Beginnings: Created by God and for GodSample

In basketball, each team has five players on the floor at one time. Each person is given a specific position and role. However, unlike football or baseball, the roles and the positions are fluid. No player on a basketball court stays in the same spot. Each player has to adjust to what the situation calls for and help out the other players on the team. This is the only way the team can achieve its overall goal of winning basketball games. Regardless of how independent or self-sufficient we perceive ourselves, the simple fact is we cannot do life on our own. Our survival would be impossible without help. Fortunately, God, in his infinite grace, desires to have a relationship with humanity. He is not a far-off deity who is disengaged from our affairs. No, he wants to be involved. He wants relationship. In the Trinity, we see God’s model and plan for his relationship with us. As a model, the Trinity shows how interaction between distinct persons can be achieved. And as a plan, we see how each person of the Trinity carries a distinct role, yet are unified together in a mission. From the beginning, we see that God manifests himself in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person of the Trinity, while being fully God, represents itself in three distinct ways. God the Father serves as the ultimate authority. He is the creator and the author, and from him everything has its genesis. God the Son serves as the physical presence of God. He took on flesh and dwelled among us on earth so that he could identify with humanity and ultimately serve as the sacrifice for our salvation. God the Holy Spirit serves as our power source. The book of Acts tells us that humanity will receive its “power” when the Holy Spirit comes. Everything we need for life is found supremely in the Trinity. The idea of God in multiple persons is found in the creation narrative. From the beginning, we see God not in the singular but in the plural form. Genesis 1:26 says, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.” This indication, from the beginning, is backed up all throughout Scripture as a reference to the three distinct persons, or manifestations, of God. If there is a God who is eternal, all-powerful, and all-wise, we should expect that it would be hard to talk about that God using human language and images. In fact, if God had not been gracious to reveal himself to people in the first place, we’d have no way of knowing all the details we do know about him now. The persons who make up God become clearer when we read the Bible and see how God has put himself on display. Throughout history, it has become common to use a word, rather than an image, to refer to the three persons of God as the “Trinity.” Surprising to some, this word is not found in the Bible, but as we’ve seen, the concept of a singular God who manifests himself in three persons is the picture that emerges as we read God’s story. Each person—Father, Son, and Spirit—is equally God, yet has a differing role in God’s plan to display his glory, save sinners, and restore a broken world. It is important to remember that God always has and always will exist in these three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They encompass the totality of who God is. They give shape and form to his name, which is one, and will never change. This is who God always was before any person was ever created, and this is who he will be long after our lives are over. The fixed nature of God provides great hope to ever-changeable people like us. You have likely experienced the shiftiness of people—one day they feel and act a certain way, the next they have changed completely. Worse still, you have probably seen this trend in your own life. We are changeable people. But God is unchanging. We don’t have to worry that we might get to know God and learn about his character and work in the world, only to find one day that he has totally changed. He is the great I AM who was, and is, and is to come. He is worthy of our trust as we spend our lives pressing on to know the God who never changes. Paul often ended his letters by entrusting the recipients to the care of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity brings grace, love, and fellowship. Respond Explain the Trinity. Share an example of the role the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit play in your life. Prayer Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thank you for the hope, salvation, and guidance you bring to my life.