The Trinity Complexity

How Complex Is Too Complex?

To conclude this month and our study on theology proper, I want to take this moment to say if you have not read up on our posts this month, you certainly should. We have been going through some great studies about God and have dove into some of the biggest questions that circulate around our Lord to this day, and I hope and pray that these posts have enlightened you and also encouraged you to learn as much about our creator as you can. The last topic for this week that we have been looking into has been the topic of the Trinity. Earlier this week we discussed how God can be a 3-in-1 deity and today I want to address the complexity of the Trinity, and more specifically, if the idea of the Trinity is too farfetched. Most people who would consider themselves atheists or agnostics would already admit to you that they have a hard time being convinced of a God and creator of the universe, let alone a deity that claims to be 3 beings in 1 God. This trinitarian idea and doctrine that scripture teaches us about pushes many people over the edge and is where a lot of people draw the line. “I already struggle with believing there’s a God, now you want me to believe that this God is 3 beings in 1?! Hard pass.” 

While we must admit that this trinity idea is one that scripture supports, is this too complex and we should seek to avoid it when it comes to reading the Bible? Absolutely not. Yes, the overall idea of the Trinity is complex and hard to understand, but the Word of God teaches this clearly because God wants us to know that about Him. Not only would I argue this ideal isn’t too farfetched, but I would also argue this is a necessary teaching in order to fully understand the nature of our God. The problem isn’t the complexity of the Trinity, the problem is our limited, finite minds and the refusal of pastors and teachers to teach on such a topic. As John MacArthur so beautifully puts it, “Though various historical heresies and contemporary cult groups accuse the Trinity of being an illogical doctrine derived from human philosophy, the triunity of God is neither of those things, because it is first and foremost a biblical doctrine. While it may be ultimately incomprehensible, it is not contrary to reason and logic but can be rationally explained, supported, and understood through biblical revelation.” That is exactly what we are going to look at today, how the Trinity is incomprehensible, while also being understood through biblical revelation. 

Not Knowing Is Good

First off, the idea of the Trinity being incomprehensible is probably not one that I need to spend a lot of time on because we should already be willing to admit this. As stated in our last post, there is nothing in this world that we compare the Trinity to because it is that complex and unique. Now you might be asking yourself, ‘Why would God do this? This makes it so much harder for me to understand Him!!!’, and to this, I would politely say, ‘That’s the point.’ Allow me to explain. Let’s look at Deuteronomy 29:29 “29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, so that we may follow all the words of this Law.” Right away we see that God could make the idea of Trinity comprehensible to us, but He chooses not to. The secret things belong to God, but everything we need to know in order to follow Him on this earth, He has revealed to us. I want you to recall back to the beginning of this month when we discussed how much we could really know about God. We discussed that if we knew everything about God, God wouldn’t be God. 

This overall idea comes from the fact that the Bible tells us over and over again that God has only revealed some aspects of Himself and not others. So if we understood every aspect about God, we would be calling His word a lie because His word tells us we can’t. And if God’s word is a lie, that would mean God Himself isn’t perfect. And if God Himself isn’t perfect, that would mean He isn’t God. Not only should God’s trinitarian form show us His majesty and incomprehensible mystery, but it should fill us with joy that we can’t understand Him completely because then He wouldn’t be God. Praise the Lord that when we get to spend eternity with our creator forever, we will be able to learn more and more about our God than we ever could on this side of heaven. The next time you are frustrated that you can’t fully understand the being of our Lord, remember that the incomprehensibility of our God is not just biblical, it’s necessary. The trinitarian deity that is our God is in fact impossible to comprehend, but that is indeed a good thing. 

The Mind of Christ

‘What about understanding the idea of the Trinity through scripture? Sure we can’t comprehend it, but scripture at least tells us how we can accept the idea of the Trinity right?!’ Absolutely. Perhaps no other passage in all of God’s Word explains how we can come to terms with the being of our God better than 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 “14 But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But the one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no one. 16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” How can we accept the complexity that is the Trinity? By having the mind of Christ. How do we have the mind of Christ? By having the Holy Spirit. How do we have the Holy Spirit? By the Father giving Him to us. Essentially, we can understand the Trinity….by the Trinity. 

Again, nothing that we know about God has been learned except that which He has revealed to us, so it should come as no surprise that the very way we can accept the idea of the Trinity, is by the Trinity sovereignly guiding our hearts. When you are saved through faith in Christ, you have God’s Holy Spirit from the Father Himself. It is this spirit that is alive and active in you that leads you to die to yourself every day and come alive in Christ. This doesn’t just mean dying to your desires, but also dying to your reasoning, dying to the excuses of your finite mind, and coming alive in the wisdom that God has made accessible to you through His word. Yes, from a natural human perspective, the Trinity is incomprehensible, but through the work of the Holy Spirit, we can come to accept what God has revealed to us because we have ‘the mind of Christ.’

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Sources

[1] “Access Your Bible from Anywhere.” BibleGateway.Com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 150 Versions and 50 Languages., www.biblegateway.com/. Accessed 2023.

[2] MacArthur, John & Mayhue, Richard. A Systemic Summary of Bible Truth: Biblical Doctrine. Wheaton, Crossway, 2017