Small Group Questions:

1. What have you greater understood about the Trinity today?
2. How do you do with sitting in the tension between logic and mystery?
3. Life, Love and Works. How do these three topics help you understand God more?

THE MAIN POINT

Making sense of the Trinity requires sitting in the tension of logic and mystery. We understand the Trinity more by understanding the relationships between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

THE BIBLE

John 14: 8-17

THE CONTEXT

We may find ourselves in a serious dilemma when it comes to the doctrine of the Trinity. On one hand, we can see it is Biblical, but on the other, it seems to completely defy our logical understanding. How can it be that God is three and he is one? For if he is three, he cannot also be one, but if he is one he cannot also be three. At best, the doctrine is puzzling; at worst, it is an outright contradiction. So it appears on biblical grounds we must believe it but on logical or rational grounds we cannot believe it. Must we have to choose between our faith or reason?

Think about going to Starbucks and ordering a coffee for yourself and two friends. You could protest all you want that you should only be charged for one coffee, but the barista would look at you a little suspect and charge you for three. Therefore in the boundaries, we have as human beings and the logic in which we operate, there will be times in which we encounter difficulties in understanding that God is three and he is also one.

If God is infinite and we are finite, we will never fully be able to understand him. The fullness of what he is will exceed our power to grasp. So we can’t expect to resolve fully every mystery of God including the doctrine of the Trinity. Even though there is tension in the understanding of the Trinity, we sit with tension in many other areas of life. Physicists encounter a similar tension when understanding the nature of light. On one hand, light is thought of as waves, and on the other as particles of energy. It can not logically be both. Yet we find it necessary to consider both. Similarly, we will have to live with some unresolved tension in our understanding of the Trinity. It is possible to make the mystery partially understandable, and the Bible gives us clues as how to sit between the tension of rationality and mystery.

THE CORE

As you prepare the core of the message using personal story and questions keep in mind these points:

The Search for Analogies

One way of attempting to understand the Trinity is analogies. Many Christians over the years have tried to use examples from the physical world that can be three or one and use them to help us better understand God. The Trinity has been likened to water, which can exist in solid, liquid or gas. The Trinity is sometimes compared to an egg, which includes the shell, yoke and white. Sometimes it has been likened to an object comprised of three parts like scissors.

All of these, of course, have some defects. Either they make the persons of the Trinity seem like parts or pieces of God, or they make the Trinity seem like it has different forms at different times or under different conditions, but not truly simultaneously.

Another analogy commonly used is the idea of a single human person who occupies different roles in various areas of their life. You could be a daughter, a sister, a student, and an employee. These different roles frequently interact with each other, sometimes simultaneously. Yet this analogy falls short when we consider conflict and tension. The Trinity is in perfect harmony and agreement, therefore there is no conflict or tension. Simply imagine the tension that humans experience balancing different roles, as one often takes priority over another.

All analogies can often help us understand things better. Physical analogies trying to describe God, often leave us more confused than when we first started.

The relationship among the members

One of the more helpful ways to make sense of the reality of the Trinity is the relationships among each member. As human beings, we can somewhat comprehend relationships and even though it does not resolve the tension of thinking of God as both three and one, it does help us understand him more. Three concepts we can look at are life, love, and works.

• LIFE – Think of the Trinity as a spiritual organism. This means that the three are so closely linked together, and so interdependent on each other that they cannot exist separately. Imagine a human body, and think of the heart, lungs, and brain. Each is not the person by itself. Yet it is only because of the union of these three organs (and many others) that the person is a person at all. Each supplies the others with life. So similarly, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each supply the others with their life. None of the three could be, or could be God, without each of the other two.
• LOVE – There is a sense by which we love ourselves by loving another who loves us. If love is a concern for the ultimate welfare of another, then there will be times when concern for another leads to concern for oneself. Imagine a parent who knew that the loss of their health or even death, would bring concern to their children, they would be concerned for their own health. So each member of the Trinity loves himself in loving the others because each of the others love him, and because each of the others is dependent on him. They are distinctly three persons, each with their own consciousness, and yet an inseparable closeness of relationship, in which each loves the other, and are dependent on the other.
• WORKS – Not only are the three dependent on each other and love each other but all three are involved in all the works of God. Certain works are primarily the doing of one rather than the others, but to some degree, each participates. Think of redemption (humanity being made right with God): While it was definitely the Son who became flesh, suffered, died, and was resurrected, the Father sent his Son experiencing vicariously the suffering of his child.

Even the Holy Spirit was involved in the redemptive work and empowered Jesus’ ministry.

Think about the works of creation. This is generally attributed to the Father. In the Old Testament, it was simply the work of God. There are indications in the New Testament, of the work of each of the three. Paul states that the dependence of the entire creation is on both the Father and the Son (1 Cor 8:6). John attributes the works of creation to the Son (John 1:3). The author of Genesis (1:2) and Isaiah (40:12-13) seem to indicate the participation of the Holy Spirit in the work of creation. So how can the Son and the Spirit be the ones who create, if that is done by the Father?

Think about St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The source of the design and the cause of construction was the architect Sir Christopher Wren. Yet the people who actually built the cathedral were the trade workers, but the building would be rendered impossible without the building suppliers who brought the materials. So it is possible to think of the Father as the source of creation, the Son as the designer, supplier, or organizer of the creation, and the Spirit as the executor of the art of creation, the one who actually carries it out.

Therefore to better understand the Trinity we may never be able to understand the logic of three and one, but we can reduce the tension of “How does God work?” We can see that God is highly relational. That the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons who can think uniquely and are capable of interacting with each other. That they are held together so close by the power of love that it makes them inseparable. That the life of each flows through the others and they could not exist independently of each other. And because of this, all the divine works, be it creation, redemption, or anything else are not excluded to one member but are the work of the entire Trinity.

THE APPLICATION

As you prepare the application, challenge and/or encouragement, keep in mind these points:

Today’s message will require a lot of thinking and processing. Keep your application light and specific. For instance, encourage students to go back and read the story of creation, Jesus’ baptism, or Jesus’ death and resurrection and get a fresh perspective of how the Trinity relates to one another and what that could mean for them.