Does Doctrine Matter?

As a church, we gather together in community to respond to who God is, what God has done, and what God has promised to do in worship. We respond in worship to God by singing songs about God. We respond in worship to God by look at the message and teachings of God that are recorded for us in the Bible. We respond in worship to God by giving back a portion of what God has given us in worship to God. We respond in worship to God by praying to God. We respond in worship to God by participating in communion and baptisms, which are also acts of worship of God’s activity in the world.

And all of these acts of worship that we do in community with one another are based on truths that we believe about God. And we strive to live our lives as followers of Jesus throughout the week in a way that is based on truths that we believe about God. Now, regardless of whether or not you buy the whole Bible, Jesus, or church thing, a natural question that you might have would be “Well Dave what exactly do you believe about God? What exactly to you believe about the Bible? What exactly do you believe about Jesus?  What exactly to you believe about the church?

Or, if you have been around church for a while, you may ask questions like "What is this churches doctrinal statement?” What is your churches doctrinal position on salvation, justification, and sanctification? What is your churches doctrinal position on the gift of tongues and the Great Tribulation? Are you a Calvinist or an Armenian?” But behind these questions, regardless of how they are asked, is the question of what we believe about God and the things that pertain to God. Behind these questions is the question of doctrine.

As a church, we have a doctrinal statement that lays out what we believe about God. But, how do we know that what we say in our doctrinal statement is actually true? And does doctrine really matter? In other words, do all these truths about God that we talk about every Sunday really matter? And how is all this doctrine; how are all these truths relevant to my day to day life? So for the next several weeks, we are going to spend our time together looking at what we believe as a church as it is contained in the doctrinal statement of our church.

 

And as we go through our doctrinal statement, my hope and prayer is to accomplish four specific things. First, my hope and my prayer is that I would be able to explain what we believe as a church in a clear and straightforward manner. Second, my hope and my prayer is that I would be able to explain what we believe as a church by spending our time together focused on a few passages that best capture what we believe as a church. Third, my hope and my prayer is that I would be able to explain why what we believe as a church matters. And fourth, my hope and my prayer is that I would be able to explain what we believe as a church in a way that reveals how relevant what we believe is to our day to day lives as followers of Jesus.

Now this week I would like for us to look at the first statement that comprises our doctrinal statement as a church. This first statement addresses the starting point when it comes to what we believe as a church when it comes to the nature and character of God. This statement summarizes the answer to the question “Is there a God? And if, there is a God then who is God and how is God?” So let’s look at this first statement of our doctrinal statement together:

“We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory.”

Now right about now you might be thinking “Well Dave that is a mouthful. I mean that sounds great, but I have no idea what you are talking about. Instead, I have a lot of questions.” So, what I would like for us to do is to break down this statement into parts so that we can come to a better understanding of what is being said here. First, let’s take a minute and unpack the phrase “We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect,”

When we say that we believe in One God, Creator of all things, we are saying that there is only one God who created everything that exists from nothing. There are not many gods. Instead there is only one God who is the Creator who created all that has been created. When we say that God is holy, this word holy literally means to be set apart. In other words, God is distinctly different in His character and conduct from any other being. There is the Creator and there is the creation. God is set apart and separate from everything else that exists. In addition, when we say that God is infinitely perfect, we are saying that God always has been and always will be perfect. There never has been, or never will be, a flaw in God or a mistake made by God.

That leads us to the second part of this statement, which is the phrase “and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Now the first part of the phrase, eternally existing, simply means that God has always existed. This morning, God exists outside of space and time. God looks at space and time like I look at this stool.

However, it is the second part of this statement that can cause our head to explode: “in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” This phrase is referred to in church mumbo jumbo talk as the doctrine of the Trinity. Simply put, the doctrine of the Trinity is the belief that God the Father is God, Jesus Christ is God and the Holy Spirit is God.

God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are each eternal in being, which means that they have always existed.  God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are identical in nature, which means that they possess the same character qualities. God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are equal in power and glory, which means that they are worthy of honor and worship as God. God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are having precisely the same attributes and perfections, which means that they are all equally perfect.

Now you might be thinking to yourself “Well Dave earlier you said that there is only one God, but aren’t you saying that there are three gods? After all you just said that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are all recognized as God. So isn’t there three gods?” Now this belief is referred to by the theological mumbo jumbo term tri-theism.

While that may seem to be a natural conclusion here, the reality is that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are distinct but inseparably related. To which you might be thinking “What does that even mean?” One way to describe the Triune nature of God is “Three Who’s and One What”. In other words, God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are distinct when it comes to their personhood, but inseparably related when it comes to their nature or essence as God. The distinction between members of the Trinity is based upon their roles, function, and administration, not their nature or essence. One way to visualize this would be to think of the following math equation:

1 x 1 x 1 = 1

Now, if I were to remove any of the integers from this equation, it would fundamental change the equation. The equation would no longer be 1 to the third power.

Now you might say “Well Dave, the word Trinity is not in the Bible, so how can it be true?” Although the doctrine of the Trinity is not expressed as such within Scripture, there are many statements, especially in the New Testament, that resulted in the doctrine of the Trinity. The most prominent example of this is found in a section of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Matthew. We see the following in Matthew 3:16:

After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."

In this verse we see God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit all together in a singular moment in history.  This flies in the face of the belief that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are simply different names for the one God that exists throughout history. This belief is referred to by the theological mumbo jumbo talk word modalism.

Now the reason why this really matters is because the doctrine of the Trinity is the foundational doctrine on which all Christianity is based and is the one doctrine that distinguishes Christianity from all other religious systems in terms of its claims about God. The doctrine of the Trinity reveals God’s character, His activity, and how we draw near and relate to Him. The doctrine of the Trinity reveals the reality that God is relational in nature and desires to have a relationship with us.  

While we see all of these aspects of God throughout the Bible, a passage that reveals these aspects of God is found in a section of a letter in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Isaiah. Isaiah was a prophet, or spokesperson for God, who was sent by God with a message from God to the Jewish people, who were living in rebellion against God. The Jewish people were rebelling against God to instead worship false gods instead of the One True God.

And tomorrow, it is in this context that we see Isaiah write the following to the Jewish people…