Foundational Truths Series: The Trinity - Part Two

Today we will continue looking at the Trinity; we hope to discover how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit relate to each other and to us.

It is important to remember that we only know about God the things that He has revealed about Himself.  He has chosen to reveal Himself as Father, Son and Sprit.

Let’s remind ourselves of how the Trinity looks in simplified terms:

The Trinity Simplified 

First, what does the doctrine mean? The doctrine of the Trinity can be summarised in seven statements.  This picture might help too:

(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.

We understand that the the word used to describe the 3 who are one and the one who is three is Godhead in the Bible:  

Acts 17:29: Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.(KJV)

(c.f. Romans 1:20; Colossians 2:90.

How They Relate to Each Other and Us:

Grudem: The distinction between the persons is not a difference in “being” but a difference in relationships.

Grudem: What the are the differences between Father, Son and Holy Spirit?  There is no difference in attributes at all.  The only difference between them is the way they relate to each other and to creation.  The unique quality of the Father is the way He relates as Father to the Son and the Holy Spirit.  The unique quality of the Son is the way he relates as Son.  And the unique quality of the Holy Spirit is the way He relates as Spirit.

There is a cooperative subordination; this is not just subordination for that implies an inequality in the Trinity and brings into question the divinity of the others.  cooperative subordination recognises the equality of the Trinity but also that the Father has taken the initiative.
This is why Jesus could say:
John 14:28: If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 
We should not forget too, that Jesus, in context is promising the Holy Spirit and that in taking on human flesh was made temporarily a little lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:9). Jesus chose a position that submitted to the Father’s will.

We need to remember also that they each reveal something of each other’s character too:

The Son is like the Father:  

John 14:9: Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”?  

If we do not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity or believe that jesus is now God then we have no Saviour.  We also have no idea what the Father is like.  We understand what the Father is like because of what Jesus is like.

The Holy Spirit is like the Son:

John 14:6 & 26: And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you for ever…. the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

When we think of the Holy Spirit we leap on the word advocate (some versions have counsellor or comforter).  We miss the word “another.”  What is Jesus telling us?  He is saying that He will send another counsellor, which means, Jesus is the counsellor and He is sending one like Himself! Why would we fear the Holy Spirit when He is like Jesus.  Different in function, but like Him all the same.

Each member of the Trinity has a different function and way of relating to us. These are the most clearly seen in how they relate to us through the creation and through our redemption

Trinity In Creation

We see the different functions of the Trinity working in creation.

Got the Father spoke the creative words to bring the universe into being.  It was the Son, the word eternal of God, who carried out these creative decrees.

Col 1:16: For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

(cf. Psalm 33:6, 9; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Hebrews 1:2)

The Holy Spirit was active as but in a different way, hovering over the face of the creation:

Genesis 1:2: Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

The Holy Spirit is the sustaining and manifesting of God’s immediate presence in creation

Psalm 33:6: By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth

(the word for breathe here is ruach, meaning Spirit.  It is always used of the Holy Spirit in the OT).

Trinity In Redemption

We seen different functions of the Trinity only think about our redemption.

The Father and Our Salvation:

The promise of our redemption, the claiming back of what rightly belongs to God is found in Genesis 3:15:

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’

The gospel has shifted in our minds because we have listened to the world’s idea.  We think the gospel is that God will send you to hell because you are gay, and adulterer, a cheat, liar, a sinner.  That’s not the gospel.  The Gospel is that everyone is going to hell and God has made a way for you to be saved through Jesus Christ.

(original sin: we’ll look at this under the doctrines of Mankind and the Saviour).

God the Father planned redemption sent His Son into the world:

Galatians 4:4: But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman…

(c.f. John 3:16; Eph. 1:9-10).

The Son and Our Salvation:

The Son obeyed the Father and achieved redemption for all of us.

John 6: 38: For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.

(c.f. Heb. 10:5-7)

God the Father did not come to die for our sins.

The Holy Spirit did not come to die for or sins.

It is the work of Jesus, the Son. 

The Father cannot dwell where sin is.  Technically He can, but the sight of sin so abhors Him that He turns His back on it.  It is so vile to Him, so abhorrent that He will not look upon it.   This is why He turned His back on Jesus at the cross:

Matthew 27:46: About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ (which means ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’).

Isaiah 59:2: But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. 

The Son is present in our sin.  He has experienced the pain and consequences of all sin on the cross.  This means that whilst the Father cannot be present where there is sin, the Son can be, for He is the God-man (the hypostatic union) and does not turn from us because of sin.  He has already experienced the pain of our sin.  

On the cross there was a time of suffering and pain.  There was also a temporal dynamic where all the sins of mankind were placed upon Him, an eternal covenant (Heb 13:20).

2 Corinthians 5:21: God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God

The Holy Spirit and Our Salvation:

After Jesus ascended back to heaven, and the holy Spirit was sent by the Father and Son to complete our redemption for us. 

Jesus speaks of Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in His name (John 14:26).

Jesus also said that it will be He would send the holy Spirit (John 16:7 & John 15:26).

• The Holy Spirit Gives Us New Spiritual Life:

John 3:5-8: Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.” 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’

• The Holy Spirit Sanctifies us:

Romans 8:13: For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

( c.f. Romans 15:16; 1 Peter 1:2).

• The Holy Spirit Gives us Power and Gifts

Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

(c.f. 1 Corinthians 12:7-11)

The work of the Holy Spirit is to bring to completion that which is planned by the Father and begun by the Son.

Wrapping This Up!

So we can begin to see the role of the Father in the creation and redemption has been to plan and direct to send the Son and the Holy Spirit. 

The Father and Son relate to one another as the father and son relate to one another in human family: father directs and has authority over the sun and the Sundays and it's responsive. The Holy Spirit is  obedient to the directions  of both the father and son

The Son and the Spirit are equal in deity and divinity to the Father but subordinate in their role.  

This relationship in the Trinity does not mean that the Son is not God, not the Spirit is not God.  They Trinity, as revealed to us in the Bible, shows a cooperation and functional difference based in their relationship, not a difference of their being or divine nature.

These differences are not temporary but have been in place since before creation and will last for eternity:

1 Corinthians 15:27-28: For he ‘has put everything under his feet’. Now when it says that ‘everything’ has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.