3 in 1 – Chapter 6

I opened up chapter 6 this week, which is titled “Trinity”.  I thought to myself, “I’m finally going to understand fully the doctrine of the Trinity.”  Some of you are probably chuckling already by that thought.

Now, after reading through the chapter, I guess what I can say is, “I understand the doctrine.”  I won’t necessary understand or fully know how the parts of the Trinity fits together and that’s because part of the doctrine is that this idea of the Trinity is “something far removed from our human experiences.” 

So how do we know about the Trinity to even recognize it?  That part seems easy – we know because the Bible tells us so.  The Bible tells us the three main parts of the doctrine.  The Bible tells about God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and how they relate to each other – the three distinct persons.  The Bible also tells how these three persons have all the attributes of deity – all three persons are fully God.  But here is where it can get difficult for many – the Bile tells us that there is only one God.

How’s that possible?  It’s a reasonable question since that’s not possible in our natural, human existence – to be three, but yet one.  But obviously God is super-natural and NOT human.  And that takes me back to doctrine I learned in Chapter 5 and be reminded that I can’t fully understabd even just single attributes about God – how is He everywhere and know everything all at the same time?  These question are reasonable (or unreasonable – however you want to look at it) because going back to Chapter 4 we know “we can never fully understand God.”  But I can rest and find comfort and solice in the other doctrine that says, “what we we know about God is true.”  Again, we can’t know God fully, but what we do know about Him is true.

I can’t come close to the clarity in the way Grudem puts it without plagerism and that’s why this has been such a good read and learning experience.  Grudem has a way to explaining it and, more importantly, with clear references to the Bible to support the doctrine.  But for the purpose and exercise of putting it in my own words for my greater understanding (not yours), I’ll try to sum up the chapter lesson.

The concept of the Trinity is taught in the Bible as early as Genesis.  Though the Old Testament implies plurality of God’s persons, it is not until the New Testamant it explicit calls out God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  We see clearly in the New Testamant how each of these persons relate to one another - as clear as it can be in the baptism of Jesus.  It’s hardly questionable whether Jesus and the Holy Spirit has deity attributes – for example, you can only be baptised in the name of all three – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  But some doubt or question if Jesus and the Holy Spirit is actually God.  Yet John says “In the beginning the Word was with God … the Word was God … He was with God … And the Word became flesh.”  And in Acts, Peter says, “Why has Satan filled your hearts to lie to the Holy Spirit … You have not lied to men, but to God.”  The Bible clearly refers to Jesus as God and the Holy Spirit as God.

Some theologians have tried to reconcile these three parts of the Trinity doctrine – God is in three persons; each persons is fully God; and there is only one God.  It’s probably arrogant to think we can fully understand this and be able to explain it in based and limited by our human experiences.  Even Grudem admits he explanation or analogies or illustration fall short and are inperfect.  And in the chapter, Grudem tells about how other religions’ attempts have led them to deny one of the three in their effort to make [human] sense of it all.  And it seems clear that to deny any part of the Trinity Doctrine is to deny Biblical truths.

Personally, I get it (no, not really).  But this is what I get.  For one, three persons really mean how the members relate with each other and how they relate to creation.  This is where the term “economic subordnation” come in.  No, it’s not about money, rather about order and the different roles.  Just like there’s order in a family, there’s also order in the Trinity.  But the word “subordnation” should be mistaken for “subordinationism,” which might imply one member is inferior than the other – they are all equal.  That’s where the term “ontological equality” comes in – the members are equal in importance and being.  This idea isn’t hard to understand when you bring it back to family life.  In Christain homes, the husband (or father) is the head and wifes submits to the husband.  The Bible teaches this and it is not negative.  Some might say, “well that all fine and dandy for men, but it sounds like it sucks for the wives.”  Out of context, it does, but then reconcile that with the fact the Bible also says, “men love your wives like Christ loved the church.”  And then think about how Christ died for the church – “men you need to love your wife to the point you’d be willing to die for them.”  If men were suppose to be superior to wifes, why are they essentially told die for them?  It’s really not the kind of subordination you normally think of when it comes to other application like the military – generals don’t usually die for the their soldiers.  It’s about order and different roles, but equal in their being.

Here’s a closing thought after having completed now one fifth of this study.  I’m starting to recognize and use the building blocks I already within the first 5 chapters.  It’s starting to feel like geometry.  It’s wierd to say that and I’m cautious not to make outragous analogies, so I apologize in advance.  Do you remember theorem and postulates in geometry?  In Geometry you can deduce/derive a truth by combining theorems or geometrical truths.  If you’re told one or two things about a geometric shape, you can combine that with a theorem to derive another fact about that shape.  This thought came to me during this study.  For example, some beliefs contend that Jesus was created by God.  He might be the first to be created even before the rest of creation, but nonetheless created.  Some who believe the Trinity might be able to make this fit, but when you couple that with the doctrine that God is eternal – He was, is and always will be unchanging – then that mean God has always been in three persons so the same goes for Jesus and the Holy Spirit.