Why’s The Trinity So Important?
A friend of mine has a blog (www.contend4thefaith.org) and has started a discussion of church doctrine and tradition. His first and most recent post deals with the Trinity, something we don’t talk a lot about in church. We affirm it and accept it, but do we think about it? Is it important to us? The early church fought vehemently over this teaching! They realized how important this doctrine was and it is something that we think so little about.
But why is the Trinity so important? Why is this doctrine essential to us? For a couple of reasons, first it is the only doctrine which is consistent with the Biblical witness. For example, when Jesus was baptized he ascends from the water, the Father’s voice calls down from heaven and the Spirit descends on him as a dove (Luke 3:21-22). This is worth noting for it is the Spirit that enables Christ’s ministry (Luke 4:18-21)and it is the same Spirit that enables the believers’ ministry (Acts 1:8). Without the differentiation between the Son and the Spirit who would come and enable us to do “greater works than these (John 14:12).”
There is another differentiation which is needed. The Son and the Father must be held as one yet separate. As Christ prays in the garden, “Not my will but yours be done (Luke 22:42),” he is pleading with the Father for himself. This is not to say that Christ went to the cross unwilling – he was willing. But, he was willing to submit to the Father’s will. This is important because it was the Father’s will and in many senses the debt was owed to the Father. This debt must be paid, supposedly by the debtor (read as “sinner”), yet humanity was unable to pay this debt. God had to pay the debt but God was owed the debt, this meant a second personage in the Trinity was required to satisfy this debt to the Father. This is where the role of the Son shines out, not that he was made for this purpose (for he has existed from the beginning of time). This is the pinnacle of the Son’s roles throughout eternity, it is the climax of God’s divine mystery. The Trinity is so important because enables substitutionary atonement and the Christian faith.-
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