The Trinity

Last week, we began our series with the determining factor of everything we believe and why—the Bible.  If you believe the Bible to be the complete, perfect, and authoritative Word of God to man, you will go one direction, but if you believe anything less, you will go another.  That is, if you believe the Bible lacks some things God wanted us to know, then you will be open to what other people say God forgot to tell us.  If you believe the Bible isn’t entirely accurate in what it says (it’s not inerrant and infallible), then you will be open to what others say is correct.  Finally, if you don’t believe the Bible is the authority on what we are supposed to believe and why, then you will put yourself or somebody else in that position.  Therefore, in our study of what we believe and why, it is essential that we first establish the standard that determines what we believe and why, and here at Venture, it’s the Bible.

However, there’s another determining factor in forming our beliefs that must be established before we can properly understand anything else the Bible teaches.  In order to properly understand what the Bible teaches about salvation, heaven, hell, morality, or anything else, you first have to have at least a basic understanding of who the Bible says the God is, that is declaring these things.

Now, contrary to what some believe, God is not hidden in the Bible.  He is not a secret to be discovered within veiled passages.  God is the blatant point of the entire book!  Listen to how it begins,

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) 

Therefore, first and foremost, the Bible is clearly about who and what God has done, is doing, and will do.  Thus, to properly comprehend what He has done, is doing, and will do, you need to have some sort of accurate base-level idea of who the Bible says has done it, is doing it, and will do it—God!

At Venture, we believe this is who the Bible says God is,

“God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, also known as the Trinity. The Trinity is three distinct persons, but inseparable in nature, essence, or being. God’s essential characteristics are true of the entire Trinity. He is eternal by nature. He is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. He is all-powerful and all-knowing; His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are love and do all things in perfect agreement with one another.”1https://daretoventure.org/about/

Now, before I break that down for you, let me first give you a super short historical summary of how we ended up with that definition.

Make no mistake, Christians have always believed in the doctrine of the Trinity because it was fundamentally taught by Jesus.  We will get into more of those Scriptures in our sermon, but for starters, it’s why Jesus said,

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19)

When you read the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, it is abundantly clear that Christ’s original followers understood God to be the God we define with the doctrine of the Trinity.  No singular verse says, “the doctrine of the trinity is …” nor even the word “trinity.”  Nonetheless, from Genesis 1:1 all the way through the book of Revelation, God is presented as such, so much so that the Christian church has always believed God to be exactly who we describe Him as in our statement of faith on the doctrine of the Trinity.

A perfect example of this occurred in 325 A.D.  Three hundred eighteen Bishops came together at the request of Emperor Constantine to address a growing heresy originating from a guy named Arius.  Arius, based out of Alexandria, Egypt, was writing to churches around the world telling them that Christ had been created by God, as in throughout eternity, there was no Christ until God the Father made him.  As such, Arius was teaching that Jesus is not co-equal with the Father, and in so doing, he was directly challenging the established doctrines of the church.  Therefore, the church leaders didn’t come together in Nicea to create the doctrine of the Trinity but rather to allow Arius an opportunity to present his argument against it and respond to him.

The council’s response to Arius made it abundantly clear to those entertaining his teachings that they were entertaining heresies.  They did this not by formulating a new doctrine about God called the Doctrine of the Trinity but rather by issuing a statement that explained what they already believed about the Doctrine of the Trinity in a way that clearly refuted the false teachings of Arius and anybody else who challenged what Jesus taught His followers to believe.  In addition, it gave Christians something they could memorize that helped them understand what God’s Word taught on the subject and, as such, be better guarded against false teaching like that of Arius.  They wrote,

“We believe in one God, the father almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, Light of light, Very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate and was made man; He suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven, He shall come to judge both the quick and the dead; And in the Holy Spirit.”2https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/where-did-the-nicene-creed-come-from.html?gbraid=0AAAAADyqyIpfD0StRk0ppc1rZ4lHYVfs0&gclid=Cj0KCQjwmt24BhDPARIsAJFYKk3aZyis7YlIUp8m2k-Z5IOr6x4vKyMNvqpOXBYE0ZhpVBwk_uWJJ08aAi2_EALw_wcB

Over the next one hundred sixty-four years, church leaders reconvened two more times to tweak what was initially written in Nicea and add a few more things to it that they wanted to ensure people properly understood.  Again, they were not creating doctrine but ensuring they were correctly articulating the doctrine that had always been taught in the Christian church because it was clearly taught in the sixty-six books of the Bible!  The final meeting was in Toledo, Spain, in 489 A.D., and what they produced has been recited millions of times since then by believers all over the world.

“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.”3https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/where-did-the-nicene-creed-come-from.html?gbraid=0AAAAADyqyIpfD0StRk0ppc1rZ4lHYVfs0&gclid=Cj0KCQjwmt24BhDPARIsAJFYKk3aZyis7YlIUp8m2k-Z5IOr6x4vKyMNvqpOXBYE0ZhpVBwk_uWJJ08aAi2_EALw_wcB

For more on the history of the Nicene Creed, there’s a great little article by Emily Hall on BibleStudyTools.com.

 CLICK HERE TO ACCESS IT 

Now, we will eventually get into all the subject matters mentioned in the final version of the Nicene Creed, but today, we are only going to talk about the doctrine that led to the first version, the doctrine of the Trinity.  To do that, let’s briefly look at the truths about God answered in Venture’s statement of faith on the Trinity.  Specifically,

 Venture’s statement of faith about the Trinity captures seven Biblical truths about God.

The first Biblical truth about God that Venture’s statement of faith captures is that,

God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, also known as the Trinity.

All three persons of God are stated in the Bible.

 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (Matthew 28:19)

14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:14)

 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. (1 Peter 1:2)

The second Biblical truth about God that Venture’s statement of faith captures is that,

The Trinity is three distinct persons, but inseparable in nature, essence or being.

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)

“God—the name of the Supreme Being, signifying in Hebrew, “Strong,” “Mighty.” It is expressive of omnipotent power; and by its use here in the plural form, is obscurely taught at the opening of the Bible, a doctrine clearly revealed in other parts of it, namely, that though God is one, there is a plurality of persons in the Godhead—Father, Son, and Spirit, who were engaged in the creative work (Pr 8:27; Jn 1:3, 10; Eph 3:9; Heb 1:2; Job 26:13).”4Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 1, p. 17). Logos Research Systems, Inc.

“The Hebrew word used here for “God,” elohim, is plural.”5Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Ge 1:1). Lexham Press.

The point being, Moses referred to God as one God, yet that one God he referred to is also plural. Later in the Bible, we see that the plurality of God is specifically the Father, the Son, and The Holy Spirit, not one at a time but three all the time yet still, all the time one.

4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. (Deuteronomy 6:4)

 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3)

 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. (1 Corinthians 12:4-6)

 4 There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call--5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:4-6)

 In each of those passages, we see all three persons of the Trinity distinctly at work at all times but also still inseparably as God. In the Bible, God does not appear as Christ or as the Holy Spirit so that He is always one who simply presents Himself in three different ways at different times, but rather, God is always perfectly and truly one in every way, all while always being distinctly three persons!

 The third Biblical truth about God that Venture’s statement of faith captures is that,

 God’s essential characteristics are true of the entire Trinity.

That is, nothing about either person of the Trinity leaves out something the other is not. Listen to how this is testified of in the Bible.

 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

 Note:  All that the Bible clearly states about the Father is also said about the Son!

 8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." 9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? (John 14:8-9)

 Note: Everything that’s true about the Father is true about the Son!

 3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God." (Acts 5:3-5)

 Note: Peter makes it clear that lying to the Holy Spirit is the same as lying to God because both require the same level of allegiance. Both are equally God!

 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. (Colossians 2:9-10)

 Note: Christ doesn’t lack anything in being God.

 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. (Hebrews 1:3a)

 The fourth Biblical truth about God that Venture’s statement of faith captures is that,

 He is eternal by nature.

He was not made to be eternal as we are made to be eternal, but rather, God has always been so that there has never not been God.Notice again the first words of the Bible,

1 In the beginning, God created (Genesis 1:1)

Note:  When the beginning occurred, God made it!

It’s also why God answered Moses this way when Moses asked who he should say sent him:

 13 Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" 14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" (Exodus 3:13-14)

God was telling Moses the most important thing he needed to know at that moment was that He always is! He is the ultimate testimony of the verb “to be.”  Who I am is the only one who has always ever been, and as such, I’ve never not been … I just am!

 Jesus also clearly identified Himself the same way!

58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. (John 8:58-59)

 The Bible also explicitly states the Holy Spirit is eternal,

14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spiritoffered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:14)

In short, the Bible leaves no room to conclude anything other than God has always been and, as such, has never not been! It is inseparably part of who God is, so much so to not be eternal in any way is to not be God at all! Therefore, Paul wrote,

 17 To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (1 Timothy 1:17)

 The fifth Biblical truth about God that Venture’s statement of faith captures is that,

 He is infinite in holiness and all other perfections.

For God to be God, He must be eternal and eternally perfect in every characteristic. The Bible makes it clear that this is, in fact, the case.

37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble. (Daniel 4:37)

 Jesus said, 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)

8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" (Revelation 4:8)

Crying out “holy” three times is a way of proclaiming the eternal measure of it!God is eternally unlike and eternally better than everything and everyone else, not somewhat, but eternally!  You and I will compare ourselves to others and see how we are somewhat like others, but we are not even remotely somewhat like God.  He is eternally different and better than everything we are and everything else that is!

 The sixth Biblical truth about God that Venture’s statement of faith captures is that,

He is all-powerful and all-knowing; His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future.

7 "Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?  8 It is higher than heaven--what can you do? Deeper than Sheol--what can you know?  9 Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. (Job 11:7-9)

 Note:  God is not limited in ANY way.  He is truly the ALL mighty!

4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. (Psalm 139:4)

 33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?"  35 "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)

God not only knows all things, but He also accomplishes all that He wills!

6 Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. (Psalm 135:6)

 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, (Ephesians 1:11)

11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." (Revelation 4:11)

 The seventh Biblical truth about God that Venture’s statement of faith captures is that,

 The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are love and do all things in perfect agreement with one another.

Listen to how the three persons of the Trinity perfectly love and thus exist in perfect unity in all they do.

 26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." (Genesis 1:26)

 Note:  There is an incredible picture of unity in this.  In making mankind, there was a genuine motive to make us in a way that reflected each person of the Trinity—true unity!

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:13-14)

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)

This, to me, is the only answer I can make sense of for how God can be three distinct persons yet truly one God all at once. Love unites us not by losing ourselves in another person but by genuinely giving ourselves fully to another person for nothing but their good and their glory.

For instance, if I truly love my wife as Christ loves the church, that doesn’t mean I disappear as a person but rather that I so give myself to my wife that I’m incapable of being me without her.I can no longer see myself apart from how I have given myself to her.  It’s why Paul said, “He who loves his wife loves himself.” (Ephesians 5:28)

Eternally more so, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the perfection of love, so much so that they are not just one in “heart” and “mind,” but truly one, so much so that one cannot exist in any way apart from the other even though none of three lose who they individually are in one another.The Father is always the Father, the Son is always the Son, and the Holy Spirit is always the Spirit but no more and no less than they are equally and fully one God.

 So, like last week, that’s a lot of head knowledge, but why is it essential for me to know that?  Well, beyond the important task of guarding us against the many cults that have popped up since the time of Jesus that reject the doctrine of the Trinity, there is actually something even more impactful to our day-to-day lives.  As a matter of fact, there is nothing more impactful to your day-to-day life than what we just talked about!   Here’s why,

Challenge:  Your faith can be no stronger than what it’s in! Do you believe in the God of the Bible or some watered-down version of Him? 

 Think about that for a minute.  We are going to conclude our series with a sermon on the doctrine of faith, so I’m only going far enough into this subject today to show you why it’s so essential for you to understand who God is.  As we go through the doctrines of the Gospel in the next few weeks, you will see why they all crumble into worthlessness if the doctrine of the Trinity isn’t true. And equally important is that if God isn’t who we just said He is, then He isn’t worth following.

You see, to have faith in something is to place your entire life and hope in it.  You don’t have faith in something that you just sample.  You don’t have faith in something you touch with your toe to see if it’s sturdy.  Whatever you place your faith in is what truly becomes your strength and life!

For instance, if I place my faith in an old Ford truck to get back and forth to work every day, then that truck will eventually be “Found On the Road Dead” and will cause me to lose faith in it!  If my faith is in money, it’s guaranteed that something in my life will happen that money can’t fix, and as such, I’ll lose my faith.  If my faith is in my politics, then my faith is always going to be in a mess! If my faith is in people, then as good and trustworthy as some people are, they are still flawed, weak, and severely limited and will eventually fail me.  People let us down; if your faith is in them, then down goes your faith!

But, if my faith is IN God, I have a rock to stand on, a shelter in the storm, and a hope that has no logical reason to ever decrease!  Listen to God’s Word!

 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

 24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 24-25)

Discussion Guide for the Trinity

 https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/where-did-the-nicene-creed-come-from.html

 We must start not with a creed, but with the Bible in our question to know and understand God. Creed’s simply help us to summarize what the entire Bible is teaching. As mentioned in Austin’s sermon, here is the link to an in depth article about the Nicene Creed and it’s relationship to Biblical theology. 

 Read both the Nicene Creed and Venture’s belief statement on the Trinity in your small group.

 “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.”6https://daretoventure.org/about/

 “God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, also known as the Trinity. The Trinity is three distinct persons, but inseparable in nature, essence, or being. God’s essential characteristics are true of the entire Trinity. He is eternal by nature. He is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. He is all-powerful and all-knowing; His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are love and do all things in perfect agreement with one another.”7https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/where-did-the-nicene-creed-come-from.html?gbraid=0AAAAADyqyIpfD0StRk0ppc1rZ4lHYVfs0&gclid=Cj0KCQjwmt24BhDPARIsAJFYKk3aZyis7YlIUp8m2k-Z5IOr6x4vKyMNvqpOXBYE0ZhpVBwk_uWJJ08aAi2_EALw_wcB

Discussion Questions

  • Did you grow up with any familiarity with the Nicene/Apostle’s Creed?
  • Did the Creed mean anything to you when you were growing up?
  • Why do you think a unifying creed about the Trinity is important for Christians?
  • What jumped out to you as you read the creed in your group?
  • What have you never considered before about the Trinity?
  • Why do you think we should talk about the Trinity even if we can’t fully explain how it works?
  • How do the attributes (characteristics) of God affect our everyday life?
  • How does the love of the Trinity teach us the nature of what it means to love and be loved?
  • What beliefs about God do you need to dive deeper into?