God the Trinity

God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God. and we are those who are named for him. We are those who are being brought into his family. Our baptism is a naming ceremony.

that we have a natural name. But now we are being given a new name. the name of the family of God. We need to be careful as we articulate the doctrine of the Trinity. It can be very easy to fall into heresy, as you'll hear today.

So, why bother?

Well, the doctrine of the Trinity is not a doctrine that is for the realm of academics only. To quote Sinclair Ferguson, it is an intensely practical doctrine.

So stay with us today on Renewing Your Mind as Dr. Ferguson explains. This week, you're hearing messages from his brand new series, Theology for All. If you missed yesterday's message, be sure to go back and listen or watch wherever you get your podcasts or on our official YouTube channel. We have a growing community there from all around the world.

Well here's Sinclair Ferguson on God the Trinity. We have thought a little about the way in which the way we think. Biblically, theologically, doctrinally, is going to influence the way we live. And we're going to come today to what I think is perhaps the most profound doctrine of all in the Bible, the doctrine of the Trinity. I wonder if you've ever noticed when Moses encounters God, he essentially asks two questions.

They're actually the two most fundamental questions of all. The first one is, who are you? and the second is, Who am I? And I've already hinted that these two questions belong together. that we can never know who we really are until we know who God really is.

Because we're made as his image, and later on we'll have to give more concentrated attention to what does it mean that we're made as the image of God. But Christian theologians have always understood that These two questions belong together. John Calvin, the great Genevan reformer, at the beginning of his wonderful book, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, says that the sum total of our wisdom can be boiled down to this, the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves. And these two knowledges belong together. Who is God?

And who am I? And what we're going to think about in a little more detail is especially Who, then, is God? But before we do that, I want to fast forward from Moses to Jesus. You remember the way in which Jesus spoke to the apostles just before his ascension, gave them what we call the Great Commission. And often we hear it preached when a missionary is going overseas.

Sometimes we hear it preached at a baptismal service because Jesus spoke about baptism. What we don't always hear preached is that these verses at the end of Matthew chapter twenty eight, eighteen to twenty, are fundamentally about God the Trinity. Jesus says, baptize. In the name, Of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And although we don't often think about it this way, Those words tell us as Christians both who God is.

And who we are. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God. and we are those who are named for him. We are those who are being brought into his family.

Our baptism is a naming ceremony. that we have a natural name. But now we are being given a new name. the name of the family of God. And so, in a sense, from the very beginning of the Christian life, we know the answer to these two questions Moses asked: Who is God?

He is God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And who am I? I am a member of his family. I am a child of God. I belong to him.

And I live. For him. And yet, of course, when we read through the Bible, we realize. This is actually the very first time in all history. From the beginning of time until the ascension of Jesus, this is the very first time.

If I can put it this way, When God's name has been pronounced faith. Fully. No one has ever said before. When you Call God God. Remember that he is father and son.

and Holy Spirit, And we recognize that when we say this, we're talking about one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith. But we also realize that Although it's only in Matthew 28 that we learn what's sometimes been called God's Christian name. There have been all kinds of indications all the way through the Bible That God is, in fact, yes, one God. but he exists mysteriously indeed. in three persons.

So for example, when we go back to the story of creation. How does the world come into existence? It comes into existence because The father through the word and by the operation of the spirit, brings the world into existence. The father speaks. And through the word The world comes into being and that world is without form and void, but the Ruach of God, the Spirit of God, is hovering over the waters and beginning to create form out of that formlessness.

And the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are putting content Into that empty, original, creation. And yes, it's only true eventually as we look back. that we see all We see there the working of God, the Trinity. although the word Trinity is not used there. The words father and son are not used there.

But we see right from the very beginning The God who has created all things is the Trinity God. and he has done it as the Trinity God. And then sometimes in surprising ways we see the same thing. Take for example the Exodus. We are told in the Old Testament scriptures that it is God who.

takes these people as his children. It is God the Father who brings them out of their bondage in Egypt. But then we're also told that they were brought out of their bondage and led through the desert. by the angel of the Lord. There is the Lord and That is the angel of the Lord.

And then you may remember, way on in the latter part of the prophecy of Isaiah, as he comments on the fact that the children of Israel rebelled against the Lord in the desert as they were supposed to go into the promised land. They refused to be obedient to God. And he says what happened there is. that they grieved the Holy Spirit, who was leading them on. And so, when we take the whole story of Scripture about the Exodus into account, Uh we realize that oh yes.

There is one God active here. But there is a mystery here. Because this one God is the Father. And this one God is the angel of the Lord, and this one God is also the Holy Spirit. And so all the way through the Old Testament scriptures, we We get these little hints.

That yes, God is one. But It's not like a solid block. He is the God of life. And he's a god of personal life. And not only so, But what we begin to see in the ministry of Jesus is that he is in fact a god.

Who is one? and also simultaneously three.

So it is the father. who sends his son into the world. and the Son is conceived in the womb of The virgin Mary through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And we see the same thing at Jesus' baptism. That Jesus, the Son of God, is being baptized, and there is a voice from heaven, the voice of the Father speaks.

Then there is in symbolical form the descent of Holy Spirit upon him. And as Jesus' ministry continues, it becomes clear that everything he is doing, he is doing supported by the Holy Spirit. and in obedience to his heavenly father. And even when he rises from the dead, We're told in the scriptures that the Father raises him up. We're told that Jesus himself raises himself up.

We're told by the Apostle Paul that he is raised up by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So what Jesus says right at the end of his ministry immediately before his ascension. is simply in a sense bringing all these little details together. And saying, let me Let me explain this to you simply. Of course it's not simple. But let me explain this to you in a single sentence.

Your God. his father, son, and Holy Spirit. One God and three persons One God. And three persons who do personal things. and in doing those personal things that only persons could do.

They are also doing divine things. That only A divine God, could do. No. How do we put all this together? Let me try and do this simply to help us grasp the main points of the doctrine of the Trinity.

And I think we can put it in five stages. Number one, of course, is that God is the Lord. He is one God. There are not three gods, or two gods, or many gods. The basic confession of the Hebrew Bible is that the Lord, our Lord, is one.

Lord. But second. that God possesses his being In a way that's incomprehensible to us, obviously, but certainly not incomprehensible to him. He has his being in this three-personed way: the Father, the Son. And the Holy Spirit.

And then we could say the third stage is this. And it answers the question: how are these three persons related to each other in the one being of God? And the scriptures give us this answer. The same is eternally begotten of the Father. Remember John 1 verse 18.

No one has seen God. but the only begotten God. God the Son. Has revealed him, or John 3:16, God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son. That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

So the Son is eternally begotten of the Father. And we're told that this spirit eternally proceeds. From the father and from the Son. This is why he's known in the New Testament as the Spirit of the Father. and also the spirit of the sun.

Perhaps you remember how in John 15 verse 26 Jesus speaks about the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father. He says, I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit who proceeds from. The father. And I think he implies there, because that spirit is also the spirit of the sun, it's his own. Holy Spirit.

that he proceeds Also. from the sun.

Now what does this exactly mean?

Well Let me come to a fourth point. It's this. That when we say that the Son is eternally begotten of the Father. All of the great Christian theologians have said We do not think this is an explanation. It is only a description.

But what in essence it means is That there never was a time When there never was a sun, And there never was a time. when there never was a father. The point is this. The point is that Only when the father has a son is he a father. And only when the son has a father.

Is he a son?

So It's not as though the father existed before the son, because He wouldn't have been a father. Or that the sun existed. after the father, because the father would not have been a father without the son. But it's saying there is a relationship between the father and the son. But In a sense, in God's wonderful accommodation to our understanding.

is similar to the very best kind of fellowship that a father and a son would enjoy together. And then what does it mean when We say that the spirit proceeds from The Father. and proceeds from The sun Well, perhaps we can think about it this way. We use a kind of analogous language, and the Bible does too. a situation arises and We might use a slightly different language, but we might say My heart really went out to him.

Or substitute spirit there. That my spirit really went out to him. And what seems to be captured in the Bible's language is. But I saw where With the father and the son. There is this third person.

Who Goes out from the Father and the Son, their hearts go out to him. And in response his heart goes out. to them. The marvelous thing is that these are three Three different names, isn't it? Father, son, Holy Spirit.

And yet we can see in those three different names That that we're we're not talking about three different gods. But we are talking about the mysterious unity of this one God who exists in three marvellous ways.

Now, the place I think where we get the most helpful teaching on this is actually. in the teaching of our Lord Jesus. I wonder if you remember what Jesus says to the disciples in the upper room in his farewell discourse. He says The Father is in me. And I am In the Father.

Well Oh, what's he saying there? He's saying he he dwells in such close communion. personally with the Father. Because He and the Father are one. It's a marvellous statement Jesus makes, isn't it?

I and my Father are one. My father dwells in me And I dwell In him. And then he says this amazing thing. He says, I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit, this third person of the Godhead. I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit, and when he comes, Listen to this amazing, I think this amazing thing Jesus says.

when he comes The father and I will come and make our home with you. You see what he's saying? He's saying The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are so bound together in one.

So mutually engaged with each other. But when the Holy Spirit comes to indwell Christian believers, Then It's true we are indwelt by the Spirit. But that means we're also... and dwelt by the sun. And that also means that our lives, as Jesus says, have become.

like a home for the Father and the Son and the Spirit. if I can put it this way, to be at home. with us. And for us to be at home with them. And of course, we find, as some of the ancient fathers of the church used to say.

We tend to think about the one. But when we think about the one, we must never forget the three. or we tend to think about the three. But we must never forget about The one. We recognize, of course.

Our minds aren't capable of taking in, of understanding the way God understands his own Trinitarian being. We can't take that in. And so sometimes our avenue of thought is going to be through one person or another person of the Trinity. And sometimes we're going to be thinking about the whole of the Trinity, the one God. But what we're being encouraged to do by Jesus and the scriptures is.

Always to be reflecting on the fact that the one is three And the three. Otherwise, And when we begin to grasp that, And I think this is the wonderful practical implication of this. it can have very profound effects on our Christian lives. I wonder if you would agree with me when I say I suspect. that many Christians think that the doctrine of the Trinity is one The most speculative doctrine.

In the New Testament. In other words, it's kind of it's ethereal, it's out there somewhere. We can't understand three and one and one and three. And therefore, because it is so speculative, It is inevitably impractical. It doesn't really make any difference to your Christian life.

Now Let me explain to you why that can't possibly be true. It can't possibly be true. Because At the time of greatest crisis in his disciples' lives, On the evening of his crucifixion. The Lord Jesus in John thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen keeps teaching them about the Trinity. He keeps teaching them about the relationship between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

and what that's going to mean to their Christian lives. And to me, it's inconceivable at such a time as that that the Lord Jesus would think to himself, what I need to do is to give them the least practical teaching I can give them.

So this must be intensely practical.

So let me, in the few minutes of this lesson that remain, let me try and show you how practical this is. And I think I can help us to understand it this way. Imagine you have a new young assistant minister comes to your congregation. He's just out of seminary, very excited about what he's doing. And the first Sunday he's in the church, he's asked to lead in prayer.

And he begins his prayer, O God, our Father, and he says a few more words. And about 15 seconds later, While he's still talking about God our Father, he says, and I thank you so much for dying for us on the cross. No. We all know enough about Christian theology to realize This young man has just committed a heresy. The Father did not die for us on the cross.

There's an ancient heresy called Patropassianism, that it was the father who suffers. And he's just committed that heresy.

Well, you know, we don't report him to the elders or whoever. We we cut him some slack because he'd just be nervous. And we all know we can I mean, when we speak to one another, we can mess up the grammar of our sentences. And we all know he's just been a bit nervous. But if you step back and think about it.

There's a tremendous significance to the fact that we've spotted this. Can I put it this way? We can't thank the Father for dying for us on the cross. Because he didn't. But we can thank the sun.

for doing it. And we can thank the father for sending his son. and we can thank the Spirit for sustaining. The father son. And when we begin to think of that, we realize something has actually happened to our worship, hasn't it?

Instead of just saying, thank you, God, for saving me. We're praising the Father for what he has done in our salvation. We're praising the Son for what he has done. We're praising the Spirit for what He has done. And that's just the beginning.

We begin to understand in all kinds of dimensions. Of the work of God, that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit have been operative in different ways. and that although they all, as it were, all three persons always work together in perfect harmony, It's as though in this aspect The father takes the lead. In this aspect, the sun takes the lead. In this aspect, the Spirit takes the lead, and they're working with Him.

alongside him. fulfilling the glorious plan of our salvation. And what I find as I reflect on that is, that it simply increases and increases. the wonder of our fellowship with God. to be able to say Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, through the Spirit.

And instead of worshipping God as though he were like a single block, We learn what it means to worship God as the Blessed Trinity. And we praise him. for all he has done and is as father. and a son. and as Holy Spirit.

And that makes a great difference at the end of the day. to the pleasures and joys of the Christian life. And this, at least in brief, is the doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity, intensely practical and making a great difference to the pleasures and joys of the Christian life. That was Sinclair Ferguson, the Vice Chairman of Ligoneer Ministries, on this Wednesday edition of Renewing Your Mind.

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Well, we serve a Trinitarian God, as we heard today, and this God is Lord. And that's what Dr. Ferguson will help unpack tomorrow here on Renewing Your Mind.