Sharon Lutheran Church issued the following announcement on June 9.
It is getting harder and harder to discern what is true and right in the world today. There are all kinds of images and suggestions as to what is appropriate and proper. We are bombarded with data that tells us what we should believe and what we should not believe. However, much of what we hear is contrary to the truth. The end result is that we are confused.
The early Church struggled to make the world see the real understanding of God’s revelation in the world. Some wanted God to be a manifestation different from Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Some even went so far as to say that when Jesus died on the cross, God himself did not suffer. Jesus was not God in human flesh but simply an early prophet. Therefore God was not subject to human experiences such as pain, sorrow, and love. The message of the cross was being robbed of its true meaning.
To help come to an agreement on who God really was, the emperor called a council of all the bishops at the beginning of the fourth century. This became known as the Council of Nicaea. From this gathering came the statement we know as the Nicaean Creed. It proclaimed that God was the Creator, the Savior, and the Holy Spirit all in one. It affirmed that these understandings were all valid images of God. The early Church now had a definition of God. This became known as the “Doctrine of the Trinity.” It simply affirmed that God was “the One God” who revealed himself in three distinct ways: as the Creator Father, the Redeeming Son, and the ever present Spirit. Let’s take a reasoned look
at this early doctrine.
First; God is proclaimed as the Father of all creation. He made us as the prime of His creatures to have dominion over the earth and to oversee it. In this, God gave us the gift of life. We are His created ones in his own image and are entrusted with all that is and ever will be. We are given what exists and are to be its stewards. The whole world is ours because God wanted it that way. God’s first great gift was life itself.
Second; God gave to us the gift of eternal life. He secured that gift through His coming into our creation. He came to us in the person of His Son, Jesus the Christ. That’s what has secured for us the salvation and hope in which we live and move and have our very being. As believers. We have the assurance that our lives have meaning and purpose because we are a part of His very body which we know as the Church. So the second part of God’s revelation of himself is in Jesus, the Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Third; God has come in His Spirit to be with us through all eternity. He is our guide, our motivator, our sustainer so that we can be His Church in this world. It was the Spirit’s coming that we celebrated last Sunday on what we call Pentecost. So these three visions of God’s presence in our lives is what the early church fathers described as “the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.”
We do not worship the doctrine but see it as a way of describing how God has come into our lives. It is not some magical formula to bring us to God. It is simply a way to attempt to clarify that God’s involvement is complete. He wants us to be his willing followers, disciples, witnesses, and servants. We are God’s People and He is our God. God’s plan for us is to be the ingredient in the mix of this world to bring peace, goodwill, and love to all people.
Although the Doctrine of the Trinity is not perfect, it does attempt to show us how and why God works. If humankind can come up with a better formula or design to help us understand the incredible reality of God’s action in our lives, that is well and good. But until that time comes, I have great comfort in the statement of our early church fathers to come up what we know as “The Doctrine of the Trinity.”
What a blessed gift we have been given by a God who created us, saved us, and sustains us. We can live that reality in the sure and certain hope of life not only here and now but in our future with Him in eternity. As the beloved hymn states it; “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity.” That’s the reality of the Holy Trinity.
Amen
By Dr. David P. Nelson
Original source can be found here.
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