THE TRINITY (cont.) in the Godhead, but these three are also set forth as One God. Hear the words of Christ as He explains to the inquiring scribe which is the greatest commandment of all. “ . . . the first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first com mandment” (Mark 12:29, 30). Perhaps the golden text of Biblical revelation Concerning the doctrine of the Trinity is Christ’s exhortation to baptize “ . . . in the name of the Fath er, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matt. 28:19). Here are all the persons united as equals having a single name. This expresses, complete ly, the doctrine of the Trinity, that is, three distinct, divine personalities forming a single personal divine Being. But how can three be one and one bp three? Anti-trinitarians rule out the Trinity as absurd on the basis of the mathematical impossibility. But we do not hold that God is one and three in the same sense. He is one as to His Being, but three as to His personality. We cannot fully comprehend such a God for there is nothing analogous to this in our experience. But perhaps it is most simply illustrated by the equi-
lateral triangle. The area enclosed is one and is not divided while the sides are three equals. Now assume for a moment that the enclosed area is the divine Being of the Godhead and each side is a separate manifestation of per sonality. There are thus three persons possessing the same undivided essence or substance of God. The fact of incomprehensibility must never turn one from contemplating the doctrine of the Trinity. It was never revealed as a metaphysical proposition for speculative thought, but rather was addressed to life in the story of re demption. It is precisely here that the doctrine still speaks. To say that God is triune is to say that God is the God of redemption; to deny the Trinity is to deny redemption. Sinner, if you would come to God you must come through the work of the Triune God. So, also, the believer experiences this triune activity in his fellowship with God. We see God the Father through revelation in God the Son, and our hearts are kindled to worship and adoration by God the Holy Spirit. And yet our fellowship is with one supreme Being. Thus the belief in the Trinity is the belief in the God incomprehensi ble, and yet the God who has revealed Himself to mankind in redeeming grace, whom to know is life eternal.
This We Believe
The Deity of Jesus Christ
by William Bass, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Philosophy
I s J esu s t h e S on of G od P This ques tion sometimes suggests to the mod em mind a rather irrelevant mythical debate or, at best, a pleasant fairy sto ry. An affirmative answer to that ques tion is to express a fact which has vital
implications for every facet of contem porary life. One suspects that those who deny the Deity of the Lord Jesus are really fighting the problem of His Lordship. Actually the issue is not an intellectual one, but involves being rec- 8
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