The Trinity – A Contemporary Review (Part 1/2)

Isaiah 42:1-9 John 1:1-18

Last year, my Senior Minister, Rev. Dr. John Dickson, asked me to give a talk for Trinity Sunday. The thoughts I am sharing here stem from that presentation. John generously offered this opportunity because I’m preparing a doctoral thesis in the area of Trinitarian metaphysics exploring musical and analogical representations of the Trinity, and that touchy intersection of philosophy and theology. It needs be said that the reason I am researching this area is because the unique Christian Triunity presented such an anomaly at the time of my spiritual conversion and remains a confluence of mystery and revelation. Many mature Christians I know openly wrestle with intellectual aspects of Triunity, yet in grace and faith, trust the Lordship of our Triune God in practice. Since the Trinity embodies the challenge of converging divinity and humanity, of Creator engaging with Creation, the Trinity has been the source of doctrinal conversations more or less since Christianity bifurcated from Judaism. Probably no question you will ask is new, yet every Christian needs to work out their reality in relation to the Triune idea. I am not claiming insights or expertise here either, but I am thrilled if two outcomes can be achieved: firstly, that we think and feel more about our Triune God Who is unique in Christianity and why God revealed Himself in that way to us; and secondly, that we translate its implications into our lives, especially in terms of the action of the Holy Spirit. PART 1: THEORY Challenge and Mystery Starting with the difficult reality, the Trinity is a Perplexing idea: God Who becomes incarnate and interacts in the created order is a unique phenomenon! A relational and Triune God is not found in any other theistic religion. For example, in traditional Hebrew cosmology, there is a gulf between the Creator and Creation. The Creator God does not enter into the universe of His Creation, much less become human and experience the flaws of Fallenness – pain, suffering, temptation, mortality, hunger, tears, sorrow, servitude, ageing, etc. The Bible also confirms that it is appropriate that we cannot fully comprehend the mystery of our glorious God’s nature (we would probably be disappointed and disrespectful if we came close). “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” (Isaiah 55:8) The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:26-27) Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2) This is the one who came by water and blood — Jesus Christ ... And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. (1 John 5:6) We are also told that there is a future (or eschatological) complete revelation of God. We can look forward to knowing the transcendent God fully. We can have faith in this promise because of Who is saying it. We are told the Spirit testifies and the Spirit is truth. ... in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets. (Revelation 10:7 ESV) The Doctrine of the Trinity The doctrine – or principle of truth – of the Trinity is a theologoumenon: a doctrine deduced from scripture rather than being explicitly stated in it (in contrast to an exegetical doctrine). Some would say it is ‘opinion’ or a ‘position statement’ rather than revealed information. The term ‘Trinity’ does not appear in the Bible. At first you might be suspicious ... of this ‘man-made’ human idea ... John M. Frame states (Frame, J.M. Systematic Theology. P & R Publishing, 2013, 423): “Far from being abstruse philosophical speculation, the doctrine of the Trinity attempts to describe and account for something biblically obvious and quite fundamental to the gospel ... Scripture testifies from beginning to end that God is one; but is also presents three persons who are God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ... This fact is difficult to understand, but it is quite unavoidable in Scripture and central to the biblical gospel.” When I come to the essential core ideas of the Trinity, I hope to show that the statement of belief (or doctrine) is nonetheless founded firmly in Biblical testimony.

Confidence in the Doctrine of the Trinity

We can also have confidence that there has been nearly 2 millennia of discourse about Trinitarian doctrine by experts, leading theologians, scholars, and church leaders, who have debated in order to accurately describe the orthodox truth about the Trinity that concurs with the Bible. It is hardly a new ‘problem’ and the theologians who have refined and debated the details of our doctrine include some of the finest minds in church history.

I am going to give a super-brief history of the Trinitarian idea. I am including this overview to indicate very roughly the duration and intensity of discussion that has formed the doctrine we acknowledge in the Apostles’, Athanasian and Nicene Creeds that are common to all Orthodox, Roman, Eastern and Reformed Christian denominations, i.e. to the collective and global Church.

• A.D. 33 – 100 Apostles' experience of the Trinity The Apostles witnessed Jesus’ Baptism, the Great Commission, Jesus’ frequent reference to Father and his Sonship, and the coming of Spirit indwelling at Pentecost (documented in Acts 2).

• AD. 50 Christians in the Early Church articulate the Trinity Explaining the Trinity began as Christians refuted Jews who could not accept Deity of Christ Jesus.

• AD. 130 – 200 Iranaeus opposed Gnosticism. Gnostics could not accept divine incarnation & humanity of Jesus.

• A.D. 160 – 220 Tertullian opposed modalism & subordinationism. First to coin terms ‘trinitatis’, Persons & Substance.

• A.D. 256 – 357 Arius claimed that the Father was superior to Son & Spirit. Subordinationism/Sabellianism/Arianism.

• A.D. 295 – 373 Athanasius: Christ is the image of God. Integrates Trinity & Salvation. Grace of humanity partaking in divine nature. Mutual indwelling of Three Persons.

• A.D. 340 – 400 The Cappadocians. Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa. Gregory of Nazianzus: We know God from His works. Recognised deity of the Spirit.

• A.D. 354 – 430 Augustine. Consubstantial Father, Son & Spirit. Perichoretic relations - inner life of the Trinity. A.D. 362 Council of Alexandria.

• A.D. 381 – 451 Niceno-Constantinople Creed. Origin of Modern Nicene Creed - Council of Constantinople. Incarnate Son is revelation of Triune Godhead. Son consubstantial with the Father.

• 1033 – 1109 Anselm of Canterbury.

• 1225 – 1274 Thomas Aquinas. Re-Articulation of Augustine. Summa Theologica. Divergence of Eastern & Western Church.

• 1559 Calvin. Back to Biblical evidence in his Institutes. Christ as Mediator. Eternal procession of Holy Spirit. Return to orthodoxy of Church Fathers (the Cappadocians).

• 1886 – 1968 Karl Barth. Revitalisation of Reformed Biblical orthodoxy, inspiration for C20th Trinitarian revival. Importance of differentiation between the Persons. Son as mediation. Eternity & Time. Personhood of the Spirit. Unity of Church & Lordship in Communion.

• 1913 Thomas F. Torrance. Hybrid of Biblical revival & return to Church Fathers. Revelation through Jesus. We know God through saving actions. Personal nature of God. Dynamic indwelling relations of the Persons of the Trinity.

• 1928 Jürgen Moltmann. Wrote The Crucified God. Collision of God & the world. Relates salvific history & suffering. Reciprocity among the Persons of the Trinity. God reveals his Son.

• 1928 Wolfhart Pannenberg. Wrote Systematic Theology. Critical of Augustinian metaphysics. Emphasis on Trinitarian relations. Infers social implications of Immanent Trinitarian relations.

• 1980 Colin Gunton & John Zizioulas. Divine personhood. Undivided Trinity present & active in the Son. Subordination & obedience of Son in incarnate history (Economic Trinity) is an act of grace, while there is equality of Persons in the Eternal Triune Godhead (Immanent Trinity).

The need to articulate the doctrine of the Trinity and many subsequent discussions to refine it, arose mostly to rectify heretical misunderstandings and false teachings. Hellenistic, Roman, and Hebrew metaphysical views struggled with Incarnation. Qualities of God did not permit human suffering or weakness, but were characterised by omnipotence, eternity, and greatness that were directly challenged by Jesus’ humanity and humility: the suffering servant. The God of Hellenic and Hebrew cosmology had no interaction with Creation but remained in distant heavenly realms, aloof and uninvolved with His creatures. Even the cultic system of sacrifices to please the Semitic God or Greco-Roman pantheon of gods, required mediation by the priesthood and common people had no contact with the LORD. The early church, apostles and Christians, who were eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus, and the revelation of the Holy Spirit indwelling in believers at Pentecost, had a very good intrinsic understanding of the Trinity, evident in the mature Trinitarian concept in Paul’s letters and the gospel and letters of John. The early Christians witnessed the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist when God the Father spoke from heaven, the Spirit descended to anoint the ministry of Jesus in the form of a dove, and John recognised Jesus as the promised Messiah. To his disciples, Jesus in his adult ministry frequently spoke of God’s paternity, of his Sonship, and his claim to the eternal Kingdom of God. In healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, preaching salvation to the poor, and forgiving sins – Jesus gave indications of his Divinity. And Christ demonstrated his obedience by graciously giving up his life, acting under the direction of the Holy Spirit: Jesus’ whole life is revelation of God’s relational Triune nature. Hence, it was a response to Jews who couldn’t accept the Deity of the Jesus Christ, and to Gnostics who could not accept the humanity of God incarnate, that led to efforts to explain the Triunity of God. Other common ‘mistakes’ were subordinationism (which says that the Son is submissive in an inferior way to the Father) and modalism (which distinguishes the three Persons of the Trinity without adequately acknowledging the concurrent unity, consubstantiality or mutual interrelations of the Persons of the Godhead). In summary, these errors represented an unwillingness to accept the principle of One God in Three Persons – three distinct and different substances with a singular unifying God nature, Who operate cooperatively. Athanasius was important in explaining the Son’s incarnation, becoming human whilst fully God, enduring suffering as obedience out of love, an act of loving grace to enable human salvation. The reconciliation of His people to God shows His relational activity towards Creation whilst preserving the freedom of God’s will. Salvation was not a necessity: it was a choice. The Cappadocian Fathers recognised the deity of the Spirit, giving equal credence to the 3rd Person. Together with the Councils of Constantinople and Nicea, they were in large part responsible for establishing the basis of the modern Creeds, or belief statements. Calvin’s important contribution during the Reformation was to explain the mediating role of Jesus Christ, the new High Priest, such that no magisterium, clergy, human priesthood, or interpreters were needed to mediate access to God. Jesus’ sacrifice was once for all, and hence the Spirit, who perfects the work of the Son, in making God known to humanity together with Christ, mediate access to the Father. Christ, as the Son incarnate mediates between the divine heavenly, eternal realm and earthly creation, bridging the gap between humanity and Deity. Access to the Father is exclusively through the mediation of the Son whose Spirit is indwelling: Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6 NIV) Karl Barth in the C20th inspired a revival of Trinitarian debate chiefly by insisting that we return to Biblical scripture for the truth about the Triune nature of God, with emphasis on relations more than the Persons of the Godhead and a focus on implications for the life of the Church – i.e. ways in which the loving, reciprocal relations of God’s inner life should influence communion in the Church body – the attitudes we have towards one another based on God’s love for us.

Incarnation = Revelation of God’s Triunity​

The Triune God operates on a plane of eternity, not confined by the scope of Time. This is sometimes called the immanent or ontological Trinity, meaning the very nature of God’s being is timeless and all encompassing. Hence the inner life of Father Son and Spirit in the Godhead are eternal: all three participated in Creation of the cosmos. In contrast, the Son incarnate, when the Word or representation of God took on human form, occurs in a specific time and place in history, constrained by the human experience of Time, for the purposes of salvation. This is generally referred to as Christ’s career or ministry in salvation history. It is only in this capacity that God experiences pain and suffering, and temptation, in full humanness (though Jesus does not sin). Jesus’ prayer to God the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus submits to the will of the Father, is a good example of obedience out of love for the good of the unified whole, and a loving act of grace to save humanity. The Son’s humanity reveals the Triune nature of God, because Jesus enacts the work of the Father in the Spirit, and heralds the indwelling Spirit for believers. The Son is the image of the invisible God ... in him all things were created ... all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning ... so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in him ... (Colossians 1:15-20). John 1 (1:1-18) says the Word was with God and was God. The prologue to John’s gospel reveals that the Word, or Logos, is relational and Divine. The Word became flesh, therefore we infer that the Word is synonymous with the Son incarnate, Jesus Christ. John’s prologue also tells us that the Son was involved in Creation and has existed since the beginning, i.e. he is eternal. Some people refer to the image of God (Son incarnate) as ‘analogy’ or ‘metaphor’. This is not in the usual literary sense of a paraphrase or imitation, but it suggests that the Son is a representation that our human minds can understand, symbolic of the fullness of God Who, in His eternal and omnipotent glory, is beyond our comprehension. The invisible, mysterious and unknowable, made visible or accessible for the sake of God’s relationship with us, and to enable our salvation. “As revelation, God’s Triune acts within creation give us a glimpse of His eternal transcendent inner Triune life, to the extent that we can know it at this time. It is Jesus who, before he goes to the Cross, has the most to say about the Trinity, about his relation to the Father and to the Spirit. The Cross brings us to full knowledge and power of the Holy Spirit.” (Frame, J.M. Systematic Theology. P & R Publishing, 2013, 422).

Core concepts of Trinity and the Biblical Basis

1. GOD IS ONE ​

• For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5)

• [Going back to God’s Lordship & Covenant with the people of Israel]: “The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

• “I am the LORD, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:5-6)

• One God who can bless all nations (Jews and Gentiles). (Rom. 3:29-30)

2. GOD IS THREE

• Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit. (Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35)

• He is God with us. (Matt. 1:23)

• Son of God. (Luke 1:35)

• All three persons are represented at the baptism of Christ. (Matt. 3:16; Luke 3:22)

• Jesus acts in the power of the Spirit. (Luke 4:14)

• The Spirit of the Lord is upon Him, announced to the synagogue. (Isaiah 61:1-2; Luke 4:18)

Jesus promises of the coming Spirit & his coming to the church in the Spirit. (John 14:16-18, 26; 15:26; 16:13-15; 20:21-22)

3. THREE PERSONS ARE EACH FULLY GOD

• Jesus’ High Priestly prayer (beginning John 17) ... Jesus prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began." Colossians 2:9 (NIV)

• For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form ...

• The Spirit stands alongside the Father and the Son. (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 2:21-22; Phil 3:3)

• In Isaiah 42, we see that the Spirit rests on the Son. This is the first Servant Song in Isaiah foretelling a human saviour. (‘SERVANT’ in the Ancient Near East meant “trusted envoy” or “confidential representative”. Therefore Jesus Christ is the representative of God, revealing Triune salvation)

God’s Nature is Revealed in Triune Relations 1. TRIUNITY The three are eternally related to one another as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The incarnation reveals the whole Trinity – seen in the Son conducting the acts of the Father enabled and perfected in the Spirit, anointed by the Holy Spirit, never working alone. Karl Barth argues that the Son’s obedience to the Father is an act of grace reflecting the loving relationship between Father and Son in the Eternal Trinity. Jesus’ obedience to God points to our complete dependency in all spheres of life, i.e. acknowledging the true Paternity of the Creator. Human obedience to God is the fulfilment of being human. (Disobedience strips us of our humanity – seen in Adam and fallen mankind thereafter).

The Baptism of Christ (Central section of the triptych) by Gerard David

2. GOD IS THE CREATOR The Word was God and was with God eternally and at Creation. (John 1:1-18) When the cosmos was formless, the Spirit moved over the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2) Man is made in “our image” indicating the plurality of the Godhead from the beginning. (Gen 1:26-27) We belong to Him and are wholly dependent on God for existence. 3. GOD IS RELATIONAL Establishing humans, the crown of creation, as image bearers is relational. (Genesis 1:27) In him we have redemption ... the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with ... God’s grace ... With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will ... to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. (Ephesians 1:7-10) Dr. Kirsty Beilharz is a composer and Director of Music Engagement in the Dementia Centre, HammondCare. A former music professor, she is currently working on a Ph.D in Trinitarian metaphysics.