The Trinity: An Inherently Relational Godনমুনা

We concluded Day Two’s study with the traditional Christian view of the Trinity, which (just as a refresher) is like three sides of a triangle:

• God is Three Persons
• Each Person is fully God
• There is One God

And again, at first glance, these may seem like illogical or even contradictory statements, but they aren’t. This is because all Three Persons of the Trinity are fully God, whilst also being in a constant dance of Love and Voluntary Submission to One Another.

Essentially, the Father is made known through the Son, and the Son is made known by the Holy Spirit. We believe that there was never a time that God was not Trinitarian.

Across the years, in an attempt to try and explain this concept, the Trinity has often been defined by what each Person within it does. For example, the Father is associated with Creation, the Son is associated with His Humanity, or His Death and Resurrection, and the Holy Spirit is associated with making us holy or the giving of Spiritual Gifts. In fact, this is exactly what we did in yesterday’s study.

However, although somewhat useful, this kind of explanation has a lot of problems because it leads us toward viewing each Member of the Trinity simply within the framework of what they do, almost as if by their job description.

We all know that when adults meet one another, one of the first questions that they ask is what do you do? This does tell us a lot about how somebody spends their time, but it doesn’t really tell us anything about who they are as a person. It also tells us absolutely nothing about who they are in the context of relationships. In order to truly know somebody’s character, therefore, you would need to see them interact with people in their family, with their friends, at work, with strangers, and in public.

This same concept is also true of the Trinity because what makes the Trinity so Beautiful is not so much their job description in and of itself, as much as the Dynamic Relationship that exists between each of the Three Persons. Listing out what each Member of the Trinity does gives us some glimpse into their Nature, but it is nowhere near as helpful as when we view each Member in relationship with One Another.

Jeremy Begbie gives a helpful musical analogy as a means to try and grasp this concept.

He describes each Member of the Trinity as a musical note. If you play one note on a piano, for example, it will fill whatever space you are in. We can discern what direction it came from, and what instrument made the note but we can not "see" it in the sense of it being a physical object; the sound fills the entirety of the space. It is all around us.

This makes it possible for two or more notes to be struck simultaneously without the one squeezing the other out; each of them fills the entire space. We can hear both notes distinctly and separately, but together they make a new thing known as a chord. In relationship with one another, they become the most beautiful.

Of course, this is not a perfect analogy (they never are), but it can help us to grasp the Relationship of the Trinity a little further.

The point is this: each Individual within the Trinity is best understood and appreciated when viewed within their relationship to the Trinity as a whole. We must understand Them all in order to understand Them at all. And so, when we talk about the Three Persons within the Trinity what we are really referring to is One Infinite, Transcendent, and Perfectly Unified Being. Their Community together and interaction with One Another is much more relevant than their Individuality.

Our definition of God therefore must be revealed by the Son and in the Spirit; Three Distinct Persons that are absolutely Inseparable from One Another as well as being Uniquely Distinct. It’s much more helpful for us to keep these pieces together than it is to pull them apart.

What does this mean for us? Over the next five studies, we will pull application from this Trinitarian Relationship into our own lives. What does the Beauty and Intricacy of the Trinity’s Relationship teach us about our own lives?

To finish up today’s study, spend some time thinking through or journaling answers to the following questions:

In the Bible references for today you will find two verses out of Psalm 51 (the Old Testament) that reference the Holy Spirit. Why is it significant that there are Old Testament references to the Work of the Holy Spirit? Does this agree with or contradict what you have been taught about the Holy Spirit?

The John 5 passage is filled with references to the Trinity at work. What does this teach us about the Relationship between God the Father, and Jesus?

The entirety of John 14 is rich with references to the Trinity (and is worth reading in full!), but what do verses 15-21 teach us about the Trinitarian Relationship between God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit?

Spend some time in prayer with the Lord, asking Him to give you "eyes to see and ears to hear" the truth of who He is as a Relational, Trinitarian God.