Hi friends!
Well this was our first week back from Christmas break. My break was amazing! I feel so blessed that my departure from home was so bittersweet. I am thankful that I truly love being in both Pella and Branson. The beginnings of spring semester at the Institute have been so fun!
This week we had Glenn R. Kreider, a Professor of Theological Studies from Dallas Theological Seminary speak in class on the trinity. Goodness gracious, what a blessing to dedicate our time this week to learning more about who our triune God is!
My attempt at explaining the trinity based on class notes: There is only one God. The Father, Son and Spirit are all God. The three persons of God have always existed and will always exist. They exist at the same time, not morphing from one to the other. Each member of the trinity is not accurately described as a part, but instead they are all fully God. They share all attributes and have different roles/functions. For instance God the Son (Jesus) uniquely was sent to earth as God incarnate. All roles of the Godhead have equal value.
Mallory, you don’t make sense. How can He be 3 yet one? There are no examples in all creation to perfectly describe our perfect God. There is nothing on earth like Him. There is no illustration we know of to accurately explain Him. Professor Kreider explained to us that some like to use water as a solid, liquid and vapor to explain the trinity. The problem is that water cannot perfectly and fully exist in a solid, liquid and vapor form all at the same time. As much as I try to wrap my mind around how He works the more I come to the conclusion that God is big. If I could fully understand everything about the Lord, He wouldn’t be big enough. I have faith that He will reveal to me everything that I am capable of understanding about Him and I will continue to seek that Truth found in the Bible. Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what is unseen as it says in Hebrews 11. If we could see the trinity maybe we would be missing the beauty of faith.
What difference does this make in our lives? Studying the trinity affects the way we read the Bible and the way we understand who God is. When we understand more about God we live differently. Our life is worship (a response to God for who He is; in that we respond in the way we live) so as we understand more about Him our lives are transformed. Knowing God ignites a passion. Knowing how huge and majestic God is in His great mystery grows us more in love with God and causes us to trust in Him. It also grows a passion in hearts for sharing God’s goodness with others. When we’re excited about something we want to share it with someone. We can use the Word to explain the trinity to others the best we humanly can. The trinity is a great mystery but there are pieces of it that we can put in words to help bring clarity to someone who is having trouble with its logic. It is important to understand the trinity to explain it to unbelievers as trinitarianism is something that separates Christianity from other religions.
Please let me know if you have questions. We learned so much this week about the Trinity and I would love chat more about it with you! Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day!
Marveled by God’s greatness,
Mallory :)
