Thoughts on the Trinity

It is so hard for our finite minds to capture and understand the Trinity, that God is One in 3 different and distinct personalities.  Yet throughout the Word, the work of the Godhead is clearly seen and demonstrated. “In the beginning” of what we know as the creation account, we see God saying “Let there be... and we know God is at work and the Holy Spirit is “hovering over the waters”, waiting for the Word to act on it.  In the creation of man, God says Let us make...” John’s gospel teaches us that “in the beginning” which ties us right back to the creation event, “was the Word and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God”.  So we see, right from the beginning God the Father, God the Son (the Word) and God the Holy Spirit.  Yet they are one.  I don’t think that we can understand this mystery but have to take it by faith believing what God has revealed to us in His Word. 

God gave the Israelites the Shema which is “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” (Deut 6:4, Mar 12:29)  Jesus Himself when questioned by a scribe regarding which is the first commandment of all repeated this phrase from Deuteronomy and later also went on to confirm that He and the Father were One. (Joh 10:30)

Throughout the Old Testament, we see the hand of God and the power of the Holy Spirit at work but the Old Testament is seemingly relatively silent about Jesus, or is it?  No, it definitely isn’t, but is packed with shadows, types and prophecies of the coming One who would bring the human race into the salvation through the Jews.

From the outset when Adam and Eve sinned, God spoke of the Seed that would come through the woman to crush satan’s head. (Gen 3:15)  Jesus ties the seed, who He is to the Word in the parable of the Sower who sows the seed and as he is scattering the seed, it falls upon four distinct and different soils representing the hearts of humankind, some receptive to the Word and others not.  John’s gospel, which introduces the deity of Jesus, tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.  Clearly Jesus, The Seed is the Word of God.

One of the best scriptures for me concerning the power of the Word is Rom 1:16  “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek” and another in Revelation 12:11, “And they overcame him [that is satan] by the blood of the Lamb and the power of their testimony and they did not love their lives unto death.”  Speaking the Word of God is powerful for it brings those who hear it and mediate upon it into freedom, overcoming the power of the enemy’s accusation in their lives.

It amazes me every time, how from cover to cover, God completes for us a beautiful puzzle of the Godhead’s predestined action plan and love for a fallen people to save and deliver from the kingdom of darkness and the power of sin.  God loves and care so deeply for the human race.

Right from the Old Testament, God begins to build a nation through whom He will send a Deliver and Saviour.  He promises Father Abraham that through his son Isaac, his descendants will be numerous and Abraham would be a “father of nations”.  Through the story of Abraham offering up Isaac (although an angel holds his hand and God provided a ram for the offering instead), we see a prophetic type of another Father, God, who offered up His only Son Jesus on the altar of the cross for the nations of the world.  Isaac, as far as God was concerned, was Abraham’s only son being the son of promise.  Jesus is God’s only Son too, and who is the Son of Promise to a dying and hostile world.

According to some archaeological evidence, where Abraham presented Isaac as a offering is the same place of the crucifixion of Jesus - being a literal fulfilment of Abraham's offering of Isaac when God said, "On the mount of the Lord it [the final offering for sin] will be provided."

What an amazing truth for us that God provided His Son, Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins, and brought us into “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit” 2 Co 13:14 (a)