Sermons

What or Who is the Trinity?

On the Church's calendar, there's the season referred to as The Trinity season. The first Sunday after Pentecost, where we recognize God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Yes, it is true that we worship God in His threefold revelation every time but for this Sunday, we look more closely at this beautiful but mysterious concept called the trinity!

Trinity (Trinitas in latin) is a word created by a man named Tertullian, a North African who lived 160 - 225 A.D. He wanted to explain the fact that God is the supreme and divine substance greater the fact that God is the supreme and divine substance greater than any other being. God is so great that he has the ability to show or reveal himself in three different manifestations or three persons but still remains the One and True God! There are not three Gods but only the One God.

The word Trinity does not appear in the Bible but God revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is evident throughout Holy Scripture. In the Old Testament, we see Trinity concept in action. In the wisdom literature of Proverbs, Job Ecclesistes, God is Wisdom i.e., he is active in creation. In Psalms 199:89 & 147:15-20 and Isiah 55:10-11, God is the Word I.e., forth into the world to challenge humanity. In Isaiah 42 1-3 and Ezekiel 37:1-14, God is Spirit, i.e., His presence and power in the created order gives life and strength to all.

In the New Testament, the Trinity understanding is seen in Matthew 28:19 where Jesus told his apostles: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." In II Corinthians 13:3, St. Paul ends his second letter to the Corinthians church in a threefold way: "The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love of God (The Father), and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you." The Trinity is not to these two New testament verses repeatedly, God, The Father is revealed in Christ through the Holy Spirit.

With our God coming to us in three wonderful ways, we can join in the praises of the writer of hymn #159 A&M who writes in the second stanza:

Maker of all, the Father uncreate,
Of Him from everlasting born, the Son,
And the Blest Spirit of Co-equal state
From Both proceedings, are of substance One:
So in this Trinity the Persons Three
One Perfect Being are, One God, One Majesty.