This weekend we acknowledge the truth that the one God is three Persons (Trinity) and adore His unity. This is not a peripheral matter, for “bare monotheism is ultimately barren.” Evidence of this “bare monotheism” is seen in how far too many Christians think that the one God is merely one Person; that Jesus is just a really Great Guy who was created to save us; that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal “force.” Here are four beautiful and liberating implications of the Trinitarian reality of the one God that we’d be missing out on if God were indeed merely one Person:
Let us respond to this awesome reality with the manner in which we live: willing what is best for others, forging wholesome relationships, and serving as witnesses of God’s saving plan for humanity. Following that plan ensures we pattern in our lives the Trinitarian nature of the one God and grow in union with Him.
David J Conrad
- God is one…but not alone. The doctrine of the Trinity does not destroy the unity of God but reinforces it. It defines that unity in terms of a richness within the reality of the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are numerically one in their nature (which is divine); they are distinguished from one another only by their relation to each other. For this reason we can worship three divine Persons without falling into polytheism.
- God is love. Relationship is the essence of God Himself. The Father gives, the Son receives, the Holy Spirit proceeds. God does not love us because Jesus died for us. Jesus died for us because God loves us. God is love.
- God is free to be gracious. God’s decision to create and save the world was not motivated by any external pressure, nor by any compulsion to make up for any deficiency. God is the one who chooses to love in freedom. God is free to be gracious.
- God is sufficiently sovereign to come as well as to send. God is not only a revealer (a sender), but a redeemer (He comes) too. The one God who is totally other has chosen to become one of us. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity (Jesus) has descended and contracted His infinite greatness to be present in the mundane realm of our earthly affairs.
Let us respond to this awesome reality with the manner in which we live: willing what is best for others, forging wholesome relationships, and serving as witnesses of God’s saving plan for humanity. Following that plan ensures we pattern in our lives the Trinitarian nature of the one God and grow in union with Him.
David J Conrad
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