I would like to discuss the doctrine of the Trinity. It is my greatest desire that anyone reading this understands that my grasping at straws to explain something volumes of literature has been written about is just that......me grasping at straws. I have something that helps me think about the Trinity and gives me understanding. It is imperative to completely drop the idea of time as we know it and that is why I have repeated that so often. This is why the crystal ball analogy of God seeing into the future is incorrect, God is already in the future. We sing it, "I know Who holds tomorrow".
There seems to be two views of the Trinity that I could possibly fall into and it is not my intention in any way to do that. One is that of God being like a father, mother, and child which suggest three Gods and not one. The other is that of a dad who is also a business man and a couch which suggest God with three modes of expression.
We call God the author of life. I have thought long and hard about why we call Him that. I began thinking about John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". In the beginning the Word already existed.
"The heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain" God the Father (1 Kings 8:27). Yes, I took some liberty with that verse. Nothing God created can contain Him, unless, He chooses to step in.
God the Father cannot be contained by the reality He created and so He must remain outside it. God is omnipresent in all places at all times because everything is contained in Him. As I have already written, God is love and God says that the greatest love is to lay down His life for a friend. At some point in eternity past before God created anything there was only Him. God, by Himself, full of love, being love Himself and defining love by Himself, thinking about you and I. God was thinking about laying down His life for all of us. God created a reality He could step into. "All things came into being through Him, and without Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being." (John 1:3). Who is the Him? It's Jesus, God the Son. "He was in the beginning with God" (John 1:2).
For sometime I kept turning over the whole thing of eternity and God stepping into creation and then I hit on the whole author of life thing and that Jesus is the Word......and some of you probably can guess where I'm going to go and the rest are going to find out right now.
I have read and heard sermons say that God is like a producer who made a movie. He knows the entire movie while the audience only knows the point they are at in the movie. It don't work for me. I much prefer a book.
We say that God is the author of life. I like that. God the Father is outside the book He authors. He is not contained by it. He knows every detail of it. He is the beginning and the end. Although I believe that God never had to author anything I believe He was compelled by His nature to create. God is love and God says that the greatest love is to lay down His life for a friend.
Jesus is the Word. God the Son. God in His creation. God never changes so God the Son was always meant to step in. He had to author a place He could step into. This is why the bible says He "made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:7). Jesus was not omnipresent. Jesus stepped into time and was confined by it. Jesus experienced things sequentially. "The Word became flesh" (John 1:14) but "God is a spirit" (John 4:24). Hmmmm......God the Father is spirit but I'm fairly certain that Jesus, God the Son, has always been flesh and always been love and always was going to lay down His life for His friends. We were created in His image.
God could have taken a million years to plan one second of your life. This is where God the Holy Spirit comes in. God is with you because He created you. You have been authored. You are a character in the book. God wrote whole chapters just about you. It's not that there is a Holy Spirit for each person, It's that God, who is not contained by time, has all the time in eternity to be with just you!
As I said, I'm grasping at straws. Everything makes perfect sense in my mind but between the concept and the keyboard is a lot of sinful me. In the most simplistic terms, God the Father authors a book. He writes Himself into the book, God the Son. He intimately cares for each character in His book, God the Holy Spirit. I can see each as as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being. If by a gift of God you too can see how this works then all praise goes to God because I know I feel it's all inept compared to what is in my mind.
I can't wait to get back to angels! God stepping into a reality He created before our reality.
5 comments:
John 1:1-
In the begginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him. And apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being.
Was Jesus in the beginning with someone else?
No one knows the Son except the Father and no one knows the Father except the Son and everyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him to.
What has the Son revealed to you about who the Father is?
Michael,
Again I must say you do a lot of thinking in some of your post.
The Trinity is one of those hard to understand, but must believe doctrines. Must believe because the doctrine is taught, at least in principle.
Your thoughts are much appreciated.
Good explination.
Dont woprry about PB he doesnt believe in the 'trinity' but a 'triune God'. largely a language debate, but in essence according to PB the doctorine of the 'trinity' is evil because the catholic church believes it.
Ive heard many analogies tring to explain the trinity. along with yours (which was new to me) is the one where God is like H2O. It can be ice, water, or steam but never changes from being H2O as probably the two best ive heard.
The trinity must be true because the basis of Christianity crumbles if it is not.
God is everlasting, Immortal.
Jesus is God.
Jesus died for our sin.
An immortal can't die.
But Jesus did die...
I tend to follow the line of thinking that "A God small enough for my understanding is not big enough for my need".
that said though I am incredibly blessed everytime God reveals a new truth about Him to me, which is fairly often as there is a lot to know about Him and my brain is only small.
I'm not criticising PB as most of what he says is spot on. He is my brother-in-law and I know how dillegent he is with getting into the word of God. Just some of the things he says are a little funny, but it is usually how they are expressed which is the difference and not the actual belief.
When PB hears the word 'trinity' you are instantly talking about thee gods and polytheism though. This is NOT the doctorine of the trinity but still it is what PB hears when it is mentioned.
Post a Comment