Last Sunday was Easter, and my wife and I visited a megachurch that’s been gaining quite a reputation.
During the message, the speaker – a staff pastor – made the following statement:
“There are three parts in the Trinity.”
That’s such a glaring theological error that it drove me bonkers.
The correct statement is that “there are three persons in the Trinity.”
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are persons, not “parts.”
But the speaker’s slip-up reminded me of how often Christians – even pastors – confuse the members of the Trinity in their speaking and praying.
Especially their praying.
Have you ever heard a pastor say this?
“Heavenly Father, thank you for dying on the cross for us.”
I’ve heard it all too many times.
But is the statement accurate?
No. God the Father didn’t die on the cross for our sins … God the Son did.
But, some people wonder, aren’t the Father and the Son identical?
No, they are distinct persons. The Father isn’t the Son, and the Son isn’t the Father.
The Father is God … and the Son is God … and the Spirit is God.
All three members of the Trinity are divine beings. Each member possesses the essence of God.
But each member is also distinct from the others.
At Jesus’ baptism, the Father gave His verbal approval from heaven … the Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove … and the Son plunged beneath the waters of the Jordan River.
One God, three persons.
The Father didn’t descend as a dove … the Son didn’t affirm anyone from heaven … and the Spirit wasn’t baptized.
The members of the Trinity are not interchangeable.
They have distinct names and duties.
When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He began, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” (Matthew 6:9).
Should we pray to the Holy Spirit? Jesus never said we should.
Is it wrong to pray to the Spirit? Maybe not … but the New Testament pattern is to pray to the Father through the Son in the power of the Spirit.
I realize the Trinity is a mystery greater than our feeble minds.
But when believers – especially pastors – get sloppy with their terms and practices, they perpetuate theological error.
Dads pass them on to their sons … Bible study leaders pass them on to their groups … and Christians pass them on to unbelievers.
Years ago, I led a Bible study where we leaders were told, “When you ask a question, don’t correct people’s answers.”
I asked a question about Jesus, and one man replied, “Jesus was half man and half God.”
I swallowed hard, took a deep breath, and let that comment pass … correcting it later in the study.
(Jesus was fully God and fully man … the mystery of the incarnation.)
Words matter. Theology matters.
And the Trinity matters big time.
So let’s be clear about the Trinity:
The Father is God … the Son is God … and the Spirit is God.
As the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” puts it:
“God in three persons, blessed Trinity.”
What do you think about this issue?
Restoring Kingdom Builders 
Jim, it is mostly because of your teaching on the triune nature of God that I have been noticing the very same errors over the years. It is actually pretty amazing. I suppose some of the errors could be chocked up to nerves since leading public prayer is another form of public speaking.
I’ve noticed other errors, too. I was in a Sunday School class and one of the members was talking about how Jesus was praying the night before his death. The guy said that Jesus was very worried about being crucified but, he knew he could take it. He couldn’t take it. It killed him. People forget that Jesus was fully man. The trauma he suffered that day killed him just as it would have killed you or me. His divinity did not save him from getting killed.
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Thanks for your comment, Les. When it comes to public prayer, I just think that most pastors … and some church leaders as well … haven’t thought through the structure of their prayers. They pray from the heart … a good thing … but they forget to pray theologically. So many times … especially during communion … I hear, “Heavenly Father, thank you for dying on the cross for us.” Maybe I’m listening for a slip-up now, I don’t know … but there are way too many slip-ups, and some of us feel almost guilty bringing up the issue.
You’re right … Jesus was fully human, and never used His divine powers to help Himself, only others … until His resurrection, when the whole Trinity pitched in.
Thanks for reading and writing, Les!
Jim
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Jesus Christ is a completely unique (one of a kind) human being.
Why?
He is the only man who was ever born of a virgin (Matt. 1:18; Luke 1:35). God put a perfect seed in the womb of Mary so that Jesus would be born without the sin nature that every other human being inherited from the First Adam. Therefore, Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God (John 3:16) and the Son of Man (John 5:27).
He is the only man who is called “the Last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45). As the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus was the genetic equivalent to the first “Son of God,” Adam (Luke 3:38). As the only man born without inherent sin, Jesus was thus the only man equipped to be the Savior and Redeemer of mankind. Romans 5:12-21 is the classic comparison of these two Adams and the respective impact each had on mankind.
He is the only man who had perfect faith in God, and who, by his free will choices to trust God, lived a sinless life, always doing the will of his Father (John 8:29). Jesus was not a robot, programmed to obey God. If so, he could not have been genuinely tempted to sin, just like all men he came to save (Heb. 4:15). The absence of a sin nature was not the reason why Jesus did not sin. We know that because the First Adam also had no sin nature, and he sinned royally.
He is the only man who died as the perfect sacrifice for our sins (Heb. 10:12-14; 1 John 4:10). By his virgin birth and his lifelong obedience to God, all the way to his dying breath on the Cross, he became the perfect sacrifice for the sin and sins of mankind (Heb. 2:17). Thus, he was the complete propitiation for fallen men to be redeemed.
He is the only man God ever raised from the dead unto everlasting life in order to confirm that he was who he had said he was—the Son of God (Acts 17:31; Rom. 1:4). The resurrection of Jesus Christ was God keeping His promise to His Son, and also His affirmation to all men that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
He is the only man whom God highly exalted as “Lord” and “Head of the Church,” and to whom God has given all authority in heaven and on earth (Dan. 7:13-14; Phil. 2:9; Acts 2:36; Eph. 1:22; Matt. 28:18). As Pharaoh exalted Joseph to his right hand and gave him all authority in Egypt (Gen. 41:37-46), so God has given Jesus functional equality with Himself. Jesus Christ is now God’s “right hand man” (Eph. 1:20), carrying out the work that will eventually restore this fallen world.
He is the only man who is now the Mediator between God and mankind (1 Tim. 2:5). It is Jesus Christ to whom God has given the power to “save to the uttermost” all who call upon his name, because he ever lives to make intercession for us (Heb. 7:25).
He is the only man who will gather together all Christians to meet him “in the air” (1 Thess. 4:17) and give each one a new body like his own (Phil. 3:21). As the promised “seed” of the woman (Gen. 3:15), Jesus Christ will produce fruit after his kind, a race of people living forever.
He is the only man who will one day return to the earth, destroy all evil men (and eventually destroy Satan and his evil spirit cohorts), and rule the earth as King for 1000 years (Rev. 19:11-20:7). At his first coming to the earth to Israel, Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb of God, but he will come again as the Lion of Judah to save his people, Israel, and destroy all God’s enemies.
He is the only man who will raise from the dead every human being who has ever lived (John 5:21, 25). As God has given Jesus “life in himself,” so he will raise up all people.
He is the only man who will judge all men and women of all time (John 5:22, 27). Jesus will righteously judge all people, granting everlasting life to those who deserve it, and annihilating all the wicked (Acts 17:31; John 5:28, 29).
He is the only man who is our Savior, our Redeemer, our Mediator, our Lord, our constant Companion, our Best Friend, our Big Brother, the Light of our lives, our Peace, our Joy, and our Mentor in the art of faith.
He is the Lover of our souls, and that is why we love him and confess him as Lord (Rom. 10:9).
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