by Marilynn Chadwick
We’ve seen how the “Doctrine of the Trinity” is a weapon against false teaching. Sound doctrine prepares believers to defend their faith. The doctrine of the Trinity is powerful and necessary because the teaching—and whatever we know of the Trinity—springs straight from God’s Word. Its origins are revealed in Scripture, lived out in the Incarnate Christ, perpetuated, and poured out by the Holy Spirit into his bride, the church—you and me.
We cultivate a “Trinitarian wisdom” through worship and the study of God’s Word. Training believers in healthy doctrine has multiplication as its ultimate purpose. We grow stronger as we pour out to others that which we’ve received. A disciple is simply a “learner.” The purpose of all discipleship is “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-13 NRSV).
Effective discipleship is based on biblical teaching. Theology, done rightly, is a study of Scripture. Christian Theology seeks to understand the God revealed in the Bible. It’s the study of God's revelation of himself. Sound doctrine creates balanced believers (Titus 2:1; Eph. 4:14). Healthy teaching helps us stand strong against the lies of the enemy and the forces of culture which are contrary to Scripture. Mature disciples are not “tossed to and fro...by every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14 ESV). Sound doctrine, or “healthy teaching,” equips believers to keep a sound mind even when the world around us seems to be losing theirs.
We’ve seen how the major creeds of our faith were based on Scripture. Each one was written to combat a particular heresy. Since that fateful day in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve chose to be their own gods, there seems to be no end to the way humans get off track. When we seek our own wisdom instead of relying on God’s truth, we are vulnerable to the enemy’s lies. No wonder Scripture points us to the fear of the Lord as “the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10 ESV).
The doctrine of the Trinity increases our wisdom as we grow in our awe of God. Spiritual insight comes when we grapple with the mystery of the triune God. The Trinity is beyond our ability to comprehend. We must contemplate with humility—the only posture with which to approach the doctrine of the Trinity.
Let’s face it. False teaching can distort our thinking and make us sick, fearful, or anxious. Heresies such as Antinomianism or Gnosticism, both addressed in 2 Peter and Jude, often led to extreme license on one hand or harsh legalism on the other. Heresy does not create healthy saints.
Simply put, the Trinity helps us know God better. In it we see the unity of the triune God—One God in Three Persons. The doctrine of the Trinity is found at the very center of the Gospel and is the greatest of all mysteries, one which theologians throughout the centuries have called the “fountain and origin of them all.”