The Triune God: Preliminary Confessions

How should we approach a topic that is so mysterious and beyond our comprehension?

I invite the reader to meditate on the following quotations from the Scriptures and various authors and writers to ponder the glory of the Triune God. To see our inability to utter praises and to know Him, apart from His grace and divine condescension.

Therefore David blessed the LORD in the presence of all the assembly. And David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. 1 Chronicles 29:10-14 ESV

There is a danger in studying the Doctrine of God—He is not a creature; our thinking must be reversed; this is a study of the First and Greatest of all Beings; He is beyond our ability to comprehend; we do not examine and dissect; we receive what He tells us regarding Himself; if we ever think we have completely grasped this doctrine, we are thinking too highly of ourselves…. We are ever the learner, never the learned…—we never advance beyond that —Thus, ‘Master of Theology’ is a misnomer! We need humility… ~ David Chanski

“What profit will it be to you if you can argue profoundly about the Trinity if you are empty of humility and thus have become displeasing to the Trinity?” – Thomas à Kempis

To meditate on the Three Persons of the Godhead is to walk in thought through the garden eastward in Eden and to tread on holy ground. Our sincerest effort to grasp the incomprehensible mystery of the Trinity must remain forever futile, and only by deepest reverence can it be saved from actual presumption. ~ A.W Tozer, the Knowledge of the Holy

 “We use the term MYSTERY to refer to things we do not yet understand. We may believe a mystery is true, but we do not understand why it is true.” ~ R.C. Sproul (What is the Trinity?)

“The study of theology is always an exercise in cognitive repentance.” ~ Sinclair Ferguson

O Blessed Trinity! O Simplest Majesty! O Three in One! Thou art forever God alone. Holy Trinity! Blessed equal Three. One God, we praise Thee. ~ Frederick W. Faber

 “In no other subject is error more dangerous, or inquiry more laborious, or the discovery of truth more profitable.” – Augustine, De Trinitate

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” Isaiah 6:1-7 ESV

To God be the glory!