If the Trinity is
difficult for you to understand, you’re right!
It’s been said:
”To deny the trinity is to lose your soul, to try to explain it is
to lose your mind.”
It’s like an ant trying to explain a human to
another ant. From the ant’s limited perspective, he could not completely give
an accurate description. He could not see the top of the human’s head or inside
the ear, but he’s got a great view of his foot!
One time we taught a doctrinal study at our
church on God and began with the Trinity. When it was over, we all agreed. .
.we understood more about how little we understood. The Trinity does that to
you.
Let’s look at three attempts to understand the
Trinity. By themselves they are incomplete and do not stand as singular
explanations of God’s triune identity. Together they help bring us a bit closer
(like 1%) to understanding such a difficult concept.
Form
If you were to take a rock and break it into
three different pieces, would any of those pieces cease to be a rock? All three
would have the properties and material of the original. They could all be used
for different things—a paper weight, a door stop and a garden decoration—that
doesn’t mean their form has changed.
The Bible sees
the Trinity as three equal parts of the same whole. One God, three parts, all
of them from the same eternal substance.
Function
The Bible says God is one and he chooses to
present himself in three different functions: as a Father, as a Son and as a
Helper (the Holy Spirit). God personifies himself according to each role.
- The Father’s job is to be the authority and judge.
- The Son’s job is to be the redemption and sacrifice.
- The Holy Spirit’s job is to provide teaching, guidance and intimacy with God.
A man can be three things: a neighbor, a church
member and an office worker. That does not mean he is three separate people, as
much as he wants to be! God, who has all supernatural power, presents himself
as three functions.
Family
God is all about relationship. He created humans
so they can have a relationship with each other. God desires a relationship
with us so he presents himself as a relationship.
A man can be a father, a son and a husband all
at the same time. Once again, he’s one person, with three family roles. The
Bible presents God not just as a supporter of relationship, but as a
relationship—personifying himself in three roles.
Three in One, One in Three
The Trinity is not about cloning. Cloning
creates a separate entity with its own mind and freewill. The three members of
the Trinity are unique and yet united with the other. They are one and separate
at the same time.
To understand the Trinity, we try to make God
mathematically add up. The 1’s in a math equation are whole numbers, separate
and distinct, where the 1’s in the spiritual equation are so closely tied
together in heart, mind, spirit and strength that they are united as one.
It’s not 1+1+1=1.
It’s more like 1x1x1=1.
We cannot force our world’s ways on to God’s
spiritual formula. The Trinity exposes how incredible our God is, beyond
explanation, beyond math, existing in our worldly dimensions and in dimensions
we have not even discovered and explored.
God cannot be described accurately with
thousands of metaphors and a truckload of similes.
If God can create the earth, the sun, the
universe, the galaxies, and existed eternally in a multi-dimensional plain, can
he present himself in such a way that even boggles our minds?
(Taken from the book Saved by Troy Schmidt)