Crash Course: Trinity

Well, hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Crash Course.

I am here with my good friend Scott Case.

Hey guys.

Scott's doing awesome.

If this is your first time listening, here's what Crash Course is, in a nutshell.

This is a was a podcast, because that's what this is.

It's an audio thing you're listening to, okay?

You probably figured that out by now.

But but it's a podcast that we're doing as a church.

We're part of His Hands Church in Woodstock, Georgia.

This podcast is kind of like a sub-podcast, I guess, or whatever, under the umbrella of I don't know.

This is complicated.

You know, forget all that.

Here's what this podcast is This is something designed to help you as a believer or someone that's maybe thinking about putting your faith in Jesus to help you get caught up to speed with what it means to be a Jesus follower, with what the Bible teaches.

There's a lot of concepts in our faith.

There's a lot of ideas that are unique to Jesus.

There's a lot of ideas that don't seem like they're unique to Jesus because the words are used in other faiths in the world, but they actually are very unique to what it means to be a Jesus follower.

And sometimes we give our lives to Jesus, we start following him, we become a Christian, a believer, whatever word you want to use, and we just don't feel like we know stuff.

We don't know the Bible, we don't know some of these terms, some of these concepts, and we feel lost.

We'll sit in church, and even if we're at a church where they're trying really hard to make it relevant and something that you can grab a hold of, there's still things that are communicated, and we're like, I don't get that.

And in a world like we live in now, that that has a worldview very different than the worldview of Scripture, it can be even more confusing.

So this this is designed to be a crash course to help you get kind of caught up to speed so that you you understand what you believe.

Quickly and bite-sized pizzas, pizzas.

Quickly and bite-sized pizzas.

Pizzas.

There are bite-sized pizzas.

There are.

There are the Totino's pizza rolls.

I mean, come on.

Um, this is the Totin's of theology.

That is what this is designed to be.

Um but but each one we we go over one concept, and I'm gonna I'm gonna introduce today's concept, which is the Trinity.

That is a word that's not actually in the Bible.

It's a word that we've used to describe the understanding that God, the God that we believe in, exists as three persons.

One God, three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

That is a concept that sometimes people get tripped up over.

Like, what do you mean isn't that three gods?

It's one God but three persons.

What does that even mean?

How is that possible?

Help me understand that.

My seven-year-old son, Liam, he's been in church his whole life.

He'll sometimes say, Well, Jesus prayed.

Does that mean he was praying to himself?

You know?

And I'm like, kind of, let's talk about that.

So let's let's talk about the concept of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, because when we say God, that's that's what we're meaning specifically.

Um, Scott, uh, how do you process that?

Yeah, it it is I'm not sure we can actually comprehend it with our minds, in fact.

But maybe your mind can't, but uh speak for yourself.

That's true.

That's true.

Yeah, you know, I I think here here's the deal, Justin.

So you do you have the Bible talks about God the Father, and then there's his Son, Jesus Christ, and then there is the Holy Spirit.

The Bible talks about when Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon him like a dove.

So they had a relationship, but they were clearly separate from each other.

Right.

Like Liam said, God prayed, Jesus prayed to the Father.

There's a relationship, but they're clearly separate from each other.

And I think here's the reality.

So God is one.

The Bible says, Listen, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God.

And so it sounds like there's three gods with three separate personalities.

A lot of people say, well, the Israelites were polytheistic.

They believed in three different gods.

Not true.

I think here's the reality.

There is a unity in the Spirit between God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that I think is beyond what our minds can conceive.

That they are three expressions of the same person, but there is such a unity between them that they're one.

And here's what is so exciting about that.

So Jesus was talking at one point, and he talked about, I'm in the Father, the Father is in me, and then he said to his disciples, and you're in the Father, and you're in me.

He wants us to have that same unity with God that he has with God.

And that again, that just blows my mind.

No, you're right.

And we we see other places in scripture where there's a similar concept of, you know, two flesh become one, right?

When in marriage, the idea that two people are joined together and and are one.

And so the concept of unity is definitely one that we see in the Bible with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

I think as people, we have this need to understand.

Um, and God gave us that in a way.

I mean, we're curious by nature, sometimes to our detriment, um, oftentimes to our detriment.

But but but we want to be able to understand everything.

And there are certain things about God that that you have to you have to go, okay, well, if I could actually under, this is kind of a, I guess, a philosophical thing, but if I understood everything about God, that would actually disapprove the concept of God.

Because I'm I'm like, I'm a 34-year-old man, um, I have a bachelor's degree, okay, in communication, very high level degree, right?

Um, right up there with, you know, uh, I'm just joking, it's it's not it's not one of the harder majors in college, at least at my college.

Um if if as a 34-year-old guy, you know, with my limited experience in this world, I'm not a doctor, I mean if I was, if if if the concept of God made complete and total sense to me, that would actually be proof that it's made up by people.

Right.

Because that's a great point.

Because how in the world could I understand all of God?

You know, if God's a figment of our imagination, we've just invented God, then sure we can understand all of God.

Um, but but there should be a mystery to God, there should be a wonder to God, there should be a like a wow.

And you actually see that in the Bible.

There's there's times in the Bible where prophets or people had a vision of heaven, and in the vision of heaven, you actually get to see, you know, angels, and like they're flying around God, and you know, there's all these different images.

And most of the time the angels seem like they're just completely blown away by God.

And these are these are angels who apparently see God with like physically almost.

Right.

You know, like we wish we could see God, which we actually could with Jesus, but whatever.

And and they're almost like, God is amazing, God is amazing.

Like they don't even c fully comprehend God.

And so part of understanding God is to know that he's not completely understandable.

At the same time, God wants us to, I think, be able to process who he is in a way that that we can at least relate to.

Because, like we said in our first podcast, God is a he wants to be known, so he's going to make himself relatable.

Um, that's one of the reasons, by the way, that I just I uh I get frustrated at the idea of God as just this force that's out there, the universe.

Because how do you relate to the universe?

The universe apparently doesn't love you enough to tell you its name, right?

God wants us to be relatable.

And there's been so many theories and and and uh ideas and analogies thrown out there to help people understand the Trinity, to put it in like a uh knowable terms.

Can you think of any that you've heard?

You know, the probably the big one that I've heard is water in three forms.

Okay.

If it's really cold, it's ice.

If it's really hot, it's steam.

In between, it's water.

It's all water, but it's three, it's a lot of things.

It's all H2O.

If you look at it under a microscope, it's all that.

And there, you know, that that is a valid concept of kind of we we see things in this world.

Like if God created the world, there should be things in this world that reflect that his nature, right?

And so to me personally, the analogy I've always loved is us.

Because, you know, again, the Bible says we're created in his image.

We were made in the image of God.

And by the way, if you look at Genesis chapter one, right from the get-go, because just like you said, some people will say, you know, the Israelites were polytheistic.

Well, some people will say, no, the Israelites were monotheistic, they believed in one God, but Christians are polytheistic because it's it's really not until the New Testament, you know, where you start to see such an emphasis on the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

But in the very first book of the Bible, Genesis, the very first telling of creation, God speaks and he says, Let us make man in our image.

Plurality there, right?

Um It doesn't say I'm going to make man in my image, but let us make man in our image.

But again, it's this idea that he's still one God.

You know, the Israelites, it's clear, like they're they weren't like the Israelites were God's people in the Old Testament that he chose to use them uh to reveal the world, you know, to reveal himself to the world through, and we'll talk about that in another episode at some point.

But but they were they were unique in that they had one God.

And other nations would look at them and be like, you all have one God?

You're like a dinky, poor little nation that can only afford one God.

We've got thousands of gods, we've got hundreds of gods.

Look at all of our awesome gods, these statues.

Um and the Israelites know we worship one God, and he's not made by human hands, so we don't have statues of him, you know.

But but in that first thing in Genesis, going back to that, let us make man in our image.

Well, if we're made in the image of God and he exists as three persons, but is is one God, we should reflect that somehow.

And I mean, I actually think we kind of do because I'm I'm a person, as are you.

And, you know, Scott, like you have a body, I'm looking at it.

You're in good shape, by the way.

It's very impressive.

I mean, oh yeah, you guys can't see it.

You can't see it because it's audio, but man.

It's impressive.

Wow.

Um, so Scott has a body.

You also have an intellect, right?

You have thoughts, and are your thoughts your body?

Well, your brain is your body, so there's they're connected, but your thoughts, your thoughts are are not physical.

Like I can't weigh a thought, I can't measure the length of a thought, I can't define, but but it's connected to your physical self.

Your thoughts and your mind, or your in your thoughts and your and your your body will sometimes talk to each other, and you're not crazy.

Like if you go work out at the gym and you're getting tired and you say, Come on, Scott, one more, well, are you are you schizophrenic?

You know, you're talking to yourself.

Are you insane?

Is there some is there something going on?

Well, no, your your thoughts, your mind, your intellect, and your body are conversing.

They're both you.

They're both distinct, but they're also connected.

And then you have a spirit.

And so, you know, your spirit would be the deepest part of you, that core part of you that is who you who you are.

And sometimes your spirit and your mind and your body can like disagree.

You know, there's there's times in my life where my my body wants something, right?

My mind is saying, yeah, there's a lot of logical reasons, you know, this will happen, this and this and this, and you if you do this, you'll have this.

But my spirit, you know, might go, for some reason, no.

And it's not a thought, it's not logic.

And my body even wants it.

I'll give you a great example, cheese.

I love cheese, as you can tell by looking at my body.

Any cheese, really.

You know, the sharper the better.

A lot of cheese does not a healthy person make.

So I'll want to eat the cheese, and my body physically wants cheese, I'm craving it.

My mind is telling me, that's good cheese, and you know, you deserve cheese.

You worked out today.

Have some cheese, Justin.

It's just a it's just a piece of cheese.

Like, come on, there's way worse things.

Um and I this is a really bad analogy because I'm trying to understand why my spirit would be convicted about cheese.

Um, but let's just I don't know.

I I I didn't think this through.

I started going down this this trail.

That would be a better analogy of my mind and my like, my body wants cheese, my mind is like, you don't need that cheese.

Um but you know, I'll be here's a really real one.

Like lust.

I was gonna say, let's let's just say let's just be honest.

Sex out of marriage.

Sex out of marriage.

So, you know, you you might you might like physically attracted to someone, your body wants that.

Your mind is is telling you that, hey, you know, it's it's everybody does it.

Everybody does it, and you know, it's it's it's natural, all these other things, but your spirit says, no, this isn't right.

And so I I believe as people, we actually reflect the Trinity pretty well that we have a physical body, we have a an intellect, and we have a spirit.

They're all us.

You can't say that that's they're not, but they're all distinct.

Right.

And I think God is And they are distinct, and like you said, they don't always agree.

They are very distinct.

They are parts of us.

The difference being that God exists in perfect unity.

It'd be like if if it'd be like if our bodies, our minds, and our spirits never argued, never saw, you know, never desired different things, but but functioned in their in their in their ways, like because your body has a function, your mind has a function, your spirit has a function, did what they're what they're supposed to do, but never existed disjointed, it never existed out of unity.

And God is the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are always in perfect unity.

And let me make just a couple of comments here, because we're coming to the end of this this segment here.

But uh a couple of things.

Number one, so what is our spirit?

Our spirit is that part, first of all, that lives forever.

It goes beyond when our body dies, our spirit will still live on, our spirit will go live to be with Jesus if we're a Jesus follower.

But our spirit is that part of us that God created to communicate with God.

You know, what you were saying, your spirit just is going, nah, that's probably not right.

Don't do that.

That's God communicating to us, and a lot of times it's not necessarily even in thought, certainly not an audible voice.

It's just a knowing from the inside.

Right.

And that's how God created us to communicate with him.

Jesus said, those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

But one other thing I want to uh say uh before the segment's over is so practically then how do we relate to God as the Trinity, as God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit?

God the Son is Jesus.

Right.

That is God with flesh.

And uh I won't go into it now, but there are um in the Old Testament there are places where Jesus actually appeared, God the Son appeared.

Um the Holy Spirit, when you give your heart to Jesus, your spirit is basically separated from God.

Your spirit is uh the Bible says that we were by nature children of wrath.

God's spirit comes to live on the inside of us.

He renews us, he makes us new.

He makes our spirit over in the image of God.

And so when God looks at us on the inside, he sees Jesus.

That's why God can look past our sin because God sees who we are on the inside, and we look just like Jesus because it's Jesus living on the inside of us.

God the Father is the one that we pray to.

Again, he's the one who created us.

How did he create us?

The Bible says that it was through Jesus.

Again, I don't understand all of that, but my point is Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus was the one sent by God to pay the price for our sins, to be raised from the dead so that we could be one with God again.

And it's God's Spirit on the inside of us that empowers us.

It's God's Spirit that makes us alive unto God.

We really are on the inside dead before we meet Jesus.

And it's not believing in Jesus isn't just a matter of what you believe, it's an experience, it's something that happens to us that changes who we are.

It is, and and in another episode, we'll talk about that in more detail.

You know, I and I'll wrap up with this.

You mentioned how do we relate, you know, to the the Trinity.

A really simple way for me to think about it is God the Father is like God over me.

Right?

It's authority, he's a he's a He's an authority over me.

Um, He is a protector of me.

He's you know, as a father, I'm over my children.

Right.

Uh and that's a good thing for them because I I'm gonna be a shield for them.

I'm gonna I'm gonna lead them, I'm gonna, you know, protect them.

Um Jesus is God with us.

You know, the Father is God over us, Jesus is God with us.

You know, he he came to be one of us, to live alongside us, to relate to us.

You know, he's he's the brother, he's our big brother spiritually, right?

Um the Holy Spirit is God within us.

So we have God over us, we have God with us, alongside us, and we have God in us.

And that's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And again, like this is something we could talk about for years, and by the way, this has been talked about literally for thousands of years.

There's volumes of books on it.

We're not trying to say that we've got it all figured out.

We just hope that this helps you understand that it's actually not it's not a contradiction to say that you have one God existing in three persons, just like it's not a contradiction to say that you're one person, but you have a mind and a spirit and a body, and you know, they're they're distinct, but they're all you.

Um that's kind of the idea of the Trinity.

So that's gonna do it for this episode of Crash Course.

Uh, we will talk to you guys later.

Uh hopefully this has helped you out at least a little bit.