8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Embracing the Beauty of the Trinity, October 26, 2010
This review is from: The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything (Paperback)
For many Christians today, the Trinity is a doctrine to which we give almost no thought. While we certainly affirm it as being true, we don't really know how it makes a difference in our lives.
So it gets easier for us to start thinking that maybe it doesn't matter. The seeming paradox of God being one, yet three is a huge stumbling block to many people looking at the Christian faith... and maybe it wouldn't change anything if we just let it go.
Fred Sanders, associate professor of theology at Biola University's Torrey Honors Institute, disagrees.
"Deep down it is evangelical Christians who most clearly witness to the fact that the personal salvation we experience is reconciliation with God the Father, carried out through God the Son, in the power of God the Holy Spirit," he writes (p. 9).
But we've lost something as a movement; we've settled for a theological and spiritual shallowness, especially in regards to the Trinity. "Our beliefs and practices all presuppose the Trinity, but that presupposition has for too long been left unexpressed . . . and taken for granted rather than celebrated and taught" (p. 11).
That's why he wrote The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything. In this book, Sanders hopes to reawaken an understanding of, and desire to celebrate, the deeply Trinitarian nature of Christianity.
Because the Trinity is so overwhelming in it's otherness, it's tempting for us to avoid even attempting to speak to it. But as Sanders writes, "We . . . should not let ourselves be trapped into thinking that everything depends on our ability to articulate the mystery of the triune God" (p. 36).
The reality is we are tacitly (implicitly) Trinitarian in innumerable ways. The Trinity serves as the encompassing framework for our thinking and confession. "It is the deep grammar of all the central Christian affirmations" (p. 48).
This implicit knowledge leads to explicit expression in salvation, spirituality, church life, prayer and Bible study. These are the realms to which Sanders focuses the majority of the book.
First, Sanders examines the purpose of the Trinity, and what it means for God to be triune in nature. "The Trinity isn't for anything beyond itself, because the Trinity is God. . . . God's way of being God is to be the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit simultaneously from all eternity, perfectly complete in a triune fellowship of love."
This is extremely important for us to understand; knowing that God has eternally been in perfect, loving community frees us up from being "needed". Because God is three in one, we know He is lonely, bored, selfish or any other such notion. The doctrine of the Trinity, then, allows us to rejoice in our creation because it was not due to a deficiency in God.
Next, Sanders looks at how the Trinity affects our salvation. The question with so many doctrines like the Trinity is, "Is it necessary for salvation?"
Sanders reveals that yes, the Trinity matters very much. Indeed, the "Trinity and gospel have the same shape! This is because the good news of salvation is ultimately that God opens his Trinitarian life to us" (p. 98). We are aided in seeing this, first, when we examine the metaphorical size of our gospel.
Our gospel should be "God-sized," as Sanders puts it, but we too often we settle for something that is too small. "A gospel that gets your sins forgiven but offers no power for transformation" (p. 106). This is a gospel that is too small. A gospel that includes God's blessings, but not God himself--this is a gospel that is too small. "God is the gospel," as John Piper has famously said. And this causes us to look at the shape of our gospel.
"This God who is the gospel is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit," writes Sanders (p. 125). As he examines the economy of salvation, Sanders points out that it is necessarily Trinitarian. God the Father sends God the Son who is empowered by God the Holy Spirit. All three work together as the Father ordains, the Son accomplishes and the Holy Spirit applies salvation to those who would believe. To look at it--and I mean really look at it--it's breathtaking, especially as you see the Trinity in what we are saved into (the life of Christ).
Sanders suggests that as we become more explicitly Trinitarian in our understanding of the gospel, we should simultaneously become more Christ-centered. Many of us can fall prey to the temptation to "grasp Christ in abstraction from the Father and the Spirit," (p. 168), but the doctrine of the Trinity prevents us from doing so in "a Father-forgetting or Spirit-ignoring manner" (p. 171).
When we focus on the Son at the expense of the Father, we get to a really weird place where "Jesus becomes my heavenly Father, Jesus lives in my heart, Jesus died to save me from the wrath of Jesus, so I could be with Jesus forever" (p. 171). And when we do this, we not only get goofy ideas about God, we just end up confused. We (as strange as it sounds) turn the Son into an idol, worshipping Him at the expense of the rest of the Trinity.
Thirdly, he looks at how the Trinity affects how we approach Scripture. In the same way that the gospel is implicitly Trinitarian, so too is the whole of Scripture. "[I]t is just good tacit Trinitarian theology to realize that the Spirit makes Jesus Christ present to us as the Word of the Father and that hearing the voice of God in Scripture is a single, concerted Trinitarian effort" (p. 208).
The Bible is the book in which "the words of the Father are delivered by the Son, through the power of the Spirit" (p. 194). It is either truly the Word of God or it is not. The doctrine of the Trinity bolsters the doctrine of Scripture, giving us assurance of the truth of Scripture.
Finally, he identifies how the Trinity impacts prayer. Sanders calls this praying with the grain. "The grain is Trinitarian, running from the Spirit through the Son to the Father" (p. 212). Our prayers are structurally Trinitarian, whether we realize it or not. We're invited to speak to the Father "by a Spirit of sonship that cries out `Abba, Father,' just as the eternal Son does" (p. 215). As we are adopted as God's children--as we pray like His children--we are shaped into the image of the Son by the Spirit of adoption.
Seeing the Trinity at work in our prayers frees us to rejoice in God; to rejoice in the members of the Trinity as they rejoice in each other. It's a wonderful, freeing gift that God gives us.
"The great tradition of evangelical Trinitarianism has not dabbled or splashed but has gone deep into the things of the gospel, the deep things of God," writes Sanders (p. 239). In The Deep Things of God, Sanders gives us the opportunity to plumb the depths of the nature of God and see how the Trinity truly does change everything.
I'm not sure if there's been a time when Christians have needed this reminder than now. We're often charged with having exchanged the richness of God for something hollow. But it doesn't have to be that way for any of us. We don't have to settle for a shallow picture of God when He wants us to experience all of Him--Father, Son and Spirit. Read The Deep Things of God and be challenged to do exactly that.
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A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review purposes.
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
YOU MAY KNOW MORE ABOUT THE TRINITY THAN YOU THINK..., September 8, 2010
This review is from: The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything (Paperback)
As kids, learning to swim, most of us were intimidated, even scared, by the "deep end" of the pool. I can remember vacationing with my family in the Wisconsin Dells, and it taking me hours on end, beside the hotel pool, to muster the courage to jump into water I knew would be over my head. Though my dad was right there to catch me, and provide instruction as to how to accomplish the seemingly insurmountable task successfully, something in me just couldn't do it. But then, after pacing back and forth, assuming a pseudo-confident jump position (holding my nose, of course), and then backing out for a couple of hours...I finally did it! Then, after awhile, I didn't even need my dad there to catch me. And something that once seemed so intimidating, proved to increase my enjoyment of swimming all the more.
That's a bit like what diving in to the doctrine of the Trinity can be like for many Christians. They know it's there. They've heard about it. However, something in them just can't muster the courage to really go after it, even though it would provide an increasing depth to their understanding, enjoyment, and appreciation of all that God has done for us in the gospel of Christ.
Fred Sanders, associate professor of theology at Biola University's Torrey Honors Institute, in his recent book, The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything, aims to help Christians learn to "embrace the doctrine of the Trinity wholeheartedly and without reserve, as a central concern of Evangelical Christianity". "Why?", you may ask. Sanders says, that we must embrace a robust Trinitarianism because, "the doctrine of the Trinity inherently belongs to the gospel itself".
Sanders begins his book with an "Introduction" briefly touching upon how evangelicalism (Sanders equates w/ Protestantism), though coming from a deeply Trinitarian past, has become "shallow and weakly Trinitarian". The author notes that evangelicals, on the whole, while rightly emphasizing "Bible, cross, conversion, heaven", have reduced their faith to those four elements. In doing so, they have ceased to allow the emphases to stand out from a larger body of foundational truth. Sanders says, "When emphatic evangelicalism degenerates into reductionist evangelicalism, it is always because it has lost touch with the all-encompassing truth of its Trinitarian theology. What is needed is not a change of emphasis but a restoration of the background, of the big picture from which the emphasized elements have been selected". With a particular, and much appreciated, focus on the gospel, and attention to historic and present evangelical voices, Sanders proceeds to argue how a robust Trinitarianism is not only accessible to Christians, but really does add a profound depth to gospel apprehension and living.
In the book's 7 chapters Sanders starts by helping evangelicals see that they belong to a tradition that is "profoundly Trinitarian whether they know it or not". For those who may be intimidated by the well-known phrase, "The Trinity: Try to understand it and you'll lose your mind; try to deny it and you'll lose your soul", Sanders sheds light on the reality that a deeper understanding of the Trinity can be fostered by simply taking a more intentional look at the theological realities of which one is already aware. More simply stated, many Christians have a better understanding of the Trinity than they may realize. Sanders says, "In order to start doing good Trinitarian theology, we need only to reflect on the present reality and unpack it". He argues that productive and practical instruction to ourselves and others can begin by focusing on the fact that, in the gospel, we're already immersed in Trinitarian reality. Agreeably, when one sees how intimately connected the gospel and Trinity are, it will lead to a desire to know, appreciate, and embrace Trinitarian reality rather than reduce it to an act of mental assertion/obedience.
Sanders moves forward to show how God is Trinune in himself, and is infinitely and eternally happy to be Father, Son, and Spirit without reference to or need of the created order. This is glorious news as Sanders notes that, "The good news of the gospel is that God has opened up the dynamics of the triune life and given us a share in that fellowship".
The successive chapters successfully show how the thinking in Trinitarian, Father-Son-and-Spirit terms, gives a deeper and more profound understanding to the reality of our salvation, the Trinitarian work within the eternal plan of God in the gospel (i.e., the "economy of salvation"), our personal relationship with Christ, reading of Scripture, and prayer. Sanders does a remarkable job helping Christians move from mere analogous understandings of Trinitarian reality to experientially, Scripturally based, vivid apprehensions of how the Trinity relates to our lives every day in light of the gospel.
Several notable strengths of Sanders' work include:
A gospel-centered, readable, concise, thorough, and practical Trinitarian theology.
Chapter 2, "Within the Happy Land of the Trinity", is worth the purchase of the book itself...explaining the glory, benefit, and depth of rightly understanding who God is, before considering what God does.
A wide variety of historic and present evangelical voices, with citations, to help Christians grow an appreciation for those who have gone before (or are still with us) and have thought in richly Trinitarian categories.
Readable and clear charts/diagrams that provide simple summaries of various Trinitarian realites.
The book serves as a roadmap that will help both theologically seasoned and younger believers grow in their ability to worship, think, study Scripture, and pray in Trinitarian terms.
Sanders offers a considerate and compassionate call to evangelicals to return to and embrace their Trinitarian roots for their deeper joy in the gospel.
Overall, The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything is an excellent study on the doctrine of the Trinity. And, with a sharp and intentional focus on the gospel, and a reverent and worshipful spirit, Sanders takes the reader on an excellent and edifying study of this magnificent doctrine and its practicality for the daily walk of every Christian. I wholeheartedly recommend it!
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