The Trinity should be taken as a matter of importance by the ordinary Christian. We need to remove the Trinity from the shelf of academics and technicality and make it the ordinary Christian's daily bread. We need to make the Trinity our walk, breath, and prayer. Because the Trinity has become dusty, and because too many dead illustrations have been used in teaching the Trinity, I have adopted a different (if suspect) approach in an attempt to gain an interest in it. I have begun by appealing to the readers' personal interests.
Personal Interests
First we considered the Trinity as a matter touching on our personal interests.
We take a personal interest in:
Is Love a Lie?
Without the Trinity, love is abolished, or becomes hellish self-love.
How Are You Loved?
Jesus loves you the way the Father loves Jesus. The Father loves you the way He loves Jesus. The Spirit loves you by coming to dwell within you because the Son asked the Father to send him to you.
Who Are We? What Are We Becoming? - Part 1
We are automatically and unconsciously becoming like our idea of God.
Who Are We? What Are We Becoming? - Part 2
If we see god is unitarian, we are becoming lovers of self. We suffer the losses that self-esteem causes. If we see God as Triune, we are becoming like Christ, the Other-Esteemer.
- our own being saved
- our chance for love eternal
- our destiny: who we are and what we are becoming
Is Love a Lie?
Without the Trinity, love is abolished, or becomes hellish self-love.
How Are You Loved?
Jesus loves you the way the Father loves Jesus. The Father loves you the way He loves Jesus. The Spirit loves you by coming to dwell within you because the Son asked the Father to send him to you.
Who Are We? What Are We Becoming? - Part 1
We are automatically and unconsciously becoming like our idea of God.
Who Are We? What Are We Becoming? - Part 2
If we see god is unitarian, we are becoming lovers of self. We suffer the losses that self-esteem causes. If we see God as Triune, we are becoming like Christ, the Other-Esteemer.
Knowing Jesus
We moved on to another, perhaps better reason for the importance
of the Trinity: to know Jesus.
If we love him, we want to know him. Without the Trinity, we cannot make sense of the:
Withness: the God of Bosom
Jesus is the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. The Son is turned in loving, inseparable communion toward the Father, and the Father is turned equally toward him.
Obedience
If god were unitarian, Jesus would be self-willed. Because God is Triune, Jesus' food was to do the will of his Father. He obeyed to the point of death.
Submission
Because God is Triune, Jesus' struggle in Gethsemane was real. It was not melodrama. His prayers were real. They were not just psychological self-talk. His submission is real. Submission is divine because God submits. We have the leadership and companionship of Christ when we submit.
Forsakenness
If god were unitarian, Jesus' cry of forsakenness on the cross would have reflected only a psychological problem of self-alienation or negative self-esteem. Because God is Triune, one Person really did forsake Another. There was an actual and dreadful separation between the Father and the Son for our sins.
If we love him, we want to know him. Without the Trinity, we cannot make sense of the:
- identity
- life
- work
- death
Withness: the God of Bosom
Jesus is the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. The Son is turned in loving, inseparable communion toward the Father, and the Father is turned equally toward him.
Obedience
If god were unitarian, Jesus would be self-willed. Because God is Triune, Jesus' food was to do the will of his Father. He obeyed to the point of death.
Submission
Because God is Triune, Jesus' struggle in Gethsemane was real. It was not melodrama. His prayers were real. They were not just psychological self-talk. His submission is real. Submission is divine because God submits. We have the leadership and companionship of Christ when we submit.
Forsakenness
If god were unitarian, Jesus' cry of forsakenness on the cross would have reflected only a psychological problem of self-alienation or negative self-esteem. Because God is Triune, one Person really did forsake Another. There was an actual and dreadful separation between the Father and the Son for our sins.
Divine Humility
We moved on to show the humility of the Persons of the Trinity.
The Trinity shows their humility, and their humility shows their divinity and
the Trinity. Their
humility shows the way of the Christian life, it strikes us with awe, and it
draws us to devotion.
Father
The Father glorifies Jesus. He directs our attention, obedience, and worship
to the Son.
Son
The humility of the Son is shown by considering Jesus in his state of
humiliation. This is a huge subject. The posting on his humiliation are summarized on a
separate page.
Holy
Spirit
Glory is due to the Spirit. The Nicene Creed says the Spirit “with the Father
and the Son together is worshiped and glorified.” The Spirit is glorious, but he
makes little of himself.
The Spirit glorifies the Son. He goes where the Father sends him. Although He is
free and not subordinate to the Father or the Son, by character, he lets the
Father decide what He will say. The Father speaks of the Son, the Spirit hears
the Father, and the Spirit repeats the Father's word about Jesus.
The Spirit's humility toward sinners is not easy for us to see because of our
sin. The Spirit dwells in temples, including the temple of our bodies. We do not
see the pollution of ourselves as temples unfit for the Holy spirit. Sin makes
us insensitive to the humility it takes for that Spirit whose name is Holy to
come low and dwell in us.
Newspaper Columns
The following newspaper columns also speak of the Trinity.
- Is Love a Lie?
- How Well Loved Are You?
- How Do Sump Pumps and Sacrifice Work?
- Will We Ever Hear the End of It?
- Maybe We Shouldn't Invite Them
- One Word in Absolute Darkness
- You'll Have To Draw Me a Picture
- Sitting in the Biggest Corner Ever
- World-famous Humble Little Country Doctor
- No CEO of Holy Spirit Incorporated
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