What use is the Trinity?
Dear Friends,
Of course, we’d never ask the question as bluntly as this: “What use is the Trinity?” We know we’re meant to believe that God is one in being and three in persons. And we know that truth must be useful – somehow. And yet, how many of us in practice function as if the doctrine is inconvenient, embarrassing, unnecessary or irrelevant?
The truth is that, if we’re Christians, we have experienced the Trinity, even if we may not realise that’s what we’ve experienced. For instance, in Galatians 4, Paul says that, “God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts” (verse 6). Just before that he says that, “God sent his Son … to redeem those under law” (verses 4-5). We have personal experience of the Father sending his Son to die for us, and his Spirit to indwell us. That’s pretty useful!
Another thought is that God being Trinity is a corrective both to individualism, such as in the West, and also to collectivism, which we see more in the East. Against collectivism, “the Trinity implies the dignity and uniqueness of individual persons”, while against individualism, “the Trinity implies that … we are not atomistic individuals but are created for relationships” (Nancy Pearcey). Shouldn’t that have some effect on how we view our place as individual Christians in the ‘collective’ of the church?
Chris Hobbs.
Vicar.