The Holy Trinity and Holy Scripture

One can approach the mystery of the Holy Trinity from many perspectives. One important perspective is how the doctrine of the Trinity relates to understanding the Bible. God the Father, creator and ruler of the universe, transcends human understanding, but He has chosen to reveal Himself to His creatures.

Although our Creator has provided some hints about Himself in nature and in human consciousness and conscience, the essential points of God’s self-disclosure are in the Holy Scriptures. The Bible points out God’s power expressed in the creation of the universe and of human beings. The Bible points to the rebellion and fall of human beings and of some angels. The Bible also shows the Father’s loving desire and plan to redeem fallen humanity.

Although Holy Scripture is the Word of God in written form, God the Son, Jesus Christ, is the incarnate and eternal Word (John 1) in a more basic and essential way. In Genesis 1, it is the Word of God that is the means of creation. Through His living and spoken Word, God called the people of the Old Testament and spoke to and through patriarchs and prophets. In the New Testament, the obvious center of Gospels and Epistles is the living Word, Jesus. In all the messages of the apostles, the spoken and written words are meant to reveal Christ. We are to respect the written letters and words, but our basic faith is Christ the Eternal Word who is the living center of Scripture.

Finally, we can’t consider the Bible without the role of God the Holy Spirit. The moving of God’s Spirit led patriarchs, prophets, wise men, scribes and apostles of Israel and the Church to pass on the oral and written words that contain the divine Word. The Holy Spirit also worked among believers to distinguish the truly sacred writings from other religious documents. And the Spirit has worked over the centuries to preserve and spread the canon of Scripture. The Holy Spirit has helped us recognize the Bible as both Law and Gospel. The Spirit still works to help us to understand and apply the divine meaning of Scripture to our faith and to our lives.

Pentecost and the Gospel

One lesson often read on Pentecost is from Acts 2:1- 11. It concludes, "we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God." What are these Galilean Apostles proclaiming? Although inspired by the Holy Spirit, the core message is not about the Holy Spirit; the heart of the proclamation is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A few verses later, Peter makes this clear. In Acts 2: 22-24, he preaches, "Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it." This is the heart of the Gospel, the Christ-centered core of the Christian proclamation.

The proclamation in Acts is consistent with John 15:26. Christ tells the Apostles, "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." The whole point of Pentecost is not about the mechanics of inspiration. And although we honor the coming of the Holy Spirit in a new way, Pentecost is not about the Spirit alone. The point is that the Holy Spirit testifies about and for the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Truth enables Christ's followers to be faithful witnesses to and proclaimers of the Gospel of salvation. How the Spirit came and the variety of gifts bestowed are of interest, but the main issue is that the presence of the Holy Spirit brings faith in and witness to the saving work of Jesus Christ, the divine Word, God the Son