God the Trinity

God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, and we are those who are named for Him,

we are those who are being brought into His family, our baptism as a naming ceremony,

that we have our natural name, but now we are being given a new name,

the name of the family of God.

We need to be careful as we articulate the doctrine of the Trinity.

It can be very easy to fall into heresy as you'll hear today.

So why bother?

Well, the doctrine of the Trinity is not a doctrine that is for the realm of academics only.

To quote Sinclair Ferguson, it is an intensely practical doctrine.

To stay with us today on renewing your mind,

stop to Ferguson explains.

This week you're hearing messages from his brand new series Theology for Old.

If you missed yesterday's message, be sure to go back and listen or watch

wherever you get your podcasts or on our official YouTube channel.

We have a growing community there from all around the world.

We'll hear Sinclair Ferguson on God the Trinity.

We have thought a little about the way in which the way we think,

biblically, theologically, doctrinally, is going to influence the way we live.

And we're going to come today to what I think is perhaps the most profound doctrine of all

in the Bible, the doctrine of the Trinity.

I wonder if you've ever noticed when Moses encounters God, he essentially asks two questions.

There are actually the two most fundamental questions of all.

The first one is who are you and the second is who am I?

And I've already hinted that these two questions belong together,

that we can never know who we really are until we know who God really is,

because we're made as his image and later on we'll have to give more concentrated attention

to what does it mean that we're made as the image of God?

But Christian theologians have always understood that these two questions belong together.

John Calvin, the great Genevieve farmer at the beginning of his wonderful book,

The Institutes of the Christian Religion, says that some total of our wisdom can be boiled down to

this, the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves. And these two knowledges belong together.

Who is God and who am I?

And what we're going to think about in a little more detail is especially who then is God.

But before we do that, I want to fast forward from Moses to Jesus.

You remember the way in which Jesus spoke to the Apostles just before his ascension gave them what

we call the Great Commission. And often we hear it preached when a missionary is going overseas.

Sometimes we hear it preached at a baptismal service because Jesus spoke about baptism.

What we don't always hear preached is that these verses at the end of Matthew chapter 28,

18 to 20 are fundamentally about God the Trinity.

Jesus says baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

And although we don't often think about it this way, those words tell us as Christians both

who God is and who we are. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God. And we are those who are

named for him. We are those who are being brought into his family. Our baptism is a naming ceremony

that we have our natural name. But now we are being given a new name, the name of the family

of God. And so in a sense from the very beginning of the Christian life, we know the answer to these

two questions, Moses asked, who is God? He is God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And who am I? I am a member of his family. I am a child of God. I belong to him and I live for him.

And yet of course when we read through the Bible, we realize this is actually the very first time

in all history. From the beginning of time until the ascension of Jesus, this is the very first time

if I can put it this way when God's name has been pronounced fully. No one has ever said before

when you call God God, remember that he is Father and Son and Holy Spirit.

And we recognize that when we say this, we're talking about one of the great mysteries of the

Christian faith. But we also realize that although it's only in Matthew 28 that we learn what

sometimes been called God's Christian name, there have been all kinds of indications all the way

through the Bible that God is in fact, yes, one God, but he exists mysteriously indeed in three

persons. So for example, when we go back to the story of creation, how does the world come into

existence? It comes into existence because the Father through the Word and by the operation of

the Spirit brings the world into existence. The Father speaks and through the Word, the world

comes into being and that world is without form and void, but the ruch of God, the Spirit of God

is hovering over the waters and beginning to create form out of that farmlessness. And the Father,

the Son and the Spirit are putting content into that empty, original creation. And yes, it's only

true eventually as we look back that we see, oh, we see there the working of God, the Trinity,

although the word Trinity is not used there, the words Father and Son are not used there,

but we see right from the very beginning, the God who has created all things is the Trinity God

and he has done it as the Trinity God. And then sometimes in surprising ways we see the same thing,

take for example the Exodus. We are told in the Old Testament scriptures that it is God who

takes these people as his children. It is God the Father who brings them out of their bondage in Egypt.

But then we're also told that they were brought out of their bondage and led through the desert

by the angel of the Lord. There is the Lord and there is the angel of the Lord.

And then you may remember way on in the latter part of the prophecy of Isaiah as he comments on the fact

that the children of Israel rebelled against the Lord in the desert as they were supposed to go

into the promised land. They refused to be obedient to God and he says what happened there is

that they grieved the Holy Spirit who was leading them on. And so when we take the whole story of

scripture about the Exodus into account, we realize that, oh yes, there is one God active here,

but there is a mystery here because this one God is the Father and this one God is the angel of the

Lord and this one God is also the Holy Spirit. And so all the way through the Old Testament

scriptures, we get these little hints that yes, God is one, but he's not like a solid block. He's a

God of life and he's a God of personal life and not only so, but what we begin to see in the

ministry of Jesus is that he is in fact a God who is one and also simultaneously three.

So it is the Father who sent his Son into the world and the Son is conceived in the womb of

the Virgin Mary through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And we see the same thing at Jesus' baptism

that Jesus, the Son of God, is being baptized and there is a voice from heaven, the voice of the Father

speaks and then there is in symbolic form the descent of the Holy Spirit upon him.

And as Jesus' ministry continues, it becomes clear that everything he is doing, he is doing

supported by the Holy Spirit and in obedience to his Heavenly Father. And even when he rises from the

dead, we're told in the scriptures that the Father raises him up. We're told that Jesus himself

raises himself up. We're told by the Apostle Paul that he is raised up by the power of the Holy

Spirit. So what Jesus says right at the end of his ministry, immediately before his ascension,

is simply in a sense bringing all these little details together and saying, let me explain this

to you simply. Of course it's not simple, but let me explain this to you in a single sentence.

Your God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God and three persons, one God and three persons

who do personal things and in doing those personal things that only persons could do.

They are also doing divine things that only a divine God could do.

Now how do we put all this together? Let me try and do this simply to help us grasp the main

points of the doctrine of the Trinity. And I think we can put it in five stages.

Number one of course is that God is the Lord. He is one God. There are not three gods or two

gods or many gods. The basic confession of the Hebrew Bible is that the Lord, our Lord,

is one Lord. But second, that God possesses his being in a way that's incomprehensible to us

obviously, but certainly not incomprehensible to him. He has his being in this three person way,

the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And then we could say the third stage is this.

And it answers the question, how are these three persons related to each other in the one being

of God? And the scriptures give us this answer. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father.

Remember John 1 verse 18, no one has seen God, but the only begotten God, God the Son has revealed him

or John 3 16, God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him

should not perish but have everlasting life. So the Son is eternally begotten of the Father.

And we're told that the Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and from the Son. This is why

he's known in the New Testament as the Spirit of the Father and also the Spirit of the Son.

Perhaps you remember how in John 15 verse 26, Jesus speaks about the Holy Spirit as proceeding

from the Father. He says, I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father.

And I think he implies there because that Spirit is also the Spirit of the Son, it's his own Holy

Spirit, that he proceeds also from the Son. Now what does what does this exactly mean?

Well, let me come to a fourth point, it's this, that when we say that the Son is eternally begotten

of the Father, all of the great Christian theologians have said, we do not think this is an

explanation, it is only a description. But what in essence it means is that there never was a time

when there never was a Son and there never was a time when there never was a Father.

The point is this, the point is that only when the Father has a Son is he a Father.

And only when the Son has a Father is he a Son. So it's not as though the Father existed before

the Son because he wouldn't have been a Father or that the Son existed after the Father because

the Father would not have been a Father without the Son. But it's saying there is a relationship

between the Father and the Son that in a sense in God's wonderful accommodation to our understanding

is similar to the very best kind of fellowship that a Father and a Son would enjoy together.

And then what does it mean when we say that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and proceeds from

the Son? Well, perhaps we can think about it this way, we use a kind of analogous language and

the Bible does too. A situation arises and we might use a slightly different language but we might

say my heart really went out to him. Well, such a spirit there that my spirit really went out to him.

And what seems to be captured in the Bible's language is that I saw where with the Father and the Son

there is this third person who goes out from the Father and the Son, their hearts go out to him

and in response his heart goes out to them. The marvelous thing is that these are three

three different names, isn't it? Father, Son, Holy Spirit and yet we can see in those three

different names that we're not talking about three different gods, but we're talking about

the mysterious unity of this one God who exists in three marvelous ways.

Now the place I think where we get the most helpful teaching on this is actually in the teaching

of our Lord Jesus. I wonder if you remember what Jesus says to the disciples in the upper room in

his farewell discourse. He says, the Father is in me and I am in the Father. Well, what's he saying

there? He's saying he dwells in such close communion personally with the Father because he and the

Father are one. It's a marvelous statement Jesus makes, isn't it? I and my Father are one.

My Father dwells in me and I dwell in him. And then he says this amazing thing. He says, I'm going to

send you the Holy Spirit, this third person of the Godhead. I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit

and when he comes, listen to this amazing thing Jesus says, when he comes, the Father and I will come

and make our home with you. You see what he's saying? He's saying the Father, the Son and the Holy

Spirit are so bound together in one, so mutually engaged with each other. But when the Holy Spirit comes

to end well, Christian believers, then it's true we are end well by the Spirit. But that means we're

also end well by the Son. And that also means that our lives, as Jesus says, have become like a home

for the Father and the Son and the Spirit, if I can put it this way, to be at home with us

and for us to be at home with them. And of course we find as some of the ancient fathers of the

church used to say, we tend to think about the one. But when we think about the one, we must never

forget the three. Or we tend to think about the three, but we must never forget about the one.

We recognize of course, our minds aren't capable of taking in, of understanding the way God understands

his own trinitarian being. We can't take that in. And so sometimes our avenue of thought is going

through one person or another person of the trinity. And sometimes we're going to be thinking about

the whole of the trinity, the one God. But what we're being encouraged to do by Jesus and the

scriptures is always to be reflecting on the fact that the one is three and the three are one.

And when we begin to grasp that, and I think this is the wonderful practical implication of this,

it can have very profound effects on our Christian lives. I wonder if you would agree with me when

I say, I suspect that many Christians think that the doctrine of the trinity is one

of the most speculative doctrine in the New Testament. In other words, it's a theory. It's

out there somewhere. We can't understand three in one and one in three. And therefore, because it is

so speculative, it is inevitably impractical. It doesn't really make any difference to your Christian

life. Now, let me explain to you why that can't possibly be true. It can't possibly be true

because at the time of greatest crisis in his disciples' lives on the evening of his crucifixion,

the Lord Jesus in John 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, keeps teaching them about the trinity. He keeps teaching

them about the relationship between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And what that's

going to mean to their Christian lives. And to be as inconceivable at such a time as that,

that the Lord Jesus would think to himself, what I need to do is to give them the least practical

teaching I can give them. So this must be intensely practical. So let me, in a few minutes of this

lesson that remained, let me, let me try and show you how practical this is. And I think I can,

I think I can help us to understand it this way. Imagine you have a new young assistant minister

comes to your congregation. He's just out of seminary, very excited about what he's doing. And the first

Sunday he's in the church, he's asked to lead in prayer. And he begins his prayer, oh, God our

Father. And he says a few more words. And about 15 seconds later, why are they still talking about

God, our Father? He says, and I thank you so much for dying for us on the cross.

Now, we all know enough about Christian theology to realize this young man has just committed a

heresy. The Father did not die for us on the cross. There's an ancient heresy called Patrapassinism

that it was the Father who suffers. And he's just committed that heresy. Well, you know, we don't

report him to the elders or whoever. We cut him some slack because he just been nervous.

And we all know we can, I mean, when we speak to one another, we can mess up the grammar of our

sentences. And we all know he's just been a bit nervous. But if you step back and think about it,

there's a tremendous significance to the fact that we've spotted this. Can I put it this way?

We can't thank the Father for dying for us on the cross. Because he didn't.

But we can't thank the Son for doing it. And we can't thank the Father for sending his Son.

And we can't thank the Spirit for sustaining the Father's Son. And when we begin to think of that,

we realize something has actually happened to our worship, hasn't it? Instead of just saying,

thank you God for saving me. We're praising the Father for what he has done in our salvation.

We're praising the Son for what he has done. We're praising the Spirit for what he has done.

And that's just the beginning. We begin to understand in all kinds of dimensions of the work of God

that the Father, the Son and the Spirit have been authoritative in different ways.

And although they all, as it were, all three persons always work together in perfect harmony,

it says, though, in this aspect, the Father takes the lead. In this aspect, the Son takes the lead.

In this aspect, the Spirit takes the lead. And they're working with Him alongside Him,

fulfilling the glorious plan of our salvation. And what I find as I reflect on that is,

that it simply increases and increases the wonder of our fellowship with God.

To be able to say, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ,

through the Spirit. And instead of worshiping God, as though He were like a single block,

we learn what it means to worship God as the blessed Trinity. And we praise Him for all He has

done and is as Father and as Son and as Holy Spirit. And that makes a great difference at the end

of the day to the pleasures and joys of the Christian life. And this, at least in brief, is the doctrine

of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity, intensely practical, and making a great difference

to the pleasures and joys of the Christian life. That was Sinclair Ferguson, the vice chairman of

Ligonier Ministries on this Wednesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. This brand new series is

called Theology for All. And it's 36 messages. And we'll give you quick access to all 36 when you

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for all your notes. All this to thank you for making this daily podcast possible. Thank you for your

generosity. Well, we serve a Trinitarian God as we heard today. And this God is Lord. And that's

what Dr. Ferguson will help unpack tomorrow here on Renewing Your Mind.