THE TRINITY

Why continue to address this highly divisive issue? Can we be saved without this belief? I think so! For my first several years as a Christian, I didn’t believe in the Trinity. I hadn’t heard sermons on this doctrine; nor had I studied it. Nevertheless, I am confident that I was saved.

Why then raise this issue? Because it is a very important doctrine, one that is critical to our life in Christ and one that our Lord wants us to understand:

·       but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:8-10)

While many non-Trinitarians will acknowledge that fact that the Cross proves God’s love for us, they can only give lip-service to it. Here’s why – The Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, believe that Christ was a created Being. However, if this is true, His death fails to show God’s “love for us.” Why not? If Jesus was merely created, God could have created a hundred thousand Jesus’ in a moment, without any cost to Himself. Therefore, Jesus dying on the Cross would fail to show God’s love for us. Why not? Because it cost Him zilch, nada, not a cent!

Other non-Trinitarian groups are modalists, who believe that Jesus is no more than an appearance or a reflection of God, as when we see ourselves in the mirror. Consequently, if a mere appearance, manifestation, or a reflection of God had died for our sins, this too would fail to prove that God had loved us when “we were still sinners.”

Instead, Jesus was an actual man (and also eternal, uncreated God) who had died for us. He therefore had prayed with tears:

·       “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)

If Jesus had merely been created, the Father could have easily said, “No problem! I will just call a look-alike into existence to die for humanity’s sins.” Or the Father could have responded, “Don’t worry. You are no more than a manifestation. The Cross won’t hurt you.”

However, there was no other way than for the God-man Jesus to die on the Cross. Nothing short of this would have demonstrated God’s love for the world.

We need this demonstration of God’s love and to thoroughly grasp His love. I had been in desperate need of this. I had felt rejected and unloved by the world. After a very brief honeymoon period, I began to also feel that God didn’t love me. I was a bomb ready to explode on everyone around me. I wanted to believe in His love, but through my eyes of hatred and rejection, it felt as if He was a sadist who enjoyed watching the suffering of His tormented creations.

However, one night, as I was praying, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to the Cross. It suddenly became plain to me that if God Himself had died for my sins, even while I was His “enemy,” He could not be a sadist, but, instead, Someone who loved me beyond anything I could imagine (Ephesians 3:19). Besides, if He loved me while I was His enemy, how much more now that I have become His friend!

After this, the Trinity became alive for me.