Most of us are familiar with the concept of the Trinity. We
sing about a Triune God, we read about a Triune God, and we pray to a Triune
God. But what does it mean, exactly? The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. All
equal. All part of the Godhead. Yet distinct in their relation to one another.
Is the idea of the Trinity important for Christians? Historically, there have
been divisions among believers on this very subject, and yet it must leave some
people wondering what the big deal is. God is God, right?
The word “Trinity” never actually appears in the Bible* (there is plenty of evidence for the Trinity, but the word had not yet been coined), but
was used first in the year 170 by Theophilus of Antioch, although he didn’t use
the term for the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. (He used it to describe God,
his Word, and His wisdom). The first to use it for its current meaning was
Tertullian who explained that the Trinity represents the triune God as one in
“essence, but not one in Person” (http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/beliefs/trinity.htm#3).
The doctrine of the Trinity was established by the church at the council of
Nicea as orthodoxy in the face of other beliefs about this curious relationship. I won’t go into detail here, but one of
the theologies that was opposed was that of Arius, who said that Jesus was
God’s “first creation” (ibid).
The Council of Nicea in 325 set forth in making sure that this was rejected in
favor of the doctrine that Christ was begotten,
not created. You might, like me, be wondering why this really matters. Is this
just one for the theologians to argue about, like angels on the head of a pin; or
are we dealing with a more important question, one more fundamental about our
faith and what we know about God?
Begotten- Why is
it important?
Recently I was listening to a sermon by Timothy Keller which
provides an amazing amount of insight into the subject of the Trinity (Keller, “Imitating the Incarnation”, July 2, 1995). While listening I had one of those eureka moments that changes and deepens my faith and understanding
of who God is. The doctrine of the
Triune God is the idea that there was never a time “before” when God was alone. This is important, because some of the criticism about the
Gospel is the idea that God created out of some deep need for love. The idea is that God was incomplete, and so he created Jesus to fill a void. It also implies that He created us in order to meet a need. This is not the case.
The Trinity implies that each "Person" of the Triune God is begotten of God. While this is still mind boggling, it does tell us something very striking: that God has always been in relationship. God doesn’t need or demand love; rather He gives love, and conversely, receives it. Within God Himself is the very definition of what relationship is and everything it should be. And so it follows that God created the world in order to love it and be in relationship with us.
The Trinity implies that each "Person" of the Triune God is begotten of God. While this is still mind boggling, it does tell us something very striking: that God has always been in relationship. God doesn’t need or demand love; rather He gives love, and conversely, receives it. Within God Himself is the very definition of what relationship is and everything it should be. And so it follows that God created the world in order to love it and be in relationship with us.
Getting married and having our first child together has let
me see a tiny fraction of how the Trinity works. When we had our boy, it wasn’t
a decision made in order to receive love. We wanted a baby in order that the
overflowing love of our marriage could be given directly to our child. In other
words, we didn’t have a baby because we needed a baby to fill our lives with
love. Rather, we had love, and we had a baby so that love could go out to the
baby. The baby does fill a purpose in our lives, but not in order to fill
something in us that was empty before. It is the opposite—he is here because of the
fullness of our marriage (in all of its earthly shortcomings and
imperfections!).
The Trinity cannot be adequately described by marriage, but marriage (and all relationships) should be a reflection of the Trinity. What is God like, we ask? Well, for one, He is, all by Himself, a
love relationship. It is an expression so often heard that it is cliché- “God
is Love.” But it is true, and it is only true in the Trinity.
This explanation may not go very far to dispel the utter
mysteriousness of the Trinity, for it goes without saying that the Lord, in the fullness of His character, transcends our understanding—but it does point to the type of relationship He wants with
us. If He loves us as His children, then of course it would please Him for us
to love Him, His ways, and His family. God wants us in relationship with Him.
Furthermore, when we understand how the Trinity works in our own lives, we know that God
wants us to have this kind of relationship with each other.
Keller points out in the same sermon that the Trinity
represents this kind of relationship up against the kind of relationship that
we may have a tendency to have. He says,
“It is extremely seductive and an absolute temptation to move out into other people’s
lives more to meet your needs than it is to meet theirs.” That is, we may wrongfully
approach friendships, work relationships, and even romance as a sort of
consumer looking for what we can get out of it, how it can add to our lives,
and how it makes us better. As Keller
says, this is seductive, but also be aware that we may be unconsciously doing
this all the time! Instead of the pro-active love relationship of the Triune
God, in which it is all about how we love others, the consumer relationship is
all about how we are loved. In the former, relationships may last because we
actively love; in the latter, relationships continually fail because we persistently feel we
aren’t being loved enough, or that we are not having our needs met by other
people. This type of relationship nearly always will lead to strife, pain,
anger, bitterness, and loss. One needn’t look further than the soaring divorce
rates in many parts of the world for an example of how a consumer approach to
relationship leads to a falling-out, and naturally so.
How can we know if we are moving out to other people more
for ourselves than for them? Keller says that if we are constantly getting our
feelings hurt, feeling snubbed, feeling like we don’t get love in return, feeling
like things never go our way or people don’t do what we want them to, then we
are moving into relationships more for ourselves than for others!
Wow. Have you ever felt like this? I know I have.
Other people cannot give us what we already truly have in
God—his love. Jesus loved us with this kind of love. He was snubbed, spat upon,
and murdered, and yet He still loved. And
with His love as our ultimate, first source of love, we can love, albeit imperfectly
for now, others; and we can allow ourselves
to be loved imperfectly by them.
It is perfectly natural and good for us to want to receive
love; yet if the central mission of our hearts to get love rather than
to give it, then we will always be
disappointed.
How, exactly, do we move into relationships that reflect the
truth of the Trinity? Remember the greatest commandment that Jesus gives in
Mark 29-31: “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord
is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The
second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other
commandment greater than these.” That is how we approach others, by first going
to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, for he is One, he is the fountain of relational love. You will notice that
Jesus, who is quoting scripture (Dueteronomy 6:4-5), does not say love God with
a portion of yourself and then love others with what is left over. No. He says
love God with everything- all of your
heart, all of your mind, and all of your strength. How then, can we have
anything left over if we give it all to God? Because of the relational God that
can only be described by God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The
relationship inherent in God produces an outpouring of love and never merely consumes. Imagine if we move out into all of our relationships first from our relationship with God. Imagine if we give everything to the Triune God, and in turn we are filled with the power to love, truly love our neighbor. It would change everything.
To hear Timothy Keller’s podcast and to access many, many
other great resources from Redeemer, follow this link:
* While scripture doesn't use the word "Trinity", it repeatedly talks about God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Here is a concise collection of verses that support the Trinity:
* My friend Seth pointed out that the Holy Spirit is not begotten, but rather proceeds from the Father (as Eastern Orthodox would claim) or the Father and the Son (which the Western Church claims (and thus remains a schism between the two.)
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