The God We Worship... Is Triune

This is first in a series called The God We Worship.

This series will examine the attributes of God devotionally, to lead to a greater understanding not only of His attributes academically, but also practically in how it affects our lives. This article will look at God’s triunity.

For a more detailed treatment of the doctrine of the Trinity, see "A Digest on the Trinity".

Simply put, the doctrine of the Trinity states that there is one God in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Spirit. There are not three gods, only one, and there is not one person, but three. The Athanasian Creed summarises it beautifully:

It is vital to note that because God is triune, all attributes covered in this series apply equally to the Father, Son and Spirit.

In another article, I wrote about how the Trinity impacts the way we see creation. In it, I explained how the triune God is communicative within Himself, as the Father communicates to the Son and the Son to the Father, all in the Holy Spirit. This diversity-in-unity accounts for the diversity-in-unity that creation exudes as a mirror to the triune Creator. It also allows for God to communicate to His creatures with no change in Himself, for He has always been communicative. It ensures that God in Himself is so maximally alive and dynamic that He can create freely out of the abundance that is His own life. When we focus on the fact that God did not need to create us, we are humbled by the fact that He did anyway.

Yet God’s work did not stop at creation – that He freely created is not even as wondrous as the fact that He freely decided to redeem His fallen creation. Bavinck puts it this way:

The essence of the Christian religion consists in the reality that the creation of the Father, ruined by sin, is restored in the death of the Son of God and recreated by the grace of the Holy Spirit into a kingdom of God.[1]

Our salvation is Trinitarian because the God of our salvation is triune. We were freely created by the Father through the Son in the Spirit in His desire to share the abundant divine life with creatures. Yet, we commit cosmic treason and remain the only creature that stands in rebellion and disobedience to God; the trees continue to bear fruit according to His command and the stars continue to stay their place according to His order. However, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16), as promised by the prophets in the Spirit (2 Pet 1:21).

The Father purposed to give His Son a people and the Son purposed to receive this people by redeeming them from bondage to sin. The Spirit purposed to bring this redemption down from the single cross to the many hearts of this people.

The Father elected us (Eph 1:4), the Son atoned for us (John 10:11), the Spirit calls us to faith and repentance (John 3:8). There is one goal of the one God who is three: to redeem from fallen creation a people for Himself. The only difference between me and an unbeliever lies in the triune God desiring to save me from sin and make me a new creation to His glory.

Just as our salvation came from the Father through the Son in the Spirit, so our worship goes in the Spirit through the Son to the Father. Whether we pray, sing, serve or live, we do it in the power of the Spirit through the mediation of the Son as an offering to the Father.

Our worship is Trinitarian because we look to the triune God and worship Him for what He has done. We praise the Father for electing us and setting His love on us before the foundations of the world. We praise the Son for uniting to Himself a fully human nature to offer a vicarious obedience for us and to die the death we deserved. We praise the Spirit for sovereignly calling us by recreating in us a new heart to love the Son and rest on Him in faith.

Our whole Christian life then, is simply communion with the Trinity. We as believers are brought into the communion the Father, Son and Spirit have from all eternity. Through His Son whom He delights in, the Father delights in us. Through the Son our Elder Brother, we rejoice in the law of our Father and seek to obey it. In the Spirit our Helper, we are given new eyes to behold the glory of God and love it.

What a day it will be, when we shall rise to be our Lord and our God! The whole earth shall be roused to add its voice to the angel song, singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD God Almighty!” And we, as a redeemed humanity, shall stand at the head of a redeemed creation, leading all creatures of our God and King in praising the triune God who is above us, among us and within us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,

Praise Him all creatures here below!

Praise Him above ye heav’nly hosts,

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost!

[1] Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 1.112.