Unity and Trinity (Notes for SGL teaching 9/9/17)
Unity
and Trinity
1. What
does it mean that God is one God?
The
many gods of some other religions are limited in their power and domain. They
are like humans in their characters and failures and motivations.
We
worship a unique, transcendent, sovereign God.
Our
God is the Holy One – completely separate, yet approachable through revelation.
2. What
does it mean that God is a Trinity?
God
is three in person (There are relationships within the Trinity)
God
is one in essence. (God’s ‘being’ is not divided into three parts, no one
Person has attributes not possessed by the other two)
Each
person is fully God. (The being of each person is equal to the whole being of
God). “When we speak of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together we are not
speaking of any greater being than when we speak of the Father alone, the Son
alone, or the Holy Spirit alone” (Grudem)
God
is not one person who takes on three different roles at different times
(Modalism/Sabellianism)
God
is not three Gods (Tritheism)
God
is not one by denying that the Son and Spirit are less than divine. (Arianism)
or one in that the Persons of the Trinity are unequal in divine being and glory
(Subordinationism)
The
Persons of the Trinity have different primary functions.("the 'economic' Trinity)
3. How
do we know that God is a Trinity?
The
OT hints at it (Ge 1:26, 3:22, 11:7, Is 6:8, Ps 45:5-7/Heb 1:8, Ps 110:1/Mt
22:41-46, Ho 1:7, Is 48:16).
There
are references to the “Angel of the Lord”, an entity distinct from and yet
identified with the LORD.
There
are references to the Holy Spirit (Is 63:10)
The
NT more fully expresses the Trinity (Mt 28;19, Ro 8:11, Eph 1:17. 2:18, 1 Cor
12:4-6, 2 Cor 13:14, 1 Pe 1:2, Heb 9:14, Jude 20-21)
Christ
is God (Jn 1:1:1-5, 20:28, Mk 2;7, 28)
The
Spirit is God (Mt 12:32, Heb 9:14, Ro 15:18-19, Jn 10:30 14:26, Ac 5:4)
The
Spirit is the “Spirit of Christ” (Ro 8:9), He speaks (Heb 3:7), reasons (Acts
15:28), thinks and understands (1 Cor 2:10–11), wills (1 Cor 12:11), feels (Ephs
4:30), and gives personal fellowship (2 Cor 13:14). These are all qualities of
personhood, not of a ‘force’.
The
Spirit can be thought of as the love between the Father and the Son (c.f. Jn
17:23-26, 1 Jn 1:4).
4. Why
does it matter that God is a Trinity?
The
Trinity implies relationship. If there was no relationship, creation would have
preceded love. But love precedes creation.
The
Trinity shows how authority and submission are not equated with superiority and
inferiority (1 Co 11:3)
The
Trinity models unity in diversity in the Church 1 Co 12;12)
https://www.monergism.com/blog/how-do-we-relate-father-son-and-holy-spirit
1. The Son
is the Father’s image; the Spirit is the bond of love between them (Consequently,
in every external work of the Godhead the Father is the source, the Son is the
mediator, and the Spirit is the consummator. Creation exists from the Father,
in the Son, by the power of the Spirit; in the new creation Christ is the head
while the Spirit is the one who unites the members to him and renews them
according to Christ’s image to the glory of the Father.
2. Or we can say that the Father works for us, the Son works
among us, and the Spirit works within us.
3. God’s works, both of creation and new creation, are
typically described in Scripture as performed through speech, so we may also
say it this way: Just as the Son is the Word of the Father and the Father (or
the Father and the Son) breathes out the Spirit, all of the Father’s speech in
the Son brings about its intended effect because of the perfecting agency of
the Spirit. We hear the voice of the Father, but we behold God himself in the
face of Christ. Jesus could even tell Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen
the Father” (John 14:9). “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). But the
Spirit is the one who brings about this recognition within us, as Jesus goes on
to point out so clearly in the following verses (vv. 15–27). The Trinitarian
reference is implied in 2 Corinthians 4:6: “For God [the Father], who said,
‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts [by the Spirit] to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ.”
4. In the covenant of grace, the Father is the promise maker
(Heb 6:13), the Son is the promise (2 Cor 1:20), and the Spirit brings about
within us the “amen!” of faith (1 Cor 12:13).
5. Athanasius observed that “while the Father is fountain,
and the Son is called river, we are said to drink of the Spirit.”
So... should we pray to Jesus, the Spirit, or only to the
Father? (Eph 2:18, Jn 14:14, Rev 22:20. 1 Cor 16:22.)
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