Lesson 3

One, in Essence, Three in Person:

The Doctrine of the Trinity.

“ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14

One, in Essence, Three in Person:

The Doctrine of the Trinity.

“ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14

True or false, is there One true God in the Bible? Do you have any examples from the Bible? (See Deuteronomy 6:4)

The God of the Bible is Exclusive, He is one.

Even if you can't point to a specific verse in the Bible you know that God is exclusive in His word.

The Trinity is a Doctrine that is harder to define. The word Trinity itself is not in the scriptures, however, that doesnt mean that the doctrine is untrue or cant be found in the Bible.

The word of God is full of the Trinitarian nature of God, In fact, the word trinity was used in an effort to be precise about what the Bible teaches about the doctrine of the Trinity to defend it from false teachers who were attempting to lead people away from what the Bible taught about The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The incomprehensibility of God plays a role in our understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity, and we should keep that in mind when we have these discussions. “Finitum non capax Infinitum” The finite cannot contain/grasp the infinite.

One in Essence

To begin with the Trinity we have to understand that the Trinity is a Triunity, meaning God is One Being, united, One essence, one God. Deuteronomy 6:4-10 says

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9

The Bible makes it clear there are no other Gods but the God of the Bible. Yet God in the New Testament has also spoken of Himself as Triune in his nature meaning there are Three Persons in the one essence or being of God.

The word essence comes from the Greek “ousios”: being or substance(”the stuff”).

He has revealed himself as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit sharing one essence or being.

The people of Israel memorized this scripture and titled it “the Shama '' which means “hear”. It is a call to obedience, faithfulness, and love toward the one and only God of Israel.

It is clear that God is God alone and that his people were to worship him alone. So why would God not reveal his triune nature in the OT?

Israel and all people had a heart bent toward idolatry. not long after God had done all the miracles to get Israel out of Egypt, God called all the people to Mount Sinai to appear before Him and gave Moses the law in the tablets of stone. While God is giving Moses the tablets with the commandments, (Exo. 20) You shall have no other gods before me, you shall not make graven images and bow down to them, the people were at the bottom of the mountain making for themselves a golden calf of which they said.

“ And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” Exodus 32:4

Progressive Revelation

The Lord gradually reveals more and more of himself:

RC Sproul said there was “no greater threat to Israel than the corruption that came from pursuing false idols.” We see that play out in history. One reason why God did not reveal his triune nature is because of the focus he wanted the people of Israel to have on his uniqueness. Unlike the nations around them who had many false gods, God is God alone and they should worship him as such. Israel and all people had a heart bent toward idolatry. God first laid the foundation that He is one God before revealing that He is 3 in person.

What we see in the Bible is that God gradually reveals more and more about himself. There's a progression of the revelation of who God is as we read through the Bible. (imagine reading through the Bible for the first time.) First, we read God as Creator of the heavens and earth, and by the time we reach Revelation we have a deeper understanding of God revealed through the Son.

Trinity Defined

The 25th Question of the Heidelberg Catechism is this

Q: Since there is but one divine Being, Why do you speak of three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

A: Because God has so revealed Himself in His Word that these distinct persons are the one, true, and eternal God.

Broken down further

1 There is only one true God, (there is usually no debate about this)

2 The True God exists in three Persons

3 Each of the three Persons is distinct from the other two

The Trinity is a tri-unity meaning the persons of the trinity do not exist apart from one another, yet they are each distinct and divine. The Father is divine, the Son is divine, and the Holy Spirit is divine but the Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit, and the same applies to the rest of the persons in the Godhead. And God has Eternaly been this way.

Contradiction vs Paradox

Essence & Personhood

As simple as that may sound, There is bound to be confusion whenever we attempt to explain things we don't fully understand. To say God is one being and 3 persons is easy enough to say, especially for those of us who have heard it repeatedly in church upbringing.

Our Experience Tells Us:

1 being is 1 person. How can 1 be 3 and 3 be 1? We have to come to terms with the fact that God is not like a man- God is not limited like we are.

Church Trinity Illustrations:

If you've been around church language long enough you have heard different examples that people use to illustrate this mystery of God.

All of these examples have something in common: they use something inside this universe to explain or define something outside of this universe. Although those illustrations may give us a glimpse of understanding, they are just that, a glimpse.

Critics say the Trinity is a contradiction.

Trinity is a mystery but it is not a contradiction.

The law of noncontradiction: states that something cannot be what it is and not be what it is at the same time and in the same relationship. A contradiction would be that God is only one God and is at the same time Three Gods or that God is one being and three beings, or that God is one person and three persons.

The Trinity is a Paradox, not a contradiction. A paradox is something that when placed along something else appears to be a contradiction until you closely look at it. We cannot conceive of how one being can be contained in three persons and still be one being. We don't have the reference or the capacity for it, and yet by faith we must believe it because that's what He has said about Himself through the writers of the New Testament.

The Critics:

Now believe me when I say that there are people who will criticize us, pointing out that we run to the excuse that we can never know or that we chalk it all up to God being above what we can comprehend as if were committing intellectual suicide or using that as an excuse to remain ignorant and too lazy to think deeply enough about these topics. But the truth is that these are subjects that the church has racked their brains over for 2 thousand years now. And if I could be honest, I don't want to worship a God that I can’t look at and say “Wow, God you're truly bigger than what I can put into words.”

Isn't that what the psalmist means when he writes,

Psalm 77:12-14

English Standard Version

12 I will ponder all your work,

and meditate on your mighty deeds.

13 Your way, O God, is holy.

What god is great like our God?

14 You are the God who works wonders;

you have made known your might among the peoples.

Insert illustration: Being in the forest, tree tops

What are some popular illustrations of the Trinity (Article)?

Evidence From the Old and New Testament

-Just because the Trinity wasn't expressly revealed in the OT does not mean that there weren't any glimpses into God's triune nature throughout the Bible.

“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness’” (Genesis 1:26, emphasis added).

“And the LORD God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil’” (Genesis 3:22, emphasis added).

As sinful humanity was erecting the tower of Babel, God said, “Come, let Us go down and confuse their language” (Genesis 11:7, BSB, emphasis added).

In Isaiah 6:8, God refers to Himself in both singular and plural terms: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’” (emphasis added).

In Psalm 110:1, David writes, “The LORD said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool’”. Here is an example of Yahweh speaking to Adonai and giving Him the place of highest honor in heaven. Jesus pointed to this psalm as proof that The Christ is more than David’s descendant—He is the pre-existent Lord and much greater than David (Matthew 22:41–45).

Gotquestions.org

Psalm 45:6

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;

Hebrews 1:8

But of the Son, he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

John 12:36-43 The Unbelief of the People

When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. 37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“Lord, who has believed what he heard from us,

and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,

40 “He has blinded their eyes

and hardened their heart,

lest they see with their eyes,

and understand with their heart, and turn,

and I would heal them.”

41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. 42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

Isaiah 6:1-11

English Standard Version

Isaiah's Vision of the Lord

6 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

the whole earth is full of his glory!”

4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” 9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;

keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

10 Make the heart of this people dull,

and their ears heavy,

and blind their eyes;

lest they see with their eyes,

and hear with their ears,

and understand with their hearts,

and turn and be healed.”

John 14:16–17 (ESV)

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

2 Corinthians 13:14

English Standard Version

14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Acts 20:28- 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with HIS OWN blood.

1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV)

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

Matthew 28:19-20

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The distinction of each person.

John 1:1-5 We read that the logos was with God making a distinction from each person, together yet distinct, the word translated “with” in Greek makes this distinction even more significant. The greek word pros used in John when saying the Logos was with God, comes from the word “prosopon” means “face” and it was used to describe a face-to-face relationship the most intimate way in which a people can be together. The word was in the closest possible relationship to God. The next verse seems to undo the last and the word “was” God, this is a clear ascription of Deity to the Word. The word is differentiated from God while at the same time identified with God.” RC Sproul.

Now the very early church was made up of Israelites who were presented with a challenge to what they had been taught all their lives. How do 1st century Jews reconcile what they have been taught by God with the now revelation that Jesus was not only the messiah but God in the flesh? Put yourself in the shoes of the disciples.

For starters you don't throw away what God has already said about himself (the Lord your God is one). That would be contradictory and would make God out to be a liar which would disqualify him as being holy just righteous so on and so forth. On the other hand Jesus ministry and the ministry of the Holy Spirit would make it impossible to deny that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If the New Testament writers wanted to be careful not to exalt Christ as deity they would have avoided not only the language found in John 1:1 but many others. The New Testament clearly exalts The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to a point where you have to be a philosophical acrobat in order to deny God’s distinction of persons and his shared divine nature.

https://www.gotquestions.org/Trinity-in-the-Old-Testament.html

Errors of the Past:

Tritheism: overemphasizes the distinction between the persons of the Trinity and makes them out to be 3 gods. This view neglects the oneness of the natures of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Modelism: at the other end of the spectrum is the heresy of modalism. Which loses the distinctions between the persons and claims that God is only one person. In this view, the appearance of the three persons is merely three modes of existence of the one God.

A contemporary version of modalism is found in the teaching of Oneness Pentecostalism.

Arianism: A third error is to deny the full deity of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and to say that they were at some time created. This is the heresy of Arianism after a teacher named Arius, A.D. 256-336. And is held today by Jehovah's Witnesses.

Discussion Questions:

From the Heidelberg Catechism: What response would you give to a Jehova’s Witnesses, (or anyone) who claims that the doctrine of the Trinity is obviously false since it is a contradiction to speak of three being one?

Discuss the reason for the Jews attempt to kill Jesus in John 5:18 and John 10:30-33

Have you ever been challenged by someone on the doctrine of the Trinity?

Crucial terminology:

Triunity/Trinity

tri-unity meaning the persons of the trinity do not exist apart from one another, yet they are each distinct and divine.

Essence- The word essence comes from the Greek “ousios”: being or substance(”the stuff”).

Additional Bible References:

Isaiah 42:8 (ESV)

I am the Lord; that is my name;

my glory I give to no other,

nor my praise to carved idols.

Isaiah 48:11 (ESV)

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,

for how should my name be profaned?

My glory I will not give to another.

Exodus 3:13-15

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them? ” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

John 8:57-59

So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

Isaiah 7:14

English Standard Version

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah 9:6-8

English Standard Version

6 For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the increase of his government and of peace

there will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom,

to establish it and to uphold it

with justice and with righteousness

from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Revelation 17:14

They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

1 Timothy 6:14-16

to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

Related Scripture:

Luke 21:33, Isaiah 45:5, Isaiah 45:14, Isaiah 45:18, Isaiah 45:21, Isaiah 45:22, Isaiah 46:9