My response to the first Relay study  question – How does knowing God is three in one make a difference to your Christian life?

Coming into this study I didn’t know what to expect; would it be something new? Would it be something I had heard before? Would it even be interesting? Consider it not pessimism on my part but a lack of expectation. Understand therefore that what I have looked at in the past 3 weeks studies and seen in my own daily bible studies has been wonderfully and surprisingly joyful.

I am a scientist, as much as I would like to forget that fact sometimes, it remains true. One of the left over effects of my study is the need to find logical conclusions and patterns to what I see in the world, this is inherently useful and an analytical mind is generally useful in life.  The unfortunate temptation I find in myself then is to switch off this part of my brain when I come to my faith, as if I subconsciously perpetuate a sacred secular divide internally whilst externally looking to bring my faith to bare in all areas of my life, this would of course include science. So why this temptation to come to theology, to my own faith, with a lack of logical analysis? Musing on this I came to the realisation of how affected by the world I am even in my own thinking. The world would like to believe that Christianity is illogical and irrational, that the concept of God makes no reasonable sense and therefore can be dismissed outright. Whilst of course disagreeing with the latter statements my tendency would be to live out my faith as if this was in fact true. Though I had my theology I would always keep it with a closed hand in case someone who didn’t believe would point out the obvious flaw in my thinking.

Where then is the remedy for me? Well stark blindingly obvious as it is it took me a time to realise, theology can of course be both rational and reasonable. Some things that are difficult are not impossible but merely complex, and complex is by no means illogical, a fact I have learned well from my previous degree in physiology. What I find in studying the trinity then is a deeply logical union of three persons in one being allowing the attributes of each member of the trinity then to exist logically in relation to each other. To illustrate this I will look at some of the attributes of God that interested me most when studying the trinity and analyse why these truths matter to my picture of God.

God eternally loves. This concept only makes sense when we have a God in three persons. How could God eternally love if his love had no object? No wonder people dismiss Christianity offhand when they believe that we have a God who is sits on a cloud, alone and angry, they see God as judge and without love. There can be no real love without the relationship between the father, son and spirit in the trinity. The constant outpouring of love from the father to the son that flowed out into all creation is a love that is far above human love, and this is a love that can be eternal, if the father spirit and son have always existed then eternal love is possible. Without the trinity there can be no eternal love as before creation there is no object for God’s love and therefore no love, and that, would make God a liar.

Communication between God and man. I am human, how can I convey anything to God? How can I communicate with the almighty creator of the universe? By means that are not my own, by that almighty God giving me a part of himself to communicate with him, by his spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit, something often overlooked in day to day normal Christianity in favour of making it something that imparts publically demonstrable and exclusive gifts like speaking in tongues or prophecy, that which Christians often covet above the more regular expressions of the spirit. In my mind this seems to cheapen the work of the spirit, how quickly we forget the daily work of the spirit in our prayer and understanding. The spirit is the one by which the father reveals himself to us, by him we can understand scripture, by him we can experience Christ. By the spirit we can communicate with our father God in prayer, the spirit enables us to bring our concerns before God when we can’t even articulate them ourselves.  Not only is this true but God desires that we communicate with him, he knows our hearts the spirit intercedes with him on our behalf.

Romans 8:26-27 – In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

God is hardly unaware of our weakness, he knows we need him, and desires that we come to him for our good. When we don’t even know what the pray the spirit ‘the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express’, I can barely express how important and wonderful that truth is to me.

Unity in diversity. What hope does a fractured, eclectic and dysfunctional church have of ever joining together in community? The fact that we worship God who is a unity of diversity. I love the work of UCCF and the vision of the CU’s joining together Christians from a wide variety of backgrounds and traditions and coming together to worship and support each other in mission. It gives me hope for the future of the church that CU’s exist. If generations grow together understanding the need for unity and what we unite around (the truths of the gospel) then there is a future potential for a more united rather than divided church. Why this need for unity though? Many reasons, a message not short of examples in the scriptures, especially when an understanding of the body of Christ comes in, but I also think that the trinity itself gives us an idea of what unity is like. The 3 members of the trinity are distinct, performing different roles and being specific persons and however are yet completely unified. Each member of the church and each local church as part of the church worldwide contains a huge diversity, but all are called to unity. How could so many people over such an expanse of distance and years have any unity? By worshiping a God who calls us together to show love to the world, to love as a family as the trinity itself does.

Having spent the majority of last four years in a Scottish Free church I have learned some scripture by the singing of the psalms in church. Like the unimpressed child at Christmas who asks for toys then gets given a lovingly knitted jumper I was initially dismissive and unimpressed but over time began to appreciate the incredible gift I was being given. I love singing psalms; it is like bathing your soul in truth. My favourite by far would be psalm 103 from sing psalms most of which I have now remembered by heart, here is a small part that really affects me:

As far as east is from the west, so far his love has borne away,

our many sins and trespasses, and all the guilt that on us lay.

Just as a father loves his child, so God loves those who fear his name.

For he remembers we are dust, and well he knows our feeble frame.

God knows his creation through and through, we are weak children, but he knows that, and he loves us, he knows us better than we know ourselves. he wants us to turn to him as a loving father wants his children to turn to him  for their own good and growth, this depth of loving relationship is only possible when the father has a son, and not only does our eternally loving father have the eternal son Jesus Christ but he adopts us into his family. So does having a three in one God make a difference to my Christian life? How could it not, how glorious a love that is given to us! Praise the lord.