THE TRINITY 8
REVELATION
11/25/12
Today we are continuing our study in the blessed and holy doctrine of the Trinity, that is the triune nature of God. That teaching that tells us that “Within the one being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Today will be the last messages on the Trinity until after Christmas. The next four weeks I will be preaching on the four weeks of advent. When we get back to the Trinity, we will begin to look at specific verses in the Bible that teach the Trinity, the deity of Christ and the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit.
As we have looked at the Trinity over the last few weeks, we have looked at how love is at the core of our understanding of the Trinity. We examined how important the study of the Trinity is, for it is how we know God. A couple of weeks ago we unfolded our definition of the Trinity, as we have looked at all that I have this fear.
My fear is that you will not be moved by a better understanding of this great and awesome doctrine, and thus arrive to the conclusion that striving to understanding the Trinity is not all that big of a deal. I fear that you will not be motivated through this study to love God more, to desire God more through the realization of just how amazing and astonishing the nature of God is.
Let me say this. If that is the case with you, please do not make the assumption that a greater understanding of the Trinity will not do that for us, that a more ample understanding of the Trinity will not in fact cause us to love God more, to desire Him more, to humble ourselves before Him, because it will do that by its very nature.
The problem, please understand, is with me, and my failure to truly communicate to you, with clarity, the wonders of the Trinity. Because if I accomplish just that, then I know it will move you towards God, for it certainly has done that for me. So put the blame on me, not on the doctrine itself.
This morning I want us to focus on how it is we can come to know that doctrine of the Trinity is true. What I am saying with that, is not I am going to prove to you that it is true, but how it is we CAN prove the Trinity to be true. The simple answer is this, we can know that the doctrine of the Trinity of is true, because God has revealed it to be true. Let’s unpack that statement.
The first truth that needs to be stated is that the word Trinity itself is not in the Bible. In fact this is one of the most given argument against the Trinity. People will say, and perhaps someone has said to you, that because the word Trinity is not a biblical term, then the doctrine itself is not true.
This argument is not only very weak, but it is an argument that can be used against the person who is making it. Say you are talking to a person who denies the deity of Christ, or a person who states that Jesus is not the eternal Son of God.
If that say, well the word Trinity is not even in Bible so how can it be true? Well, I can look a them and say, well you believe that God exists as One being and One person only, that makes you a Unitarian. Where is Unitarian in the Bible? It is not. So therefore what you believe about God cannot be true because the word we use to define it is not in the Bible.
We use the word monotheism to describe the fact that God is one, and our Unitarian friends would also agree with monotheism. But do we say that it cannot be true because the word we use to define is not in Scripture?
The thing is we cannot simple dismiss a teaching based on the fact that word we use to define that teaching is not in the Bible. The word atheism is not in the Bible, but we know that the Bible talks of those who say there is no God.
The word incarnation is not in the Bible, but any honest person can see the Bible teaches that God is said to become flesh. For John 1:1 tells us the Word was God, John 1:14 tells us that the Word became flesh.
The truth of the matter is, is that there are many such words that are used to define Bible truths even though those words are not in Scripture. To quote Warfield, “…the definition of a Biblical doctrine in such unbiblical language can be justified only on the principle that it is better to preserve the truth of Scripture than the words of Scripture.”
So do not be persuaded by any silly argument that just because the word Trinity is not in the Bible that the doctrine it defines is not therefore not in the Bible.
The second truth we need to state is that any truth regarding the nature of God, such as His triune nature, must come by revelation from God. In other words, what we know about God, must come from God.
We need to understand that God’s revelation about Himself is progressive within the Scripture. You heard me talk about this when we did our series on the redemptive History of God. How God’s redemptive history is like a curtain on a stage, and as the History of the Bible unfolds it is like a curtain on a stage is being pulled back and you begin to see more and more of what is going on.
The same is true as we will see in a few moments regarding the nature of God. God reveals Himself in a certain way throughout the OT, then in a more complete way in the NT with the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Benjamin Warfield in his article The Biblical Doctrine of the Trinity says this, “The Old Testament may be likened to a chamber richly furnished but dimly lighted; the introduction of light brings into it nothing which was not in it before; but it brings out into clearer view much of what is in it but was only dimly or even not at all perceived before. The mystery of the Trinity is not revealed in the Old Testament; but the mystery of the Trinity underlies the Old Testament revelation, and here and there almost comes into view. Thus the Old Testament revelation of God is not corrected by the fuller revelation which follows it, but only perfected, extended and enlarged.”
That statement is very true, and it is Jesus Christ is who is the “light of the world”. He is the one who lights up the chamber that is the OT as it were.
Listen to Col. 2:2-3; “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Also Heb. 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.”
Christ is the fullness of God’s revelation about Himself, and how do we know Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the NT.
So as we will see in the OT God begins to reveal certain things about Himself, and when they are exposed to the light that is Jesus Christ, they become much clearer, and we can see His triune nature.
I believe that following illustration by McGrath can give us a better understanding of this truth that what we know about God and His triune nature, must come from God.
Suppose you have a boat and you are on the Chesapeake Bay. You ride up in the estuary, that is where fresh water and salt water meets. You enter into the Susquehanna River with your boat and you determined to find that its source. So you follow the Susquehanna River with all its bends and so forth until you arrive at it’s source which is Otsego lake.
The first point of the illustration is that the estuary, the stream or flux, that the part of the river that flows through Harrisburg, Binghamton and Oneonta, and so forth, and the source all collectively make up the totality of the river, because you could not have the Susquehanna River if you took any one of those three things away. The river must have source, it must have a stream, and place where it enters into a large body of water, in this case the Atlantic Ocean.
The second point is this, which is more important. You began your search for the source of the river at the point which the river meets the ocean. That is the point which you entered into the stream or river. And what we can see is that this stream is both that which guided you to the source and also provided the means by which you got to the source. It pointed the way and gave the means by which your boat could travel to get to the source.
So at every point of the way, that helped you in providing not only direction to the source, but the very channel by which you had to travel to get there.
Now let us apply that to the understanding of the Trinity. In the doctrine of the Trinity we have the affirmation that it is God Himself who guides us in finding Him, and finding out about Him. It is God who sets us on the right path, it is God who directs us, it is God who provides us with the very means that we need to know Him and experience Him. We must understand that God is involved from the beginning to the end of our finding Him. We all may be at different points along the river, in our understanding certain things about God, but it is God who is bringing us along.
As McGrath states, “God is both the goal of our journey and the means by which we find him. We come to the Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. At every stage God is already there.”
I will also say that when people begin to set course on their own journey, when the leave the proverbial river as it were, they end up in error, then end up with perverted and distorted view of God and His nature, because they are on the path of their making instead of the one God has provided.
Thus far we have looked at two truths regarding how it is we can come to know that doctrine of the Trinity is true. First we deal with the fallacious argument that because the word Trinity is not in the Bible therefore the doctrine cannot be truth, second is that any truth regarding the nature of God, such as His triune nature, must come by revelation from God.
The third truth I want us to look is what the did the OT saints know about God through revelation and compare that with what the NT saints knew about the God. This of course will not be an exhaustive list, in fact we will only begin to scratch the very surface of this topic. But I want us to look at this in a general way just as a means of seeing that we can know that the doctrine of the Trinity is true because of how God reveals Himself first in the OT then in the NT. You will see what I mean in moment.
Let us begin here with some of what the OT saints knew about God. They had an understanding that God was beyond there ability to comprehend. He was not like the gods of their neighbors. Those gods were made of hands, carved from stones or wood. These god did not reveal themselves and then they carved images as instructed by those gods. These false god were first created in the minds of men, then an image created to match what they thought this god should look like.
The true and living God reveals Himself and because of His absolute uniqueness He forbid any image to be made of Himself. He also tells the people that He is beyond their minds ability to fully comprehend.
God states in Isa. 55:8-9; “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
This is just one of many passages in Scripture where God tells us that He is beyond us, there is nothing in creation to compare Himself too. This tells us that, what we know about God, must come from God, He must reveal it to us.
Five things the OT saints knew about God through the revelation of God. Again this is not an exhaustive list, nor is it in any particular order.
First, God is Holy! There are of course several places within the OT that we read of the fact that God is Holy. But what I believe is the most significant one is Isa. 6:3 “And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!””
What I find interesting is the fact that God is said to be not just Holy, not just Holy, Holy, but Holy, Holy, Holy! Is this a reference to the triune nature of God? Could be. I believe that it is, though I can’t prove that. But my points is, is that the OT saints knew God was Holy. That He was Holy, Holy, Holy.
Second that OT saints knew that God was Righteous. Once more there are many verses that we could look to that speak of the fact that God is Righteous. One such verse is Isa 45:21 “Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior;”
We know that the OT saints of God, knew that the Lord, who was their Saviour, was indeed a righteous God.
Third, the OT saints knew God was their creator. This is obvious from the very first sentence of the Bible, Gen. 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
This is certainly something that OT saints understood. It was God who was their creator.
Fourth, the OT saints knew that God was one of kind, unique. They understood that there was only one true and living God. Isa 46:9 “ “remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me,”
The knew that the LORD God was totally unique, and there was nothing like Him.
Fifth, the OT saints knew that God was eternal. That there was never a time He did not exist. Psa. 90:2-4 “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You return man to dust and say, “Return, O children of man!” For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.”
The OT saints understood that there was never a time when God was not God. That He was beyond time itself, beyond creation.
Ok, we have looked at five things which the OT saints knew about God. Notice that all of them come through God reveling it to them. They would not know these things apart from God’s revelation.
Now in the very short time we have left I want show that the NT saints knew the same things about God, but they saw these things in Christ. These things that were unique to the God revealed in the OT, were things they saw in the incarnate Christ. Take note of the following.
They knew that Jesus was Holy. Jesus is called “The Holy One” in the NT and at least 7 occasions and there is no doubt that He is called Holy.
I’ll give you one example Acts 2:27 “For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.” Jesus is the Holy One.
They knew that Jesus is righteous. Look at Acts 3:14 “But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,”
The NT saints Christ was righteous, unlike any other man who had ever been born.
They knew Jesus was the Creator. Col. 1:16 “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities––all things were created through him and for him.”
They knew Jesus was one of a kind, unique. Two verse here. Phil. 2:9; “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,” Also John 3:18 “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
There is much we can say about these passages but we do not have the time. The point is the NT saint understood that Jesus was unique. He was one of kind.
They knew that Jesus was eternal. There are many NT passages that teach this true but one of the most powerful comes from Jesus Himself in John 17:5; “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” Jesus was with the Father before the world existed, thus He is eternal.
The point of all this is that what the OT saints knew about God, that He was holy, righteous, creator, unique, and eternal, what was what the NT knew about Christ. Because they were both God and Just as the OT saints knew YAHWEH as God, the NT saint understood Jesus Christ to be God. God had revealed those truths in one way to the OT. He then reveals those same truths in greater way through the incarnation of the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity.
To once more quote Warfield, “Thus the Old Testament revelation of God is not corrected by the fuller revelation which follows it, but only perfected, extended and enlarged.”
So much more could be said about all this but we are out of time. I will close with the gospel, the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel that must be believed to have any hope for eternal live.
I pray that you would repent, turn from your sins, and trust in Christ. Believe that He died for your sins, that He was buried, and that He rose again on third day and now sits as the eternal Son of God at the right hand of the Father. May God grant you the grace to believe in the Gospel.
LET US PRAY
