Joel Russell-MacLean

 

If someone asks me, “What kind of car was that?” they are in for a disappointment. I can tell the difference between cars, trucks, and vans but not much beyond that! But then, I’ve never really cared about cars.

Now, someone who loves motorcycles might look at one and quickly recognize its make and model, and maybe tell you something about that model’s story. Someone who cares might exclaim, “Motorbike?! That’s not a ‘bike’; that’s a 1952 Vincent Black Lightning!”

Shouldn’t it be the same for Christians talking about God? Shouldn’t we be quick and comfortable to recognize God not just as an abstract, generic, ‘being’? Shouldn’t we know God as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? 

God has stepped into history and into our lives, and the God we see and hear in the scriptures and in our lives is the one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

Now there are two ditches we can fall into when we talk about the Trinity.

The one ditch is making understanding the Trinity a matter of losing favour with God. God’s love and mercy are always and only a gift from God, given before we knew anything about God. Knowing the Trinity is not a test. And it is unlikely that God would be offended if we fail to understand how God could be three in one and one in three.

However, the other ditch is saying that acknowledging the Trinity doesn’t really matter. I think we are wrong when we say, “God knows what we mean; God can sort it out. God doesn’t care if we get the names wrong.” How can we say we love God if we can’t begin to know God? And Jesus went as far as saying that knowing the Trinity was essential for life:

“This is Eternal Life,” Jesus said, “To know you.”

God went to lengths to have us know that God was Three-in-0ne and One-in-three. It is life to know the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.