God's Triple Team - Christianity Today

Some elements of Christian doctrine are like the catalytic converter of a car. Drivers know it's "in there somewhere" and the car probably couldn't function without it. But if ever asked to explain exactly what it is and how it works, they wouldn't know where to start.

J.I. Packer fears that many preachers have adopted this attitude concerning the Trinity, one of the most important tenets of the Christian faith. But the Trinity isn't a technicality; it's the central relationship of the Christian faith.

Packer is the Board of Governor's Professor of Theology (retired) at Regent College in Vancouver, B.C., author of Knowing God (IVP, 1973), and served on the editorial board of Christianity Today.

Packer is interviewed by Craig Brian Larson, pastor of Lake Shore Church in Chicago, Illinois, and co-general editor of The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching (Zondervan, 2005).

Why do you think preachers shy away from the topic of the Trinity in their sermons?

I think it's because most of them have been taught the Trinity is what in the trade we call a theologoumenon, that is, something that Christians are supposed to spit out as part of their orthodoxy without needing to understand it very well. Preachers know that the people in the pew aren't interested in that sort of lumber for the mind, and so they try to dodge it simply because they're afraid that people will be bored if the truth of the Trinity is focused on in any way at all.

We have the idea—one we've taken for granted and never examined—that we can get on without any knowledge about the Trinity. That is a problem.

Why is the Trinity important for preachers facing a postmodern, or post-Christian, culture?

The postmodern/post-Christian culture has jettisoned the Trinity, just as it has jettisoned the rest of supernatural Christianity. As a result, what it embraces is a sort of syncretism—this idea that all religions are more or less the same, that all religions can be melded together in a sort of general, unfocused religiosity of mind. And as long as we retain this religiosity as a feeling and decency as a lifestyle, well, we're all sharers in whatever good things Christianity once offered—call it salvation if you like. But everybody's in it together.

And so there's no sense that people need to be born again. There's no sense that Christians are different altogether at root level from non-Christians in society.

It's this blending and melding that we have to battle, because it isn't true. It doesn't match what God tells us in his Word. In fact, it will lead people into the delusion of supposing they're all right when they're all wrong.

So what essential truths about the Trinity must accompany our preaching of the gospel?

The gospel comes to us in the New Testament through the lens of the Trinity. In preaching the gospel, the Trinity is part of our message.

That is what the Lord Jesus did, in fact, when Nicodemus came to him by night. Jesus told him about the kingdom of God, which Nicodemus and all his Jewish peers were anxious to be a part of. Jesus explained that, in order to enter the kingdom of God, you've got to be born again, that is, born of the Spirit of God. And in order to be born again, of the Spirit of God, you must attend to the message about Jesus and learn to trust him as your sin-bearer.

So the gospel involves all three persons—the Father, whose kingdom it is; the Son, who was to die on the cross; and the Holy Spirit, who brings you to new birth.

And I would stress that you cannot preach the gospel without that Trinitarian frame of reference.

What happens if you leave one or another aspect out?

If you leave out the Holy Spirit, you'll give people the idea that it's entirely up to them whether or not they come into the kingdom, even though it's actually a work of God changing the heart that is needed to bring them in.

If you leave out the Cross, you're buying into this post-Christian ideology of religiosity—the religious feeling, unfocused but sobering to the heart, that people mistake for real religion.

And of course you have to speak of God and his kingdom, because that's what it's all about: a relationship with a God who in fact turns out—at least, when you look with the guidance of Scripture to help you—to be three persons in unity.

This unity is beyond our understanding, but is displayed in the work of the gospel and the message of the gospel. The simplest way to explain it to anybody is to say that God is a Divine Team—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—working together in all of God's works, but now particularly through the gospel for the salvation of us needy sinners.

Concrete metaphors explaining the nature of the Trinity invariably break down, and perhaps mislead us as much as they teach us. Is there a way to overcome this?

It's certainly true that all the classic illustrations of the Trinity break down. You only have to look at them twice to realize that the Trinity is not like water, which at different temperatures can be liquid, solid, or steam. The Trinity is not like a cloverleaf, where you have the three little leaves making one big leaf. The Trinity is not like a cube, which has a number of sides but nonetheless is one cube.

Those illustrations all miss the truth that the Trinity is three persons—persons who are more personal than we are, persons whose personhood ought to be highlighted and shouted from the housetops. Neither the Father nor the Son nor the Holy Spirit is inanimate. Each of the three is not a thing but a living person.

If we have to use a formula, the best formula is this: he—that's God—is they. And they—that's the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—are he. Three persons, one God. But you're highlighting the fact that we are talking about three persons.

As we preach, we can talk about the individual members of the Trinity and their uniqueness as persons. Or we can talk about their collective unity. How do we preach on the Trinity collectively?

Pick up and run with the idea of the Team. In all human teams, of course, the players are separate persons, even though they work as a team. But in this particular team we're talking about, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all involved. The New Testament says so.

And then stress the fact that we are not tritheists, because the Bible all the way through insists that there's only one God. That's as much New Testament as it is Old.

The New Testament all the way through holds to the relational pattern of the Son doing the Father's will, the Spirit doing the will of the Father and the Son, and three being together in every stage of everyone's Christian life. But each is still distinct in the ministry that he has to the Christian, and in the relation that he bears to the other two persons.

So preaching about the Trinity is essentially about describing relationships?

Yes, describing the relationships within the reality of gospel grace at every stage.

Conversion is a good example. It's a process, and there is a lot to say about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the process of conversion.

Sanctification is another stage. It's seeking to do the will of the Father in the knowledge that the Lord Jesus is with you always—he is beside you to encourage you. And the Holy Spirit is in your heart to strengthen you and enable you to understand what all this requires of you. So it's the Father, Son, and Spirit together.

In Christian witness, it's the same story. The Father and the Son both send us to be the Lord's witnesses in the world. And they promise that the Holy Spirit in us will be prompting us about what to say in witness situations. And we witness to Christ in the power of the Spirit. We witness to the Father in the power of the Spirit who comes from the Father and the Son. It's a Trinitarian reality.

So, if you ask, "How do we get around to preaching about the Trinity?" I say, "If we preach the Bible properly, the question really should be, 'How can we ever stop preaching about the Trinity?' Because the whole Christian life is a Trinitarian business."

For the full, unabridged interview with Dr. Packer, go to www.preachingtoday.com/skills/themes/trinity/preachingdivineteam1052206.html