Trinity

  The Trinity, a word not found in the Bible, is our attempt to understand one God with three personalities. Each personality is fully God, yet the Holy Spirit is subordinate to the Father and Son, and the Son is subordinate to the Father. 

The individual members of the Trinity have different tasks. The Father is the ultimate source or cause of the universe, divine revelation, salvation, and Jesus’ human works. He initiates and is in charge of all these things. The Son, the only form of God that we can see, is the one through whom the Father does the following works: creation and maintenance of the universe, divine revelation, and salvation. The Father does all these things by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the human’s attempt to describe God. Do we understand it? No. But we believe it.

With that as background, we come to Jesus in the garden and his subsequent arrest and execution. It was God the Father’s plan that Jesus would be the atoning sacrifice for those who would believe. Yet he did not force or command Jesus to undergo such a horrible death.

Jesus prayed, Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.” Jesus had a choice and he chose obedience and salvation for us.

Taking up our cross and denying ourselves sounds dismal at first sight: a grim life of poverty with absolutely no fun allowed. I think that is the devil’s definition. Taking up our cross, I think, means staying close to Jesus through Bible study and prayer, trying to obey his commands to the best of our ability. That lifestyle gives us peace, love, and joy from God, no guilt and no regrets. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Denying ourselves means letting God choose your life’s work, your opportunities, and your success. His choice will be meaningful, satisfying, and sometimes hard. I have lived long enough to know that when I have made my own choice, it sometimes turned out to be negative and hurtful. God promises to provide for and protect his own. Or you can go it alone. Your choice. Are we perfect at this? No way. But God is patient and understands our limitations.