2007-12-26 - A Glance at God

2 Timothy 2:7, "The Lord will give you understanding in everything."

Understanding the Trinity is a frustration for many Christians. The concept of a Triune God is easy enough to grasp by faith, but when we start trying to work out the particulars, things get cloudy. Things are not likely to get significantly more clear in a one-page write up, and so rather than trying to solve this great mystery, I suggest that we look at a couple of things that help us to believingly grasp and embrace our Triune God. Then I hope to look for a moment at the Holy Spirit, who Christ has given to us - guiding our conscience, ordering our prayers, and illuminating our understanding of Christ (among other things).

But first a practical look at the Trinity. The Trinity is the manifestation of the One God in three Persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Maybe the most helpful and practical way of understanding this God, and our relation to Him, is to break things down a little. We are to magnify the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - and anyone who dishonors one of the three, or exalts one of the three above the other two, is without understanding in spiritual things. From our view, we think of things in relation to each person, in the following simplified manner. We see:

The love of the Father,
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
The communion of the Holy Spirit.

That is really a bare bones explanation, but it highlights some of the attributes we experience, that seem to characterize each person in the Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit worked together in the creation: "Let us make man in our image," Genesis 1:26. They now each remain active in the life and progress of creation. The creation will come to the point of consummation in the Lord Jesus Christ, but until that point, He has sent His Spirit to show us the things of Christ. Charles Haddon Spurgeon put it well, when he said, "What God ordains, the Spirit executes. What the Son purchases, the Holy Spirit bestows."

For the sake of space, let us just look at the role of the Holy Spirit in prayer. The Holy Spirit impresses upon us a sense of our needs, and leads us to bring those needs before the Father, in the name of the Son, in prayer. There are many encouragements given to us in Scripture to pray, and the Holy Spirit draws to our hearts the relation between our needs and the promises we have in Scripture. He reminds us of the former actions of God in answering prayer, directs us what to pray, and gives us the ability - while we ask in faith - to wait for an answer, Romans 8:26, 27. He comforts the saints as we pray, and assures us that the Lord hears our prayers, "The Lord hears when I call to Him," Psalm 4:3.

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

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