In the next two classes, we will cover a very important concept in the Christian faith. It is the concept of the Trinity. It is one of the most mysterious doctrines of our Christian faith.

Activity: List the names of all the Greek and Roman gods that you know.

Unlike many other religious beliefs, as Christians, we believe there is only one God.

The trinity is affirming that God is "one in essence" and "three in person."

- The Greek philosophers were looking for ultimate reality, that which does not manifest change. They were looking for the essence of things. They called it the _ousios_, which is the present participle of the Greek verb “to be.” We would translate _ousios_ into English by the word _being_. The best synonym for the Greek idea of being may be the English word _essence_.

- From the very beginning, the Bible teaches us that there is only one God.

- Read **Genesis 1:1**

- There is one and only one God.

- This one God made everything.

- The Bible speaks that our creator God is the only one God. There is no other.

- Read **Deuteronomy 6:4**

- 1 Kings 8:60 — "so that all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh is God; there is no one else."

- The Bible is clear. There is one and only one God.

- Read **Exodus 20:3**

- Is God saying that we can have many gods, but God needs to be first?

- "before me" means "in my presence."

- And the presence of Yahweh God extends throughout the entire creation.

- No, God is saying that there are no other gods because God alone reigns as deity.

Activity: Take two minutes to choose who is your favorite superhero.

- This is one of the hardest Christian doctrines to understand. But it's still important for us to understand for two reasons.

- This is who God really is.

- Seeing God as one in essence and three in person allows us to understand the ways in which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate to one another and do their work.

Myth #1: Modalism

- All three persons of the Trinity are one person but they behave in unique "modes."

Myth #2: Tritheism

- There are not three gods. That would be tritheism which is a form of polytheism.

- To say that there is one God in three persons is not a contradiction. Rather, it is a paradox.

- A paradox refers to something that, when placed alongside of something else, appears to be contradictory until closer examination reveals it is not so.

- Contradiction

- God is one in essence and three in essence.

- God is one in person and three in person.

- Paradox

- God is one in essence and three in person.

- The word _person_ is equivalent to the term _subsistence_. In this word, we have the prefix _sub_ with the same root word, _sisto_, so _subsistence_ literally means “to stand under.” Thus, this word gets at the idea that while God is one in essence, there are three subsistences, three persons, that stand under the essence. They are part of the essence. All three have the essence of deity.

- The concept of the trinity is not completely taught in the Old Testament, but there are hints of it.

- Gen 1:26 - "Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."

- Gen 3:22 - "Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil."

- Gen 11:7 - "Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech."

- Isa 6:8 - "And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

- We do not have the full revelation of the Trinity until the New Testament.

Read **Matthew 3:16–17**

- Here we see all three persons present.

- We hear the voice of God the

Activity #1: "I am the greatest..."

• Write down two things that you can do that no one else in this room can do.
• Ex: I can drive a car. I can work as a doctor and help people who are sick get well.

God has several important attributes that are unique to Him alone. No other created thing has these incommunicable attributes.

• God's life had no beginning. He has no end.
• There is nothing else that is eternal.
• We all had a beginning. We each have a birthday.
• God doesn't have a birthday. God had no beginning, and he has no end.
• Ps 90v1-2

• What does it mean to be holy?
• To be holy means to be different from anything else.
• There is no one like God. God is unique. He is separate. He is set apart.
• Exod 15v11
• God is holy and separate from everything that is wrong, impure, and sinful.
• God is truth. There is no falsehood in God.
• God is faithful. He cannot break His promises.
• God is righteous. He cannot do evil.

• God is perfect. He never changes.
• He cannot get better.
• He cannot get worse.
• Ps 102v25-27

The things that make God great are called his incommunicable attributes.

Activity #2: "What I can teach you?"

• Write down one skill that you have that you can teach us and help us develop.
• I make a delicious split pea soup, and I can teach you how to make it.

God also has some attributes and characteristics that he can help us develop. We will never be perfect like God, but we can strive to be like him.

• Rom 16v27
• Knowledge is storing information in your brain.
• You can have knowledge without wisdom.
• Wisdom is using knowledge and applying it to solve a problem and fulfill a good purpose.
• Someone who is cunning uses knowledge to do evil things.
• Someone who is wise applies knowledge to do what is good, helpful, and right.
• God knows everything that can be known.
• God is also perfectly wise, and He decides everything perfectly and brings about all things to work for the best.
• God's wisdom is displayed in His creation, His work of salvation, and Jesus' death on the cross.

• Not only is God perfectly wise, but He is also almighty in His power.
• Jer 32v17

• It's hard for us to understand when someone is perfectly good.
• Part of God's goodness is His love for people in spite of their sin.
• God shows us grace and mercy.
• Grace is kindness given to those who deserve punishment.
• Mercy is kindness given to those who are helpless.
• Illustration: Loving your sibling when they sin?
• Eph 2v4-5

Activity: Emergency Preparedness List all the things that you would bring if you needed to live on a deserted island for 7 days.

What Do You Need To Live?

• food, water, clothing, shelter (home)
• family, friends, police, doctors, plumbers
• books, teachers, money, job
• We need God, but what does God need?

God does not need anything.

• We need God, and we need many things.
• Acts 17v24-25

Nothing can be added to him.

• We can gain friends, money, strength, skills. But without God, we have nothing.
• James 1v17
• God possesses everything that is good. Any good that creation possesses comes from God.

God is unique. There is none like Him. God is not lonely. His creation adds nothing to His greatness and goodness. He does not derive his power and being from something else. This attribute is called God’s aseity.

Isaiah 57v15

• Although God is “high and lifted up,” he also chose to dwell among the “contrite and lowly spirit.”
• God chose to come to us not because He needed us. Rather, we need God to “revive the heart of the contrite.”

When a husband and wife love each other, they both have needs that the other people can meet.

God does not have needs. His love for His creation is completely unselfish.

• Romans 5v8
• 1 John 4v10

God came to us despite our sin through Jesus. Jesus is perfect and sinless. He died on the cross and took our place, paying the penalty of death that we deserved to pay.

• 2 Corinthians 5v21

When we turn away from our sin and trust in Jesus, God promises to forgive us.

• Romans 6v23

- Activity: Two Truths and One Lie

Secrets

• Has anyone ever kept a secret from you?
• No matter how much you might want to know the secret, until someone tells you, you just cannot know what it is.
• It’s the same way with knowing who God is.

God has made himself known to everyone in 2 ways

1. Creation: “the word he has made”

• Psalm 19v1–2, Romans 1v19–20
• Think with me what are some of the qualities of God that we can see by looking at different parts of the world
• Flower, stars in the night sky, music - Job 38v4–11

2. Conscience: “God has made us with a deep inner understanding of things that are right and things that are wrong.”

• When we lie to our parents, we can tell inside us that this is wrong to do.
• Romans 2v14–15

But God did not just make himself known through his actions. God has also spoken. 

The Bible is where we read what God says.

2 Timothy 3v16–17

• “all” of Scripture, not just part of it
• “breathed out by God” - the Bible comes from God’s own mouth.

1 Thessalonians 2v13

• the Bible really is “the word of God.”

2 Peter 1v20–21

• The human authors of Scripture were “carried along by the Holy Spirit” as they wrote.

Since God has spoken to us through the Bible, we should read, study, memorize, meditate, and apply God’s word.