Opening illustration: St. Augustine - so the story goes - was struggling to understand the doctrine of the Trinity. So he decided to go for a walk on the beach, where he saw a little boy digging a hole in the sand with a seashell. The boy then ran off to the ocean, filling the shell, and rushed back to pour it into the hole he had made.
“What are you doing, my little man,” St. Augustine asked.
“I’m trying to put the ocean into this hole,” the boy replied.
Augustine suddenly realized that this was precisely was he was trying to do … to fit the great mysteries of God into his mind.
Let us turn in our Bibles to Revelation 5 and check out the nature of the Triune God.
Introduction: The most difficult thing about the Christian concept of the Trinity is that there is no way to perfectly and completely understand it. The Trinity is a concept that is impossible for any human being to fully understand, let alone explain. God is infinitely greater than we are; therefore, we should not expect to be able to fully understand Him. The Bible teaches that the Father is God, that Jesus is God, and that the Holy Spirit is God. The Bible also teaches that there is only one God. Though we can understand some facts about the relationship of the different Persons of the Trinity to one another, ultimately, it is incomprehensible to the human mind. However, this does not mean the Trinity is not true or that it is not based on the teachings of the Bible. The Trinity is one God existing in three Persons. Understand that this is not in any way suggesting three Gods. Keep in mind when studying this subject that the word “Trinity” is not found in Scripture. This is a term that is used to attempt to describe the triune God—three coexistent, co-eternal Persons who make up God.
Within the One True God Exists a Plurality of Persons. The doctrine of the Trinity has these elements: (i) The is only One True God (monotheism); (ii) There is a plurality of persons within God, and this plurality is not imaginary, pretended, or temporary.
Is the church (body of Christ) ‘binitarian’ OR ‘Trinitarian?’ Many believe in the Father or Jesus Christ and just pay lip-service to the Holy Spirit.
What is the nature of The Triune God?
1. God the Father (Yahweh, Elohim, Abba)
The Throne and the Scroll: Symbols of God the Father and His Will
It is God the Father who sits upon the throne. The throne is a symbol of power and authority. The Father is the great king whose divine decrees brought forth the universe and initiates all activity. In the vision, the scroll in the right hand of God is a vivid symbol of God’s will and intention. This scroll contains His cosmic plans for redemption and judgment that unfolds in the Book of Revelation.
Alas! The scroll is sealed with seven seals, and no one in heaven or on earth can open it. By what means will God’s will be performed, how will the gap be leaped between the idea and its actuality?
Let us examine in greater depth Calvin’s second statement concerning the distinctive attributes of each person of the Trinity:
"To the Father is attributed the beginning of activity and fountain and wellspring of all things..."
In Scripture, God the Father is revealed to be the initiator of all activity. He is the mighty King from whose will and intention flows forth all things. He is the Creator! In the beginning God said "Let there be light" and there was light. God said, "let us make man in our image." And humankind was formed from the dust of the ground and given dominion over the earth.
After humanity fell to Satan’s designs and was consigned to alienation from God and bound by the curse of sin and death, it was God who established a way of blessing, by making a covenant with Abraham.
Then in the fullness of time God the Father chose to send Jesus Christ to bring eternal life to all who should believe in Him. Thus, it is God the Father who is the originator of all activity. In the mystery of God’s will all things have their beginnings.
2. God the Son (Yeshua)
The Lamb who was Slain: A symbol of Jesus Christ Who Alone is Able to Fulfill God’s Purpose
The Lamb who was slain is symbolic of Jesus Christ. He is the crucified and risen Lord. He alone can open the seven seals, and fulfill the will and intention of the Father written therein.
"To the Son, wisdom, counsel, and the ordered disposition of all things;"
God the Son is the executor of the Father’s will. The one through whom and in whose wisdom the will of the Father is accomplished. God the Father chose to create all things, but it was through God the Son that this was accomplished. Jesus Christ, as the eternal "logos" was with God at the beginning and was the means through whom God the Father created the universe.
"All thing were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made." (John 1: 3)
God also willed the redemption of humankind, but it was through God the Son, in His incarnation, life, death and resurrection that this redemption was accomplished for us.
"God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3: 16)
It was the will of the Father to reconcile us to Himself but the way He accomplished this was through Jesus Christ.
3. God the Holy Spirit (Rooh)
The Seven Eyes of the Lamb: A Symbol of the Holy Spirit Whose Sphere of Action is the World
The symbol of the Holy Spirit is contained within the symbol of Christ, making the relationship between the two unmistakable. The Lamb has seven horns and seven eyes. The number seven in Hebrew numerology is the symbol for completeness and wholeness. Seven horns means all authority in heaven and on earth has been granted to Jesus Christ. The seven eyes are the seven spirits of God. This does not mean seven different spirits, but rather it is the Holy Spirit in His unity of being but diversity of manifestations. Then comes the most important statement that reveals the distinctive work of the Holy Spirit. They are the "seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth".
The sphere of the Holy Spirit’s activity then is primarily here on earth among us and in us, where He is to bring to fruition that which God accomplished in Jesus Christ.
"But to the Spirit is assigned the power and efficacy of that activity."
To God the Holy Spirit belongs the task of making real and active in the lives of men and women all that God the Father has accomplished for us in Jesus Christ. John Calvin stated, First, we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from Him, all that He has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. To sum up, the Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ effectually unites us to Himself. It is thus through the Holy Spirit as He binds us to Christ in faith, and seals His words in our hearts that all that is in Christ becomes real in our lives.
Another way to affirm this same truth is to announce the good news that in Christ, God has established His everlasting kingdom. But with Nicodemus we may ask, "How are we to enter into this kingdom?" How is the power, the blessings, the joys, the eternal life of this kingdom to become our actual lived experience and our own possession? It is through the Holy Spirit! For Jesus says, "Truly, truly I say to you unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God." (John 3: 5)
Thus in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit plays the vital role of connecting us to God the Father and God the Son.
The Bible applies personal characterizations to Him--He is called Comforter (John 14: 16), Witness (Heb 10: 15, Rom 8: 16), Justifier and Sanctifier (1 Cor. 6:11).
Finally, in many places in Scripture, personal pronouns are used of Him (John 14:26; John 16:7). Not only is the Holy Spirit a person, but the Holy Spirit is God, just as the Father is God, and the Son is God, in some way One True God, but also in a way unfathomable to our human minds, a separate person within the Trinity.
In the Bible, the Holy Spirit is called God (Acts 5:3-5; 1 Cor. 3:16--Compare with 2 Cor. 6:16). The Holy Spirit is also called Jehovah--It was Jehovah who spoke by the prophets (Luke 1:68-70) yet Peter says it was the Holy Spirit (2 Pet 1:20, also compare 2 Sam 23:2-3 with Acts 1:16). It was Jehovah that Israel rebelled against in the wilderness (Psalms 78:4, 17-18), but Isaiah says it was the Holy Spirit (Isa 63:10). In Deuteronomy 32:12, Jehovah led Israel, but in Isaiah 63:14, It says the Holy Spirit led them. Jehovah commissioned Isaiah the prophet (Isa 6:6-8), but Paul says (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) that it was the Holy Spirit who commissioned the prophet (Acts 28:25-26).
Illustration: Yes, the concept of the trinity is very deep, but instead of trying to understand its depth, think of it in the words of the Anglican catechism which says, "first, I learn to believe in God the father who has made me and all the world. Secondly, in God the son who redeems me, and all humanity. Thirdly, in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifies me, and all elect people of God."
We must understand that an infinite God cannot be fully described by a finite illustration. And we should not even try to attempt it as we are trying to understand and figure out the Triune God at the level of an abased human mind …
God Today: THE HOLY SPIRIT AS "GOD WITH US"
1. Where is God?
If this fact of the imminence of the Holy Spirit is grasped, it will change our faith and lives.
I ask you a question so profound that usually only children ask it.
(a) Where is God the Father?
He is in the highest of heavens surrounded by the seraphim who forever cry "Holy, Holy, Holy." From there He rules the universe in majesty and power. He is at an infinite distance away from us, inaccessible in His holiness and unapproachable light.
(b) Where is Jesus Christ?
Two thousand years ago He walked upon this earth, and through Him we know that this distant creator God loves us and cares for us. When in the flesh, Jesus was IMMANUEL, "God with us." But after His resurrection and ascension, He now sits at the "right hand of God the Father Almighty".
2. In the Holy Spirit Both the Father and the Son are Present
Through the Holy Spirit the inaccessible God the Father and God the Son are also present.
"Jesus answered him, ’If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’" (John 14: 23)
To know and to experience the Holy Spirit is to experience the presence of God. It is to know and to experience Jesus Christ, not as someone who lived two thousand years ago and is now ancient history; rather it is to know Him as the resurrected Jesus, alive and present, actively at work in our midst.
Knowing through experience and understanding the Holy Spirit as God present will radically change our faith from a matter of ritual or mere intellectual acceptance of certain dogmas to a living dynamic faith capable of turning the world upside down.
The Holy Spirit is the connecting point between God and His people. Through Him we are caught up into relationship with the world of the Spirit and find ourselves in relationship with the God who is three persons.
3. The Holy Spirit as a Seal or Guarantee of our Salvation
The Holy Spirit as "God With Us" serves as the seal and the guarantee of the promises of God.
And you too, when you had heard the message of the truth, the good news of your salvation, and had believed it, became incorporated in Christ and received the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; and the Spirit is the pledge that we shall enter into our heritage, when God has redeemed what is his own, to his praise and glory. (Ephesians 1: 13-14)
We believe that in Christ many wonderful things have been accomplished for us; we have been forever incorporated into God’s eternal kingdom. And yet, we live in a world in which that is often not evident and God’s presence is frequently hidden. At present all that it means to be in Christ has not yet fully come to us, it remains a not-yet-received inheritance, a promise. Yet we must decide, act, and even stake our present and future life upon His promises.
As men and women who live in the ambiguities of this time, what assurance do we have that these promises are true and worthy for us to stake our very lives upon? What do we have to show that this is not just some illusion? We are given the Holy Spirit! He is our seal; He is the guarantee.
In the Holy Spirit, as God present with us, we actually begin to taste the fruits of the kingdom. Our eyes are opened to see God’s hidden hand moving in history and in our own lives. We experience the powers of the new age; we are given the assurance that Jesus Christ is indeed within us. Through the Spirit who gives us faith and provides fulfillment of faith, we know for certain that the promises are true and trustworthy.
Furthermore, the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance because He is the one who is bringing it into reality. It is He who is raising up the Church, and will in the end raise us up as well.
Illustration: In the National Gallery of Art in London there’s a picture of the Crucifixion that is so dark that when you first look at it, you can’t see anything. But if you stand and ponder it, and if you do not permit your gaze to falter, eventually you will see in the darkness a very dim figure of the crucified Christ. If you look longer and do not allow your attention to be diverted, you then begin to discern behind the figure of Christ the presence of God the Father, whose hands are holding up his Son, and on his face is a look of unimaginable grief.
There, in those five hours, no matter what the depths to which he went, Jesus knew his Father was with him. The Trinity--Father, Son and Holy Spirit--suffering together. That’s a mystery. I cannot explain it. But it is true.
Conclusion: The doctrine of the Trinity has been a divisive issue throughout the entire history of the Christian church. While the core aspects of the Trinity are clearly presented in God’s Word, some of the side issues are not as explicitly clear. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God—but there is only one God. That is the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. Beyond that, the issues are, to a certain extent, debatable and non-essential. Rather than attempting to fully define the Trinity with our finite human minds, we would be better served by focusing on the fact of God’s greatness and His infinitely higher nature. “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”
