As I close this series I want to ask one more question. So why does all this matter? The doctrine of the Trinity helps us understand and better appreciate the roles each member on the Triune God played in our salvation.
The Father provides us forgiveness of our sins. The Son lives a perfect life, one that we were supposed to live and then provides the payment for our sins on the cross. Jesus bore the penalty for sins so that we can be forgiven by the Father. 1 Peter 2:22-24 [Talking about Jesus] “WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; 23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him [The Father] who judges righteously; 24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” The son pays the price and the Father forgives. The Holy Spirit’s job is to convict us of our sins and move us towards belief. Upon belief in Jesus the Holy Spirit comes into our life so we can grow to be more like Him. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit. If the Trinity wasn’t true I have no idea how all these salvation roles could be accomplished. God has to act to make salvation possible.
If He was a distant God who sat back and watched me suffer and wallow in my sins, I’d have trouble loving that sort of God. However, knowing that God descended to earth as a man, to die on a Roman cross to pay for my sins, and came to live in me, I cannot help but love that God. He took the penalty and pain for me. This is the God I worship; this is the God I can love and more importantly this is the God that loves me! This is why I share Jesus with anyone who will listen, even those who hate Him. Jesus warned about false beliefs: Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.' Jesus says the key to entering the kingdom of heaven is to do the will of the Father. What does that mean? It cannot mean good works, and why? The individuals, who Jesus was speaking to, said to Him, look at all the things we have done in your name. Jesus then says depart from me I never knew you. Their works accomplished nothing. We have to come to know him, so that He can say he knows us. It is not good works that saves us, it is faith in Jesus.
Jesus shares this message of faith and not works in John 6:28-29. He had just fed them bread and they want to know what they can do to be saved. “They said therefore to Him, ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’ [29] Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.’” We can only receive the forgiveness from the Father, payment for sins from the Son, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit through right belief. Doing good works saves no one! God reaching out to us so we can be saved is a message of good news which is UNBELIEVABLE! This is what Jesus wants us to share.
Trinity Series Summary Points:
- The doctrine of the Trinity was supported from the beginning; by the apostles, through the early church fathers, and on up to today. God has always been a Triune being. The early church utilized language to define the doctrine of the Trinity and did not invent the teaching as some contend.
- Yet, we don’t believe in the Trinity because of the work of the early church fathers but because the doctrine is Biblical.
- The Trinity can be defined as: One God subsists in three persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; co-equal and co-eternal.
- The Bible teaches:
- There is only 1 God
- Father, Son and Holy Spirit are separate persons.
- Each person is fully God.
My Jehovah's Witness student who handed me the booklet actually did a great thing by embarrassing me in front of all the students that day. Due to that incident I put in hundreds of hours studying the great truths of the Bible. I have equipped thousands of individuals on the Biblical basis for the doctrine of the Trinity. If anyone denies the Trinity, when that individual dies he or she will spend eternity separated from God. This is the fate of all Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. Both groups worship a false Jesus and when they die He is going to say to them “I never knew you.” Without true belief they will not receive the free gift of forgiveness. Our task is to share the truth with them. My next series will deal with Jesus as the God/man. I will attempt to answer, how can Jesus have two natures and yet be one person.
