I can say without fear of contradiction or correction that the doctrine of the Trinity is the most important element in the Christian understanding of God and how he has revealed himself to humanity.  It is hower certainly not a doctrine without controversy; indeed our own denomination was founded, at least in part, as a result of disputes between Presbyterians as to how the Trinity should be undersood and articulated.

I want to explore in the short amount of time available for me today, how firstly, we can understand the Trinity from both a theological and biblical perspective, and secondly, how we can apply our understanding to living a life of faith.

So what is the Trinity?

The first question we must ask ourselves is this: what is the Trinity?  Given that this question has exercised theologians from the time of Christ’s earthly ministry onwards, simple and easily accesible definitions are not always easy to find, so please bear with me! The New International Bible Dictionary says this:

“There is one eternal God, the Lord, who is holy love. Through his self-revelation he has disclosed to his people that he is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yet he is not three deities but one Godhead, since all three Persons share the one Deity/Godhead. The biblical teaching of the Trinity is, in a sense, a mystery; and the more we enter into union with God and deepen our understanding of him, the more we recognize how much there is yet to know. The biblical teaching has led to the Christian confession that God is One in Three and Three in One”.

The Theologian Wayne Grudem puts it more plainly:

"God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God."

Even expressing the Trinity in one sentence hardly makes it any more comprehensible, so let’s have a go using a straightforward analogy.  This analogy was offered by a woman called Mary Newland, and it goes like this:

“After much thinking and struggling we have hit on a way, inadequate at best, of trying to explain in the family, three Persons in one God by comparing it to their own human father.  At home, among the children, he is known as Daddy and his role is that of father.  At work, among his fellow workers, he is known as Mr Newland and his role is that of wage earner.  To mother, he is known as Bill, and his role is husband, he is the same man, but he has different roles to play.  Very roughly, it draws a parallel to the three dispensations, as theologians call them, of the Persons of the Trinity.  God the Father we think of as Creator.  God the Son we think of as a Redeemer.  God the Holy Ghost we think of as Divine Love.”

Is that helpful?  I hope that it is.  I personally find it a useful, if imperfect way of conceptualising something that is profoundly mysterious, but yet central to Christian thinking.

From an historical perspective, the doctrine of the Trinity was formulated by the early Christian Church.  The Church Fathers were placed in a difficult position – they had to come up with way of explaining how Jesus related to God, and not only that, how the Holy Spirit related to both in the light of Pentecost.  This, as I’m sure you will understand, was no easy task! Agreeing on anything is difficult for Christians to do, never mind tackling something so complex, but yet at the same time so important to a fully functioning understanding of the very nature of God himself.  The stakes could not have been higher!  So the church came together at the council of Nicea in 325 AD to put into words something that had stretched the very best of minds.  And this they did – they came up with what we know as the Nicene Creed – affirming the divinity of Jesus, and then later on, in a revised version (produced in 381 AD) articulating more overtly a Trinitarian understanding of God. 

Then came the Athanasian Creed – here we really do have a full-blown Trinitarian exposition of the nature of God; more than half of the text relates to the Trinity.

As Non-Subscribing Presbyterians we are aware of the problems with creeds and confessions of faith; we are aware of the background and the theological disputes that led to their formation.  But that does not mean that we dispose of them wholesale.  What it means is that we recognise the truth contained within them, but reserve the right, in line with our conscience and reading of Scripture, to resist their imposition as a specific test of faith.  From my perspective, these creeds are a masterful attempt to put into words something that is largely incomprehensible for us humans with our limited understanding.

A Biblical Perspective

There are many who have difficulty with the Doctrine of the Trinity.  Some because it’s just too complex to understand, but others who contend that the Trinity is not a biblically based doctrine.  Those that take this viewpoint contend that nowhere in Scripture does the word ‘trinity’ appear; this is indeed true.  But as is the case with most things in life, reality is often more complex than it first appears.  We only need to glance at our Gospel reading for today to highlight that point, specifically verse nineteen, where it reads:

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”.

This verse isn’t the only one where we find the Father/God, Son/Christ and Spirit ‘formula’ in the New Testament.  In fact it’s found in several places, including 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, 1 Peter and Revelation.  As an example look at what Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians (Chapter Four; Verses Four to Six):

“There is one body and one Spirit - just as you were called to one hope when you were called - one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all”.

The scholar Donald Carson drives the point home further when he writes:

“It becomes difficult to deny the presence of Trinitarian thought in the New Testament documents, as confirmed by (1) the frequency of the God-Christ-Spirit formulas, (2) their context and use in the NT, and, (3) the recognition by NT writers that the attributes of the Lord of the Old Testament may be comprehensively applied to Jesus”.

The Trinity and Living a Life of Faith

It is my contention that in order to act in synchronicity with God’s will in our lives, we firstly need to understand, within the limits of our own reasoning, who and what God is.  And that is where the doctrine of the Trinity comes in to our thinking.  As our Old Testament reading for today makes clear:

^“Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other”. (Deuteronomy Chapter Four, Verse Thirty-Nine)

In the wider passage, the writer of Deuteronomy reminds us that the very nature of God is revealed through his word and also his actions.  His praises are sung because of who he is and what he has done.

The Trinity is above all a model of relationship; it is a way of being.  As our second New Testament reading for today, Paul’s Epistle to the Romans sets out unambiguously - Christians have been claimed by God.  The Spirit leads us to Christ – to redemption and salvation – and a realtionship to God the Father.  As Paul so eloquently writes in Chapter Eight, Verses Fourteen to Seventeen:

“Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory”.

A Trinitarian understanding of God leads us to the conclusion that God never leaves us; he is always with us; his relationship with us is absolute.  As Carlo Carretto once wrote:

“The Trinity becomes a reality in us as the guest of the soul.  Why go on searching for God beyond the stars when he is so close to us, within us?”

Conclusion

So to conclude, a more difficult doctrine would be hard to conceive of, but it is my contention that this doctrine is the key to understanding God.  Yes, our understanding may be incomplete and expressed in clumsy language at times, but a Trinitarian understaning of God undergirds our faith and informs our ethics and the way we relate to the wider world.   Without a Trinitarian understanding, surely we struggle to see a valid means of gaining access to a personal God?  Surely we struggle to understand Jesus’ ethical teachings in their proper context and underpinned by the authority which lay behind them?

Today on Trinity Sunday we are reminded of our calling, not just to follow God, but to endevour to understand him as fully as our frail human minds can.  And when we do this, we can live a life of faith, sure in the knowledge that God is always with us, in all his mystery and splendour, today and forever more.