The trinity and Christian faith [Archive]

National Intelligence Director Phoenix

September 6th 2005, 12:03 AM

How important is the trinity in Christian doctrine?

Wow! This is the kind of question I wish I'd had asked years earlier! Thanks for this one!

Often times today, we look at doctrine as secondary and morality as primary. A Christian is someone who does good to their fellow man. The case is the opposite though. Doctrine is primary and morality is secondary. Morality is only valid if it flows out of the right doctrine. If not, our works are as filthy rags.

So what does the Trinity do for us? One thing I'd say is it teaches us that God is relational and love at his essence. C.S. Lewis has written on this in "Mere Christianity" in his point on saying that God is love. Love involves a lover, a spirit of love, and someone capable of reciprocating that love.

When I was an under-graduate Bible College student, I had a systematic theology professor who taught that God created man because he needed someone to love. Such a God is ultimately a weakling. He wasn't too thrilled when I pointed out that if he's right, the smartest thing for us to do is to hold God for ransom. "Hey God! You want your love? Well here's what we want!"

And God is not just passive love. God is active love. God is love overflowing in abundance. This is why he created the universe. The universe has been compared to a father who spends all his money on Christmas day for his child knowing that twenty minutes after opening them, the child will break all the toys. The father is delighted in that brief window of time. We have a small window of time on Earth here for our existence that delights God.

It also shows us that God is relational and how much more do we need to learn this when dealing with the great God of America, sex? What if we all realized that the idea for sexuality is that each person is to be rooted in the good of the other person? What if each wife realized that sexuality is to bring joy to her husband and each husband realized he should be focusing on the joy of his wife?

Instead, in our society, we simply use people as objects of pleasure. The Trinity teaches us not to. Each person in the Trinity loves the other person not for what they do, but for who they are. Since they love each person based on that criteria, I should love each person based on that same criteria.

The Trinity also explains the person of Jesus. God could have created a secondary creature that would do all the work for him, in which case if that one failed another could have been made, and another, and another, and another.....

However, God took it all on himself. In Christ, God is reconciling the world to himself. That's what makes the sacrifice so incredible. The second person of the Trinity was willing to take on the cross and the sin of the world just to show us how much he loves us.

Who is Jesus? The answer is that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. Col. 2:9 is my personal favorite text on who Jesus is. When you want to know what God is like, you look at Jesus. If your view of God contradicts your view of Jesus, then you have a false view.

On a lesser point, though one convincing as well, the Trinity answers the question of philosophy also of unity in diversity. The Greeks saw a diversity in creation but could not explain the unity. They came up with the four essences of Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water, but what was the essence that held them all together, the fifth essence? (Ever wonder about the word "quintessence"?)

If you live in America, look at a coin and see the words "E Pluribus Unim." It means, "Out of the Many, One." The word "University" means "Finding Unity in Diversity." The only way to explain this in the effect, is to see in the cause. God has a unity of essence and a diversity of persons.

For the truth of the Trinity, I recommend a book like Robert Morey's "The Trinity: Evidence and Issues." and James White's "The Forgotten Trinity." To see what a difference it makes in your daily life, pick up Roderick Leupp's "Knowing the Name of God."

Ultimately Joan, I see the Trinity as one of the strongest evidences for the Christian faith. If there was no Trinity, I would be an agnostic today.

Hope this helps!