The Holy Trinity
This is Trinity Sunday. On this Sunday we confess the Athanasian Creed which says in part: And the catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Essence. For there is one Person of the Father; another of the Son; and another of the Holy Ghost.
As soon as we start talking like this we are under attack. Whether it be from a pseudo-Christian group like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, or another major world religion like Islam, they berate us with these words:
• How can you call Christianity a monotheistic religion and believe in three gods – Father Son and Holy Spirit?
• How can you worship the all-powerful, eternal God when you say he died on a cross?
• How can you use the term trinity when it isn’t even found in the Holy Bible?
On this Trinity Sunday, I want us to discover anew the glorious truth of the Holy Trinity; I want us to exam some of the attacks on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and finally I want us to rejoice in our One God: Father Son and Holy Spirit. Let’s worship God with all of our minds.
The Discovery of the Holy Trinity
Let’s begin with our three lectionary texts this morning. Psalm 93 is obviously taking about Almighty God. He is clothed in majesty; His throne is from everlasting. His power is mightier than many waters. This is how most people think of God.
Our Gospel reading records the conversation between Jesus Christ and a powerful Jewish leader called Nicodemus. Here were two men - both Jews - who had quoted Deuteronomy 6:4 every day since they were children: Hear O Israel, The Lord our God is One. This is the most important verse in Judaism.
And now Jesus turns to this Jewish Supreme Court Judge and says Whoever believes in me will not perish but will have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whosever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. It is possible that God Almighty has a Son? Is it possible that there are two gods or two expressions of God? Or one God in two persons? But wait there is more…
In our third reading from Romans 8 we are introduced to a person who acts like God. Who talks like God? Who guides us like God? He is called the Holy Spirit. We are told that the sons of God are led by the Spirit of God. We are informed that the Spirit Himself bears witness to our spirit that we are the children of God. So now we have three persons that are God.
All the way through the Bible there are hints of this One God in Three Persons. For example, in the very first verse of the Bible “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”.
In the Hebrew text the first word is God. It is the word Elohim. It is the plural form of El – The Strong One. But Moses uses the plural form, Elohim. It literally means three gods. The odd thing is the verb create is singular. So, we have a plural noun and a singular verb. Something very strange and special is going on here.
Coming over to the New Testament at the very end of Matthew 28 Jesus is giving his disciples the Great Commission. He commands them to baptize people in the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The word Name is singular and then three names are given. How can there be one name and three persons? Something very strange and special is going on here.
The early Christians were just like us. They believed in One God. Most of them were Jews. And yet they knew Jesus Christ was very special. So much so that they called him ‘My Lord and My God.” And then the day of Pentecost came, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They never referred to the Holy Spirit as an influence or an ‘it’. He was always a person.
So now they had three persons that they worshipped and called God. By the time one generation of Christian had lived they were all blessing each other with this benediction. Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and forever more. Amen.
The Attacks Upon the Holy Trinity
What you believe about God is the most important thing about you. And the devil wants to distort or dilute the truth about God. So there have been many attacks on the Holy Trinity over the centuries. We don’t have time to deal with all of the attacks on the Holy Trinity but let me name three or four.
Modalism. When I was in my early 20’s I flirted with modalism. Model wasn’t a girl I knew. Modalism is a heresy. It claims that Jesus is the Father, Jesus is the Son and Jesus is the Holy Spirit. In other words, one God who shows himself to us in three modes or expressions. It’s like some kid dressing up on Halloween night as a clown, a witch and banana. Same person but three different costumes. That is not the teaching of the Bible or the Church. The Bible and the Creeds teaches one God in three persons. Today Modalism finds it expression in Canada among certain ‘Jesus Only’ groups.
Arianism. When the Nicaean Creed was forged in 325 the attack on the Holy Trinity was from a priest called Arris. He taught that there was only one true God, and that Jesus Christ was a created being, and the Holy Spirit was an influence. This heresy has appeared in almost every generation of Church history.
I have been reading a book about my ancestral heritage, The Puritans. The Puritans were the direct spiritual offspring of Calvin and Luther. They were at the forefront of the Protestant Reformation in England in the mid-1600’s. They were a part of the Church of England at first. They were evangelical and orthodox in faith and practice to begin with.
John Milton and John Bunyan were a couple of the more famous ones. But not all of the Puritans stayed in England to fight the Civil war. Many of them moved to New England, like my ancestors. There they build strong Bible Churches.
But within a generation or two these fine people began to question the deity of Jesus Christ. They pulled out of the Church of England and changed their name to Unitarian. There is a wonderful old church building in Boston right next the cemetery where my ancestors are buried. It was built as an Evangelical Anglican Church but today sadly it is a Unitarian church. There are scores of former Puritan churches throughout New England like that. They believe in God, but they do not believe that Jesus is God. They hold that the Holy Spirit is only God’s influence. They do not believe in the Holy Trinity.
The Holy Trinity is under attack. This heresy is alive and well in the 21st Century. Everyone from Jehovah’s Witnesses to Muslims teach that Jesus was a great prophet, but he was not God.
And then there are Evangelical Churches that say that they believe in the Holy Trinity but in reality, they believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Scriptures. They elevate the Bible to the place of God and demote the Holy Spirit to some unknown influence. They deny the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He not a real person who fills and directs their lives.
We are taking about the attacks on the Holy Trinity. We also attack the Holy Trinity unwittingly with many of the analogies we use to explain God. One preacher taught that the Holy Trinity was like three eggs in a flying pan where the whites join together as one. Three distinct yokes with the whites coming together as one. Well, friends, God is not three eggs in a frying pan. Others, see the Holy Trinity like water: liquid, ice and stream. The problem with that illustration is H2O can only be one of those things at a time. That illustration is really teaching the heresy modalism which I had a close bush with in my youth.
Most illustrations to explain the Holy Trinity fall far short. God comes up looking like a three-headed monster. The only illustration of God that we are permitted by Scripture to use is a husband and wife in a loving marriage. The two shall become one flesh. According to the Bible this is a snapshot of how one God can be more than one person.
We need to humble ourselves and realize that we cannot fully explain God. He is far beyond us, and his ways are past finding out. We cannot do much better than quote the Great Creeds of the Church. But before we go what is the practical meaning of the Holy Trinity. What does all this mean to us today?
The Meaning of the Holy Trinity
We learn about Love.
The Bible says that God is love. God has always loved. Long before there was a universe; long before there were animals and humans God loved. The Father loved the Son and the Holy Spirit. And the Son loved the Father and the Spirit; and the Holy Spirit loved the Father and the Son. And this dance of love has been going on forever.
God did not create humans because he was lonely. God has always had Someone to love. The Father has always loved the Son and the Spirit. And the Son has always adored the Father and the Spirit. And the Holy Spirit has always found delight in the Father and Son. God found such great pleasure in each other that one day He said: Let us make man in our image. Love is the heart of what the Holy Trinity means.
Jesus said that we were to be one even as He and His Father are one. If you want to get along with someone look to the Holy Trinity. The great pattern for unity in the church and in a marriage is the Holy Trinity. If you want to know how to get along with your spouse study God. The best way we express the Holy Trinity is by loving one another.
There was a time in my life when I was hesitant to say I believed in the Holy Trinity. I gather you can tell I have changed my mind. Friends we have something that Islam does not have. We have God above us. God beside us and God in us. Father Son and Holy Spirit.
God is above us in awesome majesty. And that is all Muslims know.
But God is also with us. His name is Emmanuel, God with us. He walks with me and talks to me and tells me I am his own. His name is Jesus.
And God is also living within us. The Comforter has come. That same Spirit that brought Christ from the dead lives within us. He comes to us each day to pour the very life of God into us.
Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty. Father Son and Holy Spirit.
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who has redeemed us not with silver or gold but with his own precious blood and the love of God the Father who has loved us with an everlasting love, and the sweet and powerful communion of the Holy Spirit be with you and all of God’s people both now and forever more. Amen.
