The Trinity and Evangelism :: By The Gospelist
When we witness to the unbeliever, it is advisable to have a firm understanding of the God that we worship. We are instructed to always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks us for a reason for the hope that is in us (I Peter 3:15).
We need a coherent doctrine of the Trinity to carry out this mandate.
We have all heard any number of descriptions of the Trinity, but few can remember them. Like the Gospel, the nature of God has been so overcomplicated that many people cannot articulate it.
Many of us have heard the Trinity described as water, ice, and steam or some other useless analogy. Others have provided pictorials, like the ones below, that are not all that helpful.
It is nearly impossible to use these renditions of the Trinity in an evangelistic fashion. They do not answer the probing questions of the unbeliever.
We need to be able to uncomplicate the Trinity so that we laymen can describe the nature of God effectively while sharing our faith with the skeptic. To do this, the doctrine of the Trinity must be viewed through the lens of the Gospel.
Like the Gospel, the Trinitarian God is not that difficult to grasp. The doctrine of the Triune God is easy to comprehend when we filter it through the understanding that Christ died for our sins.
We begin with the fact that God is love (I John 4:16). God showed his love for us by sending his Son, Jesus, to die for our sins. As evidence of his great love, he did this while we were still sinners and his enemies.
Next, the Scriptures assert that Jesus is the Word ‘of God (John 1:1)’ or the Truth of God.
Finally, The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit ‘of God’ or the Righteousness of God.
Scripture teaches us that God is love and that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are ‘of God.’
To summarize, then, God can be described as love, truth, and righteousness. God is love, Jesus is the Word ‘of God’ or the ‘Truth of God,’ and the Holy Spirit is the Righteousness ‘of God.’ The Gospel, which is the light of the world, is the purest illustration of the love, truth, and righteousness of God.
To add greater insight, man is created in the image of God, which means that we were created to reflect his image. As it states in Scripture, man is the image and glory of God (I Corinthians 11:8). We can then use this knowledge to gain a greater understanding of who God is.
When I speak, the things that I say are who I am. When Jesus speaks, the things that he says are who God is.
When I act, the things that I do are who I am. When the Holy Spirit acts, the things that he does are who God is.
God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are who God is.
Love, Truth, and Righteousness cannot be separated from one another. Those who attempt to do so are describing a different god than the one presented in the Bible.
Since God is dealing with us in our sinful condition, His primary goal is repentance. We were created to be holy and perfect, like God, but we have fallen from his grace and become sinners. In love, God opened an opportunity for our redemption so that we might be restored to perfection.
Although we will never be perfect, the faith that we receive when we believe in the Gospel is perfect. Since God has placed his perfect faith in a sinful soul, repentance is necessary so that we can remain in his perfect faith.
Repentance is crucial because it is this perfect faith that God judges, not our sinful nature. It is our pearl of great price that we treasure throughout our lives. We cannot carelessly misplace it or lose it.
As for those who reject the faith, they are not prepared to deal with the conditions that God has created here on earth.
When people face evil and hardship on this cursed planet, they often rebel because they come to believe that God is unjust. They reject the gift of faith, refuse to repent of their faithlessness, and wallow in their sin and foolishness.
As their lives become more chaotic, they harden their hearts against the Lord and turn to atheism or any one of the false religions. This only exacerbates the problem as the person is turned over to a reprobate mind.
If they do not repent, they become hateful, dishonest, and wicked. They do not reflect the nature of God; they reflect the nature of their father, the devil.
God cursed the man, woman, and the planet because this was necessary for him to achieve repentance. Although hardship can be terrible, we are at our weakest spiritually when we are having our best lives now. There is no desire to repent when things are going well.
After we repent of our own sins, we are then prepared to move on to evangelize the world.
Our primary evangelistic directive is to proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus. This proclamation reveals the love, truth, and righteousness of God.
Understanding the nature of God also allows us to see false teachers who are not of God.
Many pastors have abandoned the true Gospel and now preach what may be termed ‘the love gospel,’ which is no gospel at all. Those who preach the love gospel preach a love that is devoid of truth and righteousness.
This is not the gospel that Paul preached. It is Godless.
They prefer to preach this false gospel because they want to embrace sin under the auspices that they are loving and accepting. We see this in ‘churches’ that have a rainbow on their doorframe with the mantra, “All are welcome.”
They are not just welcoming of homosexuals; they are welcoming of their sin. They do not call rebels to repent; they take the Lord’s name in vain and tell them their sin is approved by God.
When they do this, they are spitting in the face of Christ. They are letting Jesus know that they have rejected his sacrifice on the cross and have decided that sin is understandable and acceptable.
If they had the opportunity, they would crucify Christ all over again.
When we justify sin, we harden our hearts against the Lord and lose the opportunity to repent. No one is going to repent if they believe their sin is justified. God is patient with each of us, but when his patience is exhausted, he moves to harden the sinner’s heart.
One of America’s more famous pastors has proclaimed that homosexuals have more faith than he does. He is actually correct on this count.
Homosexuals have been turned over to a reprobate mind, and so has he. And he is in even worse shape because he should know better.
When Christian music artist Amy Grant hosted a ‘gay wedding’ for her niece, those who love the Lord were astounded. If we understand the nature of God, it is easy to discern that she is in rebellion against Him. This was not done to honor God; it was done to honor his adversary.
There is no love, truth, or righteousness in a ‘gay wedding.’ This is one of the most Godless ceremonies a person can engage in. It is so devoid of Godliness that it could pass for a satanic ceremony.
When ‘pastor’ Alistair Begg encourages his congregation to attend a ‘transgender wedding,’ those who comprehend the nature of God understand this as total depravity. We should have nothing to do with such people.
When SCOTUS codified gay marriage, that was a terrible judgment of God against our faithless society. This nation (including its churches) has profaned ‘holy matrimony’ to the point that God is clearly preparing to pass terrible judgment upon it.
In none of the above cases can these instances be considered ‘love.’ Love that is devoid of truth and righteousness is something else entirely. It is wicked and nasty, and those who embrace it bring into question their salvation due to their malice against the Lord.
If the church were doing its job, all these people would have been called to repent.
A proper understanding of the nature of God is crucial to explaining one’s faith and for discernment. Otherwise, the Christian is likely to be deceived by the above false notions of ‘love.’
Finally, a proper understanding of the Trinity is also useful in distinguishing our faith from false religions.
If one examines Islam, the first thing we notice is that Allah does not have a Holy Spirit. He allows theft (Muhammads numerous raids), fornication, rape, adultery (sex slaves and multiple wives), and murder (through Jihad).
Islam cannot be included in the ‘great monotheistic religions’ as Allah is no different than the pagan gods of antiquity. He has nothing in common with the God of Abraham.
Worse still, all Muslims are appalled at the idea that God sent his only Son to die for our sins. Allah has done nothing to show his love for humanity.
To summarize once more, we know that God is one (Deuteronomy 6:4). Paul uses the example that man, who is created in the image of God, is many parts but one body.
When describing the church, which is the body of Christ, Paul stated,
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ (I Corinthians 12:12-31) …For the body does not consist of one member but many… If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.”
When we take these Scriptures into consideration, we find that God is love, Jesus is the Word of God or God’s truth, and the Holy Spirit of God is the righteousness of God.
God is one ‘body’ with three parts.
God, as he reveals himself through his Gospel, is the greatest expression of love. Jesus came to reveal the truth of God’s love by dying for our sins. And the Holy Spirit executes judgment on those who are enemies of his Gospel because they show that they despise who God is.
We now have a better starting point for witnessing to the unbeliever in a much more powerful fashion than reciting creeds or employing useless diagrams.
The Trinity and the Gospel go hand in hand, and each should be employed when sharing our faith with the unbeliever.
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