A question to answer
Let me put a question to you before we go any further – what do you consider to be the foundational doctrine of Christian faith? I mean something that is fundamental to everything we believe. This isn’t meant as a test, but something I want to encourage you to consider. Please have a think about this before reading on.
Jesus was asked a broadly similar question that certainly was designed to test him – one of the Pharisees asked what is the greatest commandment in the Old Testament law (Matthew 22:34-40). Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 but then added Leviticus 19:18. The response he gave was absolutely right then in the Jewish context, but is no less so for us as Christians today.
Answering the question
The answer to my question can also be found in the Old Testament writings, right at the beginning in Genesis 1:26 – “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’.” The keyword here is ‘our’. Genesis doesn’t use the word trinity, meaning Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but it very clearly does indicate that the nature of God is more than singular. The doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of our faith, from which all else stems. Our salvation is predicated upon who Jesus is – if he is not God, then the whole basis of redemption is fatally undermined. If the Holy Spirit is not God, then our intimacy with him is not an experience of God. Of course, the doctrine of the Trinity is nowhere mentioned in the Bible, but as we have seen, it is implicit from start to end. I might introduce you to my wife, Jean, and maybe our son or daughter, or one of our grandchildren, without mentioning the word family, but we would be no less a family for that. The Bible, particularly the New Testament, tells us much about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; things that when put together bring us to an irrefutable appreciation that the nature of God is a trinity.
Recognising error
Having established the fundamental importance of this doctrine to Christian faith, it is, perhaps, unsurprising that this is an area that has been under attack from Satan since New Testament times. Paul refers to such things in 2 Corinthians 11, notably in verse 4, where he is critical of the Church for being fickle and tolerating what amounts to heresy: “For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.”. These seeds of error that were sown in the earliest days of the Church continue to thrive in certain quarters to this day. If we are to withstand such falsehood, then we need to be firmly grounded in what is true. Jean began her working life as a teller in a bank. She received excellent training, but there was one thing that her instructors didn’t try to teach her, which was to recognise counterfeit banknotes. Their reasoning was that as she became more and more familiar with handling the genuine article, one that was false would stand out as such. Something similar can be said about the doctrine of the Trinity. As we become more and more familiar with the teaching of the biblical writers, we gain a deeper understanding of the truth and become better equipped to recognise, and challenge, anything that deviates from this. What is essential is that we both understand the importance of this doctrine to our faith, and appreciate that it is something that our enemy will try to undermine. Forewarned is forearmed!
A difficult concept
We have to admit that understanding the trinity is not easy – one God but three persons is a bit of a brain teaser. But we shouldn’t expect God to be easy to understand. There are a few analogies that have been used to explain what the trinity is like, all of which are flawed, but the picture that I find most helpful is that of a length of rope. This typically has three strands that are held together purely by their inclination to stay that way. A rope is a unity, and yet there clearly are three distinct strands. Also worthy of note is that each of the strands is equal; none is thicker or has a different degree of twist than the others. The only exception to this is that some ropes have a fine coloured thread built into one of the strands, which enhances the analogy by representing Jesus, who is both God and man.
Creeds
The Church in the first few centuries had real difficulty with individuals deviating from a sound understanding of the Trinity, resulting in different Councils being convened, at which the issue was discussed and an agreed statement produced. Although it is not the most popular of the creeds that these councils came up with, I like how the Athanasian creed defines the nature of the Trinity, employing unambiguous and almost legal language:
…. we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity, neither blending their persons nor dividing their essence.
For the person of the Father is a distinct person, the person of the Son is another, and that of the Holy Spirit still another.
But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal. What quality the Father has, the Son has, and the Holy Spirit has ….
We can’t get much clearer than that! I recommend this as a good foundation for conducting a Bible study on this topic. With that in mind, you might like to begin by checking out the following Bible references: Deuteronomy 6:4; Genesis 1:26; John 1:1-5; John 10:30; Matthew 3:16,17; Matt 28:18-20; John 14:10; Hebrews 1:1-4.