This Sunday is called Trinity Sunday, and the teaching of the church is to reflect on the doctrine that our God is three Persons and yet one God. We have tracked with Jesus for the last six months through his birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and sending of his Spirit. Now we reflect on all of that saving activity and ask, Who is the God that Jesus reveals? Oh, . . . he is triune.
The way to understand the one-ness and three-ness of God is not philosophically, starting with that idea and then trying to figure out how it works. The way to understand the Trinity is to come to Jesus. Jesus claims to be the Son . . . so there is another Person involved. And Jesus sends his Spirit to us . . . so that is another Person involved.
God is truly Father. There is no other way for him to be Father than to have a Son. And he loved the Son before the foundation of the world, so you can never rewind history to a point before there was a Son. It is always a Father loving his Son . . . a Father loving his Son . . . a Father loving his Son. You can’t get God the Father without the doctrine of the Trinity.
God the Son is fully God. The Gospels are filled with Jesus’ claims to be God in the flesh. And that means that whatever you see Jesus doing in the Gospels, that is God saving you. You can swap out the word ‘Jesus’ and swap in the word ‘God’ in any passage in the New Testament. At the tomb of Lazarus God wept, and then God brought Lazarus out of the tomb, and then God went into that tomb himself to take your place there. God bought you to be his child through God’s own blood. You can’t get Jesus the Savior without the doctrine of the Trinity.
God the Holy Spirit is God himself. He is not just a power like electricity or the Force or a collection of special gifts. He is the person Jesus promised to send to us when he himself went away. The Spirit is the one who carries the love between the Father and the Son and now carries you into the Trinity yourself through union with the Son so that you can be enveloped in that same love. You can’t get connected to the love of Jesus or the power of the Father in your life without the Spirit, without the doctrine of the Trinity.
The word ’trinity’ or ‘triune’ isn’t in any verse of the Bible, and there isn’t any single verse that says exactly, “God is three Persons and yet one God.” And yet, the doctrine of the Trinity is everywhere in Scripture. You rely on this doctrine constantly, without even thinking about it. If you ever pray to the Father in the name of Jesus, then you are Trinitarian. If you have any idea about the presence of the Spirit in your life, sent by Jesus, then you are Trinitarian. If you know yourself to be a child of God through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, then you are Trinitarian. Anyone who knows the gospel knows about the Trinity already.
The Trinity is not an advanced math problem that you can just skip because it’s too hard. The Trinity is basic and fundamental to Christianity. In fact, you can’t be Christian without it. The entire Trinity has worked for your salvation, to bring you back to the love of God.