How Important Is The Divine Trinity?

We have begun a study of the various sciences of the Scriptures, especially the five major Biblical sciences in light of Matthew 16. Today a brief series will begin within the context of the overall series from Matthew 16 dealing with the Divine Triunity. It is a subject that has been debated for centuries. Read verses 13-19 of that chapter. In verses 13 and 16, Christology is found, and that is a part of theology (the science of God). In verse 17, anthropology (science of man) and soteriology (science of salvation) are found. Verse 18 deals with ecclesiology (science of the church). Verse 19 deals with eschatology (science of coming things). Verses 18 and 19 deal with the church and the kingdom, and there is a big distinction between them. The church and the kingdom are not the same thing, as many denominations believe. The Greek word for church is ekklesia, which is correctly translated assembly rather than church, and it is a compound noun which means “called out”—called out of this wicked world in which we live. Every person who has been Divinely called out is a part of the assembly which Jesus Christ is putting together now. The Greek word for kingdom is basileia, and this kingdom has not been set up yet. The authority of the keys of the kingdom (v. 19) will never be given to a local assembly.

Today begins a study of the Divine Trinity. The election of God the Father, the blood of Jesus Christ His eternal Son, and the positional sanctification of the Spirit can never be separated in Christianity. Therefore, the terms Father, Son, and Spirit do not express different relations of God to His creatures. They are not analogous to the terms Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor. Only in the three Persons of the Divine Trinity is there perfect justice. There is no perfect justice with human government as long as we are in time.

In going through the Scriptures, there are various ones which show that the Trinity is taught throughout the Bible. It is not limited to a few verses. In Genesis 1:1, “God” is a plural word—Elohim, and in verse 26, “Let Us make man in Our image according to Our likeness….” For similar references, see Genesis 11:6 and 7, Psalm 2, Proverbs 30:4, Isaiah 6:3 (“Holy, Holy, Holy”), Isaiah 9:6, John 1:1, 14, and 18, John 5:23, and John 14:9 (only manifestation of God is in Jesus Christ).

The Trinity does not assert that there are three Persons united in one Person, or three Gods in one God. That would constitute Tritheism. It does not affirm that God merely manifests Himself in three different ways—trinity of manifestations. However, Trinitarians do maintain that there are three eternal distinctions in the substance of God. Thus, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God. Each Person has a distinguishing quality of His own. Neither Person is God without the others. Each, with the others, is God.

There is only one true and living God—Divine Being. “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:4, 5 NASB). Isaiah said, “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me. And who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; Yes, let him recount it to Me in order, From the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them things that are coming And the events that are going to take place. Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none’” (Is. 44:6-8 NASB). James said, “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder” (James 2:19 NASB).

The one Divine Being subsists in three Persons—Father, Son, and Spirit. The Son is of the Father, but the Father is never said to be of the Son. The Father sends the Son, and the Father and Son send the Spirit. The Father operates through the Son, and the Father and the Son operate through the Spirit. There are some things attributed to all three Persons of the Godhead; but on the other hand, there are certain acts predicated to one Person which are never predicated to the other two Persons.

Eternal life is wrapped up in the knowledge of “…the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent” (John 17:3 NASB). In His High Priestly Prayer, Christ makes reference to the Father and Himself. Paul, in his sermon on Mars Hill, makes reference to the Divine Nature (Theion) when he said, “Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man” (Acts 17:29 NASB). Therefore, the Greek word Theion means Divine Nature or Being of God. Each Person of the Divine Nature is distinguished by personal properties. The Father is the Person who chose certain ones out of depraved mankind to be saved (John 17:2, 6, 9, 11, 12, 24; Eph. 1:4). The Son of God is the Person sent by the Father to redeem the chosen ones (Rom. 3:24-26; Heb. 10:10-14; I Pet. 1:18-21). The Holy Spirit is the Person sent to apply the redemptive work of Christ to those the Father chose in Christ to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:48; II Tim. 1:9; II Thess. 2:13, 14). The Divine Nature is distinguished by personal properties, each Person having His distinct personal properties.

Paul used different words which are closely related to describe the Godhead. In his famous sermon on Mars Hill, Paul used the adjective Theios, which describes God as a Person who can never be represented by any art of man: “For in Him [God] we live and move and exist…Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature [Theion, pronominal adjective accusative neuter singular of Theios, meaning Divine Nature] is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man” (Acts 17:28, 29 NASB). Up to this point of Paul’s message he made a general statement concerning God, but now the apostle lays the groundwork of a true and abiding Christian doctrine. Man has not ascended from the animal, but he has descended from being upright before God. Solomon the preacher said, “Behold, I have found only this, that God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices” (Eccl. 7:29 NASB).

Proverbs is a book of laws of heaven given for man on earth. Proverbs sets forth the sufficiency of Divine Wisdom, but Ecclesiastes reveals the insufficiency of human wisdom. In Ecclesiastes, the heart of man is too large for the object. That is why the world cannot satisfy. In the Song of Solomon, the Object is too large for the heart. That is why Jesus Christ alone can satisfy.

Adam was not made unchangeably upright, because unchangeable uprightness is proper only to God. Therefore, Adam’s uprightness was created finite and capable of sinning. It had to be finite because God, who is infinite, cannot create infinity. That means God cannot create God. What God creates must, of necessity, be inferior to Himself.

In Romans 1:20, Paul showed that the whole of that by which God is constituted is what is meant by the term Theiotes. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature [Theiotes, noun nominative feminine singular of Theiotes, meaning, divinity, Godhead, divine majesty], have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (NASB).

General revelation is generally held in the modern theological world. There is a general or creational revelation. In it God is objectively knowable, but that does not mean that the natural man is himself able to receive this revelation and develop a natural theology. We do not know the God of the gospel from nature.

The word translated “divinity or Godhead” in Romans 1:18-32 gives enough evidence of God’s existence and authority to render every human being without excuse (Rom. 1:20). Therefore, this Godhead, by virtue of His eternal power and authority, demands homage and gratitude. Man’s apostasy from God is not the act of an ignorant mind, but it is the act of a determined will of a worthless mind (Rom. 1:28).

Finally, Paul’s subject to the Colossians was “…in Him [Christ] all the fulness of Deity [Theotetos, noun genitive feminine singular of Theotes, the fulness of Deity] dwells in bodily form” (Col. 2:9 NASB). Fullness means everything without exception which goes to make up the Godhead, the totality of all that enters into the conception of Godhead. Incarnation is not attributed to either the Father or the Spirit.

Jesus Christ is the visible residence of the Godhead. God dwelt in the tabernacle and the temple in an extraordinary manner in types and shadows. God dwells in believers in a special way of grace. That is what Paul meant when he said, “To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27 NASB). God dwells in Jesus Christ in a unique method. Christ is not two persons, but He is one Person with two natures—Divine and human. He is both Son of God and Son of Man, but He is one and the same Person. He sometimes takes His name from Man—Son of Mary, seed of David, and seed of Abraham. Sometimes He takes His name from both God and man—Emmanuel (God with us), God manifest in the flesh. Last, but not least, Christ sometimes takes His name from God—Lord of glory, the everlasting Father, the Word of God. Therefore, Jesus Christ is the theanthropic Person, the place of constant dwelling.

The fullness of the Godhead (Deity) dwells bodily in Jesus Christ. Paul said, “For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead” (Col. 2:9-12 NASB).

Fullness (pleroma) means those perfections and qualities which fill up the Divine nature. The nature of God is indivisible, because there is not just a portion of God dwelling in Christ. The whole of the Godhead dwells in Him. Fullness cannot dwell in mere human nature. Therefore, Christ’s two natures have the same subsistence which is the fact of existing. This dwelling bodily is now in a glorified state—His eternal dwelling place. Jesus Christ is not only the eternal Son, but He is the Son incarnate. This denotes the two natures united in one Person.

The very heart of Christianity is the Person of Christ. The two natures of Christ have the same support—one Person and two natures. The nearly two thousand years of debate over the “hypostatic union” of Christ’s two natures has reached a new intensity. The debate is over “where does one nature stop and the other begin?”

We know that two natures are united in one Person, but to what extent the Divine nature operates in Jesus Christ so as not to overshadow the human nature is impossible for us to explain. However, we know that the holy human nature of Christ was never in conflict with the Divine nature. Furthermore, we know that the perfect human nature grew, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature (age) (Luke 1:80; 2:52). Growth does not imply imperfection. There are two ideas of growth. The first is growth through antagonism. This is what Christians experience through warfare (Rom. 7; Gal. 5). The second is the perfect nature limited by time. The plant is perfect when it is a green shoot above the earth, because it is all it can be at that point in time. This continues until the time of fruition. There was no antagonism in Christ’s growth because there was no original sin in His human nature. Therefore, He became the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the chosen sheep the Father gave Christ in the covenant of grace.

We cannot properly state that the Virgin bore, John baptized, Pilate condemned, and the Jews crucified Jesus Christ. However, we can accurately say that the Trinitarian Person was born of the Virgin, baptized by John the Baptist, and condemned and crucified by the Jews, because it was His human nature that made His eternal Person capable to have those experiences.

The Trinitarian Person asked two important questions in Matthew 16:13 and 15. This was the first: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” The opinions that were expressed were favorable but wrong. It was important for His disciples to understand that most people do not understand who Jesus Christ really is. Christ’s second question was directed to His disciples: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter, the spokesman for the disciples, said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). Peter had been blessed of God. Christ said to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 16:17 NASB). This is in fulfillment of what Christ previously said: “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me” (John 6:44, 45 NASB).