Sermon Snippet – One God in Three Persons – Part I
INTRODUCTION – We have been considering some of the implications of the “simplicity [singleness of purpose] that is in Christ” (II Corinthians 11:3). This “simplicity” extends to the doctrine of the Trinity, One God in Three Persons. Too many Christians think that this revelation of the nature of God is difficult to understand – even inscrutable. I disagree. Let us, as one pastor put it, “unscrew the inscrutable.”
1. GOD MUST BE UTTERLY DIFFERENT FROM US
Isaiah 55:8-9 states what should be obvious: “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ saith the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” When I was a boy, I read numerous books about the Roman and Greek gods. I remember thinking, “If I were a god, I wouldn’t want to be petty, bickering, and unreliable like them.” I have never reread those myths, for I found them so distasteful. The same can be said of any false god, including Allah. All of these false gods are merely imaginary beings created by humans in the image of humans – humans on steroids, to use a modern expression. God is, among many other characteristics, infinite (Acts 17:24), eternal (free from the succession of time – Psalm 90:2), and immutable (unchanging and unchangeable – James 1:17). He is omnipresent (Psalm 139:7-12), omniscient (Matthew 11:11), and omnipotent (Revelation 19:6). I coined the term “omniomni” as one way of describing His distinctiveness; He is the One Who is “all in all” (I Corinthians 15:28). The Father is God (John 6:27; Ephesians 4:6); the Son, Jesus Christ, is God (Hebrews 1:8); the Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4); the Three Persons are equal and One God (Matthew 28:19; II Corinthians 13:14). Analogies (like Patrick’s use of the shamrock in Ireland) do not work well; they cannot work, for God must be and is different from us. When we do consider the myths surrounding false gods, though, we see by contrast what God cannot be (as C. S. Lewis noted in his rebuttal of Christianity as myth rather than actual history).
2. GOD MUST BE TRIUNE – ONE GOD IN THREE PERSONS
“God is love” (I John 4:8, 16). I regularly point out that a monopersonal god is incapable of love (other than self-love) and is thus not relational. Even a god in two persons is no assurance of love to us, for that dual relationship could be exclusive, shutting out everyone else, including us. Christianity is monotheistic (but not monopersonal!): we believe in One God. He has, though, revealed Himself as One God in Three Persons. The multiple relationships of love within the Trinity assure us that this love is readily available to us on the personal level. The other characteristics of God also require Trinitarianism. For example, how could holiness be expressed and appreciated if a god were strictly monopersonal? The attributes of God indicate that He is – that He must be – relational and, as we saw in the first point, triune. God, to be God, must be One God in Three Persons.
CONCLUSION – Any understanding of God must be Trinitarian. Only One God in Three Persons can be both utterly different from us and also relational to us. The Cross of God the Son, Jesus Christ, demonstrates the saving love that we all need in order to enter into an eternal relationship with the Eternal God. May each one of us trust in our Savior’s saving love and be certain of life with Him for ever in heaven.