The objection
For everyday trust in God, the Trinity seems dispensable. Is it not enough to love God, pray to him and follow Jesus without addressing the relationships between Father, Son and Spirit?
1. Paul describes our access to God in Trinitarian terms
Ephesians 2,18 says that through Christ we have access to the Father in one Spirit. The context is reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles through the cross. The Trinitarian structure thus stands at the heart of explaining why sinners may come to God together.
The “through” designates Christ's mediating work, the “in” the Spirit's presence and efficacy, the “to” fellowship with the Father. This is no path through three levels of distance to a remote highest God. The one God himself opens and sustains our access.
2. The Spirit does not help merely from outside
Romans 8 connects God's Spirit with Christ's Spirit (verse 9), the testimony of our adoption (verse 15–16) and his intercession in our weakness (verse 26–27). Christian prayer therefore does not rest on our finding the right words by our own power.
The Spirit who knows God's depths helps believers in their limited knowledge. Galatians 4,4–6 connects the sending of the Son with the sending of the Son's Spirit into our hearts. The cry to the Father arises within this divine saving action.[1]
3. The Son's honor does not compete with the Father's honor
John 5,23 requires honoring the Son as one honors the Father. Worshiping Christ therefore takes no honor away from the Father. Stephen calls on the exalted Lord Jesus (Acts 7,59); Revelation 5,13 directs shared praise to the one enthroned and the Lamb.
The frequent New Testament basic pattern is prayer to the Father through the Son in the Spirit. Direct invocation of Jesus is also explicitly attested. The Spirit does not have the same abundance of unambiguous direct prayer addresses; his full deity nevertheless establishes that he must not be excluded from divine worship. Distinguishing the biblical evidential situation prevents rigid or exaggerated rules for prayer.
4. Doctrine protects the content of comfort
If Jesus were only a creature, his cross would not be the divine Son's self-giving. If the Spirit were only a power, God's presence in us would not be the personal activity of the one who knows us and intercedes for us. If the Son were merely a mask of the Father, his intercession with the Father would be no real relationship.
The Trinity thus protects precisely what Christians trust: The Father accepts us because the Son reconciles us; the Spirit attests and actualizes our fellowship with God. This is no meritorious knowledge that first earns access. It explains the access given and therefore nourishes assurance, worship and prayer.[2]
Biblical texts in context
Sources and further study
- Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian FaithPp. 313–315: the Spirit's deity and saving activity, including adoption and intercession.
- John M. Frame, The Doctrine of GodCh. 28, pp. 638–639: the connection between revelation, redemption and Trinitarian worship.