The Trinity and Humanity Part One - In the Beginning, God!

Genesis 1:1-3

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Genesis 1:26a

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

This verse describes what makes humanity significant. Significance: the quality of being worthy of attention or importance.

The fact that human beings are created in the image of God is what sets us apart from all other created things in the universe.

If we are to ever answer the big question of why, how and for what reasons humanity exists, we must begin by examining the nature and character of the God in whose image we were fashioned.

God is Trinity

The Trinity is not an obscure appendix to our faith, nor is it the meat of some advanced Christian doctrine. The Trinity is the most foundational doctrine of the Christian faith.

Without a proper understanding of the Trinity, we cannot have a proper understanding of the God whom we were created to be like, and thus, we will never have a full understanding of ourselves.

Three persons, one God

The doctrine of the Trinity is embraced and affirmed by all 3 historical branches of Christianity; Protestant, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox.

The origin of the doctrine:

• Theophilus of Antioch – 180 AD – Trias
• Tertullian – 215 AD – trinitas
• Nicene Creed – 325 AD
• Athanasian Creed – unknown, likely between 450 and 670 AD

The first step for understanding the nature of the Christian God is to let go of every version of God we or anyone else has ever conceived.

Trinity in Scripture

Genesis 1:1-3

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

John 1:1-2

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

“The particular emphasis …that there is only one true and living God… is because above everything else the children of Israel were called to proclaim the unity of God and the fact that there is only one God.” ¹– Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Romans 11:33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Why ‘Persons’?

What is it that distinguishes the 3 persons of the Trinity?

“For, in truth, since the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father, and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, then certainly there are three…But when it is asked ‘three what?’ then the great poverty from which our language suffers becomes apparent.

But the formula three persons has been coined, not in order to give a complete explanation by means of it, but in order that we might not be obliged to remain silent.”

² – St. Augustine of Hippo

Using the word ‘person’… is crucial starting point for pressing into the relational nature of our triune God.

Persons, because of how the Trinity relates to the Trinity. The 3 divine persons are mutually distinct only in and through their relations of being.

In other words, it is how they relate personally to each other that distinguishes one member from another.  It is only upon examination of the relationship found within the Trinity that we discover how we understand and relate to God.

The relationship defined by Love

How then do the members of the Trinity relate to each other?

1 John 4:8, 4:16 – God is Love.

Scripture describes the divine relationship shared between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as love.

“Love means someone loving and something loved, with love. There you are with three: the lover, what is being loved, and love. And what is love but a kind of life coupling…together [of] two things, namely lover and what is being loved? This is true even of the most external and fleshly kinds of love.” ³ – St Augustine of Hippo

In Part Two of "The Trinity and Humanity" we'll talk about how understanding God as Trinity means understanding that we are made from love, for love, and to love.