Hey Sky high. I wrote this sermon for a teaching class I'm giving at our church in a few weeks time. (apologies for the Ellen White quotes near the end, we're Seventh Day Adventists and we like that sort of thing). But it addresses the questions you have here. It's not quite finished but you might find it helpful to read through:-
The trinity has always been a difficult topic for many Christians. As human beings we instinctively understand the world around us using models we are familiar with. Our ideas, revelations and knowledge are built on the basis of what we see and comprehend in nature, or in study.
So why is it then, this question of the trinity or the divinity of Christ, or the personal being of the Holy spirit fails to be understood by so many of the Lord’s children? What is it about these particular doctrines; that cause the Christian so much distress?
To attempt to solve this problem, let’s first of all look at an example of how humanity attempts to answer difficult questions. It is said Sir. Isaac Newton discovered gravity. Well actually gravity was always there and we always felt its effects and were subject to its law. But Newton uncovered and described this idea for us. Gravity is an incredibly important parameter or rule; which God designed for the universe, to be governed by. It needs to be for life to exist and the precision of the strength at which it is set, is evidence of the creator at work. Now Newton realized this. But what’s important for us; is when replying to the question of how he gained such insight, Newton said; “if I see further, it’s because I’m standing on the shoulders of giants.”
One of the most famous Christian scientists of recent times, Newton it must be said; was a much better scientist than theologian. However what’s important here is how Newton recognized how his own understandings of God’s creation had been built upon the ideas and revelations of other great men and women, who had come before him, and not least of all in the pages of the bible. Secondly Newton’s main study of course, was the book of nature. A combination of the wisdom of the written Word and the study of the creation allowed Newton to build a ladder and reach the understanding of the concepts he shared with humanity and we now call gravity.
Let us then copy this method in attempt to grasp this idea of the trinity, but first let’s understand why the doctrine itself causes so much of a problem.
I think it’s this idea of three persons in the one God?… It provokes in us a logical problem called the law of non contradiction. Sounds complicated but it’s fairly simple in this context. I cannot be me and not me at the same time.
One Lord, One God, three persons. Sounds like a contraction.
And maybe we don’t have a good analogy to base this concept upon… Perhaps. It’s certainly a difficult concept to wrap your mind around but I’m not sure it’s without example in the book of nature, or in the promptings of scripture.
Consider Paul’s warning in Romans 1:20 to atheists of both his time and ours, when he said:
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: KJV
Paul here points out to us that the attributes of God can be clearly seen, from the creation, and seems to be encouraging us to adopt the approach we described earlier.
Let’s take an example from nature itself then. Consider Newton's humble apple.
The apple is comprised of; seed, flesh and skin, yet they are all very much part of this apple.
Or what about the creation itself, it’s time, space and matter, these three entities make up the creation. And yet they are all part of the creation itself.
Or as the author Robert Faid poetically describes:-
As you stand by the shore of the sea, as far as your eyes can see and beyond is the mighty ocean. It is an entity of enormous power, sometimes as still and calm as a tropical pool, sometimes rising in fury to smash those who dare to intrude upon it.
As you observe, a swell of water rises offshore. The wave gathers momentum as it approaches the beach. Although it remains a part of the sea it has a life of its own. Then, after crashing high upon the shore, it returns to the sea from which it came. As a wave it had its own identity, but never was it separate from the sea.
Just as Jesus came from the Father and returned to the Father, He had - and still has - an identity of His own. The wave was never separate from the sea, just as Jesus was never separate from the Father. Just as the wave exemplifies the personality of the sea, Jesus is the personality of God the Father. If you have seen a wave, then you must have seen the sea. If you have seen Jesus, you have also seen the Father.
And as you stand beside the shore, you become aware of another part of the sea. The salt air which invigorates you is also an integral part of the sea. It, too, has a separate existence from the sea, but is very much one with it. It penetrates everywhere and everything within miles of the coastline. As you approach the beach it is the signal that the sea is not far away. In fact, it is the sea - reaching out to you through the air.
This is exactly what the Holy Spirit does. Just as the salt air draws men to the sea, the Holy Spirit draws men to the Father through Jesus Christ. The Spirit, although having a separate existence, is not separate from the Godhead.
Beautiful and a good analogy for the characteristics of the members of the trinity, however in reading this, we might still be tempted down a path of rejecting the personhood of the trinity.
A common mistake in the Christian church was to forget and at times even deny the personhood of the Holy Spirit. Often called the forgotten person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit is nonetheless a person and co equal with the Father and Christ.
If we turn to acts 5 verse 3 and 4 we read:
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
Peter here in verse 3 asks Ananias why he has lied to the person of the Holy Spirit and then in verse 4 refers to the Holy Spirit as God.
Or in Acts 13. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
Here the Holy Spirit is speaking in the first person. There are many other examples of this but it is fair to say that The Holy Spirit is not; the impersonal power of God the father, nor the Ghost of Jesus, but rather a personal being. Pre-existing and co-equal with God.
I think it in passages such as; Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one; that we may seem to find confusion. This phrase – “The Lord is one” can tempt us to see God as a single solitary figure.
But we must understand and Jesus tells us in . John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”
However Christ also said in John 14:28. The father is greater than I.
Confusing but let’s allow the scriptures to reveal its own meaning.
If we turn to Philippians 2:6-8 we read
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God
something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Before I came to know Christ, I somehow imagined that God The Father, may have almost forced the second person of the trinity; The Son, into becoming a sacrifice for man, but this most certainly not the case.
Instead God, the three persons of the trinity where in agreement, all being of the one will and desire and the second person of the trinity became a man for our sakes.
In John 3:34 we read:
For he whom God hath sent speaks the words of God: for God gives not the Spirit by measure unto him.. KJV
Not to be confused with the third person of the trinity here, the spirit or being of the second person was literally poured with all measure, or completely became the person of Christ Jesus. . He who has been raised in body and in spirit has returned back to the throne from which he came, before creation, to the right hand of the Father.
This second person of the trinity is the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. For one of the characters of God is eternal.
Ellen White states in The Desire of Ages says; "In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived," and the Holy Spirit is the "Third Person of the Godhead."
And in her statements of 1901 and 1905 affirms, that; “the three "eternal heavenly dignitaries," the "three highest powers in heaven," the "three living persons of the heavenly trio," are one in nature, character, and purpose, but not in person.”
So what’s important about this doctrine and what advantage does it gives the Christian. Another characteristic of God is Love. The Christian alone can truly claim God is Love. In the Christian faith, God’s love is not dependent upon created being like ourselves to become, himself - a being that can show love or experience love. Rather the persons of the Father Son and Holy Spirit have existed in eternity in love and harmony, sharing the one will and in a perfect love relationship, in which He, that is to say God, offers to us, as a invitation to accept and experience.
And it’s really all about choices for that is in fact what separates the persons of the trinity. In character they are One; but who have individually showed God’s Love through the roles they have made on our behalf. God doesn't need us to love him, he is love. Yet in accepting Christ’s sacrifice into our lives we can experience a part of this loving relationship that is God.
