The Trinity (12-19-11)

Ephesians 2:18 - "for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father."

The fact that the Lord our God is one Lord, and yet 3 persons is a truth communicated all throughout the Scriptures. Many professing Christians don't believe in the triunity of God simply because they cannot understand it. The human mind cannot comprehend the Trinity, but that doesn't give us grounds to reject it. The fact that we can't comprehend the Trinity simply proves that God is bigger and smarter than us. If we could understand everything about Him we would be at least as smart if not smarter than Him, and therefore He would not be worth serving. There are a lot of truths in the Bible that don't make sense to me, but I believe, not because I understand them, but because the Bible teaches them.
People have tried to explain away the trinity as just three different ways that God acts, three different views of Himself, but this is false. We see interaction in the Godhead. We see the Son praying to the Father, we see the Father sending the Spirit, we see the Son and the Spirit interceding with the Father on our behalf, these are just a few examples. God is not bipolar. He doesn't act a certain way at one time and a different way at another. The Scriptures declare that God doesn't change. He doesn't decide to be the Father today and the Spirit tomorrow, He is eternally the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three in one simultaneously.
Others have tried to say that God the Father is the only God. They deny the trinity because they deny the deity of Christ and the Holy Spirit. They say that God the Father is the one true God, which is true, but then they go on to say that Jesus was just a man, just a good moral teacher and nothing more, and they say that the Holy Spirit is just an influence that God uses, just a force, sort of like a gust of wind, that God sends into people to cause them to do certain things. But this is also contrary to Scripture because the Bible teaches That the Father is fully God lacking nothing, the Son is fully God lacking nothing, and the Holy Spirit is fully God lacking nothing.
There have been attempts to make the Trinity more understandable by comparing the Godhead to things like eggs. You have the shell, the white, and the yolk, three parts but one egg. Illustrations like these fall terribly short of the truth of the trinity, because each member of the Godhead is fully God. If you just have the egg shell you only have one part of the egg, but if you only have one member of the Trinity (if it was possible to take one without the other two) you still have the full God. Each member is the entire egg, so to speak. There are not three Gods that make up one mega God, as some seem to think, there is one God with three persons.
I realize that this makes no sense but, again, this is the infinite God we're dealing with, and this is what He reveals to us about Himself in His word.

-God is one-
Deuteronomy 6:4 says - "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!" There is one God. The apostle Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians - "there is no God but one." And also in First Timothy chapter 2 he says - "For there is one God". These are only a few of the many verses we could look at. When Jesus sent His disciples into the world to preach the gospel this is what He said to them - "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Notice, He doesn't say "in the names of..." He says "in the name of..." So, though there is one God, there are three persons in the Godhead.

-The Father is God-
In John 8:54 we read - "Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’."" In verse 41 of this same chapter the Jews said "We have one Father: God." Jesus would often pray to the Father, and when He modeled prayer for us He taught us to pray "Our Father who art in heaven." The Father is God.

-The Son is God-
In that same passage quoted above, Jesus makes a remarkable statement. John 8:54-59 says - "Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple." There in verse 58 when Jesus said "before Abraham was born, I am." Jesus wasn't using bad grammar, I don't they would've tried to stone Him for that. He was claiming to be the I AM, God, the one who talked with Moses in the burning bush. And because He was claiming to be God the Jews picked up stones to stone Him.
There are many other verses also that attest to the fact that Jesus is God. In Acts 20:28 Paul is speaking to the elders of the Ephesian church, and he says to them - "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." God is Spirit, and yet we were purchased with His blood. In order to have blood God had to have taken human flesh, and that's exactly what He did in the person of Jesus Christ the Son.
Hebrews 1:8 says - "But of the Son He says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom." This is a quotation from Psalm 45. In Psalm 45 this statement is speaking about God, Jehovah. And here the writer to the Hebrews tells us that this verse is speaking of God the Son.

Zechariah 2:8-10 says- "For thus says the Lord of hosts, “After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye. For behold, I will wave My hand over them so that they will be plunder for their slaves. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me. Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” declares the Lord." The wording here is interesting, and you could very easily pass it by without realizing what it's really saying. "The Lord of hosts has sent Me" Declares the Lord of host. This literally says that Jehovah has sent Jehovah, and of course this is speaking of Jehovah the Father sending Jehovah the Son.

John 19:37 - "And again another Scripture says, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” This prophecy that was fulfilled by the Lord Jesus is taken from Zechariah chapter 12. In that chapter the Lord, Jehovah, is giving this prophecy and He says in Zechariah 12:10 - "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced." Jehovah God says that He will be pierced, and by relating these two verses, John is showing us that Jesus is God.

Revelation 1:8 - ""I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."" The Son is God.

-The Holy Spirit is God-
Acts 5:3-4 says - "But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” In verse 3 Peter says that Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, and in verse 4 he says that he lied to God. They are one and the same. When Mary was told that she was going to conceive and give birth to the Son of God in Luke 1:35 this is what it says - "The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God." The Holy Spirit was going to come upon Mary, and for this reason the Child would be called the Son of God.

We read in Hebrews 10:15-16 - "And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And on their mind I will write them.” If it were not for the New Testament writers we would not know that the Holy Spirit is the one who said this. Jeremiah 31, the passage from which the writer to the Hebrews is quoting, Jeremiah tells us that Jehovah is the one who says this. So the Holy Spirit and Jehovah are one and the same. The Father is Jehovah, the Son is Jehovah, and the Spirit is also Jehovah.

Acts 28:25-27 says - "And when they did not agree with one another, they began leaving after Paul had spoken one parting word, “The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying, ‘Go to this people and say, “You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; And you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, And with their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes; Otherwise they might see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I would heal them.”’ Again the Old Testament is being quoted, and the quote, taken from Isaiah 6 credits God with this statement, but here in Acts we see that the Holy Spirit is the one who said it. The Holy Spirit is God.

-The Son is not the Father - The Son is not the Spirit - The Father is not the Spirit-
Each person in the Godhead is an individual, distinct from the other two. Each is equally God, but each fulfills their own role within the Trinity. In John 12:49 the Lord Jesus says - "For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak." And in John 14:16-17, 26 He says - "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you... 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." Obviously from the way Jesus is talking, these are not just three different sides of one God, but three individual persons eternally three in one.

The three persons of the trinity are also mentioned in other passages, such as Isaiah 48:16 Where God says - "Come near to Me, listen to this: From the first I have not spoken in secret, from the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit."
All three persons of the Trinity are spoken of here in this one verse. God says "the Lord GOD (Jehovah the Father) has sent Me (Jesus Christ, Jehovah the Son), and His Spirit (Jehovah the Spirit)." Twice in Romans 8 all three members of the Trinity are mentioned. In verse 11 Paul says - "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." We're told in chapter 6 (as well as in other places) that the Father is the one who raised Jesus from the dead. So what this verse is saying is that the Father who raised the Son will also give us life through the Spirit who is also the one who dwells in us.
Romans 8:27 says - "and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."
Hebrews 9:14 says - "how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Once again we see the Trinity working together. The Father, Son and Spirit always work together in every act. Creation is attributed to each one individually, each are seen working together in the incarnation, and here we see the Triune God working in perfect unity in the atonement.

The Scriptures are clear. God is three in one, triune, one God three persons. Again, I can't understand this. Perhaps the reason God chose to reveal this aspect of His character to us was merely so that we would recognize how much greater He is than us. He is so awesome that He can tell us exactly what He's like, and we could spend the rest of our lives pondering the depths of His person, and never come any closer to being able to make sense of the Trinity. I'm glad I serve a God who is so much greater than my mind can comprehend. In his book 'the knowledge of the Holy', A.W. Tozer says - "The doctrine of the Trinity is truth for the heart. The spirit of man alone can enter through the veil and penetrate into that Holy of Holies. Love and faith are at home in the mystery of the Godhead. Let reason kneel in reverence outside." and again he says - "God of our fathers, enthroned in light, how rich, how musical is the tongue of England! Yet when we attempt to speak forth Your wonders, our words how poor they seem and our speech how unmelodious. When we consider the fearful mystery of Your Triune Godhead we lay our hand upon our mouth. Before that burning bush we ask not to understand, but only that we may fitly adore You, One God in Persons Three. Amen.

2 Corinthians 13:14 - "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all."