A few years ago I was waiting for my car to be washed at the local carwash when a complete stranger pointedly asked me: “Do you believe in the Trinity?”
It was an inappropriate setup question with the intention of drawing me into an argument over my belief in the Trinity. I told him I did and was then bombarded with all the reasons why my belief was false. I offered a couple counter arguments but realized it was fruitless.
Of course debating religious topics in such public places is always in bad taste, just as it is to debate politics. There were others there listening to us and it was unfair to them to be exposed to such a display of bad taste.
The truth is the Trinity is so much more than just a doctrinal belief. It is actually critical to our understanding of what it means to be created in the image of God. If it were not for the Trinity then being created in God’s image would make absolutely no sense given the fact that God is spirit (John 4:24).
In our foundational story of creation recorded in Genesis God declares: “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness” [italics added]. In this creation pronouncement we have the foundational meaning of what it means to be created in God’s image.
You see God exists within a relational context we call Trinity. Author Richard Rohr describes this relational context as a “Divine dance”. You remember the popular book, The Shack, by Canadian author William P, Young in 2007? Regardless of what you think about this work of fiction it certainly highlights the relational character of the Trinity on a human level.
Now granted the Trinity is not so easy to explain and perhaps we should refrain from trying to unpack it in our own imperfect and limited language. We should also avoid imposing human constructs upon God thinking that capture God's full essence.
Perhaps we should follow the wisdom of Thomas Aquinas who so appropriately said: “The pinnacle of the knowledge of God is to know that we don’t know God.”
Now of course Aquinas wasn’t suggesting that we can’t know God but rather we cannot possibly know all there is to know about God. In other words there is more to know about God than we actually can know.
But here is what I believe we can know, especially when it comes to embracing the idea of God as Trinity: God in his heart is a relational God and he has created all humans with that same inherent capacity for relationships.
We humans were not created to live alone. We were created to live in the context of good and healthy relationships regardless of how messy we know they can be.
But this does not minimize the importance of what it means to be created in God’s image. Every single human being is created in God’s image. There are no conditions nor prerequisites. It comes with the territory so to speak.
This is why reconciliation is such an important concept in the Bible, particularly in the New Testament. Reconciliation is God’s way of restoring broken relationships, both with us and our relationship with others, and just like no one is exempt from being created in God’s image no one is beyond the possibility of reconciliation.
Writing to the Christians at Corinth the Apostle Paul declared: “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”
“Not counting their sins against them.” Truth is God can look past all our human frailties and imperfections in order to restore our relationship with him. This is indeed reconciliation at its best.
But more importantly this is why the idea of God as Trinity is so crucial to our understanding of God even though our full comprehension of what Trinity is escapes us.
I no longer attempt to explain the Trinity other than to say that God is relational in all that he does, from his creation to the consumption of all things. Relationships reign and we Christians are created in the wonderful generative relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Now, if one were to ask me if I believe in the Trinity I would counter by asking that person:
“Do you believe God is a relational God?”
So yes, I believe in the Trinity. Why wouldn't I?
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