Trinity and Mystery

…they must hold fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. 1 Timothy 3:9

Dear Friends in Christ,

This Sunday is Trinity Sunday. The Doctrine of the Trinity is often called “a mystery.” In seminary, we tried to get out of writing complex papers for our theology class by telling the professor “it’s a mystery!” He said we would have to say a little bit more before saying “it’s a mystery.” Perhaps I should leave the hard work to our preacher this weekend? Always a good weekend for the Associate to give it a try…

Why should we bother with the doctrine of the Trinity? Why is it so important? Why should we believe this doctrine if it is so hard to explain?

First, I would say that the doctrine of the Trinity was not developed as a way to invent a system of belief that would be attractive to people in the market for a new religion. This doctrine was developed as a way to describe with words what we know to be true about God. There were several attempts to come up with a simple explanation about who Jesus is and how Jesus is divine. But those explanations ran into trouble—chiefly, they didn’t square with the evidence we have of who Jesus is. These explanations conflicted with the Bible and the church that taught from and interpreted the Bible since Jesus’ days. In other words, those explanations turned out not to be true. So those explanations were called heresy, and the church did its best to clarify what was indeed true about Jesus. Doctrine is the result of that effort.

The challenge is that God is so beyond human understanding, how can we understand the nature of God? What we do know is that there is one God. And we know that Jesus is God. And we know that the Holy Spirit is God. And that Jesus also says things such as “I will ask the Father, and he will send you another comforter…the Holy Spirit.” God the Father is God; Jesus—God the Son—is God; God Holy Spirit is God. And there are not three gods, but one God. This is the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Jesus is not half-god and half-man; Jesus is fully God and fully human. 100% human and 100% God. That’s the mystery.

It gets more complicated because the church needed to develop a specific language to use so that we wouldn’t cause more theological problems. The central language around the Trinity came in the Nicene Creed (from the Council of Nicaea in 325, adapted at the Council of Constantinople in 381). If you want a rigorous exposition of the Doctrine of the Trinity, see the Athanasian Creed on page 864 in the Book of Common Prayer (or click here). The most concise version of this is to say that “there is one God in three persons” (with a specific way of using the word “persons”).

This doctrine is important because it seeks to hold true to what we know to be true about God, even when we may not fully understand this mystery. This doctrine is important because it helps us to identify the true God among competing ideas about God. Doctrine in general is important because it helps us to know God more fully. Doctrine is not God—we do not worship doctrine. We use doctrine to know God and to better be in relationship with God. For God himself is the true mystery worth knowing, and the knowing of God and being known by God is a treasure far richer than any wisdom.

I pray that you may more fully know God the Holy Trinity in the days ahead—to know God in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit—and to rejoice in God’s self revelation to you and all humanity.

Yours in Christ,

-Tom