You wouldn’t think a mysterious, theological thing like the Trinity could actually be so practical that it could shape your everyday experience. But it is.
This is where we get to something that could end up re-inventing everything you’ve assumed about authority, impacting you pretty much everywhere, since the whole world is filled with authority. And it drives this whole channel of the God Show. To start getting there we’re going to just accept two main conclusions about God and the Trinity, without going into a big theological study:
1. The three persons of God are One – a unity. They are equal in essence, deity and value. They are equal in eternity, holiness and righteousness. Real quick:
- Jesus said “The Lord our God is One Lord” – Mark 12
- There is no God but one…for us there is but one God – 1 Corinthians 8
- God is one – Galatians 3
- For us there is one God – 1 Timothy 2
- There is one God – James 2
- Jesus said he and the Father are one – John 10 and 17
There’s lots, lots more about God being One. Yet, at the same time, God is three distinct persons. One but three. Or one and three. Or three in one. I know I’m being imprecise but we’re also not going to be able to keep going and do a theological study on how the Bible shows the Father is God, the Son is God and the Spirit is God – that’s a whole book. When you finish that book, you say, “That’s the mystery of the Trinity.” He’s three.
Actually, to be cheesy, you could take the first three letters of “three” and the three letters of “one” and you have it – THRONE. There you go. And he’s on it.
OK, the second main thing:
2. The three persons are NOT equal in authority.
- The Father has authority over Jesus and the Holy Spirit
- Jesus is submissive to his Father and brings glory not to himself but to his Father
- Jesus has authority over the Holy Spirit, along with his Father
- The Holy Spirit is submissive to Jesus and to the Father and brings glory not to himself but to the Father and the Son
We’ll look at that a hair more in a minute, but for now stare at this: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are One and equal – but NOT equal in authority. Just let the concrete start to harden a bit on this authority within the Trinity thing, because this gets big – really big…
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More of The God Show. We’re on the authority channel. The previous post is HERE. You can find out more HERE.
The God Show is five channels (in addition to the Bible) that don't change over time or according to culture, where God's ways, invisible attributes, eternal power and divine nature are clearly perceived but often missed: 1. Nature, 2. Authority, 3. Family, 4. Marriage, 5. You. Really, he's all over the place.
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