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Welcome to Faith of Our Fathers. Today we feature John stott. Born in 1921, he was well known throughout the world for his writings and godly influence in the global church. John Stott was a pastor to pastors, a servant of the global church and an author of more than 50 books. He dedicated his life and earnings to seed and grow the ministry of Langham Partnership. He was an honorary chaplain to the Queen from 1959 to 1991. Today John Stott presents a study on the Trinity.

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Many people respond to the doctrine of the Trinity with ill concealed impatience and incomprehension. They remind me of Alice in Wonderland, or rather of Alice through the Looking Glass. I can't believe that, said Alice. Can't you? The Queen said in a pitying tone. Try again. Draw a long breath and shut your eyes. Alice laughed. There's no use trying, she said. One can't believe impossible things. I dare say you haven't had much practice, said the Queen. When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. I confess that I was a little like that as a young man. One of the most vivid and embarrassing memories of my own school days is of a conversation with a visiting clergyman. I think I was about 15 years old and with the invincible assurance of teenage omniscience I said, nobody believes in the Trinity nowadays. I no sooner said it than I was ashamed of having said it. The fact is, I'd never even thought about the Trinity. I just found it a little difficult to understand. So I assume that it was an outmoded superstition long since discarded by all intelligent people. It is perhaps an example of the irony of God's providence that on leaving school I went up to that college of Cambridge University that is dedicated to the Holy Trinity. But if I may give you one other example, I go across the Atlantic to Thomas Jefferson, who was not only the chief architect of the American Declaration of Independence and the third President of the United States, but an ingenious inventor, a deist, who attempted to reconstruct a Christianity without dogma and a Jesus Christ without miracles. And Jefferson wrote, when we shall have done away with the incomprehensible jargon of trinitarian arithmetic, that three are one and one is three, when we shall have knocked down the artificial scaffolding, reared to mass, crack from view the very simplicity of Jesus, when in short, we shall have balanced and unlearned everything which has been taught since his day and got back to the pure and simple doctrines that he inculcated, we shall then be truly his disciples. But Jefferson was wrong. The Christian faith is essentially a trinitarian faith, and it is not an accident that the Apostles Creed is in three paragraphs. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, and I believe in the Holy Spirit. It's perfectly true that the word Trinity is not to be found anywhere in the Bible. It is true again, that the doctrine was not clearly formulated by Christian theologians until the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. but the Trinity is implicit throughout the Bible and particularly in the New Testament. Think with me of some of the great trinitarian passages. Think of the second lesson that was read to us by Lim Yu Lee just now, of how when Jesus began his ministry and was baptized in the River Jordan, he heard the voice of God the Father acknowledging him, and he saw the Holy Spirit like a dove descending upon him. His baptism was a trinitarian event at the very beginning of his public ministry. Or think of the end of his public ministry when after the resurrection, he commissioned his followers to go to make disciples of all the nations and baptize them into the single name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Or think of the beginning of the first Letter of Peter when he says that we were chosen by God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience of Jesus Christ and the sprinkling of his blood. Or think of that most famous of all statements by the Apostle Paul at the conclusion of his second letter to the Corinthian Church, where he prays that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit might be with them. I say again, the Christian faith is a trinitarian faith. You cannot escape it. And until we have learned to understand and live in union with the Holy Trinity, we shall never begin to grasp the richness of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. So all true Christians who take their Christianity from the Bible confess that although God is one, he has three eternally distinct personal modes of being called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Well, with that introduction, let me suggest to you that there are three different possible approaches to the doctrine of the Trinity, namely history, theology and experience, and that the three together constitute a solid foundation for our trinitarian faith. Firstly, then, there is the approach of history. The doctrine of the Trinity was not invented by unpractical theologians who had nothing to do but speculate about the being of God. On the contrary, the doctrine of the Trinity was a gradually unfolding historical revelation. And it arose from the facts of history and the facts of the first Christian's historical experience. Let me explain. The apostles were of course, all Jews. And as Jews, they were fiercely monotheistic. They believed in one God over against the polytheism of the surrounding nations. And they believed that this one God was the creator of the universe and the covenant God of Israel. But as they spent time in the presence of of Jesus, they became convinced that he was the promised Messiah and more than the Messiah. Because he claimed to be able to forgive sins and to judge the world instinctively. They knew that he was worthy of their total homage and of their worship. In other words, that in some sense he was good God, worthy to be worshipped. And yet he wasn't the Father because he spoke about the Father as somebody distinct from himself. And he prayed to the Father, Abba, Father. Then Jesus complicated things further by promising that after he had gone, somebody else would come and to take his place. Somebody he called the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Truth, who was in one sense his own Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, but in another sense was distinct from him because he said, I will send him unto you. So he wasn't Jesus, but was distinct as the Spirit of Jesus. So you see, the fact of history, the facts of their own historical experience compelled them to believe in the Trinity and compelled them to go on to formulate the doctrine of the Trinity. Indeed, history left them no alternative but to believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That is the approach of history. But now, secondly, there is the approach of theology. There was, I'm sure you know, a great deal of church history. I wish we all knew more church history than we most of us do. Because there is so much to learn from the successes and failures of the early Church. And in the early Church, there was a great deal of debate about the being of God and about the doctrine of the Trinity. And the major problem that they faced can be very simply stated. How could they reconcile the unity of God, that there was only one God? How could they reconcile the unity of God with the divinity of Jesus and the distinctness of Jesus? How could they believe that Jesus was both divine and distinct without committing themselves to believe in two gods rather than only one? Well, how did they attempt to solve that problem of reconciling those three things? One God, a divine Jesus, who was distinct from the Father. How could they hold those three things together at the same time? Well, they all began with the unity of God. Monotheism that there is only one God was never questioned in the early Church. The Lord our God is one Lord. It's the great emphasis of the Old Testament. They had no doubt about it and they were absolutely convinced. So they all began with the unity of God. Some went on to say, we also know that Jesus was divine. But if God is one and Jesus is divine, since we can't have two gods, Jesus cannot have been distinct from the Father. He must, they said, have been the same person as the Father, revealing himself in a different mode. One of the illustrations they these particular heretics as they were later shown to be. One particular illustration they used was a drama in three Acts. They said in the first act, God appeared as the Father in the Old Testament. Then in the Gospels, he stopped being the Father and he became the Son. And then in the third act in the rest of the New Testament, he stopped being the Son and he became the Holy Spirit. These people were called the Sabellians because they were the follower of a presbyter at the beginning of the third century in Rome, whose name was Sabellius. And the Sabellians were condemned as heretics because they did not preserve the eternal distinctness of the three Persons of the Trinity. God did not stop being the Father to become the Son. No, the Son prayed to the Father, he spoke of the Father, he was distinct eternally from the Father, and the one did not cease to be Himself in order to become the Other. So there is no solution to the problem that way. So then there was a second group of Christians who said, no, we're quite clear that God is one and that Jesus is distinct from the Father. But since we can't have two gods, Jesus cannot have been fully divine. He must have been semi demi divine, a created being, a very superior kind of angel, but not God to be worshipped. These were the Arians, the follower of the Presbyter Arius at the beginning of the 4th century, who lived in Alexandria in Egypt. And his heresy was condemned at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. because he denied the divinity of Jesus. Well, how can we solve the problem that they found it so difficult to solve? How can we affirm that Jesus was divine and distinct from the Father without denying the unity of God? How can we affirm the unity of God without sacrificing either the divinity of Jesus or his eternal distinctness from the Father? I would like to pay tribute to an Oxford professor. He was in his day, Regis professor of Divinity in Oxford University Canon Leonard Hodgson, who published a book in 1943 called the Doctrine of the Trinity, and who pointed out that the real problem in the early church was they all began with the unity of God. But they never stopped to ask themselves what they meant by unity. And Professor Hodgson went on to explain that there are two different kinds of unity. There is mathematical unity on the one hand, which is simple and indivisible, and there is organic unity on the other, which is highly complex and may have many component parts. For example, when the scientists first discovered the atom, they thought they had discovered the ultimate unit of matter, only to discover that the atom is itself a highly complex little universe. But again, it is the same of the human being. We too, we're not a simple mathematical unity. Well, I'm a unity in distinction from you and you and you. There may be a thousand different unities here, but each of those unities is a highly complex little human universe. One other writer put it, I think very helpfully with regard to our own self consciousness, for example, we are able as an individual human being to ask questions and then answer them. We are able to propose problems which we then go on to solve. But within that conversation, within ourselves, we are also a third person who is neutral, who is listening to the arguments on both sides and evaluating and adjudicating, so that every human being is a kind of trinity as we talk to ourselves and listen to ourselves. So God's unity is not a simple mathematical unity. It is a highly complex organic unity. And within the complex mystery of the infinite being of God, there are three eternally distinct personal modes of being called the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That is the approach of theology, the approach of history, the approach of theology, and now thirdly, the approach of experience. There are many things in life that we find it very difficult to explain, that we have no difficulty in experiencing. There are many scientific things that remain a mystery to any but the most abstruse scientists. Most of us don't understand electricity, but we experience it every day. Many of us don't understand questions of barometric pressure, but we experience it in the changes of weather. And we certainly don't understand love. We know it isn't just a disturbance in the endocrine glands, but what is it? We are not able to explain it, but we experience it every day. And the same is true of the Trinity. So let me talk about this experience. You know, every time you worship and pray, you experience the Trinity. Paul puts it beautifully in Ephesians 2, verse 18, when he says we have access to the Father through the Son, by the one Spirit, and through the mediation of the Son who died for us by the one indwelling Spirit who, as it were, introduces us. We come into the Father's presence and pray to the Father through the Son by the Spirit. Every Christian who prays is a Trinitarian Christian. You can't pray without being a Trinitarian Christian. Prayer at the very foundation of prayer is the experience of the Trinity. But I'd like to put it yet another way, and that is that every time we say the Lord's Prayer, probably without realizing it, we affirm our faith in the Trinity. Because although the Lord's Prayer is addressed to our Heavenly Father, and it is our Heavenly Father who gives us our daily bread, yet forgiveness of sins for which we go on to pray is available only through Jesus Christ who died for us. And deliverance from evil is available only by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. So there are three basic human daily bread, forgiveness of sins, deliverance from evil that are met by the three persons of the Trinity. Our prayer for daily bread is certainly addressed to the Father because God the Father is the creator and sustainer of human life. He who feeds the birds feeds us as well. He who clothes the lilies of the field clothes us as well. It is from him that we receive our life and breath and health and food and everything. And that's why we say grace before meals or should do in order to acknowledge our dependence on our Heavenly Father for our daily bread, everything that is necessary for our material sustenance. But our prayer for forgiveness is addressed to Jesus Christ. There is no possibility of forgiveness apart from the cross of Christ. Jesus said so in the upper room, taking the cup of wine, he said, this is my blood shed for you. Why? For the forgiveness of sins. There is no forgiveness of sins without the blood shedding of Jesus, without the giving of his life as a ransom for many, without his standing in our shoes as our substitute, bearing our sin and judgment in his own innocent person. And the apostles of Jesus repeated the truth. He died for our sins. He suffered for sins once and for all in order that he might bring us to God, and so on. It's the heart of the Gospel, the very core of the Good News. There is no forgiveness without the cross of Christ. But then our prayer for deliverance is addressed to the Holy Spirit. We certainly cannot deliver ourselves from evil. Deliverance from evil doesn't come by struggling and striving to live like Christ in our own feeble strength and nobody else can deliver us. There is only one person who can deliver us from evil, and that is the Holy Spirit. Deliverance from unholiness comes from the fullness of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us when we receive him into our personality and who subdues our passions and who then begins to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ. So let no one say that the Trinity is an unpractical or irrelevant doctrine. On the contrary, our three basic needs are supplied by the our material need, daily bread by the Father, our spiritual need, forgiveness of sins by the Son, our moral need, deliverance from evil by the Holy Spirit. So the doctrine of the Trinity arises, you see, not only from history, not only from theology, but from everyday Christian experience as well. I began rather personally with an anecdote from an omniscient 15 year old. I want to end with a personal not exactly anecdote, but something personal from somebody who has long ago given up believing that omniscience is poor, possible to anybody but God. I would like to share with you that I find it exceedingly helpful first thing every morning to greet the Holy Trinity as my first conscious and waking thoughts. To sit on the edge of my bed and begin with the Doxology to praise God, the Creator of the universe to praise Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world to praise the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier of the people of God, and to say, glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now, and shall be forever. Then I find it helpful to move from praise to prayer and pray to each member of the Trinity separately. To pray to the Father that I may please him this day more and more. To pray to Jesus Christ that I may take up my cross as he bids me do and deny myself and follow Him. Then pray to the Holy Spirit that He will fill me with Himself and then say those words too, of the grace. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Spirit be with me today. I found that very helpful from my first working moments to my final ones. To be a trinitarian Christian, to live independence on the Trinity, and to live to the praise and glory. I've often thought that the whole of the Christian life can be summed up in those very simple words. From him, grace to him, glory from the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit come grace, daily bread, forgiveness, deliverance from from him, grace to Him, Glory. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and shall be forever. Amen. Let us pray. Perhaps in silent prayer you may find it helpful to address each member of the Trinity. Thank God that he's your father. Thank Jesus Christ that he's your Savior. Thank the Holy Spirit that he's your indwelling comforter, and express your dependence upon him. Silent prayer. Now I'd like to say the words of the Doxology. And as I begin, perhaps you would continue with the second part. As it was in the beginning, and so on. Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.