Menu Keys

On-Going Mini-Series

Bible Studies

Codes & Descriptions

Class Codes
[a] = summary lessons
[b] = exegetical analysis
[c] = topical doctrinal studies
What is a Mini-Series?

Scripture References



Bible Options



Sun, Aug 28, 2005

6 - The Trinity - Part 2

by Robert Dean
Series:Basics 1: Foundation for Life (2005)
Duration:57 mins 8 secs

Foundation Lesson 6   August 28, 2005



There are nuances for the  title.  Truth is an unshakable foundation on which we can construct our thinking.  As we look at the trinity the doctrine gives a foundation for mans different elements of life.  Many doctrines are founded on the trinity.  You believe in God of one essence and three persons.  This is a found understand of the Word.  It is the basic Christian orthodoxy.  It articulates what came about at the Councilof Nicea in 425 BC.  It was at that council that there were about 300 church representative who came together to hammer out what the Bible that about Jesus Christ and His relationship to the Father.  People got the idea that the doctrine came from a doctrinal statement rather than the Word.  It is not independent of the Word.  It is an explanation and summation of what the Word teaches.  Tertolian was a theologian in North Africa.  He council the Word to explain what the Word taught.  The Bible clearly teaches that God is one.  Emphasis the singularity of the God of the Bible. 



NKJ Deuteronomy 6:4 " Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!


To listen, to hear.  Too often there is a misunderstanding of one.  It is not a mathematical one.  It has a couple of meanings.  Unique or alone.The Lord alone is our God. It is not one that it is singular.  Like a bunch of grapes.  Then two became on e flesh.  That has Implications for the trinity.God is a triune God.  He created the heavens and the earth.  The Bible from Genesis to Revelation is monotheistic.  The Bible also clearly teaches that there is a multiplicity of div9ne persons.  They used elohim.  The im ending indicates a plural. 





The plural principle indicates a plurality of persons in the Godhead.  ? We looked a the angel of the Lord.  The angel of YHWH talks to YHWH .  This indicates two persons. 


NKJ Isaiah 48:15 I, even I, have spoken; Yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way will prosper. 16 "Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit Have sent Me


You have one individual speaking who is a .  There is a clear indication of three persons in verse 16.  God in after passage there is an indication that He would be human and mighty God. 




This indicates humanity.  The government will be on His shoulders.  Who writes this?  Isaiah.  He is a monotheist.  He does not believe in many gods.  There has to be an understanding of multiplicity .  We knew that they understand in part multiplicity. 


The Old Testament taught that God was one with a multiplicity of persons.  In  the Old Testament they never tried to reconcile this.  It was not new in the sense of contradictory.  It was a further development.  We seethe same issue in the New Testament.  God is one with three persons in the Godhead.  This is how the early church handled it.  They went along for many decades talking about the Holy Spirit being divine and God the Father being divine.  They never tried to clarify it.  But by the third century skeptics pointed it out as an apparent contradiction.  So believers need to explain this.  It was in that context that theologians began to deal with what the Word says.  This is a clarification of what the Bible teaches.  Because we do not teach church history and develop how these things developed.  People do not know how to answer them.  One of the key passages is in Matthew.







WE see that the Old Testament recognized that there is one God and one in essence and three in person.  When you come to the gospels one thing is that all writers were monotheistic.  But they also made claim to the deity of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Jews were monotheist.  They sought to kill Him because He claims to be God.  All along we see the emphasis on monotheism.  But Jesus Christ allows himself to be worshipped as God.


NKJ John 8:56 "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." 57 Then the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" 58 Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."


It is the last part of the verse that is so important.  He uses grammar to emphasize His eternality.  Before Abraham came into existence I AM.  It is theologically true.  He is saying that He ws always in existence.  He uses the word ego and emmi.  It is the covenant name of God.  The proper name of God comes from the Hebrew word hajah.  I AM implies a coming a claim to deity. 


NKJ John 10:30 "I and My Father are one."

Jesus did not shrink as a monotheist from come these claims as deity.  In the New Testament there are many different passages that talk about God. 


NKJ Psalm 68:18 You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, Even from the rebellious, That the LORD God might dwell there.



It is applied to Jesus Christ in Eph 4:18


NKJ Psalm 102:24 I said, "O my God, Do not take me away in the midst of my days; Your years are throughout all generations. 25 Of old You laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. 26 They will perish, but You will endure; Yes, they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will change them, And they will be changed. 27 But You are the same, And Your years will have no end.



NKJ Psalm 2:10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth.


Is 45:23, Rev 1:17, 2:8, 22:13


In other places the Lord Jesus Christ is assigned attributes. 


NKJ John 2:7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water." And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast." And they took it. 9 When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.


Clearly He restored sight  to the blind.  Again and again in the New Testament he is ascribed the attributes of deity. 



  He is staid to be the creator. 




He forgives sin.


WE see that the divine attributes are assigned to the Lord Jesus Christ.  There is a multiplicity of persons.  We have a third person in the trinity .  That is the Holy Spirit.  Liberals in the late 19the century said He was not the third person. 


NKJ Acts 5:3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? 4 "While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God." 5 Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things.


Ananias and Saphira you can only lie to a person.  The Holy Spirit is viewed as  person here.  The Holy Spirit is the divine attribute of omniscience. 





The Holy Spirit knows everything that God knows.  He has omniscience.




 There is a parallelism here.  He is a person in full deity.





He talks to a disciple when he leaves there will be a confrontation.  Allos another of the same kind.  The Holy Spirit is another comforter of the same kind. 





The mind of the spirit he has intellect.  He is a person. 






NKJ 1 Corinthians 12:11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

  He distributes gifts by his will.  So had will and personality.  How do we understand the relationship?  It is a real challenge.


The first attempt was modalism.  One in essence and one person.  But he expresses himself in different modes.  That is like wearing a msak.  Old Testment implies that the Father  The New Testament is the Son.  The Chruch age is the Holy Spirit.  The Bible istinguuishes between the person of Jeus and the person of the Father.


Adoptionism.  The son is subordinate to the Father in essence and in person.  HE became God at the time of baptism.  It was picked up later by Arias.  He thought that there was a time when Jeus Christ was not.  He was created or generated at some time.  Homo plus ousiois.  In the sin of was the same being or essence as God the  Father.  IT does not mean same but similar.  To different is the letter I  Homoiousias.  That one letter made a tremendous difference.  If Jesus is a creature then He has limited knowledge.  He would have to learn about God.  When you get into the New Testament


We must address Jon 14.  Thomas challenges Him.  There is only one way to God.  It is exclusive in Christianity.  Jesus says that by know me you know the Father.  We are one.  If Jesus is not God then we do not know God. 


NKJ John 14:8 Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us."


The foundation is to know Jesus.  Is to know God because they are one.  There is a singular God.  The early church came up with a different that He is one in essence but three person.  So how do they relate to each other?


1.  Salvation.  If Jesus is not God then we have no salvation.  He could not pay for anyone's sin other than his own.  He could not pay for the sins of the world.  I Tim 2:5  The first and most important application is that without the trinity there is no salvation.  There is no Christianity.  Without the trinity there is no basis to understand personality in the  universe.  The three persons have an eternal relationship.  They are eternally loved.  If god is not love then where do you get love in creation?  Monotheistic God that would make God dependent on his creation.  Love in the arena always talks about man's love for God.  The trinity is the basis of understanding personality an relationship in life.  The three of them communicate and totally relate to each other.  It is the foundation of social relationships.  To have total equality in the trinity.  Marriage the husband is the head of the wife.  But that authority related is not based on superiority.  The Father is not in authority because He is superior.  IT is the way  God designed the structure .  The husband and wife are one in essence.  But there is authority structure.  The scripture never the less prohibits women from being a pastor.  You can love emphasis to the members of the trinity.  Every person can has value.  But you recognize that the unique nation was given due recognition.  But not at their expense.  Of the individual citizen.  That came out of the understanding of the trinity.  The church is one.  We are one in Christ.  Without a second person in the trinity who is the Savior You do not have Christianity.  You do not have salvation.