Why I Believe the Trinity (Part 2)

Perennial Questions

Christians have asked questions about Jesus for the past 2,000 years. What is the history of Christ? What about faith in Christ? What is Christ’s Work? What about Christ’s person? How was he God incarnate?

The Historical Jesus

How do we discuss Jesus? Christians have viewed the discussion in three major ways. Using the Hegelian model, one is the antithesis of the other and the third harmonizes the first two. What are they and are they helpful?

• Thesis – viewing Jesus from “above” – if we try to imagine how Jesus fits into the picture from the perspective of heaven, then we are speaking of a matter that involves faith alone and nothing from any historical sources. The Bible refers to faith as evidence, though it is not fashionable, tangible evidence. A theologian who discussed this matter was Søren Kirkegaard.
• Antithesis – viewing Jesus from “below” – if we try to discuss Jesus only from earthly sources such as historical records or human reasoning without putting God into the picture then we may be a modern liberal. It is the natural human tendency to want “evidence” meaning tangible, physical evidence rather than spiritual evidence of faith. There is a weakness with this because historic evidence alone did not help Pharisees or Judas, who were eye witnesses to the events of Christianity’s foundation. A theologian who discussed this approach was Thomas Aquinas.
• Synthesis – Augustine suggested that the two views could be harmonized or combined. He suggested that we start with faith (Matthew 16:15-17), but that the complete picture must include reason (Luke 7:19-22).

Christ’s Deity (John 14:9)

A major topic when discussing Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah, is his deity. Is Jesus God? Let’s look at the testimony of several New Testament personalities.

1. Jesus’ own testimony

• In Matthew 13:41 Jesus calls God’s angels his angels. We see in Luke 12:8-9, 15:10 that they are God’s angels
• Matthew 25:31-46 judges the world
• John 14:7-9 to know him is to know the Father
• Matthew 26:63-66 Pharisees accused him of saying he was the Son of God, he spoke of his future power and did not correct them
• John 11:25 I am the resurrection and the life
• John 5:18 making himself equal with God

3. John’s testimony

• John 1:1 “Divine (i.e. God) was the Word”

4. The book of Hebrews

• Hebrews 1:2-3, 8 the Son is an exact representation of God’s nature

5. Paul’s testimony

• Colossians 1:15-20 the image of the invisible God
• Colossians 2:9 in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily
• 2 Timothy 4:1; 2 Corinthians 5:10 judge
• Philippians 2:5-11 form of God – quote from ancient hymn perhaps

6. The word “Lord” (kyrios)

• The Greek version of the Old Testament that Jesus often quoted was the Septuagint. It uses the Greek word kyrios for the words YHWH & Adonai, which mean God.
• Often the New Testament word Lord is a quote of an Old Testament reference to God (Acts 2:20-21; Romans 10:13; 1 Peter 3:15)
• The New Testament uses the word Lord for both the Father and Jesus.

So what if Jesus is God?

• We can now know the Father
• God died not a mere man
• God & man are reunited
• We can worship Jesus

Christ’s Humanity (John 1:14)

• He was born like any other human
• His mother’s pregnancy was a normal gestation
• His birth was also a normal birth
• That means that he lived a normal life like any other human
• He faced the same temptations that we all do
• He ate the same food that we all do
• He also died which all humans do
• Jesus also experienced normal human emotions – sorrow, anger, joy, etc.
• He was unlike us in some areas too
• He had remarkable knowledge
• knew the past, present & future in ways that we do not
• Jesus also discerned the thoughts of others
• However, Jesus, while on earth did not know everything (Mark 13:32)
• He was resurrected with a glorified body like we will be (Luke 24:39; Philippians 3:21)
• He remains to this day as the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5)

So What if Jesus is also Human?

• It means that a real man who died for us
• that he can sympathize with us
• He also revealed a perfect humanity as God intended from the beginning
• As such, he is our example
• As created, human nature was good not evil
• In Christ, God is not totally transcendent
• In Christ, humanity ascended to heaven

Jesus: Fully God and Fully Human

• The Incarnation, the conception of Jesus was not the addition of humanity to Jesus
• It was the giving up of some divine attributes (Philippians 2:6-7)
• Jesus is divinity-humanity, or as some put it, the God-man
• Both divinity and humanity are most fully known in Jesus
• We did not ascend to divinity, God condescended to take on a human frame
• God values our humanity

The Virgin Birth

• Matthew 1:18-25 & Luke 1:26-38
• Ignatius confessed to it in about 117 AD

So what if Jesus was born of a virgin?

• In the virgin birth God & man are unified
• Jesus was sinless
• Salvation is supernatural
• Salvation is a gift of grace
• Jesus is unique
• God is sovereign over nature

The Work of Christ

• Revealer – Prophet
• Prophet (Matthew 21:11)
• Revealed the Father
• Revealed Truth
• Ruler – King
• King now and forever
• Reconciler – Priest
• Atonement

Stages

• Humbled himself
• Incarnation
• Death
• Descent to Hades
• Resurrection
• Ascension
• Second Coming

The Atonement

• Makes salvation possible
• Makes the Church possible
• Makes eternity possible for us
• Unless we have Atonement nothing else matters
• All theology points to it

1. Theories of the Atonement

• Socinian Theory (1 Peter 2:21)
• example of the sacrifice we are to make
• Pelagian = humans capable of righteousness
• God does not demand justice for our sins
• Jesus came to demonstrate the height of human love
• Moral-Influence Theory (Luke 19:10)
• Jesus came to demonstrate the height of divine love
• Sin is a sickness from which we must be healed
• Man needs openness to God
• Man needs repentance
• Man needs inspiration
• Governmental Theory (Isaiah 42:21)
• Law is the basis of God’s government
• Sin violates God’s law
• God is not above his own law
• Jesus’ death satisfied the moral requirements of God’s government
• Ransom Theory (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45)
• Victory over the forces of sin and evil
• Origen saw a drama where man was captive to Satan
• Satan demanded Christ’s blood to set man free
• Satisfaction Theory
• Jesus’ death paid God the Father back personally
• God is seen as a feudal overlord who demands personal compensation
• God cannot merely forgive sin there must also be punishment
• Man cannot possibly repay enough, so Jesus paid it for him

2. What Does Atonement Mean?

• Sacrifice (Isaiah 53; Hebrews 9-10)
• Propitiation – conciliate or appease God (Leviticus 4:35)
• Substitution (1 Peter 2:24)
• Reconciliation (Romans 11:15)

3. Background to the Atonement

• God is perfect
• The law expresses God
• Man is unable to save himself
• Jesus atoned for our sins
• OT Atonement = to cover
• NT Atonement = ransom, substitute, sacrifice

4. Atonement for Whom?

• Particular Atonement (Calvinism)
• Supralapsarianism
• Decree to save the elect and reprobate the rest
• Decree to create the elect and the reprobate
• Decree to permit the fall of both
• Decree to save only the elect
• Infralapsarianism
• Decree to create humans
• Decree to permit them to fall
• Decree to elect some and reprobate the rest
• Decree to save only the elect
• Sublapsarianism
• Decree to create humans
• Decree to permit the fall
• Decree to provide salvation for all
• Decree to save some and reprobate others
• Universal Atonement (All Arminians and Sublapsarian Calvinists)
• Salvation was possible for all (Hebrews 2:9)
• Some of those for whom Christ died will perish (Hebrews 10:29)
• All are commanded to repent (Matthew 17:30)
• Balanced Views: Calvinists believe the decree of election is God’s choice alone, whereas Arminians believe it is also partly based upon merit and faith in us. Most Protestant theologians today are somewhere in the middle, taking a more balanced point of view.
• The Riddle of Matthew 8:17 and Isaiah 53:4
• What does this refer to? Did Jesus really bear our sicknesses? There are several views:
• Jesus vicariously bore our sicknesses by being born human and dying on the cross?
• Jesus bore both our spiritual sickness (sin) and healed our physical diseases?
• This refers only to his empathy with our sicknesses by his death on the cross?
• The context in both Greek and Hebrew is most likely referring to 1. Jesus certainly does heal us. However, caution is in order because some abuse this passage. It cannot be misused as a guarantee of physical healing in the same way as salvation is.

Why I Believe the Trinity (Part 1)

How Great is God?

A discussion of God could ask a whole lot of questions. One natural question concerns how great God is. Is he only limited in ability like us or does he have infinite power? Theologians generally believe that the Bible gives us clues that include the following list:

• God is spirit
• He has personality
• He is Life
• God inhabits eternity
• God is unchanging
• How Good is God?

How Good is God?

Another question that is reasonable to ask is whether God is good or evil? Most Christians agree that both creation and the Bible reveal that God is good and that some other words describing him might include:

• Holy
• Righteous
• Loving
• Just
• Genuine
• True
• Faithful
• Benevolent
• Gracious
• Merciful
• Persistent

How Near or Far is God?

Is God a long way off or nearby? Is he everywhere? Does he inhabit objects like rocks and trees or is he way off in outer space somewhere on vacation? Theologians call this God’s immanence and transcendence.

God’s Immanence

How close is God? Sometimes we feel that he is very far away from us. Though he may be metaphorically far from us because our sins have separated us from him at times, the Bible indicates that in actuality, he is very near.

• In Jeremiah 23:24 God is quoted as saying he fills heaven and earth, which would indicate that he is far and near at the same time.
• In Acts 17:27-28 we learn that God is not far from any one of us.

God’s Transcendence

How high above us is God? Is he just like a man, but with superior intelligence? Can we understand God in this life? One of the first principles of theology is that we cannot really understand God, and so he reveals himself to us in ways that we can understand. These are called anthropomorphisms, that God pictures himself to us in human terms.

• In Isaiah 55:8-9 God tells us plainly that his thoughts not our thoughts. We do not and cannot think like he does.
• In Isaiah 6:1-5 God is described as being high and lifted up, transcendent, beyond our understanding.
• Psalm 113:5-6 asks the rhetorical question who is like the Lord.
• So, we human beings like to make models, pictures to help us understand things. The traditional model of God pictures him as high, above us.
• Karl Barth the Swiss theologian described God as unable to be known except by revelation.
• Danish theologian Søren Kierkegaard described God as qualitatively distinct, beyond dimension.
• Another historical model of God describes him as above time.

How is God Both Three and One?

• Oneness - God’s oneness is obvious from the Bible. Verses such as Exodus 20 say that we are to have no other gods and Deuteronomy 6 describes God as one. How can we then talk about three?
• Father – the Bible also talks about God being our Father. 1 Corinthians 8:4-6 is an example. The Father is also described as being God in places like 1 Timothy 2:5-6.
• Son – Christians also describe Jesus as God. His name or title is Emmanuel, meaning God with us. Other places such as Philippians 2:5-11 show how that Jesus is God. Hebrews 1 describes that the Son is God. The Old Testament word Lord is used also in the New Testament to mean YHWH or God. One example of this use is John 20:28 where Jesus is described as Lord and my God.
• Holy Spirit – Christians have long recognized the Holy Spirit as also God. Places like Acts 5:3-4 and 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 show that descriptions of the Holy Spirit are interchangeable with God.

Three in One

How can God be both three and one? That is a mystery to we who are limited by time and space, yet most Christians agree that the biblical descriptions of God point to that inescapable conclusion. We don’t need to understand the how in order to agree with the facts. Actually, we cannot understand the how. That is why the Trinity is called a mystery. Let’s look at some verses used to draw this conclusion.

• 1 John 5:7 is not a verse that theologians use to support the teaching of the Trinity, simply because it is of doubtful origin, probably inserted by some monk in a later century.
• Genesis 2:24 does provide some help to us. Here we see that one man plus one woman are described as one flesh. It is the same word as used in Deuteronomy 6:4 to describe God being one.
• In Matthew 28:19-20 we see that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit all have one name.
• In John 1:1 we read that the Word (Jesus Christ) was God.

Trinity Theories

We human beings cannot leave well enough alone. We need to investigate, explore and discover. The same is true with our understanding of God. Over the centuries, the theological discussion which we call the Trinity has gone through an interesting journey.

• The early view was what we now call the economic view. It was often vague and simple. It was the early church’s ideas about God.
• Later on modalism became popular. This theory saw God as one person with three names or personalities or modes of being. But this was rejected because of things like finding Christ praying to the Father. God does not pray to himself.
• Tritheism was another phase of trying to understand the Trinity among some Christians. This theory saw God as not one but three Gods. Tritheism too was rejected in the long term for obvious reasons. God is one God, not three Gods.
• Orthodoxy is still the main theory of the Trinity today. It is best described using Greek terms – “one ousia in three hypostases” – one Godhead indivisible and yet three persons.

God’s Plan

We all ask questions such as, what is God doing, what are his plans, what does he want? Theologians have discussed this too for the past 2,000 years and come up with some interesting thoughts.

• In Psalms 91 & 121 we read of God’s provision for us
• In Isaiah 46:10-11 God tells us that he will accomplish all his purposes
• Proverbs 16:4 informs us that God made everything for its purpose
• Proverbs 19:21 teaches us that God’s purpose will be established
• In Mark 13:7-10 we read of one of his main purposes, that this gospel must be preached
• Acts 2:23 speaks also of things being according to the plan of God
• In Ephesians 1:11-12 we are comforted that all things that happen are part of God’s purpose
• Romans 8:28 says that all things happen for good to those called

God as Creator

All Christians believe that God is Creator.

• There are many theories as to the how. We are unified that he is responsible for it all.
• One theory of creation is called the ex nihilo theory, meaning that God created everything “out of nothing.”
• Most Christians agree that there is an all-inclusiveness in creation, that God created “the heavens and the earth,” a Hebrew idiom for everything.
• Most Christians also agree that there is no such thing as dualism, that a devil did not create a parallel evil universe such as exists in some religions.
• Why did God create everything? The most logical answer that the Bible seems to give is for God’s own glory (Psalm 19:1).
• God created the angels too.
• We could say simply that everything that is not God comes from him.
• The act of creation was unique in the history of the universe.
• Most theologians agree that nothing was made evil. Evil came about because of bad choices.
• What about science? Some Christians sadly reject science and some scientists sadly reject the idea of God. Yet both fields are filled with facts. How to harmonize the two leaves us with no easy answers. Christians are mostly not experts in biology but theology and scientists are mostly not experts in theology. Too many experts in one field illogically think that they are also experts in another, when they are really not.
• Theories about creation unnecessarily divide Christians. Creation theories include gap theories, various flood theories of geology, literal days theories, age-day theories, pictorial-day theories, polemic theories, majestic prose theories, theistic-evolution theories, and a lot more.
• There are two broad categories of creation theories: old-earth creationism (accepting the majority scientific view of the age of the universe) and young-earth creationism (believing in a 6,000 year old earth, or in some cases up to about 10,000 years).

It is important to remember the unifying fact that all Christians believe that God is Creator.

God as Provider

Does God also provide for what he has created? The theological answer to that is a resounding yes. Here are some ways that he provides. Through:

• Preservation – of his creation
• Government – the entire universe, sin not always prevented but limited, loving rulership, sovereign
• Prayer – God provides as we ask, yet always what is best
• Miracles – intervention out of the ordinary divine providence

No One in Heaven?

John 3:1-17 contains the controversial statement that no one has ever gone into heaven except he who came from heaven, the Son of Man. How can that be? Did not Elijah go to heaven? We first need to understand the timing of the statement. Jesus had not yet ascended into heaven, yet he said that he had already gone into heaven. Was this past tense? Did he somehow ascend into heaven during his earthly ministry? Or is this in a prophetic use of past tense, like speaking from a future time when the ascension would have been past tense? There is another possibility. In Jewish culture it was accepted to speak figuratively of Moses ascending into heaven to bring the law (Jerusalem Targum commentary on Deuteronomy 30:12). What is clear is that only Jesus has come from heaven.