The first truth that God put into my heart when He made me a “new creation” is that Jesus is God the Son. I may have been told this by others; I may have read it, but until that moment, the idea was not part of my conscious thinking. I knew that God was the Father, and Jesus was the Son, but in that light-filled day, I knew instantly that Jesus is God in the flesh, God who pulled on humanity and made Himself like us, God-visible, and God-subject to hunger and thirst and fatigue, that He might die for our sins.
The trinity is one of the most argued Christian teachings. The critics say it is “opposed to nature, sense, and reason” and they all rise up in rebellion against it. They ask how can three be one or one be three? Yet if the doctrine of the Trinity is not true, then all that Christians believe and hope is gone. I have nothing and Christianity is a lie.
I firmly believe that the trinity is a ‘revealed’ truth, and because of that, no one can adequately explain it to someone who has not had it revealed to them. They will not get it, and the fact is, most Christians cannot explain it anyway. We know it is true, but there are no words that make it reasonable.
Some Bible translators tried. A passage in 1 John 5 shows one effort. Verses 7 and 8 in one modern version says: “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.”
However, in the margin of this Bible a note explains that most of verse 7 was not in the oldest Scripture manuscripts, and some of verse 8. Another modern version says it should read more like this: “For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.”
Those who like to criticize the Bible and say that it is full of errors jump on this passage to prove their point. However, I found an explanation that helps me understand what happened when these extra words were added in. This is from a commentary, and I will try to leave out the parts that are not essential (commentaries can be wordy!). It says:
Two or three witnesses were required by law to constitute adequate testimony. The only Greek manuscripts in any form which support the words, “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one; and there are three that bear witness in earth,” (the text names three obscure manuscript names). All the old versions omit these words. The oldest manuscripts of the Vulgate omit them too. . . . A scholium quoted in Matthaei, shows that the words did not arise from fraud; for in all Greek manuscripts “there are three that bear record,” the word “three” is masculine . . . because the three things (the Spirit, the water, and the blood) are symbols of the Trinity. Cyprian (AD 196) refers, “Of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it is written, ‘And these three are one’ (a unity).”
There must be some mystical truth implied in using “three” (Greek) in the masculine, though the antecedents, “Spirit, water, and blood,” are neuter. That the Trinity was the truth meant is a natural inference. . . . It was therefore first written as a marginal comment to complete the sense of the text, and then, as early at least as the eighth century, was introduced into the text of the Latin Vulgate.
The testimony, however, could only be borne on earth to men, not in heaven. The marginal comment that inserted “in heaven,” was inappropriate. It is on earth that the context evidently requires the witness of the three, the Spirit, the water, and the blood.
This commentary goes on to explain how John never uses “the Father” and “the Word” as correlates and shows other ways to indicate that John intended these verses as a description of a triune God.
Interpretation of any passage should take into account the whole book and other books (if any) written by the same author. John used the reality and the symbols of water and blood in connection with His descriptions of Jesus as God in the flesh. In his mind, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, unite as the threefold witness to verify the divine Messiahship of Jesus Christ.
Like we are prone to do, some who copied the ancient manuscripts thought that an explanation would help, forgetting that this kind of explanation would be easily understood by those who know Jesus, but misinterpreted and considered a textual error by those to whom Jesus has never been revealed.
So what? What does this have to do with me? I’m aware of those who dismiss the Scripture as old fashioned, out-of-date, and non-relevant. I’m wondering if it matters whether or not I can explain it. Will it matter if I tell them that the trinity is everywhere in creation, for instance, God created matter in three forms, such as H2O? It may be water, ice or steam, but it is all the same H2O. Why can’t God be triune and still be one God? Will they get it?
I suspect that the issue is not really that God is One yet three, but more like this: if the God who created the universe decided to become a man and come to earth, and if He willingly died for the sins of all mankind, and if His Spirit keeps nagging at people about their sin and their responsibility to God, which is easier—to listen and say yes to this triune God? Or to insist that the whole thing is impossible?
Last week a man who lives in our city was on a bus east, in another province. Suddenly he pulled out a knife and brutally murdered the young man sitting next to him. There was no provocation and as far as can be determined, they did not know each other.
Of course people are horrified. Murder is terrible, even more so when the victim is innocent and did nothing to even irritate the assailant. This type of crime makes many people afraid to ride a bus, even go out in public. Cause and effect we understand. Random acts of violence make no sense.
When things like this happen, the power and wisdom of God are often questioned. Why did God allow this young man to die? Even when nothing prompts this response, the same question is often on our hearts. Why does God allow terrible things?
The question assumes that God is good. If God were a “terrible” God, then terrible things would be expected, but because our hearts know better, many people struggle with the reasons for evil. Surely God could stop evil. Surely He is good. So why does He allow such monstrous things to happen?
In a previous post I mentioned a cartoon where a man asked a question like these and God replied, “I might ask you the same thing.” It is our tendency as sinful human beings to pass the buck when something bad happens. Instead of saying we are part of a sinful world or admitting our own culpability, we blame God for evil. Passing the blame His way might be our worst sin.
Yet God puts up with this. Whenever anyone has the audacity to think that God is the author of evil, He has the power to strike that person dead on the spot. In my understanding of His holiness, it could be said that He also has the right to punish such an attitude, but remember, God is also good. In holiness He hates sin; in goodness He is merciful.
Mercy is God being good to me when I don’t deserve goodness. On a more extreme note, it is God withholding punishment from me even though I should be punished. He created me to love and serve Him. When I resist Him and as my Creator and as my holy God, He has every right to do whatever He wishes with me, but His greatest desire is that I return to my created purpose. He desires that I love and serve Him. In infinite patience, He holds back wrath to give me opportunity to repent.
Psalm 57 begins with David saying, “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me!” Even though he was a “man after God’s own heart” David knew that the favor of God is not earned. He was in trouble and no matter how good his life or how devout he had been, his only claim to God was based on God’s mercy, not his own goodness.
In verse 3, he says, “He shall send from heaven and save me; He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.”
David was confident in the mercy of God, yet unlike those who think God is a kindly old man who looks the other way, David also knew that God was holy and hated sin. Otherwise, he would not have thought or considered asking for mercy!
Desiring mercy implies that the people who ask for it know that they deserve otherwise. These are people who are aware of their sin, aware of their rebellious hearts, and aware of God’s holy wrath. Assuming God will look the other way is not part of the way they think. Instead, they know that apart from His mercy, their sin puts them in line for God’s punishment.
Mercy can have an odd effect on people. When I knew that I deserved wrath and God offered mercy, I melted; I wanted to serve Him forever. But when I am not worried about what I deserve and someone is nice to me anyway, I sometimes feel like I’ve been granted license to act like a jerk.
I notice the same with others. Those whose attitude is “I deserve good treatment . . .” take mercy for granted. Only those whose hearts are broken and who think they should die or be punished in some way for what they have done that respond to mercy with changed lives.
And it is only God who can discern who stands on which side of the fence. He knows the human heart and in His infinite patience, there are no random acts of mercy.
When I was a small girl, I had a hiding place in the trees west of our house. It was large enough for me and a few of my treasures, but small enough and hidden by overarching branches that I was certain no one in my family knew about it but me. I often went there to be alone because in a family of four I seldom had that opportunity.
I’d also learned to like being alone because of an earlier illness that put me in the hospital for weeks on end. During those days, I learned to amuse myself and discovered that aloneness was not an enemy. I loved my little place in the trees.
After I became an adult and that farm home belonged to someone else, I went back and looked for my little fortress. It took some time to find it and when I did, I was amazed how small it was, and how exposed. How could I have thought that I was hidden when I played there? I was touched by my own naivety.
Compared to the small things that make a happy child seek or create her own exclusive refuge, today’s world is far more scarey and today’s methods of hiding from it are far more complex. I know people who refuse to read a newspaper or watch television news. They want to hide in ignorance of what is out there. It is too much for them.
Others paint it with a coat of positive thinking, as if the ills of society will disappear by looking for the good. They choose to not think about the wrongs, only focus on whatever good they can find.
Sometimes I pray hoping that God will fix it. Sometimes He does, but this reminds me of the cartoon where a man is yelling at God with, “Why are there so many bad things in the world?” And God answers back, “I might ask you the same question.” Usually, when a Christian is burdened by something, God does want prayer, but sometimes that prayer becomes an escape from our responsibility to seek justice, be generous and compassionate, and actually put shoe leather to the burden. He gives me a concern because He wants me to do something about it.
Other times the evil in the world does overwhelm me. As an individual, there is little or nothing I can do about most of them. I can pray, and I know that I should not blank out, be a Pollyanna, or turn away from any opportunity to help.
Today I read Psalm 9:9-10, which prompted these thoughts. “The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.”
In Scripture, the idea of a refuge is not a place to hide from the world, but a place to go when I need to bring matters to God in private. Actually, it is not even a place necessarily. It might be, but it is more a state of mind. In these verses, it is a stronghold, a safe place where I know that nothing will touch me apart from the permission of God.
In other words, my protection from the distress around me is not being hidden from it, but having a Body Guard who controls what gets to me. Sensitive people let everything “get” to them. The news is usually terrible and bloody. Television images can produce nightmares. The overwhelming bad news is not only confusing, but is a burden far too great.
However, God is my fortress. He knows where and when I need protection. He also knows where and when something should come through His line of defense to perturb me, move me, even keep me awake at night. He knows how motivate me to action, certainly prayer first, but also to get busy and use the resources He has given me to do something about at least a small part of all the troubles that are out there.
Now, instead of a hiding place to play in, I think that my fortress is more a place to regroup, renew my strength, seek my Master’s will, and get my marching orders—so that I can go back out into my world and face it without wanting to run for cover.
Because I serve the Lord, and because I have three children, Isaiah 44:3-5 always fills me with the sense of God planning a blessing in my life and in theirs.
These verses were written to Israel using the name of Jacob as representative of the whole nation. (This is a figure of speech called a synecdoche.) At first, Jacob was a doubting schemer. I can relate to him in the sense that I’ve often prayed and then tried to make the answer happen. He was not patiently trusting God all the time, and neither do I. However, after a huge wrestling match with God, Jacob learned his own weakness and that his strength depended only on the blessing of God. I know that too, both the wrestling and the lessons learned.
When I observe my children struggling through life, I see Jacob in them too. Two of them have confessed Jesus as their Savior, but only one will talk about it and that one does not seem to take seriously the fact of His lordship. All three fight God and all three need Jesus. I know that only God can bring them to that place of surrender and the delights of walking with their Lord and Savior.
Yet as time passes and progress seems to be slow, I am sometimes fearful that it will not happen. God knows my fears. He encourages me to keep praying. The battle for their souls is a spiritual one and must be fought with spiritual weapons. As I obey, there are days when my knees feel weak and my zeal falters. On those days, He often (and unexpectedly) offers me something like these three verses in Isaiah.
God says to Jacob His servant to not be afraid, “For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring; they will spring up among the grass like willows by the watercourses.’ One will say, ‘I am the Lord’s’; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; another will write with his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.”
I am aware of proper biblical interpretation; I cannot take these verses out of context. Yet how is it that God draws me to them when I most need to hear them? This has happened dozens of times over the years that I have been interceding for my three children. One pastor told me that this is the Lord’s way of reminding me of His great power, that He can do it and I need to trust Him. Certainly my heart is deeply blessed as I read this promise to His servant.
So today I ask Him first to make my three offspring dry and thirsty for what only He can give them, and then to pour Himself on them so they will spring up with new life, and so they will name the name of Christ and call themselves His own.
Last week someone who had just retired from employment asked me if I’d known the freedom of not having to work. I replied that I didn’t have a job, and with tongue in cheek said that I was a “kept” woman.
However, this is not true. I do have a job. God gave me the calling to love and obey Him, which can sometimes mean much hard work. I could say there is no pay, but the retirement benefits are out of this world, but old jokes aside, the hardest thing that I do each day is pray. Often I don’t feel like it, procrastinate, and sometimes fail to show up for work, yet clearly prayer, particularly for others, is a huge part of my job description.
This week God showed me how selfish my prayers can be. As I was praying for God to save those in my family who do not know Him, I recognized that some of what drives me to pray is a self-centered desire that life would be much easier for me if they were Christians.
After confessing this to God, I felt sort of blank. Without that drive I still wanted to pray for them, but wasn’t sure how, so I asked the Lord to show me what He wants me to pray concerning them. As usual, He answers my questions from His Word.
The first passage that jumped off the pages at me is Isaiah 57:15, “For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.’”
This section goes on to say that God does not contend forever with proud people because if He did, our spirits would fail. When we turn from Him, He will discipline us, but even when He does that, we tend to continue in our slide. However, He says that He will heal those who depart from Him and restore peace to their hearts.
I have to apply this first to myself. Pride cannot be part of my thinking when I pray. I cannot want my family to be saved so my heart can boast in what my prayers have done, or in anything I have contributed. It is God who saves, not me or my words and actions, and God who must get the glory.
At the same time, when I pray for them, I can ask God to recognize their inability to respond to Him. Pride does that to me, so I know that their pride is a huge barrier to knowing God. I can ask Him to humble their hearts and make them contrite before Him. He can do this with me so I know that He can do it in them.
The next verse that caught my heart is Isaiah 59:21, “‘As for Me,’ says the Lord, ‘this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,’ says the Lord, ‘from this time and forevermore.’”
God is speaking to Israel, but He also speaks to me. He promises that He will keep me focused on Him and His Word and even more, He will do the same for my children and their children. Can I claim this promise? As a member of His family, I believe that I can so I can pray that He will put His Spirit upon them and put His words in their mouths.
The next verse is 1 Timothy 6:12. It says, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
God tends to divert me from my questions about other people with direct commands about my own life, in this case, my prayer life, which is my job.
For this verse, my study Bible offers this footnote: “The Greek word for ‘fight’ gives us the English word ‘agonize,’ and was used in both military and athletic endeavors to describe the concentration, discipline, and extreme effort needed to win. The ‘good fight of faith’ is the spiritual conflict with Satan’s kingdom of darkness in which all (people) of God are necessarily involved.”
Essentially God is saying to me that how I pray isn’t as important as just doing it. I can ask for specifics as He reveals them to me, but I need to “get a grip on the reality of the matters associated with eternal life” so that I will live and pray with an eternal perspective. It is to this labor that I am called.
Last week one of the receivers on our city’s national league football team crashed heads with another player in a game down east. He dropped the ball, leaped to cover it, and didn’t move after that. Number 83 broke his neck.
As he was taken by ambulance to the hospital, fans feared the worst. An injury like this usually means paralysis or worse. However, this player was moving his feet, a good sign. We listened to the radio for progress reports of his surgery, but nothing could have prepared us for what we saw last night.
The team had another game, this time at home. Before the game, Number 83, in a huge neck brace, walked (yes, walked) into the locker room. I cannot imagine how his team members felt, but the newscast afterward showed that this player was clearly a leader among them. They were visibly moved, and responded in a remarkable way.
Late in the game (we were losing), one of our receivers intercepted a ball. After the whistle, he pulled up his jersey to show that his undershirt was emblazoned with a big 83. Later in the game, another receiver caught the ball—same thing; he pulled up his shirt to reveal the same number. Every home team receiver had the number 83 sewn to their undershirts! Every catch was followed by arms raised in tribute to their teammate in the neck brace watching the game from a box seat.
In an interview with a local television newscaster, Number 83 said that only the Lord could have kept him from worse injury and that he was thankful to the Lord that he not only survived, but was up and walking only days after breaking his neck.
This morning’s newspaper has a photo of several home team receivers holding up their shirts to show the number 83. This declares how the spirit of this man inspired them to come from behind and win the game. As I think about this photo, a line from a song runs through my head. It says, “His Spirit is within me. . . .”
Today’s reading is about the same thing, only a different Spirit. The verse is Romans 8:2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
The Spirit of the living God lives in His people. That Spirit conquers both sin and death and gives me life. By the power of God, I live and breathe. My ‘recovery’ from the blows of sin may not be as dramatic as Number 83's recovery from his physical trauma, nevertheless, this is of the Lord. Just as that football player could say that the Lord kept him, I can say that I am kept from the injury of sin and power of death by the same Lord.
What challenges me the most is not just the testimony of Number 83, but the response and support of his teammates. For each play, they gave honor to their injured friend. In the same joyful spirit, I ought to honor my Hero. He was injured and even died for me, not by accident, but with purpose. He gave Himself that I can live free and with power.
I’m not a huge football fan, but last night, Number 83 and team captivated my heart with a great illustration of what it means to give glory to God. Surely, I ought to pull back that which people see on the surface, not considering my own “number” to be important, and reveal to the world which Spirit inspires me to carry on. My Hero is not only a team mate, but the Captain of my soul, the Lord Jesus Christ. He took the fall for me and set me free to live and do my best for our team and for Him.
Many people decide that the only way they could believe in God is if they could see Him. Because He is spirit and not visible, this makes for a good reason, in their mind, to dismiss Him as nonexistent.
Interesting that the Bible addresses this in two ways. It says that the evidence of God is clearly seen, and that the evidence of God is not seen. It depends on where I am standing.
Romans 1:18-23 says that God’s wrath is revealed against ungodliness and unrighteousness of those who “suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image. . . .”
Psalm 19:1 says the same thing, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament (expanse of heaven) shows His handiwork.”
Like electricity and the wind (both invisible), people know the existence of God by what He does. Those who deny that evidence do it, not because they are blind and cannot see it, but because they do not want to glorify Him or be thankful. Instead, they make up false gods and idols, and God, in wrath against that unrighteousness, lets them walk out of the light they had and into darkness.
I used to think that the farther a person walks away from this evidence of God’s handiwork, the more blind they become to spiritual realities. Now I realize that the darkness or oblivion to the things of God is always related to matters of the heart, not lack of evidence. God can be found, but many people don’t want to find Him. Jesus gave the reason in John 3:18-20.
He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
It is never ignorance or lack of evidence that keeps a person from knowing and believing that God exists; it is that sinful I will run my own life determination. Again, if a person wants to find God, He is not lost or in hiding. Instead, that person needs to walk toward the light.
Yet there is a sense where spiritual things are unseen to those who are in the light. Hebrews 11:1-3 says that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”
Faith in God produces an inner knowing that what He says is true, with or without any visible evidence. That is, God’s people know what they know about God, not primarily from what we see, but by faith. We walk by faith, not by sight.
For instance, these verses describe my experience regarding creation. When I became a Christian, I thought evolution was more reasonable than God speaking and the world happening. God gifted me with faith to trust Him for forgiveness and eternal life, and as I did, I started to realize that His power is so great that He actually could speak the world into existence. I had no visible evidence for that, and if pressed would have said it went against human reasoning, yet I soon was convinced that God is the Creator, not time and chance.
Like the people described in Romans, at first I’d denied the visible evidence, but when Jesus came into my life, faith showed me that what I had denied was true, and with the gift of faith, I knew it without the evidence. Then God, in grace and mercy, allowed me to see the truth of His creative power not just by faith, but in the evidence that I first rejected.
Seeing is believing? Yes, if I see the handiwork of God in creation, but no if I expect God to suddenly appear so that I can see Him.
Believing is seeing? Yes, if I see God by faith, because after faith became part of my life, I can see much more than I ever imagined was there.
