A RIDDLE
Bobby and Billy were born the same day, can hardly be told apart, and have the same mother and father. What is their relationship? Do you think you know? Oh, by the way, Bobby and Billy are not twins.
If you are stumped, you will find a big clue in the next article, and the answer at the end of this issue.
Foundations of Faith
THE HOLY TRINITY (I)
Our topic in this and the next issue of GROWING is the Holy Trinity. What is the Trinity? It is a term that describes the one God who exists in three Persons–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In one sense God is one, and in another sense God is three. The word “Triunity,” or its adjective, “triune”–meaning three in one and one in three–captures the thought more exactly.
Just how God can be three and one at the same time is a mystery that no biblical scholar can honestly claim to understand. So if you have difficulty understanding the Trinity, don’t panic! You might ask why the Christians came up with a doctrine that they couldn’t even understand, and tried to describe God using the words “Trinity” and “triune” that are nowhere found in Scripture. It is because these words and concepts seem to be the best way of fitting together the different scriptures that describe God, such as those that speak of (1) God being one God,(2) the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all being God, and (3) God the Son praying to God the Father and sending the God Holy Spirit.
While we will have difficulty understanding the exact relationships of the three Persons of the Trinity, let us try to learn what the Bible teaches us about the one God who exists in three Persons. Perhaps it would be helpful to contrast the Trinity with an example from our own human experience. Have you ever known a set of identical twins, or better yet, identical triplets? These sets of individuals are genetically identical. They started out as a single fertilized egg but broke into two or three parts early in the embryo stage and developed into separate individuals. Such twins or triplets not only look alike, but they often think and act alike.
Is the Trinity like identical triplets? No, not really; the Persons of the Trinity are far more alike in every way than even identical triplets. Triplets are separate, distinct individuals. While they may think and act in similar ways, yet their thinking and acting is distinct and separate from one another. For example, one may be writing a letter, another reaching for a snack, and the third one reading a book–all totally unaware of what the others are thinking, feeling, and doing. The three Persons of God, on the other hand, are so united that each one knows what the other two are thinking, planning, speaking, and doing at every moment throughout time and eternity; more than that, they are all in perfect agreement with one another’s thoughts, plans, and deeds. Unlike some identical twins and triplets, there is never, never any argument or conflict or jealousy among the three Persons of God.
But enough for introductions and contrasts. Let us see what the Bible itself says about the Holy Trinity.
“Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deut. 6:4). “I am God, and there is none else” (Isa. 46:9). “There is but one God” (1 Cor. 8:4-6; also Eph. 4:4-6).
Note that in Deut. 6:4, the Hebrew word for “one” can have the thought of a composite unity, such as many grapes making up “one cluster” (Num. 13:23), or a man and a woman marrying and becoming “one flesh” (Gen. 2:24), or three divine Persons making up “one God.”
1. The Father is God. “There is … one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:4-6; also 1 Pet. 1:2).
2. Jesus Christ is God. “Thomas … said unto [Christ], My Lord and my God” (John 20:28; also 5:23). “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30-38). “The Word was God” (John 1:1). (See Assignment 5)
3. The Holy Spirit is God. “Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?… You have not lied unto men, but unto God” (Acts 5:3,4). “God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit:for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10).
There is no direct revelation of the Trinity in the Old Testament, but this is implied and hinted at in many Old Testament scriptures.
“In the beginning God [Elohim, a plural noun] created [a singular verb] the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). “Let us make man in our image” (Gen. 1:26; 3:22). “I am the first, I also am the last…. Now the Lord God, and His Spirit, has sent Me” (Isa. 48:16). (See Assignment 6)
“Teach all nations, baptizing them in the name [singular] of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matt. 28:19). “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14).
Running the Race
WHAT IS THE CHRISTIAN’S RESPONSIBILITY TO THE TRINITY?
“I seek … the will of the Father who has sent Me” (John 5:30). “Prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2; also Heb. 13:21).
“For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18).
“Be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). “Grieve not the Holy Spirit” (Eph. 4:30). “Quench not the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:19).
May it become the daily prayer of each one of us that we would learn to know and be faithful to do the Father’s will, that we would be conformed more to the image of Christ so that His life might shine out in our lives, and that we would be filled with the Holy Spirit, allowing Him liberty to have full control of our lives.
Assignment 6: Write out a verse in Isaiah 61 that refers to the Trinity. According to Luke 4, who is the speaker in Isaiah 61?