What is truth? This basic question was asked by Pontius Pilate of Jesus as he stood there before the Roman governor. These days a variety of answers may be given to this query. There is the scientific answer that would define the truth as whatever can be proved through evidence and supported by repeated experimentation producing the same results. Others might say that truth is defined by an individual in regard to their own experiences. Others understand truth as something defined by what they read and hear on the news.
Today we need to verify truth and so everything is “fact checked” and we presume the fact checkers are correct. Today we face many challenges with regard to truth with: Misinformation, disinformation, fake news, deep fake. Have you heard of deep fake? That’s the newest one with the help of AI – artificial intelligence being able to produce videos and pictures that seem real but are not. In recent times we’ve seen people scammed out of life savings because they saw and heard Eddie Maguire or some other celebrity telling them where to invest their money – but it wasn’t them. It was AI using deep fake video.
Truth is such a hard item to grasp and really hard to trust these days. And in this age what is true for me might not be true for you BUT we MUST accept each other’s position on “what is truth”. And so, when it comes to the truth of God’s existence, it can be very challenging because MY experience of God might be different to YOUR experience of God. We have seen that over the years with debates of Creation versus Evolution and other theological doctrines including the one we are going through at present on Ordination.
This is not new. The early church also had disputes on what the truth is about God. And it is for this reason that the Church declared the Doctrine of The Trinity – a fundament and essential understanding of God – even though, as many sceptics will point out – the word “Trinity” does not appear in the bible. The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most profound mysteries of the Christian faith.
Differing understandings of the Trinity has been responsible for many heresies in the Church in the early centuries as well-meaning theologians tried to explain or make sense of it and were led down the path of false teaching and were subsequently condemned by the church and excommunicated. It’s the reason we have both the Nicene Creed and the very little used Athanasian Creed which were both written in response to Christians getting the Trinity wrong. The creeds are not a message to unbelievers or to use against other religions. They are a teaching for Christians to keep reminding us about the fundamentals of our belief. It is like a reset button.
That’s why Paul urges a young Pastor Timothy to “Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. So it is important both for the teacher/pastor and the people he is teaching. In fact James warns about that too – Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. And the reason he said that was, in Paul’s own words, For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
Both creeds were in response to Christian leaders like Arius – a forerunner for Jehovah’s Witnesses who deny Jesus being the eternal God. Or another scholar and leader called Sabellius who believed basically in 3 gods but they did not exist at the same time – they continue today in what is called the Oneness Pentecostal movement.
The Christian faith declares that God is One God – Three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—distinct, yet perfectly unified. Though our human minds may struggle to fully comprehend this mystery, the Trinity reveals God’s love, His grace, and His presence in ways that transform our lives. Jesus himself teaches about the essential nature of God being trinity when he says before he ascends to Heaven:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Let’s look deeper into the 3 persons of the Holy Trinity.
We confess in our creed: I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. This is the foundation of our belief with God our Father the Creator. Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” So, before time began, the Father existed in perfect majesty.
He is the source of all life, the sustainer of the universe, and the loving Father who cares for His children. Jesus taught us to pray, saying, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” (Matthew 6:9). This reminds us that God is not distant but intimately involved in our lives. When Jesus rose from the dead one of the first things he declared to Mary was – I am ascending to MY Father and YOUR Father. In fact we hear St Paul tell us last week that he calls God – Abba, Father. The word Abba, while meaning father is a more intimate address for Father. Paul was urging us from a less formal address of God to an intimate calling of God as our Father. Likewise Luther when explaining the Lord’s Prayer encourages us to pray to him with complete confidence just as children speak to their loving earthly father.
God the Son: Our Savior and Redeemer: In John’s Gospel he sees Jesus as the one bringing in the New Creation. Hence he begins his Gospel in the same way that the Book of Genesis does: In the Beginning was the word. Let there be light. And then John 1:14 declares, “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.”
In Jesus Christ, God entered human history, taking on our human flesh to redeem us.
So, again, showing this intimacy that is found in the Trinity. And through His death and resurrection, we are guaranteed salvation with the sure hope of eternal life. Jesus, fully God and fully human, demonstrated perfect obedience to the Father and revealed His unfailing love to the world. As Jesus ascended he also maintained the presence of our intimate God by sending the Holy Spirit. In the same way that God intimately breathed life into Adam by breathing his own life into Adam’s nostrils – so too Jesus, intimately gives life to the Church by breathing the Holy Spirit onto the first Church that had gather behind locked doors.
Again, from John’s Gospel: Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Again this intimacy of God’s own life living in us.
And so we confess – I believe in the Holy Spirit the Lord and giver of life. So before ascending to heaven, Jesus promised His disciples, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things.” (John 14:26). The Spirit is God’s presence within us, empowering us, convicting us, and guiding us in truth. He strengthens our faith and enables us to live lives that glorify God. Without the Holy Spirit we don’t have the life of God in us as Luther explained:
I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him. Bu the Holy Spirit has called me – enlightened me – kept me in the true faith.
Though the Trinity is beyond human comprehension, it is essential to our faith. The Father loves us, the Son saves us, and the Spirit leads us. As we walk with God, may we embrace the intimacy of His love and presence—knowing that we are held by the unshakable love of our Triune God. Let us live in this truth, worshiping the Father, the Son, and the holy Spirit.
