************ Sermon on Belgic Confession Articles 8 & 9 ************
Doctrine: The Trinity
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on April 5, 1998
B.C. 8,9
"The Trinity"
Introduction
What is unique, what is distinctive, about the Christian's understanding of God? How does our view of God differ from that of the Muslim's, for instance? We can mention that our God, though almighty and transcendent, is also personal and wants a personal relationship with each and every one of us. We can also mention that our God — unlike the god of most, if not all other religions — is a loving God.
Topic: Love
Subtopic: Of Christ for Men
Index: 2203
Date: 4/1998.101
Title: Our Difference With Other Faiths
According to an old legend, a man became lost in his travels and wandered into a bed of quicksand. Confucius saw the man's predicament and said, "It is evident that men should stay out of places such as this." Next, Buddha observed the situation and said, "Let that man's plight be a lesson to the rest of the world. Then Muhammad came by and said to the sinking man, "Alas, it is the will of God." Finally, Jesus appeared. "Take my hand, brother," He said, "and I will save you."
Yes, the Christian religion stands almost alone in having a Savior God. However, what is most distinct about our understanding of God is that He is triune. No other faith, no other religion, believes in a triune God.
I The Trinity in Revelation
A Did you know, the Bible never uses the word Trinity. Nor do we find in the Bible anything remotely similar to what the Belgic Confession says:
... we believe in one God,
who is one single essence,
in whom there are three persons,
really, truly, and eternally distinct ...
In fact, this sort of language comes from the history of the church; more specifically, it comes from the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 and the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381. It took the church almost 400 years of debate, of trial and error, before she settled on this sort of wording. The early church fathers were forced to do this because of widely divergent and contradictory views about the relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit towards each other. In a context of multiple heresies, the church was forced to stake out where she stood and what she believed.
B Does this mean that the doctrine of the Trinity is a creation, a fabrication, of the early church? Not at all. The early church merely stated in technical terms what the Bible's authors state in nontechnical language. Listen to what Guido de Brés says in the opening lines of articles 8 & 9:
In keeping with this truth and Word of God
we believe in one God,
who is one single essence,
in whom there are three persons ...
All these things we know
from the testimonies of Holy Scripture ...
This is very significant. The doctrine and mystery of the three-in-oneness is firmly rooted in Scripture. This is not something that man made up. Nor is it a teaching that man can discern on his own. Rather, it comes to us as a revelation from God. In talking about the Trinity, then, our appeal must first of all be to Scripture. Furthermore, unless we allow ourselves to be instructed from the sacred pages of Scripture, we cannot rightly know the true and living God.
By opening the Scriptures in faith, we come to see and know God as He really is. It is true that evidence for the three-in-oneness of God seems "somewhat obscure" in the Old Testament, as the Belgic Confession puts it, yet the doctrine is not absent from its pages. The Belgic Confession directs us to the "plurality of persons within the Deity" that we find in the opening chapters of Genesis. In Genesis 1, for instance, God says such things as, "let us," "our image," "our likeness," "one of us." At the same time, the unity of God's person is indicated when we are told "God created."
The Belgic Confession of faith doesn't mention this, but there is also a clear allusion to the Trinity when we compare the first 2 verses of Genesis with the first two verses of John's Gospel:
(Gen 1:1-2) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (2) Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
(Jn 1:1-2) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) He was with God in the beginning.
Notice, "in the beginning" was God, the Spirit of God, and the Word (Whom we know as Jesus). We can also mention many verses in the psalms and the prophets which indicate the Trinity.
Yet the doctrine is not fully and openly declared in the Old Testament. This reveals the wise and patient dealings of God with His people. Living among nations who recognized and worshiped many gods, having been surrounded and immersed by the polytheism of Egypt, the children of Israel needed to hear over and over again that God was and is one (cf Deut 6:4). Only after this was firmly implanted in their hearts and minds, were the people ready for instruction in the Trinity.
Numerous and far clearer indications of the Trinity are found in the New Testament. The Confession directs our attention first to the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in which all three persons of the triune God are clearly present. The baptismal formula announced by Jesus and used by the church clearly teaches the Trinity. Also, the angel's advent message to Mary reveals the triune God. The apostolic blessing of Paul is also clearly trinitarian.
One passage mentioned by the Confession is a great embarrassment to Reformed believers. Some early Christians knew the Scriptures spoke of one God. They knew the Scriptures also spoke of three persons. But there was no Bible text that neatly put these two teachings together. Trying to be helpful, these Christians thoughtfully made up a proof text, and inserted it in 1 John 5:7:
There are three who bear witness in heaven--the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit--and these three are one.
You can still find these words in the King James Version of the Bible, but you won't find them in the New International Version or any other recent Bible version. Those who added this text are guilty of doing what the Lord Himself warns against doing: "to add to or subtract from the Word of God" (Art 7; cf Rev 22:18-19).
The teaching of Scripture is so plain and so easy to understand. God is one and yet He is also triune. In some marvelous and mysterious way, He is a three-in-oneness.
C Augustine and other church fathers also found evidences for God's triune existence within creation revelation. They knew that these are of little value in convincing unbelievers, yet they were of the firm opinion that the creation reveals the excellencies and perfection of its triune Creator. Man's soul, they said, engages in 3 activities: the intellectual, the volitional, and the emotional. Matter exists in 3 forms: gasses, liquids, and solids. We experience time in 3 dimensions: the past, the present, and the future. There are 3 kingdoms or orders: the mineral, the plant, and the animal. The rainbow is dominated by 3 primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. These are the categories of Augustine and the church fathers; we now understand that creation is more complex than these categories of three. However, we do agree with this basic concept: In all creation, which is a "beautiful book" (Art 2) written by its divine Maker, we see reflected something of the infinite and incomparable glory of the triune God.
D In listening to God's revelation, then, the church discovers that God is a three-in-oneness. He is "one God ... in whom there are three persons, really, truly, and eternally distinct."
Throughout history, there has been two errors that the church has had to defend the doctrine of the Trinity against: those that endanger the unity of God, and those that obscure the distinctions between the 3 persons. But that is easy enough to understand. For, what exactly does it mean to say there is one God in whom there are three persons? Today, we understand "person" to mean "center of consciousness." Does this mean that the 3 persons of the Trinity are 3 separate centers of consciousness? Or should we emphasize the unity of God, affirming only one center of consciousness? Since the 6th century, the West has emphasized the oneness of God while the East has typically emphasized His threeness.
However we formulate the doctrine of the Trinity, we must at one and the same time fully affirm both sides of the Biblical revelation. There can be no doubt that God is one God. Yet, this one God exists in 3 eternally distinct persons.
II The Trinity in Ourselves
A In speaking of the Trinity, Article 9 adds something surprising. We know of God's three-in-oneness not only from the Scriptures but
as well as from the effects of the persons,
especially from those we feel within ourselves.
We feel in ourselves the operations of the Holy Trinity.
What does the Confession mean by this? In Article 9, Guido de Brés says,
we must note the particular works and activities
of these three persons in relation to us.
The Father is called our Creator,
by reason of his power.
The Son is our Savior and Redeemer,
by his blood.
The Holy Spirit is our Sanctifier,
by his living in our hearts.
B First, believers feel and experience the power of the Creator. Open your eyes. Look at the beauty of Creation. Marvel at the completeness and intricacy of a new baby. Enjoy the incredible variety and color of what God has made. See the many blessings that God, in His providence, has sent your way: food, clothing, health, strength, jobs, income, housing, transportation, and so on. When we worry about what we shall eat or what we shall drink or what we shall wear, when we worry about the future, the Father assures us of His sovereign care. In all this and more, you experience in yourself the creation power of the first person of the Trinity, even the Father.
Second, believers also feel and experience the blood of the Savior and Redeemer. When the load of our sins weigh us down, when we become weary and burdened, we remember that the Son loved us and gave Himself up for us. When we get down on our knees to confess our sin and feel ourselves being lifted up, when we find ourselves being plucked from the power of some dreadful sin, then we experience in ourselves the blood of the second person of the Trinity, even the Son.
Third, believers also feel and experience the indwelling presence of the sanctifying Spirit. Out there is a world, congregation, that wants us to pursue the lusts of the flesh, the materialism of our neighbors, the secularism of the ungodly. There is a whole world out there attacking us and trying to make us abandon morality and faith. In spite of that, we find ourselves growing in the grace and knowledge and holiness of Christ. In a life of Christian progress we see and feel the sanctifying presence of the third person of the Holy Trinity, even the Spirit.
III The Trinity in Worship
A In recent years, scholars have come to realize that the doctrine of the Trinity has come to be shaped because of worship. In Jesus Christ, believers saw Someone Who was and Who deserved to be called "Lord" and "Son of God." They saw in Jesus Someone Who, besides the Father, ought to be worshiped and glorified. For instance, think of the women who met Jesus by the resurrection grave; the Bible tells us they "clasped his feet and worshiped him" (Mt 28:9). Or, remember how the doubting Thomas fell to his knees and said, "My Lord and my God!" (Jn 20:28)? Don't forget, Thomas and the women were Jews. Every day they recited the Shema, "The Lord our God, the Lord is one." But when they were confronted with the resurrected Christ, they worshiped Him; in doing so, they confessed that He too was God and worthy of honor, praise, and glory.
In this light we note that many of the clearest trinitarian passages in the New Testament have a worship context. I've mentioned some of them already: our Lord's baptism; Jesus' command to go and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; the benediction of Paul to the worshiping community at Corinth.
The Trinity was worshiped, celebrated in baptism, experienced in hearts and lives, and even sung about long before it was theologically analyzed and dogmatically described.
B This should tell us something. In talking about the Trinity today, in discussing the Trinity in tonight's worship service, we are missing the mark if we do not bring the triune God praise. All talk about the triune God, all sermons on the triune God, and all books about the triune God miss the point unless they help us to praise Him.
Without doubt, the greatest moments in our lives are those in which we spontaneously sing,
Alleluia, alleluia!
Glory be to God on high;
alleluia! to the Savior,
who has won the victory;
alleluia! to the Spirit,
fount of love and sanctity:
alleluia, alleluia!
to the triune Majesty.
(P.H. 387:4)
In such moments we begin to understand we were created, saved, sanctified for the triune God's praise. Then we understand that real living is praising God. And, you understand that your greatest hour is not your wedding day, or the day your team wins the basketball tournament, or payday, or graduation; rather, you understand that your greatest hour is when you start praising the triune God. Your greatest hour is when you can say with heart and soul and mind and strength,
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth and sky and sea;
holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!
(P.H. 249:4)
If you can do that, then you are fulfilling the purpose of life, then you are doing what you should with your knowledge and understanding of the triune God.
You don't have to understand everything about God and the Trinity in order to do what the Bible commands. People don't have to become theologians or artists in order to praise. The unintelligent, the weak, the old, the infirm, the unborn, the crippled — all have the right to existence in order to praise God. They live for the glory of God. God is more than able to prepare praise out of their lives.
What it comes down to is this: God is triune and to this triune God we are to bring glory today and tomorrow, next week and next year, and forevermore.
To thee, great One in Three,
eternal praises be
hence evermore!
Thy sovereign majesty
may we in glory see,
and to eternity
love and adore.
(P.H. 246:4)