The Trinity: What Does He Mean to Me?

Some over-thinking Christians would like to scrap the Trinity. Bad idea. Let’s see how the doctrine to our daily lives and relationship with God.

Here are ten meaningful things.

1.. You can develop a relationship with God in a deeper way.

The doctrine of the Trinity is the fullest revelation of the living and personal and relational God. The one God exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You can now relate to each person.

God is your Father; you are his daughter or son—his child. Jesus is your elder redeemer brother, and he comes alongside and assists you. The Spirit actually lives in your awakened, reborn spirit and comforts, guides, advocates for, and communicates the Father and the Son to you. He also inspires Scripture to your spirit and mind, so you can understand it.

We have a full relationship with him thanks to his initiation through his grace.

2.. God is a united being in one essence, so you must reflect this unity.

Yes, God exists in three persons—Father, Son, and Spirit—but they exist in perfect unity. Humans, especially you, must live in unity in diversity with other humans.

3.. Knowing that God is diverse in his personality, you can recognize diversity in his creation.

God living in diversity of persons reflects this diversity of humans. Countless numbers of creatures live on this planet, and the highest creature is humankind. You can recognize many peoples as reflecting God’s own being and will.

4.. God’s diversity in his triune family (Father, Son and Spirit) means you can allow your family members to be diverse.

You can allow your children to grow in their own unique ways with their own roles to play. It is God nature dimly reflected in human nature.

5.. God’s unity in diversity means you family can live in unity in diversity.

God lives in perfect unity in the three persons, so we too can live in unity with our distinct family members.

6.. You receive justification by grace through faith in Christ.

Without the Trinity our salvation goes down the drain. If Christ is not fully God, then how can we trust him to save us in his redemptive act on the cross? As a creature, he would need redemption to. We may as well do all kinds of good works, hoping against hope that we may get invited into heaven when we die, but not knowing for sure that God will let us in. Rather, since Jesus Christ was fully deity in human flesh, his salvation is divinely secure for us.

7.. You are sanctified (grow in holiness) through receiving his Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is holy and personal. If he were an impersonal force, we could not relate to him, and he could not relate to us. Blessedly, he is fully God and utterly personal and relational.

8.. You can now worship God more fully and meaningfully.

We now have a fuller revelation of who God is. Our worship can be full and meaningful, much more so than before we knew about the triune God. Scriptural revelation does that to us.

9.. In the bigger church, God distributes a diversity of gifts to his people, who are called to live in unity.

Just as the three persons (Father, Son, and Spirit) have different roles, so the church is diverse and enjoys a variety of gifts, but no matter what, we must live in unity, just as the three persons do.

10.. In the bigger picture, the triune God redeems humanity in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

God loves you so much that the Father sent his Son into the world to die for your sins. The Father and the Son sends the Spirit into your heart to draw you to salvation and then to live in you forever.

Without the full deity of Jesus Christ, God the Son, our salvation or guarantee to get into heaven becomes shaky. Therefore, the doctrine of the Trinity is a matter of eternal life and death. We Christians must hold on to the Trinity, as we experience the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in our daily life and in our creeds.

If we diminish Jesus to a mere messiah or an anointed prophet, then our experience with God is lopsided and incomplete. Why not just pray to another saint or biblical prophet instead of Jesus? Worshipping a creature is idolatry and forbidden. Jesus must be fully God if we wish to maintain our biblical worship.

If we diminish the Spirit to an impersonal force or power, then I would not want it dwelling in me. I need to communicate with the Spirit, and I could not do that with an impersonal force or power that I might be able to boss around or who ignores me and cannot talk to me. I won’t pray to the wind!

It is a blessing, rather, that I can experience the fullness of the three persons of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit in all their deity. I can worship and pray to all three persons of the Trinity and have the fullest experience with God. Wonderful!

Finally:

Personally, I like to simplify things. The Scriptures reveal the Father and the Son, not to give us a headache, but so we can relate to them. We can have a personal relationship with the Father as intimately (and more so) as we have with our own father. And we can relate to the Son as the Messiah and Lord, who has a unique relationship with the Father. The Son reveals the Father. The title Father is more personal and revealing than “God.” The Spirit of the Father and the Son now lives in us so he can empower us to have a relationship with the Father and the Son.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor. 13:14, NIV)

Bottom line: let’s have a relationship with the Father and the Son (and the Holy Spirit), since they are revealed in Scripture in those two persons (and the third person of the Spirit), for our relational benefit.

ARTICLES IN THE TRIUNITY SERIES

The Trinity: What Are the Basics?

The Trinity: What Are Key Terms?

The Trinity: What Are Some Illustrations?

The Trinity: What Does the Old Testament Say?

The Trinity: Three Persons Together in the New Testament

The Trinity: What Do Theologians Say?

The Trinity: What Are His Roles in Creation and Redemption?

The Trinity: What Does ‘Only Begotten Son’ Mean in John 3:16?

The Trinity: What Do Arians and Jehovah’s Witnesses Teach?

The Trinity: What Are Defective Ideas?

The Trinity: What Are Replies to Objections?