Saint Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and, of course, in our modern-American celebration that basically means lots of drinking and the occasional pinching of those who forgot to wear green. Have you heard the one about the Irish priest driving home from church on Saint Patrick’s Day? He got pulled over for speeding and the state trooper smells alcohol on the priest’s breath and then sees an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car. He says, “Sir, have you been drinking?” “Just water,” says the priest. The trooper says, “Then why do I smell wine?” The priest looks at the bottle, sniffs it and says, “Good Lord! He’s done it again!”

It’s really disappointing that Saint Patrick’s Day has regressed in many parts of the world to a celebration of Irish beer, but in Ireland itself it is still celebrated as a religious holiday by both the Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland. What’s really disappointing is that many people, even Christians, don’t have a clue what Saint Patrick’s Day is really all about.

Buried beneath the symbols of shamrocks and leprechauns lies the story of a man determined to share the message of salvation with the people who made him a slave. Patrick was just sixteen years old when his family’s villa in Berniae was attacked by Irish pirates. Although his family escaped, Patrick was taken captive and sold as a slave to a Druid tribal chieftain. Forced to work as a herdsman, Patrick spent countless hours in the fields where he turned to the Lord with all his heart. Patrick’s faith flourished despite his lack of freedom. After six year, Patrick finally escaped, traveled 200 miles to the Irish coast, boarded passage on small boat, and finally made it his beloved Britain and into the arms of his mother and father.

At home, Patrick studied to become a priest and bishop, but as the years passed he felt God calling him back to the land of his captivity. Against the wishes and warnings of his family, Patrick spent the rest of his life in Ireland, sharing Christ until his death on March 17. He endured persecution, imprisonment, and a martyrs death, but not before driving out the idol-worshipping Druid cults and planting the seeds of Christianity all throughout the country—forever changing the history of Ireland.

One of the trademarks of Patrick’s preaching was his use of the shamrock, which was a symbol of national pride in Ireland at the time. He used the three-leaf clover as an illustration to explain the nature of  God—the Trinity. Each leaf is separate and distinct, yet part of a whole. It’s just one clover, yet with three individual leaves. This simple illustration helped countless Irish men and women to understand the God of the Bible and embrace the Christian faith.

So, in honor of Saint Patrick’s Day, I thought I would try my best to do what Patrick himself did—unpack the most complicated doctrine of the Christian faith. And just as there are three leaves to a shamrock and three Persons in the Trinity, I’d like to break this intricate teaching into three basic questions: (1) Is the Trinity Scriptural? (2) Is the Trinity Sensible? (3) Is the Trinity Significant? So let’s begin with the first leaf of our clover:

 

• IS THE TRINITY SCRIPTURAL?

 

One of the reasons that understanding the Trinity is so difficult is that the Bible never really explains it. None of the Biblical writers ever takes the time to educate or enlighten us concerning the nature of the Trinity—the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In fact, the word Trinity itself is never used in the Bible. That’s just a word we’ve come up with to describe the concept. But, what the Bible does make very clear is that there is one God and three individuals who are called God.

The evidence for the Trinity goes all the way back to the first verse of the first book of the Bible. The unforgettable opening words of Genesis declare, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Now, in English this verse doesn’t really seem to provide any evidence for a Triune God, but in the original Hebrew it does. You see, the word translated God is actually the Hebrew word ′elōhim, which is the plural form of the word ′el (which means God) and is a word used for God often throughout the Old Testament (occurring about 2600 times). The word is unique because it’s plural in form, but singular in meaning. An English equivalent might be the word news. News is plural, but you wouldn’t say, “Those News are on at 6:00.” Rather, we say, “The News is on at 6:00.” It’s plural in form, but singular in usage. Just as there is more than one item of news in the News, ′elōhim may indicate a plurality of persons within the God of Creation. In fact, just a sentence later, the Bible says, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters” (Genesis 1:2 <st1:translation_smarttag>NLT). So already in the first two verses of the Bible, we have a reference to God and the Spirit of God.

Then, toward the end of the chapter, God says, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26 <st1:translation_smarttag>N<st1:translation_smarttag>KJV). This is actually one of the clearest indications of the Trinity. Some people think the “us” and “our” includes the angels, but angels didn’t have creative power and people aren’t made in the image of angels; rather, we’re made in the image of God. Others think the “us” and “our” is a sort of royal-we, but ancient Hebrew had no such concept. Consequently, the Us and Our can only refer to God—but clearly it refers to multiple persons. It must have included God the Father and God the Spirit, and John fills in the third person for us saying: “In the beginning there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is himself God. He created everything there is—nothing exists that he didn’t make.” (John 1:1 TLB). In the beginning, when God made the heavens, the earth and man, Jesus was there. He was with God and he was/is God. We may not be able to fully apprehend the meaning of that statement yet, but we can surely comprehend what John is saying: Jesus is God, but he is also with God.

We see this when Jesus told his followers, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19). Jesus didn’t say, “names” but “name” as if they were one. Knowing that this concept would boggle our mind, Jesus said, “Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:11 <st1:translation_smarttag>NLT). And he said, “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30 <st1:translation_smarttag>NLT).

Whether we understand it or not, the Bible teaches that there is one God and, at the same time, the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Now, over the centuries people have come up with a whole host of ways to grasp the notion of the Trinity, so let’s look at the second leaf of our shamrock:

 

• IS THE TRINITY SENSIBLE?

 

In other words, can we make heads or tails out of this or is it just beyond us? Well, my answer to that question is—yes and no.

Many hundreds of years ago, Augustine set out to fully understand the concept of the Trinity. He spent several years of his life studying and contemplating the nature of God and almost drove himself insane until one fateful day. He was walking along the beach and he saw a little boy dumping buckets of water into a hole he had dug in the sand. Augustine asked the boy, “What are you doing?” And the boy replied, “I’m putting the ocean into this hole.” It was only then that Augustine realized his quest to understand the Trinity was like that little boy trying to put the ocean into a small hole in the sand. There is more to the nature of God than our small minds can possibly contain.

That being said however, I do believe that God really wants us to know him. And I think that there are some examples and illustrations that help us to better comprehend his Triune nature. The shamrock is a great example, perhaps more than Saint Patrick had ever realized. Because, believe it or not, the three-leaf clover actually only has one leaf. It is what botanists refer to as a composite leaf—three leaves in one, one in three. That’s the nature of God.

We also find a good example in our federal government. We have one national government. However, within our government exist three distinct branches, separate but connected—the Legislative Branch (Congress), the Executive Branch (The President) and the Judicial Branch (the court system). These three branches make up our one government. It’s a complicated system and I don’t always understand how the government works. But I accept the fact that we have one government with three branches. It’s the same thing with the Trinity. I don’t always understand how it works. But I accept that it does.

C.S. Lewis, who was one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, compared the Trinity to the three dimensions of physical space. He writes:

 

“You know that in space you can move in three ways—to left or right, backwards or forwards, up or down. Every direction is either one of these three or a combination of them. They are called the three dimensions. Now notice this. If you are using only one dimension, you could draw only a straight line. If you are using two, you could draw a figure: say, a square… If you have three dimensions, you can then build what we call a solid body, say a cube…

“Now the Christian account of God involves just the same principle. The human level is a simple and rather empty level. On the human level one person is one being, and any two persons are two separate beings- just as in two dimensions (say on a flat sheet of paper) one square is one figure, and two squares are two separate figures. On the Divine level you still find personalities; but up there you find them combined in new ways which we, who do not live on that level, cannot imagine. In God’s dimension, so to speak, you find a being who is three Persons while remaining one Being, just as a cube is six squares while remaining one cube.” (Mere Christianity, p. 142-143)

 

Of course, none of these illustrations fully do God justice. We may never be able to fully apprehend the nature of God—he’s simply too vast for our finite minds—but it’s essential that we at least comprehend that the God of Creation eternally exists in three dimensions—Father, Son and Spirit. This leaves us with just one last question—the third leaf on our clover:

 

• IS THE TRINITY SIGNIFICANT?

 

In other words, what difference does the Trinity make in my life? In my opinion, the Trinity is infinitely significant! Our Triune God makes all the difference in the world!

First, belief in the Trinity separates Christianity from any other religion in human history! We live in very pluralistic, multi-cultural world and there are innumerable views of God. One view is atheism—that is, the belief that there is no God. There are an ever increasing number of atheists in the world. Another view is polytheism. The Greeks and the Romans were polytheistic, meaning they believed in many gods. But polytheism isn’t simply a thing of the past. Hinduism is polytheistic and so is Buddhism which are dominate religions in the Near East. There is also pantheism, the belief that nature itself is god. Many wiccans and spiritualists are pantheistic. Then there is traditional monotheism—belief in one and only one God. Muslims and Jews are both monotheistic, and most would say that Christians are monotheistic. But, while it’s true that Christians believe in one God, it isn’t the same as other monotheistic religions. Christianity is unique in our understanding of God’s Trinitarian nature.

Furthermore, the acceptance of the Trinity gives us a standard by which we can separate Christianity from cultism. Almost every heresy in Church history began with a misunderstanding of the nature of God. The Mormon Church, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and even certain Pentecostal groups, deny the Trinity altogether. Someone once said, “If you try to explain the Trinity, you will lose your mind. But if you deny it, you will lose your soul.” When examining teachers and churches this is the place to start. Find out where they stand on the doctrine of the Trinity.

Finally, the doctrine of the Trinity points us to the greatness and all-sufficiency of God. There is and always has been perfect fellowship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. His triune nature reminds us that God is a God of relationships. Jesus announced, “The Father loves the Son” (John 3:35 NIV). And later, Jesus says that “I love the Father!” (John 14:13). This tells us that our God is personal. He’s intimate. He’s a God who exists in loving relationship.

The beautiful thing is—this same fathomless God has chosen to seek a relationship with you and me. He chose to create us. He loves us. He wants us to love him. He desires it so much that in some mind boggling way, God the Son took on human form, subjected himself to the limits of humanity, and came to earth to invite us to receive his love. Christ chose to step out into the darkness in order to reach us and to make it possible for us to know God as he really is.

Each person of God was involved in making that possible. The Bible says, “God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2 <st1:translation_smarttag>NLT).

 

Conclusion:

 

I hope and pray this talk about the Trinity leads you to put your faith in the Father who reached out to you, the Son who died to save you and the Spirit who is here to change you. If you haven’t begun a relationship with Him . . . please do so today. And to those who do believe, I urge you to think about the greatness of our privilege. Think about the vastness and depth of His love. If you think about it long enough you will be led to a new depth of worship. Let me leave you with the same words Paul left the Christians in Corinth: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14 NIV).