DEVOTIONS AND SERMONS

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Trinity
 

This subject is very complicated to understand.

John 3:12
I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?

Jesus said about earthly things and heavenly things.

Trinity is a heavenly mystery, we will find it hard to understand.

Isaiah 55:8-9
8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.


God says that His ways and thoughts are higher than our ways.

Romans 11:33
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!

His paths are beyond tracing.

Here we will try to understand, but be prepared it is difficult to comprehend.

1. What is Trinity?

By the word trinity we do not mean three separate gods, nor do we mean one god in three roles, like a person who functions as mother, wife, and professional.

The holy trinity is three-in-one.

Biblical basis

Often the Father, Son and Spirit are mentioned together in the New testament

2 Corinthians 13:14
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Matthew 28:19
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

John 14:17-23
17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"
23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.


They are three in personality but one in nature or essence.

Again, Father, Son, and Spirit are each God (in essence), but none can be identified with the other.

All three persons are divine. Obviously our heavenly father is God.

Many verses state that Christ is divine

2 Peter 1:1
Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:

Titus 2:13
while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,

John 1:1,14
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Not to mention the indirect proofs of his deity, such as forgiveness of man’s sins (Mk.2), and claiming as his own the name of God (Jn.8:58).

John 8:58
"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"

It is also clear from the Scriptures that the Spirit, is divine.

The dictionary definition of the Spirit is : ‘The active essence or essential power of the Deity, conceived as a creative, animating, or inspiring influence’.

How does it help us to be closer to God?

It makes a difference in our lives only when we sense and appreciate that God, through his Spirit, is living within us(Jn.14).

The Spirit in nature is God; all members of the Trinity are equally divine.

2. Trinity in church history

The earlier ‘ecumenical councils’ (council of church leaders) strove to define and describe the relationships between the members of the godhead (Nicea in 325, Constantinople in 381, and Chalcedon in 451, to mention a few).

Yes, many in the early Christian era spent generations hammering out the doctrine of trinity, investigating the intricacies of the Spirit.

They have concluded and approved what we now believe as trinity, that God is three in one.

Good analogies

A better illustration based in human nature would be, the relation between our mind, its ideas, and the expression of these ideas in words.

There is obviously a unity among all three of these without there being an identity. In this sense they illustrate the Trinity.

3. Trinity and our walk with God

The doctrine of trinity has been firmly established.

1. Trinity brings us great assurance. The Father is God above us, the Son is God beside us, and the Spirit is God within us.

2. Trinity helps us to see that God is love. How could God have been (eternally) love if he had no one to love? The three in one God is a divine family, in which perfect love has always been exchanged.

3. Respect for Trinity deepens our himility , as we see that God’s ways are not our ways.

Summary

If the whole lesson seems complicated, don’t worry.

If theologians struggled for centuries to put the divine mystery into words and you cannot manage it in this short lesson, don’t worry.