May 10 I Wednesday

2 Kings 10-12

John 1:29-51

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”    —2 Corinthians 13:14

Of all the doctrines of Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity is a difficult one to wrap our minds around. At its simplest, the doctrine holds that there is one God, but He is made up of three distinct Beings: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Each member of the Trinity has a different identity and unique role, but all three are equally and fully God. To deny one is to deny who God is.

       We can find Scriptural proofs to defend the deity of Christ and the Holy Spirit as coequal and coeternal with the Father. The author of Hebrews states, “But about the Son He [the Father] says, ‘Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever...’” (Hebrews 1:8). The Father calls the Son, who is Jesus Christ, “God,” validating His divine identity.

       The Holy Spirit is also spoken of as being God. Acts 5 describes when Ananias and Sapphira sold a field. They kept some of the money for themselves, which they had every right to do, but the problem came when they lied by claiming they gave all the money from the sale to the church in Jerusalem. When their hypocrisy was uncovered, Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit?...You have not lied just to human beings but to God” (Acts 5:3-4). Notice that Peter equates lying to the Holy Spirit with lying to God; they are one and the same.

       Likewise, although the Holy Spirit does not have a personal name in Scripture like the Father (Jehovah) or the Son (Jesus Christ), the Holy Spirit does have titles and descriptors such as Teacher, Counsellor, Advocate and the Spirit of Truth (John 14:16-17, 26).

       These three members of the Trinity are eternally distinct from each other yet equally God, constantly working interdependently with each other to accomplish divine tasks. The fact that the Trinity exceeds our understanding should not bother us unduly. If God is God, we should expect aspects of His being and methods to be beyond the limits of our understanding. If we could fit God into a box, He would not be a very big God. God is infinite in His existence and His working, but He is also infinite in His person. There is a complexity to God’s being that is not paralleled in any part of creation, so we depend on His revelation for what we need to know of Him. The rest, for the time being, is a mystery, but what God has revealed of His being and complexity should make us want to glorify Him all the more.

Prayer: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, even though my finite mind may not completely comprehend the Trinity, allow me to rejoice and live confidently with what I do know about You. Thank You, Lord.