Trinity: Doctrine and Scripture

Scripture: John 3:1-17 (N.B. Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 29; and Romans 8:12-17- also on Trinity Sunday Year B)

Aim:  To demystify the Doctrine of the Trinity – as far as I understand it!

Introduction: Trinity

Today is Trinity Sunday.  This is the day when traditionally we think about God as three persons in one: God the Father, Jesus the Son, the Holy Spirit.  Today is a day for looking for illustrations to try and explain this allegedly unexplainable concept, a day for three-leaved clover or shamrocks and ice, water and steam.  Well, I will follow tradition and add another one which I read recently.  I am one person, but I have three roles – son, husband and father.     

Doctrine and Trinity

It’s said that the Doctrine of the Trinity is not found in the Bible.  This is true but, I think, misleading.  First of all we need to understand what a ‘Doctrine’ is; literally it is “what is taught”, it is part of a syllabus, a curriculum, a system of wisdom for understanding God.  We know the Doctrine of the Trinity did not come from the Bible, because we know where it did come from – the debate between two theologians in the Fourth Century.  They were discussing whether Jesus was divine, whether he was really God as well as man.  One of the theologians thought that God couldn’t possible be connected with mere humanity, and to say so was to demean God and His holiness; therefore Jesus should be viewed just as an exemplary human being.  The other guy said no, you’re making a sterile God who is distant, unloving and unconnected to us and His creation.  God is love, Jesus name means “God with us” and Jesus is God.  So the idea of the Trinity became established teaching, or Doctrine.  But to say that these ideas are not in the Bible is nonsense, because that’s where the theologians got them.  

Scripture.  

So instead of human Doctrine, what does the Bible say?  In particular, what does Jesus, “God with us”, say?  Let’s also look at the context first.  John has put together a number of stories from different times and places at the start of his Gospel and he’s done it for a purpose, based on decades of discussion and reflection.  In Chapter 2 vv1-11 Jesus miraculously creates water from wine, in vv12-25 he takes practical action against those who exploit the faithful.

In John 3:1-17 we have a very condensed version of a meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus.  We know it’s condensed for two reasons: Nicodemus is a very important man and he hasn’t come to talk about the weather; and he came at night, not only for political reasons, but because he wants to thoroughly investigate Jesus.  From this conversation John records the key points: to see the kingdom of God (implied both earthly and heavenly) we must be born in the Spirit.  Complete life comes from The Spirit, who is acting has he himself wishes.  Jesus, the Son of Man, has authority to testify to earthly and heavenly things, but must be crucified to give believers life beyond their earthly lives.  God loves people and has sent his Son, not to condemn us from a distance but to rescue us from death.     

Thus we have the Son of Man who is intimately connected to the Father and the Spirit, what we now call the Trinity. 

What does this mean for us?

Roles:  I am father, son and husband, but I have many more roles than those.  I am consumer and conserver, I am colleague, manager and subordinate, I am sinner and saint, I am the problem and the solution, I am earner and spender, I am looking forward and remembering, I am learning and forgetting.  Similarly, God, Jesus and the Spirit have many names and titles in the Bible, and all these names tell us tell us something of their nature, their purpose and functions.

I am also much more than those roles – I am.  I wonder how often we underestimate God by putting simple labels on Him?  Like gender for example, the debate about inclusive language goes on, but human language will never fully describe God.  Labels and simplifications are for our convenience and benefit not His.  I think it is interesting that the psychologists tell us that humans can conceive of only a few things at one time, the quote is 5 things plus or minus two – 3-7 ideas at one time.  So the Trinity is a human invention to make God something we can all understand, while still remembering that we can’t fully describe Him.  Neat trick, eh?

It’s also worth remembering that the words we use to describe the Trinity are all about relationships.  Son and Father (or child and parent if you prefer) go without saying, but the Holy Spirit is all about making an intimate connection with God – he is the mind of Christ, the counsellor, our advocate, who lives in us and allows us to relate to God and to Scripture.  The idea of the Trinity is all about connecting to and including us with God.    

Conclusion

I hope that today we have, to some extent, demystified the Doctrine of the Trinity and left only the mystery of God, who is holy and yet loving, creator of time and space itself yet intimate with us.