of Your word, which is truth. So, God, would You, through this teaching, simply inflame our hearts to worship You in Spirit and in truth. May we be in awe, as we walk out of this place, about the God who is one and the God who is three. May we seek to honor You in all that we do in this coming week. And bring great glory to Your great name. In the name of Jesus, we pray these things. Amen.