Trinity = Brain Ninja

"If God were small enough to be understood, He would not be big enough to be worshipped." --Evelyn Underhill 

I start with this quote to remind me that while God has given me some insight of who He is, there are also things about God that require me to have faith. I do know that God is faithful and therefore I can trust Him. Isaiah 55: 9 says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” The Bible confirms that I will never be able to fully grasp God. Even spending eternity in the presence of God won’t complete my understanding and knowledge of God. There will always be more to learn and to be in awe of.  He is the Creator and I am the creation. The reason I stress how infinite God is versus my finite mind is because we looked at the trinity this week.

This is the trinity in a nutshell: 

There is only one God. 

God has always been and has always been one in three persons.

The Father is God. 

The Son is God. 

The Spirit is God. 

The Father is not the Son or the Spirit. 

The Son is not the Father or the Spirit. 

The Spirit is not the Father or the Son. 

The three are equal, but each has some functions which are

unique.       
                                                          

I believe in the trinity, but that doesn’t mean I fully understand it. However I did learn what trinitarianism (tri-unity) is not.

It is not modalism. Modalism claims that God is one person who appears to us in three different forms or modes. This is not correct because Father, Son, and Spirit all exist at the same time. Mark 1:10-11 describes what happened at Jesus’ baptism, “Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; and a voice came out of the heavens: ‘You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.’”

It is not arianism. Arianism claims that the Son and Spirit lack full deity. However, Jesus claimed to be the Messiah in John 4:25-26, “The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He.’” If Jesus was not divine then worshipping him would be idolatry. In John 14:26 it says, “‘But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.’” If the Spirit is able to teach us all things, then He must know all things; He must be God. This verse also gives a glimpse at the different functions of the trinity. The Father sends the Spirit in Jesus’ name so the Spirit can teach and remind us of what Jesus said. And we have to remember that Father, Son, and Spirit are eternal and existed before the universe was created. God did not create the Son and Spirit during the time of the New Testament.

It is not tritheism. Tritheism claims that since there are three persons who are fully God, then there must be three Gods. This is not true because in Mark 12:29-30 Jesus says that the most important commandment is “‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength’”. Jesus teaches this and we’ve already established that Jesus and God the Father are One (John 10:30).

Is your brain swimming yet? Mine did the butterfly stroke while I typed this blog and I’m stilling swimming laps. This is where I let my faith step in and I understand that I serve an almighty God. I know the trinity exists, although I may not understand how. I am glad I know what it is NOT so I can better explain or defend it. Since the trinity is so difficult to understand I’ve heard many analogies to try and explain it. For example I’ve heard the trinity is like water, ice, and steam, but that doesn’t even properly explain the uniqueness of the trinity. So from now on when I am trying to teach the trinity to anyone of any age I’m going to say, “There is one God, who exists in three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. There are not three different gods, three different parts of god, or one god who appears in three different forms.” And if the response is “I don’t get it.” I’ll say, “Neither do I”.