On a cold and clear winter night, a little boy named Doug put on his pajamas, brushed his teeth, and hopped into his bed. When his mother came to tuck him in, she noticed him starring out the window. As he gazed up at the glittering stars and the big yellow ball glowing in the sky, he asked, “Mom, is God in the moon?” She did her best to explain that God is everywhere. “Is God in my tummy?” Doug wanted to know. “Well, sort of,” she responded, not sure where these questions were leading. Then Doug declared, “God wants a banana.”  

            Have you ever tried to explain a biblical doctrine to a young child? It is always a bit tricky trying to translate complex theological concepts into simple words and images that kids can understand (actually, this is necessary for most adults too). So allow me to share with you my most concise definition of God’s omnipresence: the doctrine of God’s omnipresence refers to his uniquely divine ability to be present everywhere simultaneously.

            God does not have size or spatial dimensions but he is present everywhere in his creation with his whole being. The fact that God is the Lord of space and cannot be limited by space is evident from the fact that he is the one who created space. (Genesis 1:1) In today’s sermon, we will consider three biblical passages that help us reflect on God’s attribute of divine omnipresence.

 

God Cannot Be Put in a Box (I Kings 8:22-27)

            Most of you have probably heard the phrase, “You can’t put God in a box” which today commonly means that we cannot limit God by human efforts or understanding. King Solomon made this same point about God’s omnipresence way back in I Kings 8:25-27 when he delivered a powerful prayer to dedicate the newly constructed temple in Jerusalem. Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in front of the whole assembly of Israel, spread out his hands toward heaven and said:

                        Now LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant David my father the promises you made to him when you said, ‘You shall never fail to have a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, if only your sons are careful in all they do to walk  before me as you have done.’ And now, O God of Israel, let your word that you promised your servant David my father come true. But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!

            Solomon knew that, even though he had completed the temple and that God’s presence would fill it and the people of Israel would come there to worship, God’s presence could not be bound by a physical structure of wood and metal. He argues that if the “highest heaven” cannot contain God, there is no way that a man-made box can do it. God is omnipresent!

                Unfortunately, many people today, even some Christians, have not adopted Solomon’s theology. They deny the doctrine of God’s omnipresence by trying to limit God to working only in certain places, times, people, or ways. If we try to contain God’s activity inside the four walls of the church building, our formats for worship, or our religious calendars, we have understood nothing of his true nature. Now don’t misunderstand me, there is nothing wrong with having or using any of these things. As a matter of fact, a church building is quite prudent for having a common place for people to gather for worship, weddings, funerals, fellowship, and ministry, but we must never limit God’s work to a specific physical location. God’s presence is not in an ornate cathedral or beautiful basilica any more than it is in a thatched-roofed hut.

            C.S. Lewis, in his book Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer,  makes a similar point when he says, “It is well to have specifically holy places, and things, and days, for, without these focal points or reminders, the belief that all is holy and “big with God” will soon dwindle into a mere sentiment. But if these holy places, things, and days cease to remind us, if they obliterate our awareness that all ground is holy and every bush a Burning Bush, then the hallows begin to do harm.”

            You see, God is omnipresent, and therefore, he cannot be put in a box!

 

God’s Omnipresence Consoles and Reassure Us (Psalm 139:7-16)

            Similarly to God’s omniscience, the doctrine of God’s omnipresence has both encouraging and alarming ramifications for our lives. On the encouraging side, the fact that God’s presence is always with us consoles and reassures us in our times of need. In Psalm 139:7-16, King David praises God for his personal presence in his life no matter where he goes:

            Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

            David asserts that God’s presence will guide him and hold him and will be his light when he goes through time of darkness. God created David in his mother’s womb; his presence was there when David was woven together in that secret place. Even before David was born, God’s presence was with him and planned all the days of his life.

            Just like King David, God’s presence was there when you were created. Even though your mother and father did their part, God is the one who ultimately created you! His presence was there in your mother’s womb! He knit your inmost being together in that secret place! He wove your unformed body together in the depths of the earth! And he has ordained all the days of your life before you were even born! God’s presence has always been with you, even when you didn’t know it!

            And God’s presence is still with you today. He is there to hold you when you experience the pain of hurt feelings and broken relationships! He is there to guide you when you lose your job and you don’t know how you are going to make ends meet! He is there to console you when you lose someone close to you! He is there to reassure you when you feel something wrong in your body and when the doctor says “it might be cancer!” God is omnipresent, and therefore, he is always with you, no matter what you face!   

            And if you ever have doubts about God’s presence in your life, just think about how God preserved Noah as the ark floated upon the floodwaters! Just think about how God bolstered Moses’ bravery at the burning bush! Just think about how God liberated Daniel from danger in the lion’s den! Just think about how God delivered Daniel’s three friends from the flames of the fiery furnace! Just think about how God preserved the Apostle Paul through perilous persecutions in prison! And just think about how God’s presence sustained Jesus Christ as the soldiers nailed his hands and feet to the cross! God’s presence was with every one of them and he is with us today!

 

God’s Omnipresence Keeps Us on Our Toes (Amos 9:1-4)

            Well, God’s omnipresence certainly consoles and reassures us in times of need, but it also keeps us on our toes (spiritually speaking)!

            A burglar broke into a certain house and things seemed to be going well for him. He was able to get in without setting off any alarms, and he didn’t hear anybody stirring in the house. After surveying it, he thought there was no one there. As he went about his business of ransacking the house, he was startled when he heard a voice say, “Jesus is watching you.” The burglar was quite surprised to discover that the voice was coming from a parrot that was caged in the kitchen. He thought it was strange that a parrot would talk about Jesus, but he just went about his business when he realized it was only a parrot.

            The parrot said again, “Jesus is watching you.” The burglar was a little bothered by that. His conscience began to bother him, but he went on about his business. The parrot said again, “Jesus is watching you.” This happened about four or five times and the burglar was just trying to ignore it, when all of a sudden the parrot said, “Sic ’em, Jesus,” and he turned around to be face to face with a big Doberman lunging at him.

            Yes, Jesus is always watching us! God’s omnipresence should keep us on our toes!

            This is the exact point that God was making to the Northern Kingdom of Israel through the prophet Amos in the mid-700’s B.C. In Amos 9:1-4, the prophet proclaimed:

                        I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said: “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Bring them down on the heads of all the people; those who are left I will kill with the sword. Not one will get away, none will escape. Though they dig down to the depths of hell, from there my hand will take them. Though they climb up to the heavens, from there I will bring them down. Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, there I will hunt them down and seize them. Though they hide from me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them. Though they are driven into exile by their enemies, there I will command the sword to slay them. I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good.”

            God was present to witnessed first-hand the habitual spiritual corruption, unashamedly sinful attitudes, and systemic moral decay of the Northern Kingdom and he had finally had enough of it. He used Amos to prophesy about the coming Assyrian Exile that would eventually overtake Israel in 722 B.C. On that dreadful day, no one would be able to escape God’s judgment. Whether the Israelites tried to climb their way to heaven, dig their way to hell, or hide on the mountain peaks, God’s presence would be there to cut them down.

            You would think that Amos’ preaching and prophesying would have been enough to make the Israelites stop and think about what they were doing. You would think that a warning like this would make them repent from their wicked ways and renew their faith in God. You would think that this exposition on God’s omnipresence would be enough to keep them on their toes. How about for us? 

            John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, drives this home in his powerful sermon On the Omnipresence of God:

                        If you believe that God is about your bed, and about your path, and spies out all your ways, then take care not to do the least thing, not to speak the least word, not to indulge the least thought, which you have reason to think would offend him. Suppose that a messenger of God, an angel, be now standing at your right hand, and fixing his eyes upon you, would you not take care to abstain from every word or action that you knew would offend him? Yea, suppose one of your mortal fellow-servants, suppose only a holy man stood by you, would you not be extremely cautious how you conducted yourself, both in word and action? How much more cautious ought you to be when you know that not a holy man, not an angel of God, but God himself, the Holy One “that inhabits eternity,” is inspecting your heart, your tongue, your hand, every moment; and that he himself will surely bring you into judgment for all you think, speak, and act!

            If you really believed in God’s omnipresence, how would it change what you do?

            Well, is God in the moon? Absolutely! Is God in our tummy? You bet he is! Does God want a banana? No, Doug, he just wants you to go to sleep!

            God is everywhere! We cannot confine him to a box, but his omnipresence does console and reassure us in times of need and keeps us on our toes through life!

            There are a lot of people who think that they know it all, but God is the only one real know-it-all!

            A preschool teacher watched as a three year girl sketched something on her paper. “What are you drawing?” she asked. “I’m drawing a picture of God,” was the little girl’s reply. “Oh, you can’t do that,” the teacher said, “Nobody knows what God looks like.” Without looking up, the girl answered, “Well, they will now.”

            One day, a little boy asked his mother, “Is God a boy or a girl?” The mother replied, “Well dear, he’s not really a boy or a girl.” The boy considered this for awhile and then asked, “Is God black or white?” The mother answered, “Well dear, he’s kind of both races.” The boy thought about this for a long time. Then he asked, “Mother, is God Michael Jackson?”

            Have you ever wondered what God looks like? I suspect that most of you have. What types of ideas and images enter your mind? If you have seen some of the great religious paintings from the high renaissance, you know that God is usually depicted as an elderly man with large muscular form, long white hair and a matching white beard, draped in a white cloak with a stern look on his face. That is how God appears in Michelangelo’s famous fresco The Creation of Adam, which adorns the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Or if you have ever seen the movie Bruce Almighty, you might think that God bears a remarkable resemblance to the actor Morgan Freeman. Or if you have ever read William Young’s novel The Shack, you might think that God the Father looks like an overweight African-American woman named “Papa.” But does God actually look like any of these?

            The reality is that no one knows what God looks like! The Bible never presents us with a physical description of God. Why not? Simply put, because God is Spirit! God’s very nature and essence is spiritual. Even though he is a living and personal being, he is an immaterial substance and therefore is invisible. In today’s sermon, we will reflect on the spirituality of God and consider some implications of it for our lives.

 

God is Spirit (John 4:1-26)

            The clearest biblical statement of God’s spiritual essence is found in the well-known story of Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well in John 4. Now Jesus needed to travel north from the region of Judea to Galilee, but instead of taking the normal route around Samaria (which most Jews did to perpetuate their prejudice against the mixed race Samaritans), he went straight through Samaria.

            When he came to the town of Sychar, he rested by Jacob’s well. He was tired and thirsty from walking in the heat of the day. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well, Jesus broke the racial and gender barriers of Jews not speaking to Samaritans and men not speaking to women by asking the woman for a drink. The woman was startled by Jesus’ forthright neglect of social customs and this precipitated a conversation about Jesus’ identity. His offer of living water represents spiritual life. Moreover, Jesus reveals the fact that he knows that she has had five husbands and that the man she was currently living with was not her husband. (I would love to have seen the look on her face when Jesus when Jesus said this.)

            The woman immediately recognized that Jesus was a prophet and she was willing to hear what he had to say. Jesus had worked the conversation around to spiritual things and was responding to the woman’s comment about where people ought to worship:

             “Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers” (John 4:21-23).

            Jesus was telling her that true worship of God does not require a person to be physically present in Jerusalem or Samaria, for true worship has nothing to do with physical location, but it has everything to do with one’s inner spiritual condition. Unless a person comes to the knowledge of the truth about God and his/her spirit is regenerated, it is impossible to worship God. It was at that point in the conversation that Jesus said something about God which had never been clearly stated before. The truth was apparent from what had been revealed in the Old Testament, but it had never been put into plain words. “God is spirit,” he declared, “and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

            God is spirit. There is no article in the Greek text before the word “spirit,” and that emphasizes the quality or essence of the word. Furthermore, the word “spirit” occurs first in the sentence for emphasis. Jesus did not leave any doubt about this truth. God is spirit! But what does that mean?

 

1.) God Is Immaterial

            First, it means that God is immaterial—he does not have a body. Jesus reaffirmed that fact to his frightened disciples shortly after the resurrection. When he entered the room in his glorified body, they thought they had seen a spirit. He calmed them by saying, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39). Spirits do not have bodies.

            This may seem to be a problem, however, since Scripture does refer to God at times as though he has a body. For example, it mentions his hand and his ear (Isaiah 59:1), his eye (2 Chronicles 16:9), and his mouth (Matthew 4:4). Theologians call these “anthropomorphisms,” a word meaning “human form.” They are symbolic representations used to make God’s actions more understandable to our finite minds. But God has no material substance and he is not dependent on any material thing. He dwells in the realm of spirit.

            That has some pertinent implications for our lives. If we know, love, and serve a God who does not have material substance, it should diminish our obsession with material things. And that would make us different from the people around us, wouldn’t it? We live in a culture that continually tries to feed its desire for the things money can buy and the security money can provide. But yesterday’s luxuries become today’s necessities! And the more we get, the less it satisfies. If we ever get everything we want, we will find that none of it brings any real contentment! Are you still searching for contentment in material things or have you embraced God’s spirituality?

2.) God is Invisible

          Spirits are not seen—we cannot even see a human spirit. The most intimate of friends cannot see each other’s spirit and none of us can see God. The Apostle Paul called Him “the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), and “the King eternal, immortal, invisible” (1 Timothy 1:17).

John assured us that “no man has seen God at any time” (John 1:18). Mortal men have seen visible manifestations which God used to reveal Himself to them and to communicate with them, as when God the Son took human form in a Bethlehem manger. But they have never seen Him fully in His spiritual being. There is no way they could. Spirits are invisible.

Rather than creeping us out, this can be a very comforting truth. Because God is invisible, not only can we know him, but we can know him apart from our physical senses. We do not have to see him or feel him to know him. We have spirits too, you see. God is spirit, but we have spirits housed within our physical bodies. And when our spirits are made alive toward God through the new birth, we have the capacity to commune with him in our spirits, anytime, anywhere, and under any circumstances.

            It can be difficult for us to grasp this truth since our spirits live in physical bodies and our physical bodies inhabit a physical universe. Our preoccupation with the physical makes us try to put our relationship with God into that same realm. We want to be inspired to worship him by lavish cathedrals, great art, pleasant sounds, lovely aromas, and beautifully worded liturgies. Our human nature cries out for religious symbols, images, and pictures to help us create a mood for worship. We think we have to be in a church building and follow certain prescribed procedures. But God says, “You cannot reduce me to physical things that can be experienced with your senses. I dwell in the realm of spirit and that is where I want to meet with you.”

            Physical things may help direct our attention to God, particularly things he has made. But we meet with him in our spirits. We can enjoy him riding to work in the car, pushing the vacuum cleaner through the living room, walking from one class to another, (watching a New England Patriots’ game), or anywhere else. We can know him and enjoy him in the spiritual realm, apart from the physical senses.

 

3.) God is Alive and Personal

            It is quite obvious that a spirit is alive. Our God is not an inanimate object, like a pagan idol with a mouth that cannot speak, eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear, and hands that cannot accomplish anything (cf. Psalm 115:4-7). He is alive. The very word “spirit” also means “breath,” and breath is the evidence of life. Throughout Scripture He is called the living God (e.g. Joshua 3:10; Psalm 84:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:9). But a spirit is also a person, not an impersonal force which acts without purpose or reason.

            God also has the basic characteristics of personality—intellect, emotions, and will. He thinks, feels, and acts. And that is good news. Because he is a living person we can get to know him personally and communicate with him freely. If he was an inanimate object or an impersonal force there would be no hope of a personal relationship with him.

            Do you have a personal relationship with the living God? Has your spirit been regenerated so that you can interact with God, who is spirit? Do you love, worship, pray, and serve him with your spirit?

            God is spirit—that is why he must be worshiped in spirit and truth! Our worship of God does not depend on external, material, or physical things because it takes place internally in the spiritual part of our being. Worship is not primarily a matter of physical location, surroundings, form, ritual, liturgy, or ceremony. It is not a matter of creating a certain kind of mood or atmosphere or playing a certain type of music. It is a matter of spirit. Worship is the response of our spirits to God’s revelation of himself. God is spirit, may we worship him in spirit and truth together!

(Some of the material for this sermon was taken from Richard L. Strauss’ excellent sermon God is Spirit which was published on May 18, 2004 at https://bible.org/seriespage/god-spirit)

            In his letter to James Smith on December 8, 1822, Thomas Jefferson, wrote: The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God, like another Cerberus [the multi-headed dog that guards the gate to hell in Roman mythology], with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs. The Athanasian paradox that one is three and three but one, is so incomprehensible to the human mind, that no candid man can say he has any idea of it, and how can he believe what presents no idea? He who thinks he does, only deceives himself He proves, also, that man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without a rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm of reason, and the mind becomes a wreck (Works, Vol. iv., p. 360).”

            Thomas Jefferson was one of the America’s Founding Fathers, the chief author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third President of our nation, but contrary to popular opinion, he was not a Christian. He was what we call a “deistic Unitarian.” He believed that there was one true God who created the universe, but he denied the doctrines of the Trinity and the deity of Jesus Christ, and disbelieved that God is personally involved with his creation. Now Jefferson was correct when he said that the doctrine of the Trinity had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands of martyrs and that it is incomprehensible to the human mind, but he was wrong when he said that no candid man can say he has any idea of it! No one can fully understand the mystery of God being one and three at the same time, but the Holy Scriptures do testify to its reality and truth.

            Even though the Bible never uses the term “Trinity,” the concept that God is a unified plurality and eternally existent in the three distinct persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is perfectly clear. In today’s sermon, I would like to present a thumbnail sketch of the Bible’s affirmation of the Trinity and its significance for our spiritual lives today.

 

God: A Unified Plurality in the Old Testament

            Although the great emphasis of the Old Testament is on the unity of God, there are hints of a plurality in the Godhead and suggestions that this plurality is a Trinity. As the Bible begins to unfold in the Book of Genesis, we find an interesting repetition of God referring to himself plural personal pronouns. Let me highlight three places for you:

            Genesis 1:26- Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

            Genesis 3:22- And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

            Genesis 11:7- “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

            These three references, and others like it, certainly imply that God is a plurality. When the Old Testament uses the general name for God (Elohim), is it usually a reference to God the Father. “The Spirit of God” which is used throughout the Old Testament, obviously refers to the Holy Spirit. And when we see the oft-reoccurring phrase “the angel of the Lord, most biblical scholars believe it is a reference to the pre-incarnate second person of the Trinity. His appearances in the Old Testament foreshadow his coming in the flesh. In light of all of these hints, it is fair to conclude with theologian Louis Berkhof that, “The Old Testament contains a clear anticipation of the fuller revelation of the Trinity in the New Testament.”

 

God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the New Testament

            As God continued to unfold his plan of redemption in history, the pivotal moment arrived at the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All of the hints to God’s triune nature in the Old Testament are fully revealed in the New Testament, beginning with Christmas. God the Father’s plan to send God the Son to the earth in human form was accomplished through the overshadowing and conception by the Holy Spirit. And throughout the gospels, which reveal the life of Jesus Christ, each of the three persons of the Godhead are seen carrying out their unified yet distinctive divine roles. It would be impossible to discuss every biblical passage that displays these divine roles, but I would like to briefly highlight four New Testament passages where we see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same time as co-equals.

            The first place where we see the three persons of the Godhead together is a Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3:13-17. Right before Jesus launched his public ministry, he went to the Jordan River to be baptized by his cousin John the Baptist. As he emerged from the water, two miracles occurred. The Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form a dove and lightning and the Father spoke the infamous words, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” All three persons participate in the baptism in preparation for God’s redemptive plan to be accomplished.

            Furthermore, at the end of Jesus’ ministry, after he was resurrected from the dead, he commissioned his disciples to carry-on his work in the world. In Matthew 28:19-20, he told them to “go and make disciples of all nations and to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This baptismal formula was not coincidental, but Jesus wanted the Trinitarian expression to be a central part of his ongoing work in the world. The very names “Father” and “Son,” draw as they are from the family, the most fundamental of human institutions, indicate very strongly the distinct persons of both the Father and the Son. When the “Holy Spirit” is put in the same expression and on the same level as the other two persons, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the Holy Spirit is also viewed as a person and of equal standing with the Father and the Son.

            And finally, the introductory paragraphs of Paul’s epistle to the Romans and Peter’s first epistle, these two chief apostles mention all three persons of the Godhead as co-equals but having different roles:

            Romans 1:1-4- Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God–2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

            1 Peter 1:2– Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

            Even though the term “Trinity” is never used in Scripture, it is virtually impossible to read the whole Bible in context and deny the Holy Trinity. Ever since the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 right up until our modern day, the Trinity has been the chief doctrine to determine a person’s or church’s orthodoxy. This is why groups like the Unitarians and Jehovah’s Witnesses, which deny the Trinity, are not considered as true Christians.

The Significance of the Trinity

            But even after hearing the biblical evidence for the triune nature of God, some of you may still be wondering why the early church was so concerned about the doctrine of the Trinity? Or you may be thinking, “Well, I affirm the doctrine of the Trinity, but I am not sure what difference it makes in my spiritual life today?” Allow me to answer these questions by highlighting two significant applications of this doctrine.

 

1.) The Prerequisite for Atonement

            First, the Trinity fulfills the prerequisite for the atonement! Or let me put it this way, if Jesus Christ is merely a created being and is not fully God, it would have been impossible for him to live a life of sinless perfection. And if Jesus did not live a sinless life, then he is no different from the rest of us; he would be a sinner like you and me. And if Jesus is a sinner like us, he could not bear the full wrath of God and his death on the cross could not provide atonement for our sins. And if Jesus’ death did not pay the penalty for our sins, then we are still dead in our trespasses and sins and are condemned to hell!

            So then, why is the doctrine of the Trinity so important? Because our very salvation depends upon it!

 

2.) The Model for Relationships

            Second, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity provides the model for human relationships. Because God himself has both unity and diversity, it is not surprising that unity and diversity is reflected in the human relationships he has established. We see this in marriage. When God created humans in his own image, “male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). In marriage, a man and a woman remain distinct individuals, yet they are unified in body, mind, and spirit.

            Likewise, the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Godhead provides the perfect model for how we are to relate to one another. The three persons of the Godhead relate to one another in perfect love, equal respect, and mutual submission. There is no foolish pride, egotistic expectations, or selfishness desires. There is no arguing, bickering, or hurting each others’ feelings. They are always willing to sacrifice for the others.

            There is not a single one of us who doesn’t have conflict in our relationships with other people. We bear the pain of miscommunication, broken expectations, and wounded emotions, but the Trinity gives us the model for the way relationships are supposed to be. Wouldn’t you like for your relationship with your family and friends to look like the relationship that exists between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

            Allow me to conclude by praising the Triune God with the words of Saint Gregory the Greats’ sixth century hymn Father, We Praise Thee:

Father, we praise thee, now the night is over;

active and watchful, stand we all before thee;

singing, we offer prayer and meditation;

thus we adore thee.

 

Monarch of all things, fit us for thy mansions;

banish our weakness, health and wholeness sending;

bring us to heaven, with thy saints united;

joy without ending.

 

All-holy Father, Son, and equal Spirit,

Trinity blessed, send us thy salvation;

thine is the glory, gleaming and resounding

through all creation.

We all believe in one true God,
Who created earth and heaven,
The Father, who to us in love
Hath the right of children given.
He both soul and body feedeth,
All we need He doth provide us;
He through snares and perils leadeth,
Watching that no harm betide us.
He careth for us day and night,
All things are governed by His might.