Working out Salvation with Fear and Trembling

Article 2 – The Trinity

There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son,1 and the Holy Spirit.2 These three are one God,3 the same in substance, eternally equal in power and glory.

1 – Matthew 3:16-17; John 20:28
2 – Acts 5:3-4
3 – Genesis 1:1, 26; Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14

Exposition

Following our discussion of the Scriptures as God’s direct revelation of God to man, we know can begin to understand the content of that revelation. Scripture presents for us a unique doctrine regarding the person of God. Out of all of the religions of the world, you have two approaches to the nature of God:

1) Polytheism – Multiple Gods (Hinduism for example)
2) Monotheism – One God (Islam for example)

And, while Christianity is a monotheistic religion, the uniqueness of it is, our one God is made up of three persons. Known as the Trinity, or perhaps, better, the Tri-unity of God, this fundamental doctrine of the faith is necessary to believe in order to identify with biblical Christianity. This concept, while taught in Scripture, is difficult for our finite man to grasp, and there is no way we will ever fully grasp the nature of the Trinity.

Our statement here starts off telling us that the God we worship is made up of three distinct persons, namely, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. While we would defer to either one God or many Gods, historic Christianity reminds us that these three persons are one God. We don’t serve one God who at different times is different persons, or some other such heresy. We worship One God who has always and will always be Three Persons.

They are fundamentally the same in essence. One is not more God than the other. All three members are equally God. And not only are they equal in substance they are equal in power and glory. All of them possess the same power. The Father is not more powerful than the Son or the Son than the Spirit, etc.  They don’t always perform the same functions, but we will see how that plays out in the next three weeks.

Now, what bearing does this have upon how we live today? Let me recommend you read Kevin DeYoung’s helpful post, “The Doctrine of the Trinity: No Christianity Without it.” He does an excellent job of showing it’s importance!

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