God and the Holy Trinity

So today, we look at God and the Trinity.
From time to time, one of my students will send me a text asking me a theological question. Sometimes they’re reading their Bible and a question about what they’re reading pops up. Sometimes, it’s a random question they have. Sometimes, they’re having a spiritual conversation with a friend and something comes up that they’re not sure how to answer. The other day, one of my students sent me a text around 10:30 p.m. asking this: “my friend is asking ‘what or who is God?’” (the student told me a couple of days later, “yeah it was late. I don’t know what I was thinking...)

While my answer was certainly accurate, what I should have done was to simply point to this confession.
Currently, my own understanding of who God is is growing by leaps and bounds. I’ve been reading through A.W. Pink’s classic book “The Attributes of God.” It’s a thin book, only 117 pages, but in the 17 short chapters that this book contains, there’s an amazing amount of depth. If you haven’t read “Attributes,” I highly recommend reading it.

Are you familiar with a “Sermon Jam?” There are quite a few of them out there. It’s where someone takes a sermon, edits it down to five minutes or so, using the “highlights” of the sermon, and puts dramatic background music and cool images in. Then it’s posted to YouTube (for a great example, click here).
Well, when I read what the 1689 Confession says about who God is, it’s so good and gives such a great description of who God is, it almost becomes a Sermon Jam in my head.

God and the Holy Trinity

--> The Lord our God is the one and only living and true God; Whose subsistence is in and of Himself - Who is infinite in being and perfection; Whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but Himself; 

• Who is a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions 

• Who alone has immortality

• Who dwells in the light which no man can approach, Who is immutable (unchangeable), immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, in every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute;

• Who works all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory; 

• Who is most loving, gracious, merciful, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth;
• Who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin;

• Who is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him; 

• and Who, at the same time, is most just and terrible in His judgements, hating all sin and Who will by no means clear the guilty. 


--> God, having all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and from Himself, is unique in being all-sufficient, both in Himself and to Himself, not standing in need of any creature which He has made, nor deriving any glory from such. - On the contrary, it is God Who manifests His own glory in them, through them, to them and upon them. He is the only fountain of all being; from Whom, through Whom, and to Whom all things exist and move. 

• He has completely sovereign dominion over all creatures, to do through them, for them, or to them whatever He pleases. 

• In His sight all things are open and manifest; His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and not dependent on the creature. 
• Therefore, nothing is for Him contingent or uncertain.

• He is most holy in all His counsels, in all His works, and in all His commands. 

• To Him is due from angels and men whatever worship, service, or obedience, they owe as creatures to the Creator, and whatever else He is pleased to require from them. 


--> In this divine and infinite Being there are three subsistences, the Father, the Word or Son, and the Holy Spirit. All are one in substance, power, and eternity; each having the whole divine essence, yet this essence being undivided. The Father was not derived from any other being; He was neither brought into being by, nor did He issue from any other being.

• The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. 

• The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

• All three are infinite, without beginning, and are therefore only one God, Who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties, and also their personal relations.
• This doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God, and our comfortable dependence on Him. 


I pray that today you would be overwhelmed by the truth and reality of who God is. Before you go to bed tonight, spend some time thanking God for all He has done for you. Read Romans 8 and Psalm 136.