1. GOD IS. That fact is
declared in the first four words of the Bible
(Genesis 1:1) “In the beginning GOD.”
2. HE HAS REVEALED
HIMSELF. And that is the rest of the Bible in its entirety. It is all about
Him. It is His revelation of and about Himself to His creation. Everything we
need to know for faith and practice, He has revealed in His written Word.
If we can get these two
statements firmly embedded in our minds, everything else falls into place.
And frankly, I think it
is enough. Most of us have a hard enough time understanding, believing, and
obeying what He has revealed. We don’t need more or new revelation; we just
need to believe what He has already given us.
And He has given us all
we need to know about Him. So when it comes to hard truths, that are beyond our
human ability to understand, like the tri-unity of God, we don’t have the
prerogative to decide, define, or explain it. According to God’s revelation,
the Father, the Word, and the Spirit-- these three are co-equal and coexistent.
Churches and
denominations divide over this doctrine because they try to explain it in terms
that make sense in our own human dimension and with our finite understanding.
It is possible that many (or all) of them can be WRONG but one thing is
certain; THEY CAN'T ALL BE RIGHT.
And any foolish attempts
to deny God’s triune nature or to explain it with stupid analogies (like water
or eggs or…) are ludicrous; in fact, analogies are probably heretical,
idolatrous, or blasphemous.
God’s ways are not our
ways; His thoughts are higher than our thoughts; He is the creator and we are
the creatures; He is eternal and we are finite; He is spirit and we are flesh,
and He exists in dimensions that we cannot conceive. And He has not seen fit to
reveal, to us, how that can be nor has He ordained that we should understand
it. He has just declared it and our responsibility is to believe it.
Apparently, that's all we need to know or He would have revealed more.
It is probably
over-simplified to just state that the One True, Eternal, Living God coexists
in three distinct persons. The Father is God. The Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
is God. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and the Son, is God. And yet
these three are co-equal in glory, and power. But that's about as reverently
and Scripturally accurate as we can get when describing the Trinity.
Remember - God is and He
has revealed Himself. As for me, I will just accept, as truth, what He has
declared. To disbelieve His Word is to deny Him.
