Month: April 2025

TADB 134: The Gospel Reveals the Trinity (2)

We have examined how the gospel message requires a new concept of deity:  The Trinity. Although the word “trinity” is not used in Scripture, the claim that God is a singular plural is undeniable. With the incarnation of Jesus, Scripture presents a person who is totally God and totally man without compromising either. Not understanding it does not make it untrue!

All the initial disciples struggled to replace their preconceived ideas of who Jesus was with the one he was revealing himself to be. John, writing his Gospel some sixty years after Christ’s ascension, presents Jesus as the one and only incarnate God-man.    

In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God (John 1:1-2).

In the opening verses, John refers to Christ as the eternal Word. He then records nine other titles given to Jesus in his first chapter.

  • The Word. Verse 1: “In the beginning was the Word.”
  • God. Verse 1: “And the Word was God.”
  • Light. Verse 9: “The true light . . . was coming into the world.”
  • Jesus Christ. Verse 17: “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
  • Lamb of God. Verse 29: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
  • Rabbi. Verse 38: “And they said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which means Teacher), where are you staying?”
  • Messiah. Verse 41: “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).
  • Son of God. Verse 49: “You are the Son of God!”
  • King of Israel. Verse 49: “You are the King of Israel!”
  • Son of Man. Verse 51: “You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Jesus preferred to call himself the Son of Man, referring to his humanity and his claim to be the Messiah (Daniel 7). The New Testament authors, however, preferred the Son of God.

The names Messiah (Christ), Anointed One, and Son of Man all referred to the long-expected deliverer and king whom the Jews were looking for. However, the Jewish expectations regarding their Messiah did not include a claim to deity. The title Son of God most embodies Jesus’ claim to deity. To understand this more fully, we need to look at two terms: “Son of God” and “only begotten.”

Son of God

The title “son of God” has multiple meanings throughout Scripture and does not always refer to a deity.

  • Humanity as sons/children of God

Looking at Jesus’ genealogy, as given by Luke, Adam is called the son of God, implying that all of humanity can claim to be God’s sons or children since we all came from Adam.

  • God’s Covenant People: Israel as God’s Son

When Yahweh threatens to kill Pharaoh’s firstborn, he identifies Israel as his firstborn son (Exodus 4:22-23).

  • At various places, angels are called “sons of God” (Job 1:6, 38:7).

The Son of God is God the Son

One of the critical debates in the first centuries following the birth of Christianity was the meaning of Jesus as the Son of God. It took several church councils to work through and codify the meaning as referring to deity. 

The Jews expected their Messiah to be a unique figure like Elijah, but deity was unexpected and even resisted. Jesus’ claim of Messiah was complicated by his additional claim of equality with God the Father. In the familiar John 3:16, Jesus introduces the modifier “only begotten.”  Some translations use “one and only Son” or “only Son” as their description.

Begotten (begat, beget) usually refers to a child who shares the exact nature of his father. By using this term in John 3:16, Jesus says he shares the exact divine nature as the Father, the same substance. When you beget something, it is of the same kind as yourself. However, when you make something, it is of a different substance than yourself. So, we make a bookcase, and we begat children.

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis whimsically illustrates this point: When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little beavers and a bird begets eggs, which turn into little birds. But when you make, you make something different from yourself.

Modern translations use the word “fathered” for the awkward word begotten, but it carries the same meaning as “the same kind” as opposed to “make” or “create.” God created (made) man in his own image but not from the same “substance” as God himself. Humans were made, not begotten. But ever since God made the first couple, the rest of us are begotten!

And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth.  (Genesis 5:3 KJV)

Jesus, on the other hand, was begotten, not made. Due to the confusion surrounding the term Son of God, some suggest using God the Son to complement the terms God the Father and God the Spirit, thus clarifying the Trinity.

We should not be indifferent regarding what people believe about the nature of Jesus, the Son of God. The Ligonier survey mentioned in the previous blog should warn that an increasing number of people in our churches, let alone the population at large, have an inadequate understanding of the Jesus of the gospel. Those people are more aligned with Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, Muslims, and Hindus than with the Christian faith of the Bible. In the fourth century, the 73% of our church audience that believes Jesus was created by God would have been excommunicated or certainly never baptized. 

A case study

A recent article by Suraj Nepali, a missionary to Hindu students, asks the question, “Why would Hindus become Christians if they already believe in Jesus? He then relates a typical conversation with a Hindu student. 1

SN: “Do you believe in Jesus?

HS: “Yes, I do.”

SN: “Do you believe in Jesus’ death for the sins of all human beings?

HS: “Yes, I do believe Jesus died for our sins.”

SN: “Do you believe Jesus rose again from the dead?”

HS: “Yes, I do believe that Jesus rose again from the dead. This is what the Bible says.”

Suraj goes on to say, “This man talks as you would expect a person to talk who professes Christ as their Lord and Savior. But he is still a Hindu. He still believes in all the other gods as well. In Hinduism, there is a god for every aspect of life. Jesus is just the god for the forgiveness of sins.”

This Hindu student sounds a lot like many “evangelicals” mentioned earlier who believe in Jesus but not the Jesus revealed in Scripture. Could the lack of discipleship and transformation of people within our churches be somehow connected to this misconception of the nature of Christ? Does the gospel we present contribute to or clarify this caricature of Christ?

In the next blog, we will examine how the gospel reveals the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.

1. The Gospel Coalition TGC, Why Would Hindus Become Christians if They Already Believe in Jesus?

16/07/2024, Suraj Nepali

TADB 133: The Gospel Reveals the Trinity (1)

In the first-century world, the gospel was a message not readily accepted by either Jews or Gentiles. Paul writes, “Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:21-22).

In his book 30 Years that Changed the World, Michael Green identifies “bridges and ditches” that the Jewish and Greek cultures brought to the spread of the gospel. The Roman Road system, Jewish monotheism, and the Greek translation of the Old Testament are “bridges” that enhanced the spread of the gospel message.    

However, ” ditches ” also served as obstacles to the spread of the gospel. A major “ditch” to both Jews and Greeks was the concept of the Trinity:  God being both singular and plural. For Jesus to claim he was a new kingdom Messiah rather than a political deliverer was hard enough. But his claim to be equal with God was a bridge too far for the Jews and others as well.

The Gentile Roman polytheistic culture found it challenging to accept the claim that there was just one God (monotheism versus polytheism), but at the same time, they were told that this one God is also plural:  one God, yet three persons. It is no wonder that the trinitarian view of God took several centuries to hammer out.

One reason God’s nature as a singular plural is complex to comprehend is that nothing in our natural world exactly compares. We can illustrate the idea of the Trinity with water, which exists in three different forms: gas, liquid, and solid, but all our illustrations fall far short of the reality of God as one yet three.

The initial and most difficult step to accepting God’s plurality was the incarnation of Jesus. The claim that Jesus was God and man without compromising either has been denied, doubted, debated, and fought over since the first century. The debate creates heretics and reformers. Yet, the incarnation is the essential starting point for any discussion regarding who Jesus claimed to be. It is one of two issues that separate authentic from counterfeit Christianity. (The other issue is whether God’s offer of salvation is based on our merit or the work of Christ alone.)

The Arian controversy and the Creed of Nicaea 

In the fourth century, Arius, a priest from Alexandria in Egypt, argued that Jesus was created by God the Father and, therefore, was neither of the same substance as God nor coeternal with him. Arianism, as it was called, created a major rift in the church. It was one of many deviant views of Christ’s nature floating as truth in the first three centuries, causing conflict and confusion.

In 325, Emperor Constantine convened a religious council in the city of Nicaea to bring unity to Christianity and clarity to the Trinity. Out of that convention came the Nicene Creed, which is still a standard of belief for most Christian churches today. Our Apostles Creed is a shortened version of the Nicene Creed.

In this redacted version of the Nicene Creed, notice how they struggled to explain Jesus as God and man.

I believe in one God,

the Father almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the Only Begotten Son of God,

born of the Father before all ages.

God from God, Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;

through him, all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven,

and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,

and became man…….

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

who proceeds from the Father [and the Son],

who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,

who has spoken through the prophets.

The result of this Counsel and the ones that followed was to establish the essential beliefs about the Trinity, especially about Jesus. Church leaders formed a similar creed in the 6th century AD called the Athanasian Creed. It differs from other Christian creeds in that it especially emphasizes the trinitarian doctrine of the divine nature of Christ.   Historically, baptism required the affirmation of the truths of these Creeds.

For the past 18 centuries, since the Council of Nicaea, mainstream Catholicism and eventually Protestantism agreed on the truth of the Trinity, specifically the divinity of Christ as expressed in these creeds. We expect the divinity of Jesus as God the Son to be rejected by religions like Islam and counterfeit Christian religions like Jehovah’s Witness and Mormonism.   However, what is concerning today is the growing rejection of Christ’s divinity, even within the evangelical church. 

A recent study by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research 1 identified several trends in the beliefs of “evangelicals” that suggest the historic understanding of the nature of Christ (and the Trinity) is no longer a given. The survey classified an “evangelical” as one who claimed belief that:

•  “It was important to trust Jesus as their savior;”

•  “that his death removed the penalty of sin and”

•  “that trust in him alone brings salvation.”

However, among this group of “evangelicals,” the survey found that:

1.  73% believe that “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.”

2.  43% affirmed the belief that “Jesus was a good teacher, but was not God.”

If these statistics are close to being accurate, we are condoning, even baptizing, people who hold an Arian view of Jesus. To guard the gospel in our generation, we need to examine Jesus’ claim as the second person of the Trinity:  equal to and the same as God (John 1:1-2).

After the disciples had been with Jesus for a time, he gave them a mid-term exam. The first question was, “Who do the crowds say I am?”  The second was more personal, critical, and revealing, “Who do you say I am?” If we get this second question wrong, we get the gospel wrong.

To help get it right, we need to clarify two terms: “Son of God” and “begotten.”  We will investigate these two terms in our next blog.

1  The State of Theology survey, released in 2022 by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research