3. Why is the doctrine of the Trinity important?

The Doctrine of the Trinity is True

Fundamentally, the doctrine of the Trinity is important because it is true. To say that ‘God is three Persons, one substance’ is not simply to recite a traditional sentence that our ancestors in the Church have found meaningful but we don’t really understand, it is to speak something that is actually true about who God is, and who he has revealed himself to be. If we lose touch with the doctrine of the Trinity—or worse, start to think about God in some other way—we will have stopped thinking about God in the way he really is, having replaced him with some idea from our own human imaginations. If we abandon the Trinity we become like the people Paul wrote about who “traded the truth about God for a lie.” (Ro 1:25)

Because it is true, the Trinity helps us to understand the rest of Christian theology: who God really is, and who we really are, created in his image. It is the key that allows us to make sense of the whole. For example, only when I have learned from the doctrine of the Trinity that the basic reality of God’s being is love, can I understand how God the Son could empty himself of power and glory—the things we most often consider the most important bits of being God—and take the position of a slave . . . and yet still be God. (Php 2:6-8) The doctrine of the Trinity teaches me that Christ left behind the things that God has, but nothing of what it meant for him to truly be God: love.

Only having learned from the doctrine of the Trinity that the Sender and the Sent are radically equal—that differences in role are not the same as differences in value and worth—can I fully understand what God intendedmy family to be. I, and my wife, and our kids are all different, and all contribute to family life in different amounts and in different ways. And yet all are equally loved, equally worthwhile, and equally irreplaceable parts of the family regardless of what we do; I learn from the doctrine of the Trinity that my wife and I don’t have to be identical to be equal (which is great, because we are not identical at all), but that who we are is somehow connected to our love for one another—to the way that we sacrifice ourselves one for the other—and to the way we let that love overflow to others. The doctrine of the Trinity is thus a trustworthy guide in helping us understand God and the world he has created. The Trinity is important because it is true.

 The Doctrine of the Trinity is Unique

Another reason why the Trinity is important, and important to understand clearly, is because of its place as a uniquely Christian doctrine. There are, of course, many similarities between Christianity and other world religions, but the doctrine of the Trinity is particular to the Church. This is important for two reasons. First, it gives us something in common with our Christian brothers and sisters around the world, even when we disagree with them about all sorts of other things. Paul writes of the Church that “we are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.” (Ro 12:5) Yet although this is only one of many New Testament passages that teach about Christian unity, the reality in the Church is that we are divided. More than that, the fact of all our different denominations and groups makes it hard to imagine how the Church possibly could be reunited, even if we all wanted to. The Trinity, however, is one thing that we all still share, and provides us and our brother and sister Christians in other churches a little piece of common ground as a basis both for dialogue and for shared ministry in our cities and around the world. Our shared and unique understanding that God is Triune reminds us that although the Orthodox and the Catholics and the Quakers and all manner of others seem so strange and distant from us, fundamentally, they make up with us the whole body of Christ, and we can be encouraged—and challenged—in remembering that “we all belong to each other”.

Second, the uniqueness of the doctrine of the Trinity clearly sets us apart from other world religions. Not so that we can boast of being different just for difference’s sake, but because it is important to be able to clearly talk about exactly what it is that sets Christianity apart. In the country where I live, for example, Islam is by far the majority religion, and one of the most important questions we face—both inside the church and evangelistically—is whether God and Allah are the same, and if they are different, how? And what difference does it make? That conversation is impossible without really understanding what we mean when we say that God is both three and one. If we do not really understand the Trinity, we will never be able to clearly explain the differences between Christianity and its religious ‘neighbours’, either to our friends or to ourselves. The Trinity—this unique Christian doctrine—is important because it ties us together, and because it sets us apart.

 The Doctrine of the Trinity is Essential to the Doctrine of Salvation

Finally, and preeminently, the doctrine of the Trinity is important because it stands at the core of the Gospel message: if there is no Trinity, there is no salvation. Remember that the Trinity is not an abstract concept, but simply a way of preserving in words the Biblical truth that ‘God is the only God’ and that ‘Jesus is Lord’—that both assertions are equally and totally true—especially against opponents to Christian belief from Arius to Muhammad who have been unwilling to accept that Jesus is fully God, just as the Father is. This concept is so critical because only as Lord is Jesus also our savior.

You see, the core of the Gospel is this: that helpless humanity, lost in sin, has been saved by God’s mighty act to reach in and rescue, and to create anew in Jesus Christ. Salvation means more than repair; it means a genuinely new beginning in Christ. This is why the Bible says that “anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun . . . for God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them.” (2Co 5:17, 19) Salvation this complete is something only God himself could accomplish. Only God himself could bear the full brunt of God’s own wrath against our sins (1P 2:24), and pronounce the amnesty of God upon them (Mk 2:5-7); and who else but God alone could create a new reality, one where our relationship with God is healed and restored? (Col 1:16-20) This is why the Father did not send a prophet or an angel to save, he sent his Son, (Hb 1:1-13) because the problem of Sin cannot be resolved by a delegate, but only by the one who is able to create something good out of nothing, only by “our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (Tit 2:13)

And so, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:17 that “if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.” Paul understood that if there has been no resurrection, then there has been no salvation, because the resurrection is the sign that Jesus really is who he said he is, the very Son of God. If Christ did not rise again, then he isn’t really the Lord, isn’t really God himself with the power to save. If Christ did not rise again, then we haven’t really been saved, haven’t really been re-created. But he did rise again, and he is the Lord. The Bible says that “he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Ro 1:4) Our need, the need for God himself to come rescue us and give us new life, has been met in this Jesus, who is the Lord.

The actions of Jesus to save—his life, ministry, teaching, death, and resurrection—are the actions of God, and only as God is he truly our savior. This is why the Trinity is important. Only with the doctrine of the Trinity can we stand against the world and say both that ‘God is one God’ and that ‘Jesus is Lord’. ‘Trinity’ is not some magic word that holds Christianity together, but it is a mighty word because it declares that Jesus, who claimed the divine right to save us and create us anew, in fact has that right, and we truly are saved because of him. Remember: the doctrine of the Trinity is just a careful way of saying that Jesus, along with the Holy Spirit, is distinguishable from the Father but is nevertheless God himself at work to reconcile mankind to himself. The Trinity is important because it preserves for us the centre of the Gospel, that our savior is Jesus Christ the Lord. (Lk 2:11, Php 3:20)

 

If I was preparing for accreditation I would . . .

• Think through why the doctrine of the Trinity is important for me

• Memorize 1 Corinthians 15:17

 

Comments

[Ken DeMaere]

Thanks Ben,

Appreciate your thoughts and thinking process here. Keep it up!

Ken DeMaere
Church Effectiveness Coach
Western Canadian District C&MA

[Ben and Kari]

Thanks Ken!