The Triunity of God (2)

We are talking about the Trinity or the triunity of God on Wednesday evenings. We started last time we were together in this study talking about what most people refer to as the Trinity, what I will designate later on and I'll give you the reason why is the triunity of God. I think a little better name, a little better designation for it. But let me just review a little bit of territory from the last time since it's been a couple of weeks. We talked about the importance of this doctrine, the doctrine of the Trinity or the triunity of God. It is a distinctive doctrine. It's truly one of the distinctive doctrines of Christianity and is often ridiculed because of that. We looked at that. We looked at also the fact that it's a fundamental doctrine. It's one of the fundamentals of the Christian faith. If you were to list five or six basic foundational doctrines, nobody would leave the Trinity out of that. No matter what kind of list you come up with, everybody would include the Trinity because it is a foundational doctrine without it. There is no deity of Christ. There's no deity or even personhood of the Holy Spirit. There's no incarnation, no God, the second person coming to this earth to be our Savior. The concept of the Trinity actually impacts our salvation because salvation could not be offered as the Bible teaches it without the Trinity. It's a very, very key foundational doctrine. We also talked last time about the difficulty of this doctrine. The reason most rejected is because it's difficult to understand. Those who do reject it, the reason most of them do is because it's difficult to understand. It seems like a logical absurdity. You're telling me there's one God, but the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. That sounds like three gods. How can you say there's one God but three persons who are all God, that sounds like a contradiction. It does sound like a contradiction. Logically, it doesn't really make sense. But we talked about the fact that logic and human reason is not our authority. It's not the foundation for what we believe. The Bible is. And so the key here is to see does the Bible teach the Trinity? And if it does, regardless of whether or not we can wrap our minds around it adequately to satisfy our own rationale or logic, regardless of whether or not we can do that, then we believe it. There are lots of things in the Bible that I can't adequately explain logically. I can't explain the union of two natures in Christ, His deity and humanity and how He is perfectly God, perfectly man, 100% God, 100% man, and how those fit together in one person. I can't fully understand that. But people have often called the Trinity the bankruptcy of logic. It really does not make logical sense, but it does make biblical sense. And so the key is to see whether or not it is taught in the Bible. That's the key to accepting or rejecting any doctrine is whether or not it is found in the Word of God. And I think over the next two or three studies, we will definitely see that it is taught in the Bible. Now that's where we left off last time. So let's jump in tonight by talking about, first of all, the unity of God. It's important in dealing with the Trinity to, first of all, establish the fact that there is one God, the unity of God. That's the starting point. And so that's where we're going to start tonight. There is one God and only one God. The Bible teaches that very plainly and very clearly. It is a doctrine which is stressed in the Old Testament. The unity of God, the fact there's one God is stressed particularly in the Old Testament. Now we're going to find that the Trinity is found in the Old Testament, but it is not as developed, not as abundant, not as much teaching on the Trinity in the Old Testament as there is a New Testament. The Old Testament stresses the unity of God that there is one God. Why do you think that would be so? Why in the Old Testament would there be such an emphasis on the fact that there is one God and only one God? Walt. Okay. All right. Okay. Very good. Okay. So because so many people worshiped many gods, all right, very good. The nations that inhabit the land of Canaan worshiped many gods didn't they? For sure. And many other nations did too. Christ hadn't come yet so there would not be as much of a need to establish His deity and His personhood. Okay. Freiber? Okay. So in order for the Israelites to comprehend who God is, it was important to stress the unity of God. All right. Did I see another hand? Yes, Vicki? Okay. Okay. The foundation for Christ coming that had to be laid before that could be revealed. The foundation of the unity of God was important. I think those are all good reasons. The couple of you touched on the foundation must be laid for who God is before we were ready to introduce the fact that God really exists in three persons. And that's an idea that is by theologians called progressive revelation. It's a very important concept in understanding how to interpret your Bible, progressive revelation. And that is that God doesn't reveal everything right at the beginning. He reveals more information as time goes along through the scriptures. So there is more revealed in the New Testament about most every doctrine than there was in the Old Testament. I mean, what we're talking about tonight with the Trinity, the same thing could be said about many doctrines. Much more complete revelation in the New Testament, you introduced God did, introduced very basic truths first, and then built on those. And as more writers of scripture came along and more books were added to the Word of God, God's revelation, more truth would be given that would build on earlier truths. So that's very true that the foundation had to be laid first. And then later would be built on with understanding the deity of Christ, the deity of the Holy Spirit, and so forth. But some of you touched on another key element, I believe, and it's that all of the nations around Israel were polytheistic, all of them worshiped many gods from Egypt right on up through the nations in Canaan and all the nations around Israel. Were worshipping many gods, and so there's this huge stress to Israel that there's one God, only one God, so that they would not fall into the error of worshipping many gods like all the nations around them. Now we know from the Old Testament, the history of Israel, they did anyway. They did fall into that trap and that error of worshipping many gods and accepted the gods of many other nations. But that was a major reason at least why God stressed his unity. So let's move to the biblical teaching. And we're going to look at several passages, four of them in the Old Testament and three in the New Testament that stressed the unity of God. First of all, Exodus chapter 20, Exodus 20 verses 2 through 4. This is the 10 commandments. So you know where we're starting here, the 10 basic foundational laws for Israel and the very first one has to do with the unity of God. Has to do with the fact that there is one God and only one God. Verse 20 verse 1 says in God spoke all these words, now verse 2, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods, little G, no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them. He goes on to talk about the fact because he is the only true God. So the very first of the 10 commandments stresses the fact that there's only one God. You are to have no other pretend gods, counterfeit gods, supposed gods that you worship before me. And you're not to make an idol in any form of anything to worship me. There's only one God. No other deity can be tolerated to rival him. Okay. Look at Deuteronomy 6. This is a basic foundational Old Testament passage. In fact, this was considered the basic truth in all of Israel's theology. It's called the Shema, which is the Hebrew word for the first word in our English text, here, here, or Israel. And they just referred to it as the Shema. It was probably the passage that would be most dear to every Jewish family. It would be on the doorpost of their home in the little Mizzusa, the box that they would put on the doorpost of their home, the factories that they would wear, the little boxes of scripture that would be around their forearm or around their head would probably, among other scriptures, contain this one. Because this was considered the foundational truth in all of Israel. Deuteronomy 6 verse 4, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. The Lord our God, the Lord is one, or he is the Lord alone. He is God alone. There are no rivals. There's only one God, and he's communicating that to Israel again so that they don't slip into this pattern of all the other nations of worshiping many gods. All right, another Old Testament passage in Isaiah. This is so typical of the prophets, Isaiah 44. We're just going to look at a couple of passages from the prophets, but the prophetic books from Isaiah on through the end of the Old Testament through Malachi are full of this kind of thing. Why would there be so many warnings in the prophets about there's only one God, there's only one God? Why would the prophets tend to see the slip? And the prophets are calling Israel back to what they should have known but didn't practice. You see, the prophets in the Old Testament have a twofold ministry. Part of their ministry is to proclaim truth to their present day. So they are preachers. They proclaim truth to their generation. And then they also prophesy of what will happen in the future. When we think of the prophetic books because they're called prophetic books, we think of only that second part of their ministry that they foretold the future. But they did much more than that. They've proclaimed the truth to their own generation. And two major infacies of the prophets as regards their own generation was to call them back to God away from idolatry because Israel did fall into this trap of idolatry and it would be the main reason why they would be taken into captivity and judged by God. So the prophets are continually calling them back to worship the one true God. And the other thing they call them back to is the law of Moses, especially as it relates to how they live in treating other people in justice and so forth. So the prophets are just replete with these kinds of warnings. We're just going to look at a couple of examples here close together in Isaiah, first of all in Isaiah 44, Isaiah 44, verses 6 through 8. This is what the Lord says, Israel's king and redeemer, the Lord Almighty, I am the first and I am the last. Apart from me, there is no God who then is like me. Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people. And what is yet to come? Yes, let him foretell what will come. In other words, if there is another God, let him tell the future and see if it comes true. The idols couldn't do that. Verse 8, Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No. There is no other rock. I know not one. That's pretty emphatic, isn't it? Very clear warning from Isaiah, God himself speaking and reminding his people, there is no other God. There is only one God. Much the same thing in chapter 45. Look at chapter 45, verse 5, I am the Lord and there is no other. Apart from me, there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting, men may know there is none besides me, I am the Lord and there is no other. Again, this really clear stress on the fact that there is only one God. There is no other God, only one. Israel is warned by the prophets not to be seduced by idolatry and to pagan nations and all their infricate worship of many gods. There is only one God. Those are the four Old Testament passages I have picked out. There are lots of others, obviously, but any comment or question about those before we move to some New Testament teaching? Yes, John? Is there any difference back then as there is today? I mean, it would be still finding other gods. Have the world as an old. Yes. No. The great question, there really isn't any difference, especially when you look at worldwide religions in that so many worldwide religions have a plurality of gods. On one of the flights, it was on Monday night, sitting right behind, I could tell a father and a son, and they looked to be from Asia and sure enough, I could see enough and over here enough, although I wasn't trying to pry into their business, that the father was kept handing papers back and forth through son, teaching him Hinduism. Obviously, there were Hindus, and you could see he was doing some kind of, I don't know if it was school work or what they were doing, but it was all about Hindu. I could hear the father telling his son, now the goddess, and he said some name, and he went on to explain what this goddess does. So you look at Hinduism, you look at Buddhism, you look at Confucianism, Shintoism in Japan, many of the false religions of the world have many gods, many gods. Hinduism has millions of gods. And so the same thing is true today. We're not as accustomed to that in the Western world because of the popularity and predominance of so-called Christianity, even if it's not truly Christian, people typically worship the one god or claim to worship the one god. Steve. That's a good point, and another direction to go with this is that, even those of us who claim, many people who claim Christianity, still worship other gods, they just don't name them, they're not idols necessarily, but I think this is the direction you were headed right, Steve, we worship other gods, whether it's money, fame, sports, whatever it may be, those become our idols. And so you can legitimately take the warnings of the Old Testament and plug in those kinds of gods into them and they still apply very, very much to us. So a good caution, I'm glad Steve brought that up, it's awful easy for us to kind of sit back and say, well I'm not a Hindu, I'm not a Buddhist, so I'm not an idolator, but we can very easily be idolaters. Something that comes before God in our lives, that takes over our devotion, our focus really becomes an idol, it can be our work, it can be a lot of things. So good, very good caution. Okay, I want to look at a couple of New Testament passages, whether you do or not we're going to, so let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 8 where Paul is, talking to the Corinthian church about Christian liberty. And he's talking in their context in Corinth about the question was, should we eat food that has been sacrificed to idols? Most in places like Corinth and Gentile cities in the Roman Empire, most of the most meat that would be bought in the marketplace came from animals that had been sacrificed in the pagan temples. And then once they sacrificed the animal, used its blood, they sold the meat in the marketplace. Well a huge question for these early believers was, should we buy that meat? After all that meat's been dedicated to an idol, does that somehow involve us in idolatry? And Paul is going to say, he's going to say that's an issue of Christian liberty. If you come out of that background and it offends your conscience, then don't do it. But notice how he's going to address this in verse 4. He says, so then about eating food sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing at all in the world. And that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, again little G, self-proclaimed deities, gods that people think are gods, even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth as indeed there are many gods and many lords. Now he's not saying that there are legitimately other gods. He's just saying there are things that people call gods and call lords and worship as other gods. So it's not that they legitimately exist, but they are worshipped as gods. Verse 6, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live, and there is but one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. So basically, and Paul's going to follow on with his argument, his answer is as a believer we know that there's only one God. So to eat that meat is not to contaminate you because the person who offered it in that idol temple believed there was another God, but we know there isn't another God. There is only one God and so you're not participating in idolatry just by eating that meat. Okay. And by the way, there are lots of carryovers to current issues with Christian liberty that are founded on that same principle. It's a reason I don't believe in boycotts as a Christian response to social hills because if you try to be consistent with that, you'll live as a hermit. You won't do any commerce anywhere because you have no idea what happens to your money when it leaves you. And what that bank has helped to build or who they've loaned money to or what all Walmart supports, you know, you're only responsible for what you do with your money, not what the other people do with it once they get it. It's the same principle. Okay. Me buying something at Walmart or going to a particular bank does not necessarily involve me in their sin. It's only what I do with my money that I'm accountable to God for. That's what Paul's saying. You can eat that meat and it does not involve you in idolatry because you didn't offer that meat to a false God. Somebody else did that. You just bought it in the marketplace to eat at home and that's all you're responsible for. So Paul says, you know, as believers, we know there's only one God. We're not dealing with idols. We're not involved in idolatry. So it's an area of Christian liberty. It's not wrong. It's not sinful, Paul says. But if your conscience is offended by it, then for you personally, you shouldn't do it. Okay. That's what issues of Christian liberty are all about. Okay. Any comments or questions about that passage? Paul makes it very plain. There's one God. All right. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2. For there is one God and one mediator between God and me and the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all me and the testimony given in its proper time. Only one God and one go between one mediator between God and man that's Christ. So clear statement of fact is one God and one other passage and then we need to develop this just a little bit more before we end tonight. James 2.19, James says, you believe that there is one God? Good. Even the demons believe that and shudder. This is in the context of what he's talking about. It's really true faith. True faith is not just intellectual ascent, mental agreement with a truth. Being faith is not, I believe in God. That's not going to save anybody. That doesn't get anybody to heaven. And you know, a lot of people believe that. You talk to people about whether or not they're right. Well, I believe in God. Well, what James is saying, that's not saving faith. Even demons believe in God. And they know enough about Him to shudder, to fear. They know enough about His holiness, His power, His awesomeness, His glory to be afraid of Him. Okay, that doesn't mean demons are going to go to heaven. So this is his point. But in the context of making that point, he does indicate there's one God. That's good to believe that there's only one God. All right, that's enough, I think, to stress the unity of God. That's the foundation that we build the Trinity on. And so it's important that we start there. Now let's talk a little bit about the Trinity. We're going to look at verses later. We're not going to look at those tonight. We're going to spend at least one whole lesson on the Trinity in the Old Testament. And then we'll spend at least one whole lesson, maybe two, on the Trinity in the New Testament. But tonight I just want to kind of develop, first of all, what it is. With two or three statements, let me develop what we're talking about with the Trinity. Number one, God is one in nature or essence. Okay, that's the unity of God. God is one in nature or essence. In other words, there's only one God. And as we see all three members of the Godhead, as the way we would typically refer to that, they all have the same nature. They have the same essence or attributes or qualities. They do not act independently of each other. They all have the same nature. Okay, so God is one in nature or essence. But the second truth that has to be taken into account is that God is three in regard to persons. He's one in nature or essence. Three in regard to persons. In other words, there are three individual personalities that are all God. And the third statement that is important is these three persons are equal. They are equal. They are equal in nature and essence. In the fact that they are all equally God. They are equal in attributes. So here's what we're saying. The Father is not more God than the Son is. Jesus Christ is just as much God as the Father is. The Holy Spirit is just as much God as the Son or the Father is. They are equal. All of them have equal power. All of them have equal attributes. All those fifteen attributes that we talked about have God, all of them are characteristic of all three members of the Trinity. They are all eternal. They all have the same authority and power. Although there is a functional submission in the Trinity. Now by functional submission, I mean in order to carry out the work of God, members, various members of the Godhead are willing to take different roles, different functions. And so when the Son who is equal with the Father comes to this earth, takes on a human nature and a human body to become our Savior, he willingly submits himself to the Father. And we'll see in the Gospel of John that he only does what the Father tells him. He moves by the Father's timetable. He is always submissive to his Father, obedient to the will of the Father. So functionally to carry out the plan of redemption, he takes a place of submission, but that doesn't mean he's lower or any less of a person or less equal. He's still equal to God the Father. And that's such a beautiful picture of headship and submission in the home. All uses that in 1 Corinthians 11 to be a picture of how submission and headship in the home should work. He says, for God is the head of Christ, Christ is the head of the man, the man is the head of the woman. Now the husband is the head of his wife and the wife is submissive to her husband in the same way that the Father is the head of Christ and Christ is submissive to the Father. They are equal. There's no difference in personhood. It's just in order to carry out the plan of the Trinity. One is willingly submissive to the other. And that's the way it's supposed to work in the home too. So that's what it is. One in nature or essence, three in regard to persons and the three persons are equal in every sense. Now let me say a word about what it is not. The Trinity is not three separate gods. Now this is where the logic fails. This is where you're going to have trouble understanding this logically because it doesn't fit logically. We're not talking about three separate gods. That's what the Jehovah's Witnesses accuse us of. That's what the Mormon's accused us of. That's what liberal theology accuses us of. Of worshiping three gods. No, there's only one God. But he exists in three equal eternal persons. But we're not talking about three separate gods. And here's something else that we're not talking about. This has been an error that crops up throughout church history. It has almost from the beginning and it crops up in different forms. But we are not saying that God exists or God has three modes of existence. In other words, we're not saying that God sometimes presents himself as the Father, sometimes he presents himself as the Son, sometimes he presents himself as the Spirit. That was an early error in church history that wise and godly men fought and battled and defeated, but it has raised its ugly head many, many times through church history and still does today. T.D. Jakes, by the way, believes that. That there's not a Trinity, but God sometimes manifests Himself as Father, sometimes as Son, sometimes as Spirit. And there are many false teachers who do. Lots of false teachers who do. And they're slick. They say a lot of neat things. They may sound good, but you have to check their doctrine carefully. So we're not saying that. By the way, when we get to the New Testament proof for the Trinity, there are a couple of passages, but one in particular that is the death nail to that false teaching that God sometimes presents Himself as Father, sometimes as Son, sometimes as Spirit. We have any clue where that would be. There's an incident in the New Testament where all at least one, where all three of them are functioning at the same time, at the same location. If any idea where that might be, somebody said it. Christ baptism, exactly. Jesus is being baptized. The Father speaks from heaven. This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. And the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove. All three are acting at the same time. Jesus obviously is in action as being baptized. The Holy Spirit is acting, and the Father is speaking all three at the same time. So that's the death nail to the false teaching that, well, sometimes He shows up as God the Father. At other times He's God the Holy Spirit. No, no, there are three separate persons. Look, all three are interacting at the same time there. Let me quickly say this. There are lots of attempted illustrations of the Trinity, and most, if not all of them, break down. They don't really illustrate the Trinity very well. Some people say that the sun is a good illustration because you've got the actual physical processes of the sun, but it also produces light and heat. So sun, light, heat. That kind of works, but not really. Some people say that egg and egg with the three parts of the egg, the shell, the skin, the yolk, or the white and the yolk, but those are not all equal parts of the egg. That doesn't really work. Some people try to symbolize it as a triangle. That doesn't really work. I used to say, because one of the examples it's often given is water. Water can exist in three forms as a liquid, obviously, as a gas and as a solid. And I used to teach all the time, but they can't exist in all three forms at the same time. I was teaching that in a Chapel 301 class one time. And Dr. Joe Saunders raised his hand, our resident chemist. He said, actually, John, they can in the lab, it's called critical point, where they can exist at the same time in all three forms. So I've revised my notes. Maybe that is the best example then is water. Let me quickly state the doctrine in this way to kind of wrap this up. This may be the best way to give a simple statement of the doctrine of the Trinity. Within the one Godhead, there are three eternal, equal, and personal distinctions. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Within the one Godhead, there is one God. There are three equal, eternal, and personal distinctions. And that is the Father, Son, and Spirit. And it's probably the best term to use for that is the term triunity. Rather than Trinity, the word triunity captures and includes the emphasis on both the unity and the Trinity. Because really unity is the stress on one God. Trinity is the stress on three persons, all of whom are equally God. The word triunity brings them both together. You've got the one and the three. The one essence, one nature manifested equally at the same time in three persons. Now again, to even state the Trinity like that doesn't make sense. It doesn't fit logically. But as we're going to see in the next two or three weeks, there is abundant evidence in the Bible of the Trinity, abundant evidence. So it's something we're not going to be able to escape and not going to be able to argue easily around. All right, any comments or questions before we close? Are we wrong? Like when we pray or something, we ask that the Holy Spirit may touch somebody. Are we getting into this affording different parts of the Trinity? I mean, I don't know. That is probably a long answer. But let me just, I can't answer it simply, but there's more to it. John is asking, is it wrong to pray to the Holy Spirit? Addressed the Holy Spirit in prayer? No, it's not wrong because all three are equally God. The reason why we typically pray to the Father is because that's how Jesus taught us to pray. Jesus says, when you pray, pray this way, our Father, the Chardonnay Heaven. So he taught his disciples to address prayer to the Father. And that's the reason why we pray. But there's nothing theological wrong with addressing prayer directly to Christ or to the Holy Spirit, all three are God. But I like to maintain addressing the Father because that's the way Jesus taught us to pray. Steve. Yeah. Three persons. Yeah. Right. It does make sense. Yeah. There's so much about God, we cannot fully grasp anyway. So it's a good example with infinite number of God balls. Take a third of them. How do you figure a third of infinite? Okay. All right. With that, let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, for our time together. Thank you for the ministry of your word to our hearts. Thank you that you are one. Thank you that there are three persons within the Godhead who are all equal, eternal. Thank you, Father, for who you are, even if we can't fully understand you. Lord, we bow ourselves before you and ask that we will live up to what we do understand. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.