The Necessity Of The Trinity

From The Christian Reader:

The Necessity of the Trinity


I get paid to read. Although I could probably describe my job in a more sophisticated way, the actual fact is that I read for a living…good work if you can get it. Right now, I am in the middle of proofreading two books: one is 200 pages and the other is a 5000 page, five-volume set. The short one is a popular-level treatment of current political events and the long one is a commentary on the Westminster Larger Catechism. I have a hard deadline for both, so I am spending nearly every waking hour poring over these pages, red pen in hand. It is mentally exhausting, but it is a great privilege to be a part of the process.





Last night, as I was working on the commentary, I came to the following passage on the Trinity. I wanted to share it with you—faithful readers that you are—for three reasons. 1) I found it be an excellent, yet concise, summary of the doctrine of the Trinity. 2) I found it be deeply devotional, in addition to being deeply practical (a rare find indeed). And 3) I wanted to give you a notice to begin saving your money. Once you read this passage, I am quite sure that you will be at least mildly interested in getting this set once it is available. This commentary represents the life work of Dr. Joseph Morecraft and it is nothing short of a seminary education.



Aside from Dr. Morecraft's own commentary, the set includes literally thousands of quotations and excerpts from various theologians throughout church history. It is a storehouse of the best insight and thought from the last 2000 years. Dr. Morecraft has done the scholarly legwork by assembling this great work, now it is up to us to "take up and read." Enjoy…





The Practical Application of the Doctrine of the Trinity

by Dr. Joseph Morecraft, from the forthcoming Authentic Christianity



Believing in and understanding what the Bible teaches about the Trinity is necessary in order to understand created reality and human society. In God, all three, individual Persons are perfectly related to each other. The one, living God is fully expressed in each person; and God made life to reflect His glory, the way He is (Ps. 19; Rom. 1:19f.). All aspects of life are equally created by God, dependent upon God, and significant in themselves and in their relation to each other, as determined by God. All aspects of life work together harmoniously and purposefully according to the laws of God for His creation. These universal laws and this harmony do not detract from the importance of the individual aspects; and, the individual facts and particulars of creation must always be considered in the context of God’s universal purpose and laws. No fact in the universe is irrelevant to God, to any other fact, or to any of God’s law. The trees are as equally important to God as the forests.



In God’s being, there are no individual persons not perfectly related to the one God; and there is nothing in the whole being of God that is not fully expressed in the three, distinct persons. Therefore, since all creation has God’s signature imprinted on it, and since God’s glory is revealed in it, then all aspects of created reality are equally created, and no one aspect of reality may be regarded as more ultimate than any other. An individual man is as important to God as mankind in general. The material and physical aspects of creation are not to be debased for the sake of the nonphysical, immaterial aspects of creation, anymore than the nonphysical, immaterial aspects of life are to be neglected because of a love for the material and the physical. The individual parts of creation move in accordance with God’s universal laws of creation, viz., the law of gravity; thereby producing order in the universe. On the other hand, this order and these laws may never be so emphasized so as to detract from the importance and value of the individuality of the particulars.



The implications of the doctrine of the Trinity offer a remedy for socialism (collectivism) and individualism (libertarianism). Socialism, Marxism and all forms of collectivism, elevate the importance of the group, the society, and the state over the individual and his rights and freedoms, thereby laying the basis for the absolute rule of the sovereign state, which always disregards the individual and which destroys creativity, freedom and human life. In this view, the individual citizen is sacrificed when necessary for the best interests of the state. Stalin, Mao, and their ilk, can kill millions of their own citizens for the welfare of the state. The U.S.A. can kill by abortion millions of unborn babies for the welfare of society.



Democratic individualism, also called libertarianism, is the opposite of Socialism. Whereas all forms of socialism believe in the sovereignty of the state, libertarianism believes in the sovereignty and autonomy of the individual. It so exalts the individual that the importance of the group, the proper activity of the state, and the validity of universal laws are denied. In this view, for example, marriage as an institution is discarded and the desires of individuals reign supreme. Laws forbidding abortion or homosexual behavior are viewed as illegitimate restrictions on individual autonomy.



A Christian Trinitarian perspective on life and society stands above and over against these views, for it believes neither in the sovereignty of the state nor in the sovereignty of the individual, but in the sovereignty of the Triune God. It exalts neither the group to the exclusion of the individual, nor the individual to the denial of the group. The emphasis in the Bible is on the individual within the family at work through the church in discipling the nations of the world (Matt. 28:19–20). The Bible recognizes the equal ultimacy of the individual in particular and of human society in general. Neither are sovereign. Only God is sovereign, and all individuals and societies are accountable to Him to live in terms of His revealed order and plan for life. God’s word is an authoritative and all-sufficient manual of direction for individuals and for groups, for private morality and for public justice.



There are many more implications of the revealed truth of the Trinity. It reveals God to us as the truly, living God, the Ever-Living-and-Producing God. It maintains God’s distinct existence and His glorious fullness at the same time. It makes clear to us how God can be perfect in love and knowledge apart from the created universe. It emphasizes the difference between Creator and creature… When the tri-unity of God is rejected, the foundation of Christianity is destroyed. The truth of the Trinity is the sum and substance of the Christian faith, the root of all truth, the essence of the New Covenant. Whoever calls himself a Christian has some faith in the triune God. The doctrine of the Trinity is the heart of God’s entire revelation of redemption.



Any view which rejects or even overlooks God’s threeness is a poverty-stricken view. It takes the mystery out of God and reduces Him to near human terms. This reduction of God to man-size has been attempted many times in history, but has always failed in the end. Arianism, Deism, and Unitarianism are dead or dying. Let us be sure that the God we worship is the God of the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles: one perfect God whose whole being is expressed in three distinct persons, each fully God.



If there were no Trinity, there could be no incarnation, no objective redemption, and therefore, no salvation; for there would be no one capable of acting as mediator between God and man. If we misunderstand the Trinity, we will misunderstand the cross of Calvary. The doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine of salvation stand or fall together. The intimacy between the doctrines of the Trinity and salvation is such that no non-trinitarian scheme of things can be an adequate foundation for the experience of the Christian salvation. “[T]he heart of man was restless until it found its rest in the Triune God, the author, procurer and applier of salvation.” God the Father planned salvation in eternity (Eph. 1:3–14). God the Son accomplished salvation in history, Hebrews 9:12. God the Holy Spirit applies salvation throughout history (John 3:6).

Historically the Christian church has always refused to recognize as Christians those who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. Furthermore, every great revival of Christianity down through the ages has been a revival of commitment to the fullest trinitarianism. It is not too much to say that the Trinity is the point on which all Christian ideas and interests focus, at once the beginning and the end of all true insight into Biblical Christianity. Knowledge of and faith in the Trinity as prerequisite to salvation is taught in such texts as John 17:3: “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee [the Father] the only true God, and Jesus Christ [the Son of God] whom Thou hast sent.” This is also evident from our baptism which is administered in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19)… Since God is one God in three Persons, let us give equal attention, worship, love and obedience to all the Persons of the Holy Trinity. ADORE UNITY IN TRINITY AND TRINITY IN UNITY. The tribute of homage and reverence is due to the triune God from all of us forever.



The doctrine of the Trinity is a “mystery,” in the Biblical sense of the word. It is a revealed truth that human reason would never have conceived, unless it had been divinely revealed. And having been revealed, it still remains incomprehensible. The doctrine of the Trinity, therefore, is an object of faith… Since there is one God in three Persons, then let us give equal worship and obedience to all the persons of the Trinity. Let us obey all the persons in the Trinity, for all of them are God. Let us worship and obey God the Father, as Christ Himself did (John 4:34; Deut. 27:10). Let us obey God the Son. Psalm 2:12 commands us to “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,” to kiss Him with the kiss of allegiance and obedience and adoration. Let us obey God the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of God (who) has made me” (Job 33:4). He deserves our worship and obedience because of His regenerating, sanctifying work within us. In fact, the heart and soul of Christianity, which separates it from all other religions and ways of life consists in our subjection to and adoration of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.