Does it all make sense?

^{There are four presuppositions that lie behind the teaching of the New Testament:}

^{a) that God is one and personal,}

^{b) that the Spirit is the Spirit of God and therefore personal,}

^{c) that the Spirit and Christ are fully divine, and}

^{d) that the Spirit is as distinct from Christ and the Father as they are from each other.}

Can we make sense of all this? There are three approaches I would like to take in exploring this question.

^{The Personality of God}

The Bible states that human beings were created in the "image" and "likeness" of God (Genesis 1:26). Whatever this means it implies that we all possess certain qualities that find their counterparts in the nature of God himself. Therefore, we may learn certain things about God by having a look at ourselves.

One thing that is clear about us humans is that we are "persons" with intelligence, feelings and will, and the ability to communicate and relate to other persons. Another thing that is clear is that we are social beings. It has been said that 80% of our joys and pleasures in life come from our relationships with others. It is also true that most of our hurts also come from relationships that are spoiled. God declared at the beginning of human history, "It is not good for man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18).

Spoiled human relationships were one of the first results of human rebellion against God (Genesis 3 and 4). However, Jesus came not only to die for our sins that we might be reconciled to God and one day go to heaven to live with him, but also to recreate this "togetherness". The New Testament has a very strong emphasis on this. It is one of the prime ministries of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who have received him to build this fellowship of love amongst God's people. This fellowship is described as a family, a body, or a temple in which God lives by his Spirit (See particularly John 13:34; 17:20,21; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13;13; Ephesians 2:19-22; 4:1-16). Racial, social and gender characteristics should be no barrier to it (Galatians 3:28).

All this points strongly to the fact that God himself is not only personal, but somehow exists in relationships. Jesus himself declared that the unity of love that he desires the church to demonstrate to the world should be patterned on the unity that existed between him and God the Father (John 17:20,21). If we, in our relationships, are meant to demonstrate the character of God, then the idea of the Trinity provides a very good explanation of what he could be like. And - dare I say it - a very good starting point for looking at the kind of partnership that should exist in a marriage, the most intimate of all human relationships, is to examine the relationships that exists between the Persons of the Trinity.

In 1995, a prominent group of Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant scholars and church leaders gathered in South Carolina to re-examine the theological differences that have separated them for centuries. Plenary speaker, Orthodox leader Patrick Henry Reardon, said at that gathering:

The relationship that exists within the Godhead is the basis for unity in every human relationship, be it marriage, family, or church.

I like the way that C. S. Lewis, the Oxford and Cambridge scholar and Christian apologist, expresses the idea of God as super-personal. He was always a very clear thinker. In his book Beyond Personality he puts it like this:

A good many people nowadays say, 'I believe in a God, but not in a personal God'. They feel that the mysterious something which is behind all other things must be more than a person. Now the Christians quite agree. But the Christians are the only people who offer any idea of what a being that is beyond personality could be like. All other people, though they say that God is beyond personality, really think of Him as something impersonal: that is, as something less than personal. If you are looking for something super-personal, something more than a person, then it isn't a question of choosing between the Christian idea and the other ideas. The Christian idea is the only one on the market.

It appears to me that those groups which deny the Trinity, whether they be offshoots of Christianity or other religions that believe in a personal God of sorts, are deficient in teaching on relationships. This appears to be the fact whether it be our relationship with God, or with others. The emphasis is on rules or religious observances, whereas in the New Testament the major emphasis is on relationships - what Jesus has done to break down the barriers to those relationships, and what the Holy Spirit can do in our lives to promote those qualities that will enable us to enjoy them, in this life and the next. Of course, that does not mean that we Christians who do believe in the Trinity, always get it right!

^{This brings us to the next point, which is closely related: the nature of love.}