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The Trinity Mystery

The Trinity is a mystery because it is about God, and God is a mystery. 

1 Timothy 3:16   ¹⁶ And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.

God cannot be reduced to human logic. The finite can never fully understand the infinite.  Now we should try to understand all of God that we can, but we will never understand all of God that there is.  God Himself said:

Isaiah 55:8–9   ⁸ “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. ⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

You see it is not that God is illogical, rather God is beyond logic. 

The great Methodist preacher, John Wesley, once said:  “Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will bring you a man that can comprehend the triune God!”

God has even left us clues throughout this universe of His trinitarian nature.

There are three basic features of this universe.  There is space, matter, and time.  Space is length, breadth, and height.  Matter is energy, motion, and phenomena. Time is past, present, and future.  We even see it in ourselves.  Man is body, soul, and spirit.  Likewise, God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

Now even though we have clues to the Trinity, the reason it is so difficult to understand and comprehend is because there is no comparison to the Trinity.  There is nothing to which the Trinity can be compared to because God cannot be compared to anything, because there is only one God. 

The infinite will not fit into the finite.  You really can never understand the Trinity, but as one person has wisely said:  “Define the Trinity, you will lose your mind, but deny the Trinity, you will lose your soul.”

You can compare one football player with another one, one singer with another one, one athlete with another one, but you cannot compare God to any other god, for there is no other god except the one God.

Isaiah 40:18   ¹⁸ To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him? 

The infinite will not fit into the finite.  You really can never understand the Trinity, but as one person has wisely said:  “Define the Trinity, you will lose your mind, but deny the Trinity, you will lose your soul.”

Mysterious God

2 Corinthians 13:14   ¹⁴ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

If you ask God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit the question:  “Will the real God please stand up?” Then all three would have to stand in order to tell the truth. 

Let me share with you that the Bible teaches three truths about God, all of which are necessary to know God, none of which can be denied.  I call them:  “Trinity truths.” 

A.  There is one God—eternal and indivisible.

B. This one God is three persons—each distinct from the other.

C. Each person of the God-head is fully God—co-equal,co-existent, and co-eternal.

Admittedly, this is a deep subject that calls for serious thought and contemplation.  But it is well worth it, for as Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said: 

“Nothing will so enlarge the intellect and magnify the whole soul of man as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the whole subject of the Trinity.”1

The doctrine of the Trinity is perhaps the single greatest "distinctive" of Christianity.

No other religion in the world is, or ever has been, a trinitarian religion.  Judaism, Islam, the Unitarians, and Jehovah’s Witnesses all deny the doctrine of the Trinity. 

Even though the word “Trinity” is not found in the Bible, the truth of the Trinity is found throughout the Bible. It is one of the great truths of God and one of the great mysteries of God. We can know this truth but we may never fully come to understand it.

The very passage we have selected as a foundation verse, 2 Corinthians 13:14, is a benediction, a prayer that is prayed to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.  As you are going to see, if you are going to know God, you must know God as Trinity, or you cannot know God at all.

The next few days we will be looking deeper at this glorious truth:  Our God is a Triune God.

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1 John Blanchard, Gathered Gold, p. 126.

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