The Trinity: The Mystery of Salvation

Abstract

Abstract We have seen that the doctrine of the Trinity has its basis in God’s selfrevelation in Israel and in Jesus Christ his Son by the Holy Spirit. In other words, it is to be found exclusively in this revelation as the Scriptures bear witness to it. This positive affirmation carries a negative within it. Since the unity of God is a unity in trinity no other conceived or supposedly proven unity of God is a Christian conception of the true God. Traditional doctrine has sometimes been at fault here. It brought a division into the whole conception of God beginning with a general doctrine of the one God and his attributes on the basis of some biblical material or philosophical proofs and then went on to speak of God as triune.1 This clearly has various dangers which are being recognized today. It could lead to the Trinity being subordinated to an already preconceived idea of God with a consequent weakening and undermining of its true nature in a modalistic way. Again, it could be seen as a creator God as Father being largely divorced from Son and Holy Spirit so that the Father was known otherwise than by faith, whereas Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit were the true objects of our belief and worship. This could bring a serious division into our conception of the Trinity, endangering the equality and nature of the persons and misunderstanding their mutual relationships.2 This dichotomy in the doctrine of God meant a real difficulty too in relating it to Christian life, faith, and worship.