Figuring God
John 16:12-15
May 22, 2005
Let’s play a few games this morning. You’ve seen these little puzzles that are called “brain teasers.” Let’s see if you can figure these puzzles out.
A customer at a 7-11 store selected four items to buy, and was told that the cost was $7.11. He was curious that the cost was the same as the store name, so he enquired as to how the figure was derived. The clerk said that he had simply multiplied the prices of the four individual items. The customer protested that the four prices should have been ADDED, not MULTIPLIED. The clerk said that that was OK with him, but, the result was still the same: exactly $7.11. What were the four prices?
Let’s do an easy one. Each child in a family has at least 3 brothers and 3 sisters. What is the smallest number of children the family might have? Figure that one!
Okay, one more. Maybe you’ve seen this one. Three people check into a hotel. They pay $30 to the manager and go to their room. The manager suddenly remembers that the room rate is $25 and gives $5 to the bellboy to return to the people. On the way to the room the bellboy reasons that $5 would be difficult to share among three people so he pockets $2 and gives $1 to each person. Now each person paid $10 and got back $1. So they paid $9 each, totalling $27. The bellboy has $2, totalling $29. Where is the missing $1?
Take those home if you haven’t figured them out. Work on them a few days, and check your June 1st newsletter for the answers.
What was this supposed to demonstrate? I hope it demonstrated the human nature to be inquisitive. We like to try to figure things out. Especially us guys. Our wives present us with a problem, and our first inclination is to figure out a solution. Problem, solution. That is way life is supposed to work. Right?
Our natural propensity is to do the same thing with God. We think we have to figure God out before we can trust him. Today is Trinity Sunday in the Christian calendar. A day marked in the Christian year where the focus seems to be on a doctrine rather than an event or a specific teaching of Jesus. This doctrine of the Holy Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—is a mystery that theologians have pondered for centuries. We can’t quite figure out how there can be one God eternally existent in three persons. It just doesn’t quite make sense, but we think about it, we look at it from different angles, we try different illustrations to explain it, but we just can’t quite understand it.
We must confess that nowhere in the Bible is the doctrine of the Holy Trinity explicit. We will not find a chapter and verse that references the doctrine at all, but when we hear the words of Jesus, we know that the idea of God in Three Persons is implicit in his life and teaching. We know that God relates to His creation in the manner of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet He is not three gods but one God.
One passage of Scripture demonstrates somewhat of the mystery that exists, but also relates Jesus’ understanding of the interrelatedness of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Listen to John 16:12-15:
[12]"Oh, there is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. [13] When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not be presenting his own ideas; he will be telling you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. [14] He will bring me glory by revealing to you whatever he receives from me. [15] All that the Father has is mine; this is what I mean when I say that the Spirit will reveal to you whatever he receives from me.
So where did this doctrine of the Holy Trinity come from? Well, not from a bunch of theologians who sat around with nothing better to do. The doctrine developed as a means to describe how the One God in whom we believe relates to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It was formed out of argument. A fellow named Marcion in the second Century taught that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament were two different gods. God, in the Old Testament, was harsh, cruel, and full of wrath and judgment. Jesus, on the other hand, was kind, gentle and loving. Therefore, we should reject the God of the Old Testament and believe in Jesus Christ. Another guy named Arius taught that Jesus was not really god, but rather a demigod created by God the Father to be a mediator between heaven and earth. Then there was a group called Enthusiasts who believed the coming of the Holy Spirit replaced God the Father and God the Son. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity was formulated by the early church to describe the basic belief in God in three persons, each co-equal, co-eternal, one in essence and substance.
The debate rages still in the church among Christians and among denominations even. There are some denominations who baptize in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Isn’t that what Jesus commanded? Look at Matthew 28:19:
Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Yet other denominations baptize in the name of Jesus only. There are still other denominations who have started baptizing in the name of “Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.” That is the politically correct way of saying Father, Son and Holy Spirit, lest we offend anyone or exclude anyone by the male gender language of the original formulation. These are all contemporary debates, and they all grow out of our incessant desire to figure God out.
Let me take you back to the Garden of Eden. The first temptation the serpent offered to Adam and Eve was the temptation to “be like God, knowing everything.” Guess what? That temptation is still with us today. We like to nail everything down, put everything into neat little boxes. That way we can control every situation. The quest for knowledge is a good thing, don’t get me wrong. Again, in Genesis, it was God who gave humanity the directive to till the soil, and to name the animals. God was laying the foundation for the scientific enterprise, and the exploration of God’s creation helps us to fulfill the task appointed to us by God Himself.
But the great mistake we make is to make God a part of His creation. God is not a part of the creation. God is wholly other, and therefore, God can never be the subject of scientific investigation. God is not some riddle or mind puzzle that can be solved with enough thought and reflection. God is a mystery, and mystery that is solved ceases to be a mystery. God is a mystery to be adored rather than a riddle to be explained. All we can ever know about God is what God chooses to reveal to us. Beyond that, God will always remain a mystery.
The mysteriousness of God is the whole point behind the doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine does not define God, but it does describe what God has allowed us to know of Himself. It will always remain a mystery because God will always be a mystery—at least in this life anyway. I am reminded of the words of Paul writing to the Christians at Corinth:
Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now.
1 Corinthians 13:12
There is coming a day when we will understand all things completely. But until that time we live in the mystery of this life. The gospel passage we read this morning has Jesus telling his disciples “there is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now.” I think what Jesus means is pretty clear. If we knew all things and had full knowledge, it would be completely unbearable for us. We think it would give us freedom, but it would really serve to enslave us. The spontaneity of life would be eliminated, and grace would be a formula of cause and effect. Life would be reduced to a mathematical equation. We simply cannot bear all truth just yet. But Jesus promised his disciples, and he promises us, that the Spirit of truth would come to guide us into all truth. Not suddenly and instantaneously, but slowly and gradually, in a measure appropriate to our ability to receive it.
I am reminded of the story Corrie Ten Boom told of her father’s illustration of faith. Corrie was lamenting the persecution endured by the Jews at the hands of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany. Fearing the time might come for her to endure such persecution, she was adamant to her father that she could never endure such suffering, that her faith would surely falter. Her father sought to reassure her that trusting God was the key. Still she persisted in her concern. Finally, her father said, “Corrie, do you remember when we used to take the train?”
“Yes,” Corrie replied.
“Do you remember when I would give you the ticket to board the train?” Dad asked.
“Yes,” Corrie responded.
“Yes, I gave it to you when you were ready to board the train,” Dad said. “So it is with faith, Corrie. God gives it to us when we need it. Not before, not after, but as we need it. To give it early may cause us to lose it. To give it too late does us no good.”
So what are we to do with this doctrine of the Holy Trinity? I want us to be reminded every time we hear about it or ponder it that the Good News is that not that we have God all figured out, but that God has us figured out. And you know what? He loves us anyway, and he forgives our sins in spite of everything he knows about us. I want us also to be reminded that our journey of life is not one in which all the mysteries of life will be solved, but one in which we know that God is behind us, ahead of us, and beside us leading us to the day in heaven when all the mysteries will be revealed, and all the doctrines of the church will be meaningless in the presence of God Himself.
