THE TRINITY VI
Is It THAT Important?
11/4/12
For many years just about every sermon that you have heard from this pulpit has ended the same way. They have ended with the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, and He rose again on the third day, and sits at the right hand of the Father. I call on people to repent and trust in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sin and eternal life.
What if I were to take this little plastic lizard here and say this is Jesus. You need to trust in Jesus for salvation. You would think me a fool for saying such a thing because you know that is not the “Jesus” of the Bible. That is not the “Jesus” that the apostles proclaimed. You know that believing in this “Jesus” will do you know good. In others words, you know that there is a difference between the Jesus proclaimed in the Word of God, and this “Jesus”.
For the Bible does indeed tell us that there are those who proclaim a different Jesus. A Jesus that is different then the one proclaimed by the apostles. 2 Cor 11:3-4 tells us “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.”
While we can easily see that this plastic lizard is a “different Jesus”, sometimes these different Jesus’ are not so easily recognized. Let me say that if anyone does not proclaim that Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of God, that He is as the Nicene Creed states, “Very God of Very God”, that He is also fully man, that He is coeternal and coequal with the Father and Holy Spirit. If that is not the Jesus that is proclaimed, then it is another Jesus. It would not be the Jesus proclaimed in Scripture.
We must understand how important it is to have faith in true Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible.
Last week we began to look at four specific Scriptural reasons as to why the study the Trinity is so important. We looked at the first two last week, The first Scriptural reason as to why the study of the Trinity is so important is that we have the command to know God. The second reason, which again we looked at last week is we are commanded to worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
This brings me to the third specific Scriptural reasons as to why the study the Trinity is so important and that is because the gospel is proclaimed in the Trinity. In other words, if you deny the triune nature of God, you strip the gospel of its power. You cannot have one without the other, which as we can see can be demonstrated from the Scriptures.
Before we continue let me remind you again of our definition of the Trinity, that is “Within the one being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” That teaching as we shall see is vital to the proclamation of the Gospel .
As we examine this topic I want us to begin with an illustration. This was given in Alister McGrath’s book “Understanding the Trinity” so we are going to follow his line of thinking on the how the gospel and the trinity are inseparably linked.
Say you are taking a cruise on a ship up by Greenland. Why you would want to do that I don’t know. But anyway there you are on the ship and you see an iceberg. You may be very impressed with the iceberg, but you also understand that you are only looking at small portion of the iceberg. In fact you can only see about 10% of the whole iceberg, about 90% of it is underwater, hidden from your view.
The point is this, the vantage point from which we look at something, be it an iceberg or a tree, the moon, determines how much of it we can see. This is especially true with God. Just think about our vantage point in reference to God. We live on earth, we live in time and space. We live in the material and I will say that because of our vantage point we only comprehend a fraction of the being that is God.
There will come a time when that vantage point will change, as we are told in 1 John 3:2; “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”
But for now we must rely on the means by which God has chosen to reveal Himself. As McGrath points out, “…what we know about God seems very simply – the great affirmation that God loves us, meets us in Jesus Christ, and takes us home to him. But this is just the tip of the theological iceberg.”
What I want to get across to you is that when we present the gospel in it’s most basic form, it is just the tip of the iceberg, for beneath the surface lies the trinity. Look at 2 Cor. 5:19; “that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
The phrase there, “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,” is the core of the gospel. But what we must see is that which gives that power is the trinity. I will also say that for “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,” to even make sense, you must have the trinity.
So what do I mean by that? As I stated at the beginning of the sermon those of you who have been listening to be preach over the years have heard me present the gospel many times. The preacher in me says something along these lines. “We need to have relationship with God, and we can only come to God through Jesus Christ. If you want to find God, here is where you look, Jesus Christ. Here is God coming to meet us where we are here and now. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that way to God is opened.”
When I say something along those lines I am making a proclamation of the vital importance of Jesus Christ to those who hear my voice.
Now the theologian in me says things like this, “Jesus Christ is both God and man, He is God incarnate, God in the flesh.” I will admit that that statement is more of a statement about God, while the previous statement is more about the need man has for God. For most what the preacher has to say is more interesting then what the theologian has to say, even when they are the same person.
But here is the thing, what I say as the preacher is totally dependent on what I say as theologian. In one I make a proclamation, in the other is doctrine. You see the proclamation I make as a preacher, stands or falls on the doctrine set forth in my theology.
What I say about Jesus Christ in proclaiming the gospel depends on the recognition of Jesus Christ is both God and man, that He is God incarnate, that He is God in the flesh.
You see if Jesus Christ is not God then He is utterly incapable of showing us what God looks like. If God is absolutely unique as creator, it is not possible for that which is created to give us an accurate representation of God. How can we say look at Jesus Christ, this is God revealed, if Christ is not God. He becomes nothing more then the prophets that were sent before Him, that is proclaiming the truth and glory of God, but not revealing it.
As the early church father and great defender of the trinity Athanasius stated, “Nothing created can unite the creature with God… God alone can unite the creature with God… No one could make us the children of God save He who is the true and essential Son of the Father.”
Of course it is one thing to say these things but what does the Word of God state. While we will be looking at these and many more passages that declare the deity of Christ, I just want to read to you from the prologue of gospel of John. Please listen to what John is saying with the thought of how this is central to the gospel message. I will be reading selected verses from John 1:1-18;
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men… The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, (how could a created being do that) who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (That is God revealed, not just proclaimed, but revealed)…. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
Again only God can make God know, because God is absolutely unique. Men can proclaim the truth of God, but only God Himself can reveal God. As we read in Hebrews. 1:1-2; “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.”
As we consider that fact the gospel’s power is seen in the trinity let us also contemplate this, if Christ is not God the Son, how could he have ever endured the wrath of the Almighty? Think about that. How would it be possible for the sins of God’s people to be placed on a creature and that creature bear such a burden? For Jesus Christ to endure the wrath of the Almighty God, He himself must be omnipotent, He Himself must be almighty, for a created being would surly sink into perdition.
May we also consider the part of the gospel that declares that not only did Jesus die and raise from the dead on our behalf, but He is also our intercessor.
In order to intercede for the multitude of petitions and prayers of God’s people would not the intercessor have to have all wisdom, be all knowing. How could a mere creature do this?
What it comes down to is this, if Jesus Christ is a not God, if He is just a creature and the Holy Spirit is nothing more that some power that emanates from him, then we are left with a creaturely redemption, and does not matter how divine the one is who sent them. You are left with a created being as your Saviour, a created being as your mediator and intercessor. You left with a limited, powerless gospel, because that which we proclaim the gospel to be, cannot be if Jesus is a created being, if Jesus is less then that Eternal Son of God.
I like how Dabney addresses this, he states, “For the channel of communication to our souls being finite, the communications would be limited. If you have the whole Atlantic Ocean connected with your reservoir by an inch pipe, you can draw but an inch of water at once. The vastness of the source does you no good, beyond the caliber of the connecting pipe.”
So we can see then that study the Trinity is so important because the gospel is proclaimed in the Trinity.
Moving now to the forth and final specific Scriptural reasons as to why the study the Trinity is so important, and that is as God’s people we have been given the task to defend our faith and a central part of that faith, is the Trinity. I am not suggesting that we all become Christian apologists. What I am getting at here is that we must be able to tell the difference between Biblical orthodox Christianity and heresy.
We read this in 1 Peter 3:15; “but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;”
And also in Jude 3 “…I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”
We have a God given responsibility to be able to tell the difference between what is truth and what is false. Again, that is one reason why learning about the trinity is so important. We cannot know what is false if we do not know what is truth.
I want to very briefly point out three ways and three groups that distort the nature of God, that deny the trinity. The reason I picked these three is because they would be the most popular ways in which the Trinity is denied. I want to stress that I do not have any personal animosity towards these people. I disagree with them on what I would say is a very important issue, that does not equate into some sort of dislike towards them.
The first group is the one I have mentioned and that is the Spirit and Truth Christian Assembly over in West Oneonta. They are what is referred to as Modalists, which is a form of Sabellianism. This heresy also goes by the name of “Jesus Only” (because they baptize only in the name of Jesus) or “Oneness Theology”. One of the more famous modalistic preacher is TD Jakes. Thou some may dispute that, his statement of faith for his church is modalistic. The singing group Phillips, Craig and Dean, are all Modalist, the god they sing to is not the God we sing to.
The is from the statement of faith of the Spirit and Truth Christian Assembly. “WE BELIEVE in One True God, the Eternal Spirit, who created all things for His pleasure… (That go on to say) God has revealed Himself as Father ( in giving life in creation), as Son (in reconciliation of humanity), and as Holy Spirit (in regeneration of our lives).
In other words God does not exist in a triune nature. They are Unitarian. That is their god exists in one person who manifested himself as Father in creation, as the Son in redemption, and the Holy Spirit in regeneration. Jesus Christ is not the eternal son of God. He does not come into existence until being born in Bethlehem. He is then indwelt by the Father. God now exists in the mode of Holy Spirit. So, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not three persons, they are one being, one person, they do not exist separately at the same time.
This belief was deemed to be heretical and false by the Christian church back in the 3rd century. Again, they do not worship the God that we have come here to worship this morning.
The next group I will mention are Jehovah Witnesses. They hold to subordinationism. They believe that Jesus Christ is not almighty God, he is not to be worshipped, he is a created being. In fact he is Michael the archangel, he is the first created being. That also deny the personality of the Holy Spirit. They hold that the Holy Spirit is the force by which God does things.
These belief were also deemed to be heretical by the early church.
The last group I will make mention of is Mormonism or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Mormonism is what is called henotheistic, that is while they only will worship one god, they acknowledge the existence of other gods. This makes them for all intents and purposes polytheist. They hold that god was once a man like we are now and he got to his exalted position of godhood by following a certain progression.
On there web site they state, “We declare it is self-evident from the scriptures that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are separate persons, three divine beings.” So what we have is three gods, not one God in three persons.
So Mormonism does indeed deny the trinity, and in fact does not worship the god that we have come to worship here today.
I also want point out that every group that denies the triune nature of God, ends up with a distorted gospel. I believe that is true because as we have seen today, the trinity is at the core of the gospel, it is what holds it up, it is what gives it power.
Most Oneness group add baptism to salvation along with other experiences one will have if they are truly saved.
JW have worked based salvation. A gospel that offers not a eternity in heaven in the presence of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But a gospel that is a message of how to live forever in a paradise on earth.
In Mormonism, which has a two kinds of salvation, general and individual. They are essentially Universalist which is to say that pretty much everyone will enjoy some type of salvation. To those men who pass all the requirements set forth in the Mormon Scriptures they will become equal with God, and become a god.
So we can see that when one denies the triune nature of God, it ends up effecting the very gospel by which we are saved.
Again, please understand that I do not point these errors out because of some malicious intent. I hold no animosity toward any one who holds to these positions, but I am called, we are called to “give a defense…for the hope that is in us.” To “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saint.” What kind of pastor would I be if I didn’t?
In order to content for the faith we must understand what is true and what is false. That is why this study into the Trinity is so important.
So then the four Scriptural reasons as to why the study of the Trinity is so important is that one, we have the command to know God. Two, we are commanded to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. Three the Trinity is so important in that the gospel is proclaimed in the Trinity. And four, the study of the Trinity is so important, because God’s people we have been given the task to defend the faith.
I believe those to be pretty important reasons, and I hope you see them as important as well.
I will once again close with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That gospel calls on us to repent and place our faith in the eternal Son of God. Believing that we have forgiveness of sin through His death on the cross, that He rose again on the third day, and sits at the right hand of the Father as our mediator. And I will say, that the only way you can believe that is through the power of the Holy Spirit of God at work in you. May God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit be praised and glorified.
LET US PRAY
