Introduction:
We've spent the last several posts exploring what I have called "an overview of the doctrine of the Trinity". In these posts I have proposed four pairs of truths about the God of the Bible that can help us summarize this teaching.
1. Truth Pair #1 God's oneness of being and plurality of Personhood.
2. Truth Pair #2 God the Father's eternal act of begetting and God the Son being eternally begotten.
3. Truth Pair #3 God the Father and the Son's eternal out-breathing of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit's procession from the Father and the Son.
4. Truth Pair #4 The Trinity in unity and the unity in Trinity.
Truth Pair #4 The Trinity in unity and the unity in Trinity.
We arrive today at the series conclusion by what will be a focus on that final truth pair. I have decided to call this final pairing of truths by this title by what we read in the Athanasian Creed, dating back to at least the sixth century. Here is how the opening portion of the Creed begins:
"Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith. Which faith unless every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. 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. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is; such is the Son; and such is the Holy Ghost."
The reader may notice that this final truth pair sounds somewhat similar to the first truth pair we observed at the beginning of this series. God's oneness of being and plurality of Personhood states the twin pillars upon which the doctrine of the Trinity is built. How these two pillars of the Biblical revelation of God relate and unite is a matter of mystery on the one hand and one of utmost priority to embrace by the Christian on the other hand.
When we then look at the second and third truth pairings, we see an attempt to expound the fact of the Three Persons of the Trinity relating to one another eternally in their continual origination from the one Divine essence which they all share. To clarify: the Father begets the Son as the unoriginated Father, with the Son being eternal and without beginning from Him; then the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son, equal to them and being the bond between them.
We see the terms "beget" (John 3:16 for example) and "proceed" (John 15:26) in the Biblical text that tell us "that" the Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct from one another as otherwise co-equal Persons while note revealing "how" exactly the undivided oneness of being is shared between them. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 states in its opening paragraph of its article on God:
"The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being."
It is upon reflecting on the relating activities of the Father, Son, and Spirit that we arrive at our fourth true pairing, noting how we observe a "Trinity in unity" on the one hand, while observing at the same time we are witnessing a "Unity in Trinity". This final truth pairing is an attempt to give us the clearest summary of the total witness of Scripture on the revelation of the Triune God. Three passages of Scripture, each dealing with the practical ramifications of the doctrine, will help us see this final point.
The Triune God in our evangelism
Matthew 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Here we see Jesus expressing the making of disciples and believer's baptism in "the name", signifying the One Divine nature or essence, then the three Persons of the Trinity "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit". The entirety of the Christian life centers on the God who is Trinity in unity and Unity in Trinity.
The Triune God in our prayer life.
Ephesians 2:18 "for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father." Paul here writes of the order by which we proceed in prayer. We aim or direct our prayers to God the Father how? "Through Him", that is, the Son, who is the mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5) and most certainly the one way of access to the Father in prayer (Hebrews 10:19-25).
But then, how are we assured that our prayers make it to the Father? By having "our access in (or by) one Spirit". Paul echoes this in passages such as Romans 8:26-27, where even there we see the mediation of the Son who "searches the hearts and knows the mind of the Spirit" and of course the Spirit Himself who "intercedes with groanings to deep for words".
In prayer, our requests go along the circuit of the Spirit bring the request to the Son, who in turn intercedes with the Father on our behalf in Heaven, and then the answer comes back down to us by the Spirit. This is where we see the doctrine of the Trinity increasing confidence in prayer.
The Trinity in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:20ff, "unless Christ be raised from the dead, we are of most men miserable". All Three Persons were involved in the resurrection of the incarnate Son in an inseparable way from one another. For sure, it was the Son who died on the cross, experiencing death through His humanity. Jesus proclaimed in John 10:17 that the Father loves Him due to His ability to lay down His life and to take it up again.
This "inseparable operating" work of the Trinity in the resurrection gives us the basis for the whole Christian faith. The Spirit of God is the One who worked to bring forth the Son in His humanity from the dead by way of raising His body from death to glory and immortality (see Romans 8:9-11). The Father is the Person in the Trinity who validated the Son's once and for all work by raising Him from the dead (Romans 6:3-6).
In short: The Father authorized the resurrection, the Son acted forth by His humanity in His own resurrection, then the Spirit applied the same power of God as God to the animating and transformation of Christ's humanity to a physical resurrection from the dead. All three Persons were a Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity, preserving their distinct roles in the resurrection on the one hand (the Son was raised from the dead, not the Spirit nor the Father); while on the other hand the resurrection was an act of God, by God, for God.
Closing thoughts:
It is really my hope these last several posts have caused the reader to see the doctrine of the Trinity in a clearer light. May we see the doctrine of the Trinity as so central to Christian thinking that we can scarcely imagine living for Jesus Christ without it.
