Month: June 2016

Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer; the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.’ (Is 44:6)

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (Jn 1:1; 14)

 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? (I Cor 3:16)

 Father, Lord Jesus, and Spirit: I don’t understand, but I praise who you are.

Imagine a world where temperatures don’t exist, where yesterday and today are at the same time, where light needs no source, and where creatures never die. You would not be imagining this universe. But no problem. Stephen Hawking and many other physicists today posit the idea of multiple universes. They speculate that at least one and perhaps many other universes reside outside our own, and one of the central aspects of their theories is that these universes do not operate under the same laws of physics as our universe. In other words, a thousand years may be like a day, light may have no physical source, and, for all we know, creatures may live forever. I find such physics ironic because, in one sense, it says what Christians have been saying for thousands of years. There is another world out there, a different type of world from what we see and touch, but just as real nonetheless. Now I am not here to talk about alternate universes, but I bring them up because I think they may help us with a bit of theology about God.

Sometimes, when we talk about God, we want Him to fit inside the universe we live in. This desire is understandable, for this universe is the experience we know, so we may, thus, struggle with ideas like God being three persons but one God. In fact, Christians often avoid discussing the Trinity altogether because they can’t exactly explain it. They’re sort of embarrassed. “Um … Well … you see … three people make up one God … and …” The fact of the matter is that the Trinity, on the surface at least, doesn’t seem to fit the known laws of physics on Earth. But this is precisely where Stephen Hawking might be of some help. You see, God isn’t from this universe, and if Hawking is correct, then God is not bound by the same laws of physics that bind you and me. Indeed, in a spiritual world, perhaps personalities can fit together differently than they do here. In that world, perhaps one being can be three persons. In that world, perhaps the concept of a Trinity is not so hard to understand. In fact, it might be the norm. If we were to go to that world, we might find that we would retain our unique individuality and yet also be swallowed up in the glory of God.  At the same time.

We must understand that God is bigger than we are and that He is not from here. In our current experience we live in four observable dimensions. The first three are length, width, and height — what we call space. The fourth is time. Virtually everything we see can be measured in those four dimensions, and as long as something fits neatly within those dimensions, we are OK with it. We can see it. But what if we encountered a being of twenty dimensions, a hundred dimensions, or infinite dimensions. We would then be out of our league. We would be like a three-year-old girl trying to understand calculus. The Trinity is this sort of thing. It involves dimensions beyond our normal experience. It is spiritual calculus, but we are spiritual infants. The reason we have difficulty grasping the Trinity is that we are dealing with God. The Trinity is God. And when you fit God inside your brain, you no longer have God.

When God revealed Himself as a Trinity, He did not mean us to analyze and discuss it. He meant us to marvel in it and enjoy Him. So enjoy the Father. Enjoy the Son. And Enjoy the Spirit … three in one.

There is…one Spirit…one Lord…one God and Father of all. (Eph 4:4-6)

 … baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit … (Mt 28:19)

 I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me. (Is 46:9)

 I and the Father are one. (Jn 10:30)

 Now the Lord is the Spirit (II Cor 3:17)

 …which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (II Cor 3:18)

Lord Jesus and Precious Holy Spirit, we rightly give you praise and worship. We offer you the same allegiance due the Father, knowing that our worship of you and prayers to you are simultaneously given to the Father, for in your triune nature there is no competition. Praise be to your holy name.

I recall talking to some Chinese Christians about Christmas. They told me that people in China today celebrate Christmas. They shop, give presents, enjoy lights, and know all about Santa Claus.

“What about Jesus?” I remember asking.

“No. Most people don’t know that part of Christmas.”

Suffice it to say that few people in China know about Christmas, for if you talk about Christmas but never talk about Jesus, you have missed Christmas. In Christian theology, something like this is true of God, for we can talk about many attributes of God, but if we never get to the Trinity, we miss God. Today we will talk about the Trinity.

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity takes us on a highway that ascends into the clouds. It gives us revealed facts that, when put together, do not seem to fit our limited understanding. To someone with faith, this is not insurmountable, for the doctrine is not irrational. But to someone without faith, the cloud is evidence that the road is false. To this person no amount of clarity would bring faith. If the cloud could be removed, the faithless would remain faithless and the faithful faithful. No one’s eternal destiny would improve if only God were a bit clearer. Thus, we must take God as He has revealed Himself; and if the highway goes into the clouds, we must fight all efforts to detour it into the valley.

The doctrine of the Trinity consists of several truths of Scripture put together much as our view of the solar system comprises many observed facts put together. The first truth about God is that He is One.  “I am God and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me,” Isaiah said.  The Bible is clear. There are not two or three or a hundred or thirty million gods. There is only one, and He has no equal. Religions that speak of multiple gods are, thus, by definition, idolatrous. Some may think it harsh for me to say that, but the idea is not mine. It is God’s. The Scriptures constantly decry the worship of other gods. In fact, God continually describes it as spiritual adultery. Just as a married woman has only one husband, so did God make us for only one God — Himself.  To chase after another is unthinkable. There is only one God.

But the oneness of God means something else as well. It means that God is one. He is a unity. He is undivided. We can never have a part of God as we can have a part of our sandwich, for God cannot be partitioned. The entirety of God is always present everywhere. This oneness of God does not seem to cause people difficulties. But the next teachings do.

The Scriptures plainly deal with the identity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit and treat both as equal to the Father.   Jesus commands us to baptize in the name of all three. Scripture refers to all three as Lord. It is perfectly appropriate for us to pray to and worship all three as God.[1] They are all divine, but the Scriptures never intend the divinity of Christ and the Spirit to mean that there are three gods. All three — Father, Son and Spirit — are simultaneously and completely God. They are not parts of God. They are not phases of God. They are not aspects of God. They are fully and completely … God. The one and only God, by definition, consists of three distinct persons. If I could describe it as a math equation (crazy right?), it might be something like this:  1God = 3persons.  Yet those persons are so united that we cannot divide God into three parts. These persons are distinct but one. Nothing on earth is fully analogous to their relationship. For on earth, when things are put together they either form a part of the whole (like a yolk, a white, and a shell) or they lose their identity when integrated into the whole (like adding cream and sugar to coffee). We know nothing that remains uniquely distinct AND completely whole when combined.

At this point we are in the clouds and are invited not to analyze but to worship. God’s complexity towers over us. We are like computers unable to process data for which we have no known program. Our software cannot handle a task this sophisticated. Here lies the difference between the Christian and nonChristian views of the Trinity. The unbeliever sees the doctrine as contradiction; the believer sees it as mystery, which we do not now have the capacity to fully understand. The one requires the data to fit the software; the other allows the data to outstrip the software. The Christian expects God to be perplexing, and, in that sense, the Trinity does not surprise us. But, of course, in another sense it shocks us. The Trinity is not at all the sort of God anyone would ever invent. Invented gods are far more simplistic. The Trinity is God pulling back the curtain just a wee bit and giving us a slight view of something we cannot fully grasp now. But the important thing is not to explain the Trinity but to bow before the Unexplainable. Be still and contemplate the Triune One. Worship Him as Father, worship Him as Son, worship Him as Spirit.

[1] I will give more details in future blogs when I discuss Jesus and the Spirit more fully.

You received the Spirit of sonship, and by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (Rm 8:15)

You are my Father, my Daddy, my Papa. You love me and care for me.  You make yourself known and call me to commune with you. Grant to me a continual and abiding intimacy with you. Deepen our relationship and let it be said in heaven and on earth that here is one who knows God.

Can you know a computer? How about a factory? Or a theory? Or a process? Of course, the answer is yes. We can know all sorts of things, but knowledge does come in different varieties. It is one thing to know a tree and quite another to know a woman. Personhood adds a dimension to knowledge. When I speak of knowing my daughter Charissa, I am saying something quite different than when I speak of knowing engineering. My knowledge of Charissa has a personal element to it that engineering will never have. That’s because Charissa is a person, and we can know people in a deeper, richer way than we can know curried rice or the World Cup. Personality enriches knowledge. Having said that, I do not mean that we know all people the same. I do not know my cousins the same way I know Charissa, and I do not know the chancellor of Germany the same way I know my cousins. I do not have the same level of intimacy with all people. But because people are people, if the president of Indonesia were in my family, I could know him as well as I know my daughter. In fact, I have no doubt that some people know him that way now.

When we discuss the attributes of God, it is sometimes easy to get philosophical, but God is not a philosophy. He is a person. God is not the Watchmaker or the Grand Idea or the Great-Spirit-in-the-Sky. He is not a detached force, He is not nature, and He is not the unfeeling ground of all being. He is a distinct person who thinks, feels and wills. His nature is personal just as your dad’s nature is personal. He, thus, desires personal relationship, and He has taken great steps to make Himself known. He loves us and desires our love in return. If it were possible to add wonder to infinity, this truth would do so. The unchanging, infinite, sovereign creator of the universe wants you to know and love Him. He came to the garden and walked with the first pair; He likened Himself to a husband (Hos), a father (Mt 6:9), a friend (Jn 15:15). If we truly understand what prayer is all about, we know that it requires a personal God. God wants us to communicate with Him, not because He needs to know something but because He wants relationship. The Incarnation was a relational move. God became man because God wanted to reconcile the world to Himself (II Cor 5:18-19). God became man because God wanted a face to face. God became man because God wanted to restore communion. God is our Abba, our Father, our Daddy. He wants us to be family, not just observers or workers.

I recall a speaker telling about a time when he had traveled to Israel. He was at the airport and was passing by the place where plane passengers filtered out into the public. Two young children, maybe four and six, recognized their dad returning home. They ran up to him shouting “Abba! Abba!” and jumped into his arms. With God, we are those small children, and He delights to see us run to Him and jump into His arms. Indeed, we, too, find no greater joy than to revel in our God.

We long for a close relationship with our Father. We were made for such a relationship because we were made in the image of that Father. We are relational creatures by creation. It is relationship that gives depth and meaning to life, and it is relationship with God that gives ultimacy to life. People who live for their gardens, their research, the next drink or the next deal are to be pitied. They have sacrificed relationship for something that will never deliver. But people who live for their spouse or children are equally to be pitied, for they have sacrificed the ultimate relationship for something lesser. Human relationships are wonderful. Good ones give us a taste of heaven, but they can give only a taste; they were never meant to be the full meal. It is in God that the soul will truly get to feast, and it is His great pleasure to set the table.