One God In Three Persons
Trinity Sunday
Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines
May 30, 2021
Readings: Acts 2: 1-11
Romans 8: 12-17
John 3: 1-16
Jesus, wise in His understanding knew that the things of God were beyond human comprehension. This is why we have to trust God and have faith in Him. The word “Trinity” may not be a word in the scriptures but the evidence of it is true. Nicodemus once asked Jesus, “how can one be born again?” And Jesus made it clear that He was referring to the Spirit. He was talking about being born of the water and the Spirit, which is, being baptized in water and empowered by the Holy Spirit. We try to make images of Christ through our human understanding, when what we need to do is to open our hearts to accept these things spiritually.
During baptism when Jesus was on the water, the symbol of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove came upon Him. This was to show us the evidence of the Spirit. God is telling us that when the Spirit is in us, we have life. The Trinity is the fullness of God. It is misunderstood by many because we need to use faith in believing that the three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are One. We may not fully understand this in detail, and we don’t really have to, because what is needed from us is simply to believe by faith.
The Father and the Son are always functioning at the same time. In the Old Testament, “Yahweh” was already talking about the Christ of the New Testament. The Father and Son are united by the Spirit. They are not separate entities. In creation, the Holy Spirit was already there. So Christ fulfilled the will of the Father by being empowered by the Spirit. In the Book of Genesis where we will find the phrase, “In the beginning, God (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth,” “Elohim” is plural. The plurality and unity of the Triune God was already evident. The same Spirit is in both the Father and the Son. The same Spirit has been given to us, so we should be one with God and Christ. It’s man’s choice to believe in this oneness and unity. Shouldn’t we then choose to believe by faith the Truth about God’s Word?
As human beings, in each of whatever things we are doing, when someone disagrees with us, we end up having to dispute and discuss. But with God, there is always unity. They three persons never disagreed on anything, because they are one. In Genesis 18 where we see the story of the “three men” who appeared before Abraham, they are symbols of the Holy Trinity. They had only one voice and one plan. One God, existing in three Persons, distinct yet acting in unity. A simple description of the Trinity would be: God is the mind, the one who plans, Jesus implements the plan, and the Holy Spirit empowers and brings about the results. The necessity of being born again – the first birth gave us our flesh. The 2nd birth is when we are baptized with the Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
Isaiah 45 :23 “By Myself I have sworn; truth has gone out from My mouth, a word that will not be revoked. Every knee will bow before Me, every tongue will swear allegiance.”
Philippians 2:10 “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in the heaven and on earth and under the earth.”
Isaiah 11:2 “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the Knowledge and fear of the Lord.”
God gives us the Spirit of wisdom and understanding and the ability to rise above situations which may not be in our favor.
Galatians 4:6 “Because you are His sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
We may not be able to do things on our own and this is why we need the Spirit to help us accomplish things.
Ephesians 4:3 “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
2 Corinthians 13:14 “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
Unity brings strength. When there is unity, there is hope. We have been baptized and empowered to do the work. The world may tell us different things but God will never fail. We wonder why things are the way they are. Why? Because there is no unity. There are divisions everywhere. The government is one side, the church is on another side, there are people in between having differences.
We know the story of the prodigal son who was living with his father. They were wealthy. But he wanted to be independent and left and squandered all his money but realized that he had been wrong. When he returned, the father embraced him with open arms. He called out to his servants to bring the best robe and a ring to be put on the son’s finger. He ordered a feast to be prepared. He did not condemn the son. He was more concerned of the unity between the two of them, He was just overjoyed the son had come back.
The day will come when we will be walking in that unity. We have to accept by faith the oneness and unity of the Trinity.
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