In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.—John 1:1–5

Introduction

This weekend I begin a 3-week series of downtown sermons on the Trinity.

Why the Trinity? Three main reasons:

1. First, because I want us to pursue glad-hearted worship of the Father, Son, and Spirit together.
2. Second, because I want to teach biblical truth that is helpful and complimentary to the 2 Corinthians series Jason is leading us through this year.
3. Third, because, as Campus Pastor Downtown, I want to see more and more of the powerful, life-changing effects of our worship of the triune God and of the gospel on all our relationships.

My overarching title is "Treasuring the Trinity." It is an intentional call to worship God the Father, Son, and Spirit. I settled on the word "treasuring" because at Bethlehem, "treasuring" is our synonym for authentic faith, worship, delight, and joy.

My aim these weekends is that God might graciously impact our minds, our hearts, and our actions by his triune reality for the advance and joy of our faith. 

Prayer

The Doctrine of Trinity Is in the Wind

The winds of doctrine are always blowing. Oftentimes the winds blow away from biblical truth in search of some novel, clever, ‘junk-food’ teaching about God that no student of the Bible has ever taught before, or a return to old heresies in new wrappers. And yet also, by the grace of God, at other times, the winds blow toward the healthy food of biblical truth, toward the solid teaching of the Bible.

My sense is that the latter is happening today in some measure in reference to the Trinity. Perhaps it is just me, but it seems that God is bringing a heightened sense of the glories and the beauties of the Trinity and the implications for faith and life—at least in the Christian circles I am most familiar with. I cannot remember the Trinity being so talked about as it is in our circles today.

• There is a buzz of pastor-to-pastor recommendations of a book by Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith.
• There are conference messages, like the one Mike Emlet gave on "The Trinity is Relationship" at the CCEF National Conference last month for biblical counselors.
• And, then, I was thrilled to hear our Bethlehem College & Seminary President commend one of our seminary students, Ben Collins, on a wonderful teaching he recently gave on the Trinity.
• There is the continuing interest in the 17th century puritan pastor John Owen’s book, Of Communion with God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

No matter how widespread this interest in the biblical doctrine of the trinity is, it is good. I invite you to think about it with me.

What Is the Trinity?

Wayne Grudem’s book Systematic Theology puts it this way:

We may define the doctrine of the Trinity as follows: God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God. 

 Our Elder Affirmation of Faith, which we just read in the worship service, provides an excellent summary of the doctrine:

2.1 We believe in one living, sovereign, and all-glorious God, eternally existing in three infinitely excellent and admirable Persons: God the Father, fountain of all being; God the Son, eternally begotten, not made, without beginning, being of one essence with the Father; and God the Holy Spirit, proceeding in the full, divine essence, as a Person, eternally from the Father and the Son. Thus each Person in the Godhead is fully and completely God.

2.2 We believe that God is supremely joyful in the fellowship of the Trinity, each Person beholding and expressing His eternal and unsurpassed delight in the all-satisfying perfections of the triune God.

While the word ‘trinity’ does not occur in the Bible, the description of God as triune is progressively revealed from the first book of the bible, Genesis, and more clearly revealed in the coming of Christ. The doctrine of the trinity is orthodox, basic, no-frills historic Christianity. In fact, to deny the trinity is to deny historic Christianity and to land in heresy.

With that as background, let’s turn to the text in John 1. 

The Trinity As Revealed in John 1

The gospel of John begins in a most revealing manner in regard to the Trinity.

While the Old Testament put down clues to the Trinity such, these to name a few:

[God created] the heavens and the earth [while] the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.—Genesis 1:1-2.

Then God said, “Let us (plural) make man in our image, after our likeness." . . . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.—Genesis 1:26-27

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.—Isaiah 9:6

The Gospel of John stunningly begins with a clear revelation of the pre-existence of the Word, who is identified as “the Son of God” (v. 14), and as “Jesus Christ” (v. 17). 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.—John 1:1-3

What can we learn about the Trinity from these verses? Notice four simple and profound things about the Son of God that are informative for our understanding of the Trinity: 

1. The Pre-Existence of the Trinity
2. The Distinct Personhood of the Trinity
3. The Oneness of the Trinity
4. The Trinity is the Creator

1. The Pre-Existence of the Trinity

Note verse 1, “In the beginning WAS the Word.” The Word WAS in the beginning. That is, the Son of God existed before the beginning of time, before the beginning of space, before anything was created— the Son of God WAS — with GOD and the Spirit of God ‘in the beginning’. The point: there is no point in time when the Son of GOD didn’t exist in relationship to God.

2. The Distinct Personhood of the Trinity

Again in verse 1, “and the Word was with God.” The Word was with God in the beginning. That is to say, that the Son of God has an identity distinct from God.

The preposition translated ‘with’ carries the sense of the Son being ‘towards’ God, being in relationship to him. Think about it. God has never been alone. He was with his Son in the beginning, as he was with his Spirit. 

What kind of relationship? Something very profound is obviously implied. If I told you that I am the son of a man named Richard (which I am), what would that say about Richard? Richard is my father. Likewise, when the Bible tells us that God has a son, what does that say about God? He is a father, before salvation—even before creation.

Since the Word is identified in verse 14 as "the only Son from the Father,” it’s a Father-Son relationship. In his prayer on the night before he was crucified, Jesus spoke of this time with God before the foundation of the world. As he prayed for all who would believe, he asked:

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.—John 17:24

The Son of God has been with God, being loved and glorified by the Father from before the foundation of the world.

3. The Oneness of the Trinity

The last clause in verse 1-2 reads, “the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”

The point is not merely to say that Jesus is a divine being, which is true. But the point is to clarify that the Word, the Son of GOD, is and has been God from very the beginning. The point confirms the oneness of the Son and the Father, both being God (along with the Spirit of God). 

4. The Trinity Is the Creator

All things were created through Him (v. 3). We know from Genesis 1 that “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” and “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

Verse 3 of of our text reveals clearly the Son of God’s involvement in creating everything that is:

All things were made through him and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Unlike the revelations so far which related to the being of God.  Verse 3 reveals the doing of God. Namely, this Father-God, through the Son of God (i.e., the Word) created all things. This is the consistent teaching of the Bible: 

Hebrews 1:2 says it this way, that the Son of God is the one through whom God "created the world.”

Likewise, Colossians 1:16 says it this way: “For by him [Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”

No exceptions. Everything except God himself was created through him.

Summary: So from the first 3 verses of John, with Genesis 1, we learn this about the Trinity: In the beginning, God existed as Father and Son in loving relationship: one God, with the Spirit, in 3-persons. And we learn that this triune God acted together in creating all things. This is a glimpse of our triune God from whom all blessings flow. 

God Is Not a Mono-god

It is often helpful in thinking about God to contrast him with what he is not. The triune God is one God in 3 persons; therefore, he is not a “mono-god.”  A mono-god is a solo, non-Trinitarian god.

I recommend Michael Reeves’ book, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith. Aside from reviewing the doctrine of the trinity in a fresh, happy, and worshipful way (an a college ministry way), he very helpfully contrasts our triune God with what he calls "the mono-god."  After noting that the Koran forbids the Trinity and forbids God as being the Father of Christ, Reeves helpfully writes:

Allah is a single-person God. In no sense is he a Father (‘he begets not’), and in no sense does he have a son (‘nor is he begotten’). He is one person, and not three. Allah, then, is an utterly different sort of being to the God who is Father, Son and Spirit. . . . Allah exists and functions in a completely different way from the Father, Son and Spirit.—p. 17-18. 

So let's think about this. Take the term “mono-god” as representative of the non-Trinitarian gods of the religions of world. Note three contrasts:

1. The mono-god is alone in eternity past. While our triune God exists in the fellowship of Father, Son, and Spirit from before the beginning—the mono-god exists in isolation before creation. He is alone, and he is a loner. He knows not the fullness, beauty, and happiness of eternal fellowship. Before creation, he does not love. He cannot because there is no one to love.
2. The mono-god creates out of need. Our triune God creates out of the fullness of his life-generating Fatherly being through the Son and with the Spirit. He creates out of his fatherly life-giving nature, out of the fullness the Trinity. He has no needs. He is not lonely. He needs nothing to be what he is, as God, the triune God.

To the contrary, the mono-god creates out of need in at least 3 ways. 

1. If his essence as god is to be ‘Creator,’ he must create in order to be what he is supposed to be. Thus, the mono-god needs creation to be a Creator.
2. If the mono-god is to love, and there is no one else around, he must create others in order to love. In this way the mono-god needs created people. If he is to be a loving god, he needs people to love. This mono-god creates for self-fulfillment, to become a loving creator god. Love is a new thing for the mono-god to do, not something he has done from the beginning.
3. If his identity as god is “Ruler,” clearly then, he needs something or someone over which to rule. He needs creation to rule and for him to be god.

On the contrary, our triune God, before creation, has been the Father, Son, and Spirit for eternity.

He needs no creation to be God. His identity is not merely defined by his relationship to his creation. He is the Triune God—that is who God is.

He needs nothing to become loving. Reeves puts it this way, “Loving others is not a strange or novel thing for this God at all; it is at the root of who he is.” (p. 41). He is love. He is the loving Father, with the Son and Spirit. He has been in the loving and happy relationship of the Father, Son, and Spirit for all eternity past long before creation.

 God being the Triune God, Father, Son and Spirit makes all the difference in the world.

Application 

I’ll close with three application points.

1. When reading and studying the Bible, look not only for God’s actions, but also for God’s character.

That is, intentionally note with distinction who God is and what he has done without blurring the two. For instance, Psalm 25:8 says, “Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.” 

Read over the first clause and worship the Lord for being good and upright. Then, move to the second clause, and thank him for his instruction, and ask him to teach you. Note that it is because the Lord is good and upright that he instructs sinners. Your worship will be kindled as you love and praise GOD for who he is, for his person and not merely for what he has done.

My point, in reference to the Trinity, is to encourage you to think deeply about God’s being, and character and nature, not only his works of creation, providence, and salvation which flow from his being.

Suzanna Wesley exhorted herself to do just this in her personal journal. Suzanna was the mother of nineteen children, nine of whom died as infants. She is best known as the mother of John and Charles, the founders of Methodism. She wrote a note to herself in her personal journal: 

Consider the infinite boundless goodness of the ever blessed Trinity [and] adore the stupendous mystery of divine love! That God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost should all concur in the work of man’s redemption! What but pure goodness could move or excite God, who is perfect essential blessedness!—quoted in Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of GOD: How the Trinity Changes Everything, p.67. Crossway 2010).

Reflect on the Trinity and be blown away that our triune God—who is absolutely self-sufficient, eternally blessed in the fullness the happiness, love and fellowship of the Trinity—chose to love us in Christ.

He did so, not for his self-improvement, not for self-fulfillment, not because he was lonely or unhappy—but because he chose to love us, and have mercy on us. This is God’s grace for you, full and free. Reflecting upon the doctrine of the Trinity helps us to see the magnificence and freedom of God’s grace to us 

2. The Fatherhood of God ought to form our understanding of all earthly fathers, not the other way around.

It is entirely understandable that our experience with our earthly fathers implicitly informs our understanding of God the Father—and even the entire Godhead.

However, God the Father is the eternal Father of Christ, and the father from whom all creation was born. Human fathers are to be a reflection of God’s loving fatherhood of Christ. We human fathers, are the mirror or the reflection; God is the true image.

A word to fathers: so as fathers, reflect long in worship of God the Father. Then in life and fatherhood aim to "be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:1–2).

And in doing so, prove that you don’t think that you are God by not only asking for God’s forgiveness but also asking your children for forgiveness when you fall short of this. 

A word to all: and each of us, may we thank God for our earthly fathers. And may we especially be thankful when they more accurately reflect the Fatherhood of God. This is a gift, and should be received with thanks.

A word to those who have been hurt: if as children, your earthly father has grievously sinned against you, I urge you not to impose that twisted image of fatherhood on God.

Rather, call on the God who is the eternal father God and by faith in the gospel has become your very own Father. You may well need the help of other believers for specific help in the challenges of your journey. 

But remember, through it all, that by gospel of Christ, the love that the Father has for his son is directed now to you. Receive his eternal love for you, in Jesus name.

3. Realize that God made us for relationships.

I say this unapologetically to the introverts, and with no flattery to the extraverts—(we know that both our introversion and extraversion need redemption).

I distinctly remember going through a period of my life when I consciously thought this: I will not depend upon others, because they let me down. I will not need others because they will not fulfill me. I am self-sufficient. I will separate myself from all others for my own happiness and self-protection, because I now people will hurt me. 

That kind of thinking leads to unbelief, depression, isolation, and works against God’s image in us and his design for our redemption.

God is relational. God is love. God the Father, Son, and Spirit who have been with one another in relationship for all eternity past. This characteristic of God shapes his creation, and his redemption is a reflection of his glorious triune being.

Creation 

It ought not surprise us that when he creates human beings in his image, he creates them in relationship, not only with himself but also with one another.

By the creation of man, His own image is communicated by not merely one kind of human being but two—male and female.

From the moment God created Adam, Adam had always been in relationship, first with God and then with Eve. As God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.”

From the moment God created Eve, every human being has been in relationship with other human beings.

Redemption

Likewise, it should not surprise us that when this triune God saves, he saves us not for a personal, solitary salvation. Rather, by the work of Christ and power of the Spirit, the Father brings us into the loving relationship he has in the Trinity forever as his very own children. 

God made us for relationship with himself, redeemed in Christ. And God made us for relationship with one another, redeemed in Christ. Thinking otherwise denies the Trinity, God’s image in us, and God’s salvation. 

Next week, I’ll continue with part 2 of this series on the Trinity looking at the conspiracy of the Trinity in our Salvation. 

Prayer 

Benediction: 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