The Doctrine of the Trinity Brings Comfort

In this excerpt from our 2012 National Conference, Sinclair Ferguson reminds us that the doctrine of the Trinity brings comfort—especially in times of crisis.

Transcript

"The Lord Jesus, on the night of His betrayal, is doing the very thing that we contemporary Christians would never dream of doing. What is He going to say to help these beleaguered, frightened disciples? And the answer is, you'll see this if you read even casually through John 13-17, He's teaching them about the Trinity—that's what He's doing.

There are these spasmodic references to the ministry of the Holy Spirit earlier in John's Gospel. There's an emphasis on the ministry of the Father in John's Gospel. But it's only in this hour of crisis, in their time of deepest need, it's as though Jesus is saying to them, 'If you're going to survive through this and other times of deepest need, then I need to bring you to a deeper knowledge of who God is.'

And you remember how He says to them, 'I've had so many things to say to you but you wouldn't have been able to take it in, or even bear it?' But now He begins to unfold the glorious mystery of the inner relationships of the blessed Trinity. And He brings in this marvelous triangulation as it were of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the unity of their mutual fellowship and in-being, and in the way in which they mutually share in the strengthening, comforting, and redeeming of God's people, and ultimately in the salvation of sinners throughout the world because when the Spirit comes He will convict men of sin and righteousness and judgment.

Actually, that's the reason why the early Christians spent so much time thinking through what it means that God is Trinity. Not because they were given to scholasticism, but because they had a passionate love with their minds for the LORD their God and they wanted to describe Him biblically and rightly. And I think it would be true today to say that for many Christians the Trinity is the most speculative of all doctrines and therefore the most irrelevant—whereas for the Lord Jesus it is the least speculative of all doctrines and by far the most relevant and practical. But we don't find that unless we're digging into the scriptures to pursue the knowledge of God as He's revealed to us in our Lord Jesus Christ."