What Is The Trinity? with Dr. Michael Allen
Today we’re talking about the Trinity with Dr. Michael Allen. Dr. Allen serves as John Dyer Trimble Professor of Systematic Theology and Academic Dean of the Orlando campus of RTS. He teaches core courses related to systematic theology and historical theology. We are so grateful for his careful handling of such a challenging topic, and we know you’re going to walk away with greater clarity regarding the doctrine of the Trinity!
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
What is the Trinity? Why is the doctrine of the Trinity so important?
Where do we see the Trinity in the scriptures? Though the word “Trinity” is not in the Bible, how can we confidently arrive at the doctrine of the Trinity from the Bible’s statements about God and the persons of the Godhead?
Can you tell us about each one of the three distinct persons of the Trinity?
How did the apostles and the first Christian communities begin to worship not only God the Father, but also Jesus of Nazareth and the Holy Spirit, as God?
How does the doctrine of the Trinity shape and structure the Christian faith and practice? How does it distinguish Christianity from other religions?
What is the role of each person of the Trinity in redemption?
How does the doctrine of the Trinity change the way we go about our everyday lives?
How does the Trinity shape our worship and discipleship?
I had a few friends over who are learning about Christianity and studying the Bible and their big question was, “How can we wrap our brains around the Trinity?” How might we rightly respond to questions like these as we engage in evangelism and discipleship?
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES
“As God reveals himself, the one living and true God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the one God. And he’s no less ‘one’ for being Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and he’s no less Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for being ‘one.’ That’s why we often refer to it as one of the great mysteries of the faith. There’s no way around the fact. It is mysterious and transcendent and holy and that means it’s challenging too.”
“Underneath the various gifts of Jesus and the gifts of the gospel, we're actually led bit by bit to look upward and to gaze at God, who is himself the great gift and the giver. And we’re led to realize that the greatest of gifts is not even being forgiven, it's that in being forgiven we get God, we get to be with God.”
“We can see the Father as the one to whom even Jesus prays. How often in the Gospels do we hear Jesus praying to his and our Father? There's something telling there. The Father is the source. There’s something to the name. It doesn't mean he’s more God, it doesn’t mean he was God earlier, but there is something to his character that is source nonetheless.”
“There’s something to the fact that the Son is revealed as the Son sent from the Father, the Son who comes and expresses the Father. If you’ve seen him you’ve seen the Father. He is the exact imprint of his being… You are experiencing the Father when you experience the Son. But the Son is the Father gone out further… He’s even come amongst us, he’s taken on human flesh, he’s entered our midst, and that’s something that’s unique to him, that he moves outward toward us.”
“The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ and he’s the Spirit sent by the Father, and he’s the Spirit who comes and who points us back to Christ and instructs us in the things of Christ. And that’s the way he’s always been, even in Genesis 1, he's the Spirit hovering over the waters as he’s been sent when God by his word is creating all things. The Spirit is the one who takes that outward movement of God’s grace and makes it fully effectual and complete, whether that’s in making the world or working in your and my hearts and redeeming us.”
“Jesus is not on vacation. It is finished and parts of what he did are done, but when Stephen is being persecuted, he’s able to stand there and die like a Christian because he looks up and sees the Son standing at the Father’s right hand. And that’s got to mean that he knows that Jesus is there, that he’s aware of Stephen’s plight, and that he’s standing with him in God’s presence.”
“I think it’s easy to think mostly about what Jesus did and accomplished and completed, and that’s for good reason. But it’s just as important to realize that he’s ruling the world now, he’s speaking to his people, and he continues to pray for us. I can’t see where he does that, but I know he does that, and he does that as a human being, not just as the eternal Son of God. He’s the incarnate son of God still.”
“Jesus exists at the right hand of the Father and he exists there with purpose and activity.”
“When we’re in those tough situations, whether it’s dealing with our own sin or trying to help others with theirs, we’re not doing it alone. Jesus is already there before us, active and engaged.”
“Like the prayers of Paul in his epistles, already in the 2nd century, a couple generations after the apostles, you’ve got Trinitarian prayers all over the place… There is this common order that you pray to your Father, in the name of Christ your Savior, relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to do so.”
“Let’s go back to the Word of God, let’s acknowledge that there are some passages that require care and patience, but let’s also look to the passages that are clear, that are repeated, and that Christ and his apostles taught us to use in prayer and in proclaiming the gospel. And let’s interpret the more difficult passages by means of those clear more central ones, and that eventually leads to things like the writing of creeds.”
“The way holy Scripture is understood is that it is a word from God, and that God is involved in its production (inspiration), as well as God is graciously involved in helping us receive it (illumination), whether hearing or reading it.”
“The way that we talk about engaging Scripture is actually Trinitarian, it’s just low-level, it’s not technical. We go there to hear from our heavenly Father, we go there and we believe this is the voice of Christ and his apostles and prophets that he has sent out, and we go knowing that the Holy Spirit guided them and will work with them and us to open the eyes of our heart to see wonderful things in his law. Even in the way we talk about and pray about our reading and hearing and meditating on Scripture, there’s a Trinitarian shape to it.”
“Christ teaches us to address his and our Father. Christ is our prophet, among other things, not just redeemer and Savior, but also prophet and teacher. And he models as an elder brother to us, he models by grace how we can speak to our heavenly Father and we glean that we do so in the power of the Holy Spirit.”
“Basic patterns of Christian life have this shape where they’re directed at God the Father, where Christ is the one who has stepped into our midst and either provided or shown in the way in which we go, and the Spirit has actually worked in our hearts to draw us into that so it doesn’t remain outside of us, but it actually brings us inside of that room.”
“When I'm praying or reading Scripture or when I’m listening to it read in worship, I’m not the only one involved, it’s not just me and a God or me and Jesus, there is a shape of God involved all around me, before me, alongside me, and even within me.”
“The true God being involved before me and alongside me and within me means that every aspect of it has as much authority and power behind it as God’s act of creation or his act of raising Jesus from the dead, and so that gives me great confidence that real communication and learning and change can happen when I enter into prayer or when the people of God hear his Word.”
“God is freely and generously and graciously providing me with what I in no way have merited or earned or am even fit for.”
“God is love, and that’s not saying simply that God loves, but that God in his very being is love. It is God’s nature to be love. That means God is love even before there’s a world to love. Clearly it must mean that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit love each other, and there’s perfect love there in God himself. Is it surprising that the only people who believe God has that type of love in and of himself are the only religion who describe God showing love to others apart from a quid-pro-quo kind of approach where I scratch God’s back and he scratches mine? God already has love so he doesn’t need me to get it, and so he’s fully free to be gracious and to just provide forgiving saving love to me who is his enemy and ungodly, and he can be that and he is that because he’s Trinitarian - he’s got that perfect life of love and happiness already eternally in himself, and that enables him to be so remarkably liberal and free in showing his kindness to people like you and me.”
“The three persons are all there in Genesis 1 just as much as they’re all there in John 1. The works are undivided. The one God is doing his thing in salvation history from creation to new creation to the end and perfection and glory. BUT the three persons are involved in the same works in different ways.”
“J.I. Packer describes the Spirit like the floodlights that shine up on the building. They don’t draw attention to themselves; in fact you’re not well-off if you stare directly at a floodlight. But you sure can’t see anything at night if there aren’t good floodlights on that cathedral.”
“The Spirit plays that crucial role of enabling us to see and delight and receive God’s Word and all his actions.”
“The Son of God is communicative and he is constantly calling out to us, whether through the explicit words of Scripture most powerfully or through the wonderful ways brothers and sisters can exhort us every day in the give and take of life. And that’s part of the way that the Word of Christ dwells richly.”
“The Triune God works so that the Father speaks an objective word of the Son’s doing that will rightly find its place in my heart by the Spirit’s power. Because God is Trinity, God’s work of trying to communicate grace to me can be effective because he makes sure both ends of the communication are effective, by his grace.”
“Understanding how worship is Trinitarian is really one of the most beautiful ways of thinking about the goodness and depths of the gospel of grace. Jesus doesn’t just forgive me, Jesus doesn’t just wash me, but Jesus according to Hebrews, actually presents my worship to God.”
“Wholehearted devotion is really hard, because of who we are and what we bring to the table, but God delights to call us to worship week after week after week and to receive our praise, and he does it because Jesus is there mediating that worship from us to God.”
“God is cleansing our worship even now, so even my worst days… even the ones marked by distraction and outright depravity, those are washed and Christ presents them to God the Father and he’s happy to have them in Christ’s name. He’s also sanctifying me by his Spirit, he’s transforming me.”
“I can trust that I too will be able worship more faithfully, more lovingly, more gratefully than I do now, because the Spirit is at work transforming me.”
“God suggests in the Bible that any and every effort we make to fix ourselves or right ourselves or improve ourselves may be good for a season, but it will not prove to work. And God offers himself as the only way, truth, and life. This is the only true God who can save and redeem.”
“In your prayer life, take up some of the prayers of the New Testament, in particular the prayers of Paul and Peter. Start with those prayers and watch how they name Father, Son, and Spirit. How do they appear? What are they doing? What are they thanked for? What are they being asked to do? Then practice asking and thanking God for those same things in your day-to-day.”
HYMN
RESOURCES
The Trinity: An Introduction, by Scott Swain (a very accessible starter resource on the Trinity)
Crossway’s Short Studies in Systematic series
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Describe your understanding of the Trinity (if you are with a group, articulate it out loud; if you are alone, write it down).
Where do you see the Trinity explained most clearly in Scripture? Perhaps consider memorizing a few of these passages.
How does your understanding of the Trinity affect your faith? Your prayers? Your worship? Your discipleship? Your day-to-day life?
What aspect of what you have learned about the Trinity from this episode can you share with someone?
What are you going to do or implement as a result of what you’ve learned this week?
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
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