Who is the Trinity?
Good Morning Friends,
Today we sail through some scripture and thoughts regarding the trinity of God. Frequently the Spirit is called an it and not a Person of the Trinity. I like to think of the Father as God for us and Jesus as God with us and the Spirit as being God in us. The belief in a God in three persons is expressed in the Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds. These creeds are helpful to believe in for growing our relationship with the divine, but also in our own personal growth in relationships with others. Here it is helpful to remember we were made in God’s image but are not God. Here the thought of a triune expression in humans is of value, not because in reflects how we work so much as it engages us in approximating an understanding of the complexity of God in relationship with us.
Today we look for the Creator, Sustainer and the Redeemer in scripture and in our daily life. Today we ask but may not completely answer: Who is the Trinity?
Scripture: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
John 16:12-15 (NRSV)
So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27 (NRSV)
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 (NRSV)
Then Jesus began to teach his disciples that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
Mark 8:31 (NIV)
Message: Modern thinkers say to have true happiness we need three things. We need to have something to do, someone to love and a future to look forward to. Maybe it is a cognitive bias but in the western world we are ruled by threes. Three-oriented phrases are everywhere. So whether you are going down for the third time or the third time is the charm, you will find a phrase for your situation. Most of us even have three names. And we imagine it on the world as well. We say there where three kings bringing gifts to the baby Jesus, though scripture does not give us a number. The importance of three through is throughout the Bible. Interestingly its importance is not in all cultures. For the American Indian it is four and for the Chinese, I think it is five. But for those of us reading this it is three. Let’s look at threes in the Bible. Three men appeared to Abraham. Peter denied Christ three times and was forgiven three times. There were three crosses on Calvary. Jesus cried three times in the Bible. He cried when he heard about his friend, Lazarus’ death. He also had tears of sorrow for the city of Jerusalem. And finally Jesus had tears of struggle in the Garden, known as Gethsemane. There are the three parable of the lost sheep, coin and son. Things come in threes. There is faith, hope and love. There is the past, present and future. And the trinity of God, well it is just about everywhere in scripture.
I think it is there for a purpose. Seeing through the eyes of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit can be helpful. You see, the best of relationships are formed in threes: you, me and Jesus…in the trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Here God is the good foundation for the future. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit and gives us balance in our journey, our pursuit of the life that is really life. Here God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit is not the Son and the Son is not the Father and the Father is not the Holy Spirit. Maybe now as Trinity Sunday approaches is a good time to remember that Jesus gave the weary and stressed out three commands: to come to Him…to take His yoke and to learn from Him. He personally invites us to come and see….to come and drink….to come and eat…and then to come and work….to come and be changed…to come and be transformed. Maybe I should have stuck with three points.
Pray we spend time getting to know God. Pray
that out of our trouble, as we discover and rediscover who we were born to be and that we become a tribute to the Trinity.
Pray we see the Spirit in the Sails, the Maker in the Ship and Christ in the Captain. Pray we see the Three as One and the One as Three. Pray that overcoming the three sins of omission, commission and disposition helps us see when others burdens are meant to be shared, shouldered or shed. Pray we become of one mind realizing that only three things are important in life… the people we love…. the people who love us and where we are going when we die.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 