EXPLORING CHRISTIANITY: The Trinity, does it make sense

EXPLORING CHRISTIANITY - THE TRINITY

THE BIBLE
Can we trust a book written 2000 years ago?

EYEWITNESS
Did the writers of the New Testament get their picture of Jesus right?

GOD - MAN
Is Jesus really God?

RESURRECTION
Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

RELIGIONS
With so many religions, why Christianity?

SUFFERING
If there is a God, why is there so much suffering?

TRINITY
Understanding the Trinity.

SCIENCE
The complementary nature of Science & Christianity.

FORGIVENESS
What it is and why it matters?

GUIDANCE
How does God guide?

REPENTANCE
What it is and why you can't get to heaven without it.

BORN AGAIN
What does it mean to be converted and born again?

SAVING FAITH
The kind of faith that will get you to heaven

ASSURANCE
Can I know for sure that I am going to heaven?

TRUTH
What is truth and does it matter?

MORALITY
Does it matter how we live? A Christian view of morality.

THE CHURCH
God's vision for his family, the Church. A call to the churches of the new millennium.

PURPOSE
How can I find a great purpose for living?

IDENTITY
Who am I; Finding my true identity as a human being and as a child of God.

SELF-ESTEEM
How can I feel good about my self? The Christian basis for proper sel-esteem.

LIFE AFTER DEATHChristianity's Hope & Challenge.

THE CROSS
Why did Jesus Die? What the Bible says about the Cross.

Grace
The importance of grace in the New Testament.

PART 2
Does it all make sense?

There are four presuppositions that lie behind the teaching of the New Testament:

a) that God is one and personal,

b) that the Spirit is the Spirit of God and therefore personal,

c) that the Spirit and Christ are fully divine, and

d) that the Spirit is as distinct from Christ and the Father as they are from each other.

Can we make sense of all this? There are three approaches I would like to take in exploring this question.

The Personality of God

The Bible states that human beings were created in the "image" and "likeness" of God (Genesis 1:26). Whatever this means it implies that we all possess certain qualities that find their counterparts in the nature of God himself. Therefore, we may learn certain things about God by having a look at ourselves.

"The relationship that exists within the Godhead is the basis for unity in every human relationship, be it marriage, family or the church" P.H.Reardon

One thing that is clear about us humans is that we are "persons" with intelligence, feelings and will, and the ability to communicate and relate to other persons. Another thing that is clear is that we are social beings. It has been said that 80% of our joys and pleasures in life come from our relationships with others. It is also true that most of our hurts also come from relationships that are spoiled. God declared at the beginning of human history, "It is not good for man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18).

Spoiled human relationships were one of the first results of human rebellion against God (Genesis 3 and 4). However, Jesus came not only to die for our sins that we might be reconciled to God and one day go to heaven to live with him, but also to recreate this "togetherness". The New Testament has a very strong emphasis on this. It is one of the prime ministries of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who have received him to build this fellowship of love amongst God's people. This fellowship is described as a family, a body, or a temple in which God lives by his Spirit (See particularly John 13:34; 17:20,21; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13;13; Ephesians 2:19-22; 4:1-16). Racial, social and gender characteristics should be no barrier to it (Galatians 3:28).

All this points strongly to the fact that God himself is not only personal, but somehow exists in relationships. Jesus himself declared that the unity of love that he desires the church to demonstrate to the world should be patterned on the unity that existed between him and God the Father (John 17:20,21). If we, in our relationships, are meant to demonstrate the character of God, then the idea of the Trinity provides a very good explanation of what he could be like. And - dare I say it - a very good starting point for looking at the kind of partnership that should exist in a marriage, the most intimate of all human relationships, is to examine the relationships that exists between the Persons of the Trinity.

In 1995, a prominent group of Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant scholars and church leaders gathered in South Carolina to re-examine the theological differences that have separated them for centuries. Plenary speaker, Orthodox leader Patrick Henry Reardon, said at that gathering:

The relationship that exists within the Godhead is the basis for unity in every human relationship, be it marriage, family, or church.

I like the way that C. S. Lewis, the Oxford and Cambridge scholar and Christian apologist, expresses the idea of God as super-personal. He was always a very clear thinker. In his book Beyond Personality he puts it like this:

A good many people nowadays say, 'I believe in a God, but not in a personal God'. They feel that the mysterious something which is behind all other things must be more than a person. Now the Christians quite agree. But the Christians are the only people who offer any idea of what a being that is beyond personality could be like. All other people, though they say that God is beyond personality, really think of Him as something impersonal: that is, as something less than personal. If you are looking for something super-personal, something more than a person, then it isn't a question of choosing between the Christian idea and the other ideas. The Christian idea is the only one on the market.

It appears to me that those groups which deny the Trinity, whether they be offshoots of Christianity or other religions that believe in a personal God of sorts, are deficient in teaching on relationships. This appears to be the fact whether it be our relationship with God, or with others. The emphasis is on rules or religious observances, whereas in the New Testament the major emphasis is on relationships - what Jesus has done to break down the barriers to those relationships, and what the Holy Spirit can do in our lives to promote those qualities that will enable us to enjoy them, in this life and the next. Of course, that does not mean that we Christians who do believe in the Trinity, always get it right!

This brings us to the next point, which is closely related: the nature of love.

The love of God

Though love is not the only quality that God possesses, as some seem to think, it is certainly emphasised in the Bible. John can say that God is love (1 John 4:8). As the New Testament constantly stresses, this love was supremely demonstrated in the dying of Jesus for our sins, and is personally experienced by believers through the Holy Spirit in their lives. "God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us" (Romans 5:5).

"If God was a single person, then before the world was made, he was not love" C.S.Lewis

Now love can only be given or received if there is more than one person involved. This raises the question: "If God is a single individual, as we understand individuals, then could he give and experience love?" Obviously, the only way to do this would be by creating inferior beings with whom to share that love. But if God has always been love then naturally this raises a problem. As C. S. Lewis expressed it, "If God was a single person, then before the world was made, he was not love."

Richard of Saint Victor wrestled with this problem in the twelfth century. Created beings are exceedingly poor receivers and depressingly low-wattage transmitters of love. Therefore, said Richard, there must be at least two persons in God himself. Yet God is also perfectly good. A thoroughly good being would not jealously protect two-person love, but would generously share such love with a third. Thus, he concluded, ""In order for love to be true, it demands a plurality of persons: in order for love to be perfected, it requires a trinity of persons."

Whether we fully accept this logic or not, it does provide a solution to the eternal existence of love. Suppose this constant self-giving and receiving, which we call "love", has eternally existed between the three Persons of the divine Trinity? The situation then arises whereby we may be caught up in that love, the love that has always been there, because God has always been there.

The correspondence of the Trinity to our basic needs

In his very helpful book Searching Issues Nicky Gumbel, a minister on the staff of Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Brompton, London, tells of a woman known to him, an occupational therapist. She was trained in psychology in a humanist secular setting before she became a Christian. She had been taught that we all need three things. First, we need a point of reference. We need to know who we are, where we have come from and where we are going. Secondly, we need a role model (who might be, for example, a therapist) and thirdly we need a facilitator to help us to get there (this might come from a counsellor or from some group help). When this woman became a Christian she said she realised that God is our point of reference, Jesus is our role-model and the Holy Spirit is our facilitator. She saw that the Trinity meets the deepest psychological needs of every human being.

When we commit our lives to Jesus as the Saviour who died for our sins and rose from the grave, and as the Lord of our lives, then we enter into a personal relationship with God. We are born spiritually into his family and have the right to call him "Father" as Jesus did. We are loved with an eternal love by the one who created the Universe. He has a purpose for our lives. He has promised to care for us. He has planned an exciting future for us beyond the grave. We know why we are here and where we are going. We belong! Can you imagine a more significant reference point?

Jesus took upon himself our human nature with all its limitations. The only thing he didn't share in was our sins, other than by bearing the penalty for them on the cross. He set us a perfect example of how human beings are meant to live, in relationship with God, with others and with ourselves. He is the ideal role-model.

If that was the end of the story we would know nothing but frustration, as the life that Jesus lived is beyond our frail capabilities. However, when we accept the forgiveness that is available to us through the death of Jesus, God provides us with a facilitator, the Holy Spirit. His purpose is to transform us by his literal presence in our lives, so that more and more we might grow into what he intended (see 2 Corinthians 3:18). Of course, the process will not be completed in this life, but one day it will be, when he presents us "before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy" (Jude 24).

If our relationship with each Person of the Trinity so meets our deepest psychological needs, then could it not be that God, being who he is, created us with this in mind? In many respects, what we are corresponds to who God is.