Doctrine of the Day: The Trinity

The following is from Kevin DeYoung, a guy whose books and blog I have read and loved. I was planning on writing about the Trinity when I came across his thoughts first. He stated everything I wanted to say so well, that I decided to repost his thoughts here. I have cut a few sections out of his original post but it is all his work, not mine...

If any doctrine makes Christianity Christian, then surely it is the doctrine of the Trinity. The three great ecumenical creeds—the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed—are all structured around our three in one God, underlying the essential importance of Trinitarian theology. Augustine once commented about the Trinity that “in no other subject is error more dangerous, or inquiry more laborious, or the discovery of truth more profitable.” More recently, Sinclair Ferguson has reflected on “the rather obvious thought that when his disciples were about to have the world collapse in on them, our Lord spent so much time in the Upper Room speaking to them about the mystery of the Trinity. If anything could underline the necessity of Trinitarianism for practical Christianity, that must surely be it!”

Yet, when it comes to the doctrine of the Trinity, most Christians are poor in their understanding, poorer in their articulation, and poorest of all in seeing any way in which the doctrine matters in real life. One theologian said, tongue in cheek, “The trinity is a matter of five notions or properties, four relations, three persons, two processions, one substance or nature, and no understanding.” All the talk of essence and persons and co-this and co-that seem like theological gobbledy-gook reserved for philosophers and scholars--maybe for thinky bookish types, but certainly not for moms and mechanics and middle-class college students.

So in a few hundred words let me try to explain what the doctrine of the Trinity means, where it is found in the Bible, and why it matters.

First, what does the doctrine mean? The doctrine of the Trinity can be summarized in seven statements. (1) There is only one God. (2) The Father is God. (3) The Son is God. (4) The Holy Spirit is God. (5) The Father is not the Son. (6) The Son is the not the Holy Spirit. (7) The Holy Spirit is not the Father. All of the creedal formulations and theological jargon and philosophical apologetics have to do with safeguarding each one of these statements and doing so without denying any of the other six. The Athanasian Creed puts it this way: “Now this is the catholic faith: That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity, neither blending their persons, nor dividing their essence. For the person of the Father is a distinct person, the person of the Son is another, and that of the Holy Spirit, still another. But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal.”

The two key words here are essence and persons. When you read “essence”, think “Godness.” All three Persons of the Trinity share the same “Godness.” One is not more God than another. None is more essentially divine than the rest. When you read “persons”, think “a particular individual distinct from the others.” Theologians use these terms because they are trying to find a way to express the relationship of three beings that are equally and uniquely God, but not three Gods. That’s why we get this confusing language of essence and persons. We want to be true to the biblical witness that there is an indivisibility and unity of God, even though Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can all be rightly called God. The Persons are not three gods; rather, they dwell in communion with each other as they subsist in the divine nature without being compounded or confused.

Confusing isn’t it? Sometimes it’s easier to understand what we believe by stating what we don’t believe.

Orthodox Trinitarianism rejects monarchianism which believes in only one person (mono) and maintains that the Son and the Spirit subsists in the divine essence as impersonal attributes not distinct and divine Persons.

Orthodox Trinitarianism rejects modalism which believes that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are different names for the same God acting in different roles (like the well-intentioned but misguided “water, vapor, ice” analogy).

Orthodox Trinitarianism rejects Arianism which denies the full deity of Christ.

And finally, orthodox Trinitarianism rejects all forms of tri-theism, which teach that the three members of the Godhead are, to quote a leading Mormon apologist, “three distinct Beings, three separate Gods.”

Second, where is the doctrine of the Trinity found in the Bible? Although the word “Trinity” is famously absent from Scripture, the theology behind the word can be found in a surprising number of verses. For starters there are verses that speak of God’s oneness (Deut. 6:4; Isa. 44:6; 1 Tim. 1:17).

Then there are the myriad of passages which demonstrate that God is Father (e.g., John 6:27, Titus 1:4).

Next, we have the scores of texts which prove the deity of Jesus Christ, the Son—passages like John 1 (“the word was God”), John 8:58 (“before Abraham was born, I am”), Colossians 2:9 (“in Christ all the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form”), Hebrews 1:3 (“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of his being”), Titus 2:13 (“our great God and Savior Jesus Christ”)--not to mention the explicit worship Christ willingly received from his disciples (Luke 24:52; John 20:28) and the charges of blasphemy leveled against him for making himself equal with God (Mark 2:7).

Then we have similar texts which assume the deity of the Holy Spirit, calling Him an “eternal Spirit” (Hebrews 9:14) and using “God” interchangeably with the “Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 3:16 and 1 Corinthians 6:19; Acts 5:3-4) without a second thought.

Third, why does any of this matter? There are lots of reasons, but I want to focus on one primarily...

The Trinity matters for relationships. We worship a God who is in constant and eternal relationship with himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Community is a buzz word in American culture, but it is only in a Christian framework that communion and interpersonal community are seen as expressions of the eternal nature of God. Likewise, it is only with a Trinitarian God that love can be an eternal attribute of God. Without a plurality of persons in the Godhead, we would be forced to think that God created humans so that he might show love and know love, thereby making love a created thing (and God a needy deity). But with a biblical understanding of the Trinity we can say that God did not create in order to be loved, but rather, created out of the overflow of the perfect love that had always existed among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who ever live in perfect and mutual relationship and delight.

Doctrine of the Day: Sanctification

I read an interview last week in Leadership magazine with Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church in Texas. He was talking about how his church encourages its members in progressive sanctification… fancy words for growing up in Christ. I found one of his comments very helpful:

Sanctification here at The Village begins by answering two questions. What stirs your affections for Jesus Christ? And what robs you of those affections? Many of the things that stifle growth are morally neutral. They're not bad things. Facebook is not bad. Television and movies are not bad. I enjoy TV, but it doesn't take long for me to begin to find humorous on TV what the Lord finds heartbreaking.

The same goes for following sports. It's not wrong, but if I start watching sports, I begin to care too much. I get stupid. If 19-year-old boys are ruining your day because of what they do with a ball, that's a problem. These things rob my affections for Christ. I want to fill my life with things that stir my affections for him. . . .

We want our people to think beyond simply what's right and wrong. We want them to fill their lives with things that stir their affections for Jesus Christ and, as best as they can, to walk away from things that rob those affections—even when they're not immoral.

The point he is trying to make is so important! Being a good, mature Christian is not about doing all the right things and avoiding all the bad things. It is a heart issue.

The greatest commandment is to love God fully and supremely. So the questions we need to ask ourselves in our Christian growth are not merely about right and wrong actions. We must ask where our affections lie. Who do you love? What do you love?

When we get to that level of examination of our hearts we will often find that our love for God is disproportionate to our love for seemingly amoral things and activities.

What happens is that as we give much of our time and affection to hobbies, TV, sports, and even our own families, we find our love for God is diminished.

John Piper put it like this (I’m paraphrasing), we stuff ourselves with the white bread of the world, and when we find ourselves presented with the banquet table of God’s glories, we are no longer hungry.

Our problem is our heart. We will spend time and energy on the things we desire/love. And the more we fulfill our desires for things apart from Jesus Christ, we will diminish our desire for Him.

So, let me ask Matt’s questions a little differently. What stirs your affections? What gets you passionate and excited? Does Christ arouse your passions? Or does football? Or maybe TV?

We should spend our time and energy with things that point us to Jesus, that arouse our affections for Him.

Beware of the hindrances to your monogamous relationship with Christ this world offers. There are mistresses aplenty. Christian maturity is identified by a heart that is consistently loving God more and more and loving this world less and less.

Verses that scare me

I am scared of deep water. I will not get in lake water or the ocean if I can’t see what is beneath me. So, I do not go water skiing or jump out of the boat for any reason in deep water.

Meredith always asked me what I am afraid of. The answer is simple: You never know what is lurking in the dark water that wants to eat you. Sharks, eels, snakes, jelly fish, sting rays, snapping turtles, goldfish. It doesn’t matter what they are… if I can’t see them then I don’t want to swim with them.

Oh, yes, I know my fear is irrational, but I don’t care. Have you seen Shark Week? Getting more biblical, have you read the book of Jonah??? How do you know the next time you get in the water that God doesn’t have some big fish ready to swallow you?

Anyway, I mention all of this because I have some irrational fears of God’s word also. There are some verses that scare me to death. Take Hebrews 13:7 for example…

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

This verse is calling for the people of the church to follow the life example of their pastors. In case you didn’t know, I am a pastor. So, this verse scares me. My church is commanded by God to consider the outcome of my way of life… Look at Chris’ life and imitate that faith. Doesn’t that sound scary to you???

One of my professors in seminary told us that after 5 years a church becomes like its pastor. In other words all the preaching and teaching and directing a pastor does will only influence a church to the degree that his life lives out what he preaches.

Yeah, that’s scary.

And consider Hebrews 13:17

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

I am going to have to give an account for how I lead my church.

Combine Hebrews 13:7 with verse 17 and now I am petrified. What a standard I must live up to!

So, what am I to do with these irrational fears?

I run to Jesus. He is my hope and salvation. It is his righteousness that has already fulfilled all the commands I am given by the Father. I trust in Him not only to take away my sinful fear, but also to grant me the grace to obey these commands.

God gives us incredibly difficult commands to obey. Commands we can never obey in our selves. We must run to Jesus and place our faith in Him for all things.

In a way I thank God for my irrational fears, whether it is fear of deep water or fear of failure as a pastor. Those fears remind me that I cannot do ANYTHING apart from Jesus Christ. He is the life-giving Vine. He is the source of all grace and mercy for me.

Sunday sermon review - God's Purpose for Marriage

Many men get married because they want someone to take care of them and because their girlfriend is hot and they don’t want to lose her. Many women get married because they want a family and their boyfriend makes lots of money. Some people get married because that is just what they are expected to do. Maybe they don’t want to be lonely. Maybe they are in looooooooove.

Whatever their reasons for getting married, for many people, marriage is merely a way to make themselves happy, to get their needs met. Few men and women enter marriage because they want to become more holy.

I didn’t.

I never once thought about marrying Meredith so that God could use our marriage as a way to purify my character. I wanted to marry her because I loved her and I thought she would make me happy. Oh sure, in the back of my mind I thought about serving her and caring for her, but my desire to serve her was still motivated by selfishness. I thought, “If I keep her healthy and well, then she will be functioning at an optimum level to serve me.”

I cringe at my early thoughts on marriage. And I thank God that He has patiently taught me what marriage is really about. While Meredith and I do not reflect this perfectly, we do now understand that marriage is first and foremost about glorifying God by representing the relationship between Christ and his Church.

That means that we married couples are to show the world a picture of the covenant love Jesus has for us. A love that sacrifices, reconciles, forgives, serves with humility, and most importantly a love that never fails. Wow, that is a much higher calling and motivation for marriage than “She is hot… I want her.”

There is no way we can accomplish this task in our marriages. NONE. We cannot do these things because only Jesus was able to do them perfectly. So how can God make this the primary purpose of marriage?

Well, this is where the second purpose of marriage comes in: He gives us marriage to make us holy. God has given us a task that we cannot fulfill in our own strength or character. It is only through the work of Jesus on the cross in forgiving all our sins and granting us his own righteousness that we have any hope of glorifying God in our marriage. Therefore, it is imperative that we keep Christ central, that we live the gospel everyday, that we allow Him to continue the sanctification process.

We were created for worship.

Worship is glorifying Christ as supreme.

He makes us holy to make him glorious.

Marriage is intended to glorify Christ’s covenant love for the church. God uses our marriages to make us holy so that we can fulfill his purpose for them.

Now, this is not to say that there are other great reasons to get married. But what we need to recover in the church are the primary reasons for marriage and make sure we are keeping them primary. Be happy in marriage. Have kids. Grow into best friends. Do all these… for God’s glory, to make Jesus look great to the world.

Doctrine of the Day: False Teachers

God’s judgment of false teachers in Galatians 1:6-9, a haiku:

Gospel: Distorted

Creator God: Deserted

The false preacher: Damned

This is how to celebrate your birthday!

I am not a big fan of celebrating my birthday. It’s not because I dread getting older. As a young pastor, getting older is actually something I look forward to! You would think that since I actually look forward to getting older that I would enjoy celebrating my birthday.

But there is just something about the self-exalting nature of the way so many people celebrate their birthdays that just turns me off to them. So many times a birthday celebration is really a celebration of “me.” I need presents. I need cards. I need a party. I need to be the center of attention.

This is certainly not to say that everyone is self-centered in celebrating their birthday! But it is hard to find people who celebrate their birthdays in a God-centered way.

Well, I have finally found someone who is celebrating his 60^th birthday in a truly God-exalting way.

Read this from one of my mentors, Ray Ortlund. I hope that I can start to celebrate my birthdays with this perspective.

Doctrine of the Day: Security of Salvation

For those of you that are Christians… why are you still a Christian today?

No, I mean it. You asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, you repented, you placed your faith in Him… when, like 20 years ago maybe? So, why are you still a Christian today? What hope do you have that you will be delivered into God’s eternal presence when you die?

This question leads us to what we commonly call “security of salvation.” The belief we have that God will make good on his promise to save us eternally.

There are a couple of different ways this doctrine has been expressed. One way is to say “Once saved, always saved.” People usually mean by this that once you have placed your faith in Christ, there is nothing that can make you lose your salvation. Therefore, you can have complete confidence in the promise of God to save you on the last day, and nothing you do until then will cause you to lose that.

Another phrase that people use is “Perseverance of the saints.” By this people generally mean that once you have been converted, once you have a changed heart, you will live in that faith until you die.

So, which is true? Am I saved in a moment and therefore free to live however I want until I die free from any fear of losing my salvation? Am I not really saved until the last day and I must work to maintain my faith for fear of making a misstep into hell?

These are good questions because each of these statements have truth in them but still leave the door open for some misunderstanding. I think it is best to look at these two different statements as two sides of the same coin.

Here’s what I mean: If you have placed your faith in Christ alone for your salvation then on the last day you will be with God in heaven. There is nothing that can cause you to fall away from Christ. You cannot “lose” your salvation. But we must still endure to the end in our faith. If we fall away, there was something defective in our faith proving it was not saving faith.

This doctrine is much deeper and fuller than the simple statement that once you make a profession of faith then you are saved for good. So, here is how I would fill out and solidify the doctrine of security of salvation.

1. God does the saving, so He also does the holding. We are saved by the sovereign work of God’s grace through our faith in Christ. Since this salvation is a work wrought by God, then He is also the one who works our continual salvation day by day until we go to be with Him in glory (John 10:28-29; Philippians 1:6). This side of the “security of salvation” coin is God’s work in preserving our salvation by his grace and power.

2. God binds us with his Holy Spirit as his guarantee of future salvation. We were bought by Christ as his bride. This is what we mean when we say we are redeemed. In order to guarantee this purchase for Christ’s future inheritance at the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9) God places his seal on us to preserve us for that inheritance we receive in Christ and that He receives in us (Ephesians 1:13-14). So, at the point of conversion we are given the Spirit of God to seal us, brand us as his until the last day.

3. We must endure in our faith to the end in order to be finally saved. This is where we get to the other side of the “security in salvation” coin. God saves us. God preserves us by his Spirit and the work of Christ on the cross. However, the Bible is also very clear that those who have been saved will live like it until the end (Mark 13:13). This is very important. It sounds like a contradiction of points 1 and 2, but it is not. The point is that the only “security” we can have in this life that we have made a genuine profession of faith and subsequent conversion is if we endure in our faith in Christ until our dying breath.

Jesus told his parable of the four soils (Mark 4:1-20) to illustrate his point. Of the four only the one plant that bore fruit represented the true believer and follower of Christ. Two of the other three exhibited some characteristics of saving faith but they were not truly converted. Those who bear fruit and endure to the end can be sure of their salvation.

4. The best way to state succinctly our doctrine of security is: preservation of the saints. This places the power rightly in Christ not only for our initial conversion but also for our continual sanctification. This means that each Christian must daily rely on Christ and his righteousness instead of our own strength. It also means that the truly converted will exhibit saving faith until the end because their faith was a gift of God through Christ’s work on the cross.

So, while “Once saved, always saved” is true, it leaves out the persevering of our faith to the end as evidence of a true conversion. And “perseverance of the saints” does include the enduring part of our faith but can make it sound like it depends on our effort in order to be finally saved.

I think “Preservation of the saints” is most helpful as his calls us to trust in the grace of Christ alone for our conversion and implies the continual faith we must display as the fruit of this conversion.

What do you think?