LEARN MORE
A long one from the past, but a good one that everyone needs to read at some point.In Christianity people often get confused with the doctrine of the Trinity. Even within the Assemblies of God’s fundamental truths, in which this doctrine is the second of those fundamental truths, it has the longest definition because this is the most debated and misunderstood doctrine in the Bible.
The Bible says that there is One God over and over again - Deuteronomy 6:4. Then, however, you have Jesus as the Son of God, and the obvious question many have is, “Is Jesus equal to God?” John 1:1 says that Jesus is the Word, and the Word is not only with God but is God. Then you have the Holy Spirit. He also is God. In John 14:18, Jesus says that when He leaves, He will not leave us as orphans. What is an orphan? An orphan is a person with no biological parents. Jesus is God and when the Holy Spirit comes after Him, we will not be orphans because the Holy Spirit is also God.
So, what is this all about? I have at times struggled over the years to explain this to people. Then God one day showed me a great illustration that I will share with you today. One thing we have to understand is that God is always revealing Himself to us in Scripture. You will never know all about God until you get to Heaven. If you could, then God would not be God. Until then, He wants you to always get closer and closer to Him, and as you do, He will reveal more and more of Himself to you as your RELATIONSHIP with Him deepens. God wants you to know Him. In our present state we cannot understand God fully, only when we get to Heaven in our immortal eternal bodies will we be able to fully comprehend all that God is. We will then see and realize how GREAT He really is. God takes great delight in taking you on an amazing journey to Him during this life. Enjoy that journey of getting to know God.
Here is what the Lord showed me to help us understand the Trinity in human terms. The trinity shows us how God works for us in this life. He is one God with 3 jobs and His forum where He works is in the context of a courtroom.
The Holy Spirit acts in the role of the prosecutor. The job of a prosecutor is to bring a case against someone accused of the crime who willfully broke the law. We have broken God’s laws. How do we know? James 4:17 says, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” The Holy Spirit’s job is to point out to us that we have sinned (John 16:8). This may sound mean, but it is so important. We know that we have done wrong, but like everyone, we hope that no one notices. The Holy Spirit reminds us that God does know and that there is evidence that we committed the crime. If the Holy Spirit did not do His job of being the prosecutor, then we would never deal with the fact that we did something wrong. If we never do that, then we never come to the point to realize we need to be forgiven and that we need a savior.
God, in His job as the Holy Spirit, brings us to the realization that there is a trial so that we can deal with the fact that we have not lived up to God’s standards. Without that we would never come to God, so this job is absolutely necessary for our salvation. Without it, we would not even consider the need for a Savior.
Then after God, in the role of the Holy Spirit, presents His case, He takes off His business suit and puts on the robe of Judge. God is still God. He is just now doing a different job.
God the Father is Judge. He hears all the evidence against us. He weighs the evidence and then pronounces judgment on us. He looks at us and says that we are guilty. Once again, this may sound mean, but it is necessary. We are guilty and we know it. Romans 3:23 states, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The only verdict is that we are guilty, and it is FAIR. God is always fair. We are all equal before God. There is no favoritism with God. That is the problem with the legal system in America. Many times, it comes down to who you know, or how much pity you can garner from the judge. Sometimes you run into the wrong judge who punishes you worse than you deserve. The system is inherently unfair. Most do not trust the court system because of this question, “How do I know it is fair?” However, God is fair, and there is a standard, His Word. He says that all sin is worthy of death (Romans 6:23).
Side note: There are no worse sins or deadly sins. All sins are the same and are all deadly. When someone thinks that there are degrees to sin, they begin to think that their sin is not as bad and therefore won't send them to hell if not forgiven. That is a very dangerous place to be. The fact that people automatically call certain sins deadly, infers that some sins are not. God makes no differentiation between sins. Sin is sin.
Since all sin leads to death and we all have sinned, God pronounces fairly on every single person that all are guilty. No one is innocent, Psalms 14:3. God does not acquit anyone because He has to judge by the rules that He laid down or He would not be righteous. If the Father, acting as judge, acquitted anyone, then none of His laws would mean a thing. There are no loopholes with God.
Now this may seem depressing and not a story of hope, but it is actually the opposite. Without God acting as prosecutor and judge in this manner, there would be no hope because there would be no absolute upon which anything was based. God would contradict Himself and be just like humanity. If that were so, then how could God make Heaven the way it is, as a place we want to go to? How could God then expect us to enter into a relationship with Him when trust would be a factor? How then could God actually be able to do what He said and hold everything together if He could not even hold to what He has written? These two roles are absolutely necessary for the Love of God to be true, and that brings us to the last job.
After God pronounces judgment and sentence, life forever away from Him, He takes off His judge robe and puts on street clothes. He is now acting as Jesus the Son. The Son came to be with us, Matthew 1:23. Jesus came to experience all that we go through, Hebrews 2:14-18, to show us that He understands all that we are going through. No one can come to Jesus and say that He doesn’t understand because He does. That is why He came.
In His role as Son, He approaches us, knowing that we have sinned and that we are deserving of death. He knows all of this and still chooses to approach us. He then looks at us and says that He has decided to pay for our sin. He wants you to know that He died for you on Calvary because He loves you no matter who you are, no matter what you did. He loves you “just because”. He came to save you from what you earned, to give you all that He has, which you did not earn.
That is the message of God to us. God is the one true God, but He works in three different roles to bring us face to face with His amazing love that defies explanation, and it always will, because it’s what we really want, and because God wants to love you.
Now here is the kicker. You saw God make a case against you. You then saw God judge you fairly, and then you saw that same God come down to be with you and say that He paid it all for you. You can be free because He loves you.
You have seen all of this, now the choice is up to you. Will you accept the fact that you are a sinner? Will you accept the fact that you deserve to be punished? Will you then accept what Jesus did for you?
To be saved, one must answer yes to all three of these questions.
If you don’t accept the fact that you are a sinner, you will never believe that you need a savior, because you will not think that any judgment has been entered against you.
If you accept the fact that you are sinner, but do not accept the judgment, you will try all of your life to prove that wrong, and you will never realize the fact that there is a consequence to your actions. You will never own up to it. You will live a life of denial and think that you can still go to Heaven.
The last one is where many are. They realize that they are sinners. They realize that they have been judged. They see that Jesus has offered to pay it for them, but then they decide not to take that payment. They try to then do it on their own. The problem is that they can never pay this debt on their own. The payment is their life. They think they can do good to outweigh the bad or they can do this religious thing or another. It does not work that way. At the end, your life is the payment. Jesus said He gave His life so that you don’t have to lose yours. It is an incredible deal. I wish everyone would take that deal.
This is why the concept of the Trinity is in the Bible, to show us how to be saved. This is also why when we get baptized, Jesus said this in Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Baptism is not a ritual, but it is where we tell everyone that we are on God’s side. The reason that we do it in the name of all three is to give homage to the three jobs that He does, not to three different Gods. We realize we are sinners (Holy Spirit’s job). We realize that we have a judgment against us that we deserve (Father’s job), and we realize that someone chose, despite who we were, to pay all of that debt for us (Son’s Job). Baptism says that we realize that all three of these were necessary for our salvation and that we are so glad for all three so that we could be saved!
Remember Jesus loves you, I love you, and you are awesome!
There is a great song out there called, "When God Ran", by Philips, Craig, and Dean.
It is January 2nd. We just rang in a new year yesterday. It was a great day, as we look forward to better things in 2025. We have hope for many better returns in the new year.
It is December 26th. Yesterday was Christmas and it was a wonderful time! Now it is the day after. The day when most people spend their day returning gifts to the store, returning to work, and/or traveling to return home to the same old same old.