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November 28 - December 15, 2019
The example only carries its weight when we realize that the Lord Jesus eternally existed as the Father’s equal and laid aside His divine privileges out of love for us.
A quasi divine Jesus, or a mighty creature, does not fit this passage but instead destroys the entire thrust. Rather, we rejoice in the truth that the Son, though eternally equal with the Father, made himself “nothing” so that we—those who name His name, love Him, and obey Him—might have eternal life.
I believe in the Trinity because the Bible teaches the doctrine. No, the Bible doesn’t use the specific word “Trinity” any more than it uses the specific word “theocratic” or “Bible.” Instead, it teaches the doctrine by teaching the three pillars or foundations that make up the doctrine. The first such pillar is that there is only one true God, Yahweh, the Creator of all things. The second is that there are three divine persons, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. Three persons who communicate with one
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I assume you would agree with me that there is only one true God, Yahweh, or as you pronounce it, Jehovah. I believe the name “Jehovah” refers to the very divine Being, the eternal God who created every thing. We can agree, I assume, that the Father is identified as Jehovah.[1] But I believe that the Bible identifies Jesus as Yahweh, as well, and the Spirit is the Spirit of Yahweh. Each of these three persons share the one divine name, Yahweh or Jehovah. May I show you a few passages of Scripture that make this identification?
But I have found two particular passages to carry the most weight in communicating this truth to those who believe that Yahweh is God, believe the Bible is true, but reject the deity of Christ:
Hebrews 1:10–12 in comparison with Psalm 102:25–27, and John 12:37–41 in comparison with Isaiah 6:1–10.
What does it mean that the writer to the Hebrews could take a passage that is only applicable to Yahweh and apply it to the Son of God, Jesus Christ? It means that they saw no problem in making such an identification, because they believed that the Son was, indeed, the very incarnation of Yahweh.
He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.’ Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed.”
John cites the heart of the message of judgment given to Isaiah and sees the hardheartedness of the Jews, who had seen the miracles of the Lord Jesus and heard His words of grace as the fulfillment of these words.
Therefore, if we ask Isaiah, “Whose glory did you see in your vision of the temple?” he would reply, “Yahweh’s.” But if we ask the same question of John, “Whose glory did Isaiah see?” he would answer with the same answer—only in its fullness, “Jesus’.” Who, then, was Jesus to John? None other than the eternal God in human flesh, Yahweh.
There is a reason why the Holy Spirit does not receive the same level and kind of attention that is focused upon the Father and the Son: it is not His purpose to attract that kind of attention to himself.
Some take this as evidence of inferiority, but as we have noted before, difference in function does not indicate inferiority of nature.
When the Spirit set aside Barnabas and Saul, He did so personally: While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:2).
Only persons “know” things. Electricity “knows” nothing, experiences nothing. Yet the Spirit knows the thoughts of God (the greatest task to which the creature man can be called).
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
It is self-evident that the Father is a person; so also is the Son. How, then, could two persons share a single name with a nonperson, a mere force? The willingness of the Scripture writers to associate the Spirit in this way with both the Father and the Son is plain evidence of His personality.
Another of the many ways in which the personality of the Spirit is shown comes to us from Jesus’ teach...
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An impersonal force cannot be grieved, pained, or injured, nor can a mere “force” or “power” seal believers for the day of redemption.
So if we can plainly see that the Son’s willing is an act of a person, and the Father’s willing is likewise the act of a person, how can we possibly avoid recognizing that the Spirit sovereignly and wisely gives His gifts to the church just as He wills to do so, and that this makes Him, inarguably, a person?
But the fact that this Spirit shares the one divine name with the Father and the Son (Matthew 28:19) makes His deity indisputable.
Jesus promises that the Father and He will dwell with those who love Him and keep His word (i.e., the true disciples). Yet how does the Lord do this? He does so by His Spirit, whom He sends in His place. This is the point of the entire passage in John 14 and 16: Jesus sends another Comforter to be with His people for all time. And that Comforter is the Spirit. But so intimate is the relationship, so perfect the union, that to be indwelt by the Spirit is to have the Father and the Son abiding with us.
So close is the relationship of the persons that Paul could describe the Spirit as the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ within one short span: However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (Romans 8:9)
That is why the early Christians could place the Spirit with the Father and the Son in their worship and their praise, and could pronounce as a doxology the following words: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:14)
As stated earlier, many Christians, without knowing it, hold a false view of the Trinity simply due to their inability to articulate the difference between believing in one Being of God and three persons sharing that one Being. As a result, even orthodox Christian believers slip into an ancient heresy known by many names: modalism, Sabellianism, Patripassionism.
Today this same error is called Oneness or the “Jesus Only” position.
Whatever its name might be, it is a denial of the Trinity based upon a denial of the distinction between th...
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Instead, advocates of this position either believe that the Father is the Son, and the Son is the Spirit, and the Spirit is the Father (the old actor on the stage example, wearing different masks to “play” different parts, but always being the same person), or they make the Son merely the “human nature” of Christ (hence denying His eternal nature).
The Oneness position is, in fact, liable to all sorts of refutation on the basis of Scripture, so it is easy to see why many who wish to deny the Trinity prefer to attack this perversion of it rather than the real thing.
“Father, glorify Your name.” There came then a voice out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again” (John 12:28).
Again, the distinction of the person of the Father and of the Son is clearly maintained. This is a conversation, not a monologue.
This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:1–3).
the very statements of the Son regarding His relationship with the Father are among the strongest assertions of His deity in the Bible.
Striking is the example of Matthew 27:46, where Jesus, quoting from Psalm 22:1, cries out, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
It is just as clear that the Lord Jesus Christ is never identified as the Father by the apostle Paul but is shown to be another person besides the Father.
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The single most popular passage cited in defense of modalism, however, is one that is often cited in defense of the deity of Christ: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).
Literally, the passage reads, “I and the Father, we are one.” The verb translated “are” is plural in the Greek. Jesus is not saying, “I am the Father.” The distinction between the Son and the Father remains even in the verb He uses.
“And I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand” (John 10:28–29). This is the context of Jesus’ statement, “I and the Father are one.” They are one in giving eternal life, they are one in protecting the sheep, they are one in the covenant of redemption. All this must be said simply to be honest with the passage.
Here is the oneness that exists between the Father and the Son—a oneness in redemption. Yet since redemption is a divine act, here we have the testimony to the deity of Christ, for no apostle, no prophet, can be said to be “one” with the Father in saving believers in the way announced here. No mere creature can have this kind of perfect unity of purpose and action. No, Jesus Christ must be perfect deity to be able to say of himself in reference to redemption, “I and the Father are one.”
We can say that the early church was correct in coming to the conclusion (at the Council of Chalcedon in a.d. 451) that Jesus Christ is one person with two natures, divine and human. He is not two persons, nor are His natures somehow mixed together so that He is not truly divine or truly man. He is both, concurrently, because He has both natures.
Jesus was not “talking to himself” in His prayers, but was talking to the Father.
This passage represents a group of Scriptures that instructs us to view Jesus as one person with two natures. How so? Because of the phrase “crucified the Lord of glory.” Obviously the “Lord of glory” has reference to the divine nature of Christ, yet Jesus was crucified as a man.
Crucifixion is only meaningful with reference to his human nature (you cannot crucify the divine nature). When Paul speaks of the crucifixion of the Lord of glory, he is speaking of Christ as one person with two natures.
Just as we cannot present any one analogy that “grasps” the Trinity (due to the absolutely unique way in which God exists), so, too, the Incarnation defies our attempts to wrap our limited minds around all it means.
God only became incarnate once in the Son; therefore, there is nothing else in the created order to which we can compare either the Incarnation or the resultant God-Man, Jesus Christ. Instead of fretting over questions the Triune God has not chosen to answer in His revelation in Scripture, we should stand amazed at the motivation that brought the eternal Son into human flesh: His tremendous love for us!
Do you see how the faith of the New Testament is an implicitly Trinitarian faith? None of these passages say, “Now, the doctrine of the Trinity is this
“The whole book is Trinitarian to the core; all its teaching is built on the assumption of the Trinity; and its allusions to the Trinity are frequent, cursory, easy and confident.”
The Old Testament may be likened to a chamber richly furnished but dimly lighted; the introduction of light brings into it nothing which was not in it before; but it brings out into clearer view much of what is in it but was only dimly or even not at all perceived before. The mystery of the Trinity is not revealed in the Old Testament; but the mystery of the Trinity underlies the Old Testament revelation, and here and there almost comes into view. Thus the Old Testament revelation of God is not corrected by the fuller revelation which follows it, but only perfected, extended and enlarged.
The Trinity as a doctrinal truth has always been true. But when did it become knowable to men? What “revealed” it to the human race? The answer to that question is simply the Incarnation and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
To grasp this reality is truly exciting! The Trinity is a doctrine not revealed merely in words but instead in the very action of the Triune God in redemption itself! We know who God is by what He has done in bringing us to himself!
