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The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything

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There has been a revival of interest and scholarship on the doctrine of the Trinity in the last 20 years, and many fine studies have been published. But I have still often been asked what book can be recommended to help knowledgeable layman go deeper into this bedrock doctrine. I've been looking for years for the book that explains the practical significance of the doctrine for every day Christians. This is the the book. As the subtitle explains, the Trinity really does change everything, and Fred Sanders explains how the Trinity lies behind our most basic Christian practices and experiences. The book is accessible enough to be be readable by a wide lay audience, but it is deep enough to surprise and teach a scholar with a whole shelf of trintitarian theology. Whether you are a teacher, a pastor or a confused layman, The Deep Things of God will take you to the heart of Christian truth and experience in fresh and insightful way. And Fred Sanders is the perfect guy to bridge the gap between depth and understanding because he has published everything from scholarly monographs to comic books that explain the Trinity! The Deep Things of God is a rich and inviting encouragement to devotion and understanding.

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.

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!

This book, more than any systematic theology, has helped to shape and mold the way I think about the gospel and the Trinity.

It begins somewhat technical, but quickly gets to the heart of Christianity itself: The trinity inviting us into the dance that is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Sanders book accomplishes what so many other Christian books fail to accomplish: it takes the focus off me and puts the focus of the reader on the Triune God.

The book subtitle "How the Trinity Changes Everything" is a great description. The focus here is how the shape of the trinity is the shape of the gospel. Not only how the trinity affects salvation history but also the joy and relationship of the trinity before salvation history and how we see the trinity in relation to Scripture, prayer, and evangelism.

Sanders pulls a lot from great Christian authors throughout history including C.S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, Thomas Manton, J.C. Ryle, R.A. Torrey, John Flavel and many others.

Theological. Scriptural. Applicable. This is not a book of Scriptural proofs of the Trinity. It is a book that takes a Big Picture view of the Trinity with the goal of our rejoicing in it; not just studying it.

Even the full title of this book jazzes me, The Deep Things of God: how the Trinity Changes Everything by Fred Sanders. This book was one of my favorite Christmas presents. I like it so much I want to share it with everybody who wants a little more philosophical depth to their understanding of the gospel. I've been reading Sanders for years now at the blog, The Scriptorium. He writes well and loves God.

I love that this book is a celebration of evangelicals and their trinitarian theology, but he does not need to filoque clause to distinguish the Holy Spirit, so even an Orthodox Christian can enjoy this book. Sanders is not ashamed of his evangelicalism, and he wants evangelicals to not be ashamed. He wants us to know our trinitarian credibility is real, so he limits himself to (almost) only reference Protestants, from Tyndale to Calvin to Wesley to Edwards to Watts and Warfield and a bunch of people I never heard of. I'm really glad to meet some of these people in my religious heritage, like F.B. Meyer.

One of the typical ways evangelicals introduce the gospel is with the statement "Jesus loves you." But when the time comes to take the full measure of that love, we have to look further than mere human sympathies. F.B. Meyer, preaching on John 15:9 ... said:

Do you want to know how much Jesus loves you? Ah! soul, before thou canst master that arithmetic thou must learn another mode of computation. Tell me first the love of God the Father to His Son, and I will tell thee the love of the Son to thee. p.122

Although Sanders quotes the Bible too, this is not the book for your debates with Jehovah Witnesses and Unitarians. He refers us to works oriented that way, such as R.A. Torrey's book, What the Bible TeachesWhat the Bible Teaches: The Truths of the Bible Made Plain, Simple and Understandable, especially about the deity of the Holy Spirit. This is more of a philosophical defense. But the church needs more than the three states of water analogy to help us understand the concept of the Trinity and it's implications. A correct understanding of the Trinity keeps our gospel from being too small.

A gospel which is only about the moment of conversion but does not extend to every moment of live in Christ is too small. A gospel that gets your sins forgiven but offers no power for transformation is too small. A gospel that isolates one of the benefits of union with Christ and ignores all the others is too small. A gospel that must be measured by your own moral conduct, social conscience, or religious experience is too small. A gospel that rearranges the components of your life but does not put you personally in the presence of God is too small. p. 106

To that, I say, Amen.

Sanders does not care which side of the Calvinism vs. Arminianism debate one falls on when he quotes them. He cares that his sources get the Trinity. From John Owen, Sanders tells us we learn, The Father gives the Son "for us," that is, as a sacrifice for propitiation. But the same Father gives the Spirit "to us," that is, as an indwelling presence. p.147

Sanders wants us to know, that the Trinity is the gospel. More expansively said:

"the good news of salvation is that God, who in himself is eternally the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, has become for us the adoptive Father, the incarnate Son, and the outpoured Holy Spirit. God the Father sent the Son to do something for us and the Spirit to be something in us, to bring us into the family life of God. God, who is eternally triune in himself in the happy land of the Trinity, gives himself to us to be our salvation, giving the economy of salvation a triune shape that reveals who he is, and making the Father, Son, and Spirit present in our own lives." p.165

Sanders also does not mind those voices who have an experience with God.

Oswald Chambers ... warned, "As Christians workers we must never forget that salvation is God's thought, not man's; therefore it is an unfathomable abyss. Salvation is not an experience; experience is only a gateway by which salvation comes into our conscious lives. We have to preach the great thought of God behind the experience." p.186

And this is where this book is so useful. After we encounter God, we need to learn about Him, and grow in maturity of our knowledge of Him. Towards the end of the book Sanders writes,"Many evangelical Christians, assured by their pastors and teachers that the Trinity is a biblical doctrine, expect to find it explicitly formulated on the pages of Scripture. They are often disappointed and sometimes scandalized to learn that the Trinity is latent, but not blatant, in the Bible." p. 232

Sanders had to end the book someplace. There is so much more to be said. It doesn't feel finished, just stopped. Sanders tells us in a recent blog post, that he knows there is more to understand and apply and he is writing on those things. I'd be more than happy if he only wrote books on the Trinity from here on out. Get the book and think on these things.

In his new book The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything, Fred Sanders tackles the deep issue of the Trinity as the title makes clear.

To even begin talking about the God, the Trinity, is a massive undertaking. We are talking about our infinite and glorious God here; it is no small task!

Thankfully, God in His gracious wisdom has chosen to reveal Himself to sinful humans through His Son Jesus Christ and through His word, the Bible.

And not only that, but He has also graciously given us teachers and men who can help us think more rightly about Him. For that reason I am thankful for Fred Sanders.

I've heard the doctrine of the Trinity talked about in a few different ways. The first is when the Trinity is talked about in terms of how the different persons (Father, Son, and Spirit) relate to one another. This is generally a very deep topic given the fact that you are talking about the inner workings of the Trinity. It's even more difficult because much of the talk must turn into speculation since God hasn't revealed everything there is to know about how the Trinity have related to one another since all of eternity. That is not to say that He hasn't revealed some things about this, it just isn't as clear as many of the other things in the New Testament.

The second way the Trinity is talked about is in terms of the distinct roles each of them actually play in God's work in history: creation, redemption, sanctification, etc. This is often much more practical and immediately evident from Scripture.

And of course many people will include both of these trains of thought in their treatment of the doctrine.

So Where Does This Book Come In?

It's important to clarify early on what exactly this book is. Is it just a book on the doctrine of the Trinity? Is it only on the practical? This book takes a surprisingly different angle than I was expecting. This book is not just an attempt to spell out the doctrine of the Trinity and their glorious workings (though it is that) it is also an attempt to speak directly to the Evangelical Christian movement and remind it of it's deeply Trinitarian roots. Therefore, every chapter is speaking with an aim to show Evangelicals where they have been richly Trinitarian and to hopefully incite a deeper Trinitarianism within Evangelical culture.

The First Two Chapters: A Short Introduction Into Trinitarian Theology Within the Evangelical Movement

The title of the introduction says it all: "Evangelicals, the Gospel, and the Trinity. (Or, How the Trinity Changed Everything for Evangelicalism and Can Do It Again.)" This is Sander's desire throughout the book: that the Evangelical movement would remember where it came from and embrace afresh a deeply rooted Trinitarian understanding of God, life, and the gospel.

The title of the first chapter clues us in as well: "Compassed About By Father, Son, And Holy Spirit. (Or, How Evangelicals Are Profoundly Trinitarian Whether They Know It or Not.)"

While these chapters have so many great things to say, it could be important to know before launching out into this book what exactly you are getting into. These first two chapters are mainly about giving a defense of the fact that Evangelicalism is indeed deeply rooted in Trinitarian theology. Sanders gives many examples from the history of the movement that many men have been motivated from their solid footing in this area.

One helpful quote from these chapters was this:

"Christians are also not in the position of pulling together a few passages of Scripture, here a verse and there a verse, and cobbling them together into a brilliant doctrine that improves on Scripture's messiness. Instead, Christians should recognize that when we start thinking about the Trinity, we do so because we find ourselves already deeply involved in the reality of God's triune life as he has opened it up to us for our salvation and revealed it in the Bible."

The Middle Three Chapters: All About the Trinity - In Itself and In the World

The next four chapters begin to delve into a very helpful study of what is more generally talked about in a study of the Trinity.

The first chapter in this section is titled: "In the Happy Land of the Trinity. (Or, God in Himself.)" In it Sanders begins to look into the distinction between who God is and what He does.

He says:

"God is eternally Trinity, because triunity belongs to his very nature. Things like creation and redemption are things God does and he would still be God if he had not done them. But Trinity is who God is, and without being the Trinity, he would not be God."

And in making this distinction he also shows how before humankind existed God has eternally existed and has been perfectly happy within Himself with no need of His creation.

He shows how that the goal of our salvation is to bring us into a relationship with God forever. And this is what the great news of the gospel is. It is that we get let in on this:

"The boundless life that God lives in himself, at home, within the happy land of the Trinity above all worlds, is perfect. It is complete, inexhaustibly full, and infinitely blessed."

The second chapter in this section is titled: "So Great Salvation. (Or, the Depth of the Gospel.)" Sanders continues further on helping us to see how the Father, Son, and the Spirit are at work in the gospel. He also helps us to think in a healthier way about the gospel:

"The only thing as immense as God himself is God himself, we must look to him to get our bearings about the magnitude of the gospel."

What I felt like Sanders did so well in these chapters is to help us see the amazing way God, each person of the Trinity, works to save us and at the same time keeping our focus on Jesus as the Savior:

"We have already seen the divine scope and the Trinitarian shape of the economy of salvation. Now we need to see, as clearly as possible, that the gospel of the Trinity is not an alternative gospel to the experience of personal salvation through Christ. There are not two different messages here but a single proclamation of good news that is simultaneously Christ-centered and Trinity-centered. There is never any need to play the doctrine of the Trinity off against salvation in Christ, because they are centered on the same reality. The more Trinity-centered we become, the more Christ-centered we become, and vice versa."

The Last Two Chapters: Examples of How the Trinity is Involved in Bible Reading and Prayer

The first chapter here about Bible reading is helpful and interesting. Sanders approaches this by working through three evangelicals and showing how they all had a strong Trinitarian theology at work in their understanding of Scripture and Bible reading.

Finally, the chapter on prayer is very helpful with Sanders starting off by saying:

"God the Father knows what we need before we ask (Matt. 6:8); God the Son is a high priest who can sympathize with our weakness, giving us confidence to draw near the throne of grace (Heb. 4:15-16); and God the Spirit knows how to pray even when we do not, interceding for us with groanings too deep for words (Rom 8:26)."

I really enjoyed the last chapter!

Conclusion

Ultimately, I felt like this book was very helpful in what it had to say about God the Trinity. Helping to clarify what is clear from Scripture and defend against faulty views. While I understand the reasoning of making the case for the Trinity through the lens of evangelicals to evangelicals, I was at times distracted by it. But it is nonetheless helpful for it's intended purpose and hopefully will be used to show present day evangelicals that a deep Trinitarian theology is indeed part of their roots and that they wouldn't be where they are without it and that they are losing much if they neglect it.

Deep and Dynamic Truths about the Centrality of the Triune God

In the seven chapters of this book, Fred Sanders seeks to show as stated in the Introduction , "that evangelicalism is Trinitarian deep down" (11).

This book deals with the "deep things of God" states Sanders quoting the great puritan teacher Thomas Goodwin. But the particularity of this book is the way these "deep things" relate to the Trinitarian being of God. This depth is breath-taking at times as biblical theology should be.

Chapters 1 to 2 show how evangelicalism is rooted in the Trinity and how God's being is complete without any need of outside relationship. Sanders calls this "the happy land of the Trinity." This is a necessary foundation for what is to follow - the experience of salvation on the part of the believer brought into the life of God's three-ness.

Chapters 3 to 5 are a "three-chapter core of the book" (25) and explain how the Trinity enriches our whole understanding and experience of salvation flowing from the Gospel.

Chapters 6 and 7 apply this enrichment to the key double disciplines of the Christian life - the feeding upon the Word of God and the breathing of prayer.

This is a book I not only enjoyed but found myself immersed in a greater understanding of the glory and beauty of the Triune God. It has also been helpful in teaching the doctrine of the Trinity in our local church. I recommend it highly.

For most Christians the doctrine of the Trinity is believed more on authority than biblical understanding. Yet Christians, and evangelicals in particular, have a deeply Trinitarian theology embedded in their worldview that they're often unaware of. In The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything, Fred Sanders seeks to bring these Trinitarian beliefs to the surface and show how critical they are to the Christian faith.

Sanders explains early in his introduction: "The gospel is Trinitarian, and the Trinity is the gospel. Christian salvation comes from the Trinity, happens through the Trinity, and brings us home to the Trinity." (p10) Not only does he attempt to show how important the Trinity is to Christian doctrine, but along the way he cites a rich history of evangelical authors to show that deep down it's been important all along.

The first two chapters of the book deal with preliminary matters of method and what it means for God to live in Trinitarian existence. Here Sanders reminds us that "the man practical reason for learning how to think well about the eternal life of the trinity is that it is the background for the gospel. The blessedness of God's inner life is the only thing that is even better than the good news." (p83)

Chapters three through five comprise the heart of the book. They explore the size and scope of the Trinity in its relationship to the gospel and salvation. The final two chapters of the book look to the practices of Bible reading and prayer. Essentially, they address how we commune with the Trinity, whether or not we're fully aware of the complex depth of the communion.

It's important to point out that this is not an argument full of biblical proof texts to argue that Christians ought to believe in the Bible. For that, I recommend The Forgotten Trinity by James White. The Deep Things of God by Fred Sanders assumes the biblical nature of the Trinity and explores what it means for other important Christian doctrines. Though this theology is embedded throughout evangelical writings, The Deep Things of God provides a unique synthesis of thought and application that will challenge readers to thoroughly consider the Trinity in all the right ways. Those who are not accustomed to reading theological books will likely struggle through certain portions of the book (particularly the first chapter), but will undoubtedly benefit from the rest of it.

In his own words Sanders says "The central argument of this book is that the doctrine of the Trinity inherently belongs to the gospel itself." According to Sanders God is calling people to a deeper communion with him but they are unable to elucidate what that might mean because the church has been preaching a simplified Gospel that emphasizes the Cross instead of the full counsel of God.

We are already immersed in the Gospel and the Trinity belongs to the Gospel so to begin doing Trinitarian Theology we need only begin to unpack our current reality. But today's Christians can say they are saved or born again or that they have a personal relationship with Christ, but they cannot really explain the meaning of their salvation. According to Sanders understanding the depths of our salvation allows us to pray to the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit in a manner consistent with the reality of the Gospel. It also takes the pressure off of us to make prayer happen because we are entering in to an already ongoing conversation between the Father and Son and Spirit.

Was this a good book? I think Christian literature has a fundamental duty to inform and strengthen our Christian walk and using that as a measuring stick Sanders fails miserably. While his arguments have merit and his use of language and metaphor are refreshing he presents us with very little that will encourage our personal pursuit of God. I would recommend that you read Knowing God by J. I. Packer instead.

The Nicene Creed professes: "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things... And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God... being of one substance with the Father... And in the Holy Spirit." And Fred Sanders in "The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything" provides a well-informed, yet stirring portrait concerning the central importance of Trinitarian truth for the Christian and the Christian Worldview (CWV).

Sanders' central argument: "The doctrine of the Trinity inherently belongs to the gospel itself" (p. 9) and "gospel people are by definition Trinity people" (p. 10). Using a host of interesting and diverse sources the author provides a profound look at the utter importance of the Trinity within the life of a Christian (including Warfield, Brooks, Goodwin, Bonar, Owen, Bunyan, Ryle, C.S. Lewis, Manton, A. Murray, and questionable, yet interesting writers such as Nicky Cruz [yes, this is not a misprint; pp. 28-33 and additional exposition of Cruz's Trinitarian thought as the pages turn!] - and Susanna Wesley's Trinitarian reflections).

In "The Deep Things" the author "explains how the Trinity changes everything, and it does this by explaining how the Trinity and the gospel are connected" (p. 25).

The outline of this very readable volume:

- Background (how Christians are "immersed" and "deeply involved" in the "triune life")

- The Trinity and Salvation (chapters 3-5)

- Hearing from God

- Prayer and the Trinity

- And more.

Sanders discusses recent advances in Christian thought including that the doctrine of the Trinity "flourishes ... when it is affirmed in the context of a pre-discursive, nonthematic background awareness of the reality of the Trinity" (p.37) as well as the "Tacit Dimension of Trinitarianism" (Torrance and Polanyi; pp. 40-58). He notes that "Polanyi ... drew attention to the all-important, not-yet-cognitive awareness that makes thematic knowledge possible. This tacit dimension is the nonarticulated element in perception and knowledge, an unreflective awareness of things that is quite different from the clear-cut awareness we have when we perform the mental act of focusing our attention directly and thematically on an object. Polanyi's most famous catchphrase was the expression, `We always know more than we can tell'" (p. 48). "The indwelling a subject" is important in "understanding it better" (p. 58).

Sanders goes a bit too far when he states that there is an "Evangelical coldness toward the Trinity" (p. 11). I see numerous problems within the modern Evangelical movement, but I have rarely noticed this assessment in a wide variety of Evangelical expressions that I have had the chance to observe in depth.

"The Deep Things" provides numerous helpful diagrams and a powerful elucidation of Francis Schaeffer's Trinitarian thought.

"The Trinity also means that God's creation can be both one and many. Secular philosophy veers between the two extremes of monism (the world is really one & plurality is an illusion) and pluralism (the world is radically disunited and unity is an illusion). Secular philosophy moves from one extreme to the other because it does not have the resources to define a position between the two extremes, and because it seeks an absolute extreme or another-as if there must be an absolute oneness (with no plurality) or else a universe of unique, unconnected elements, creating an absolute pluralism and destroying universal oneness... But the Christian knows there is no absolute unity (devoid of plurality) or absolute plurality (devoid of unity)... The Christian knows that God is the only absolute, and that the absolute is both one and many. Thus we are freed from the task of trying to find utter unity or utter disunity... When we search for ultimate criteria or standards, we look... to the living God" (Schaeffer).

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I would add:

Many non-Christian religions and philosophies attack the Trinity as a contradiction. They declare that the doctrine of the Trinity breaks the law of non-contradiction. Hume, Russell, Kant, Muhammad, and Jefferson were critical of the Christian God. Kant declared that the Trinity "provides nothing... even if one claims to understand it." Jefferson scoffed, "When we have done away with the incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic... we shall then be... worthy disciples." The reason for the mocking and irritation is the unbeliever's mind is darkened and they apply the wrong arithmetic. Everyone knows that one plus one plus one, equals three. Not one. But what does one multiplied by one and multiplied by one, equals? One. The Trinity is a mystery. It is not what someone of old quipped: "a riddle wrapped up in a puzzle and buried in an enigma." God is three persons in one being. God in His Almightiness is a mystery. We do not know how the doctrine of the tri-unity of God works. We just know that the Trinity is true and without the Trinity, as the one true God, we cannot make sense out of anything. Reject the Trinity and you cannot account for personhood, love, equality, mathematics, justice, morality, and logic. The Trinitarian nature of God is the precondition for understanding reality and truth. Many Christians recoil at defending the Trinity because they think it is a contradiction and a problem. It is not. It is the solution. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. And there is only one God, three persons in one being. This concept does not break any of the laws of logic. If the doctrine taught that there are three persons in one person, or three beings in one being that would be a contradiction. The Bible teaches that there are three persons in one being. This doctrine is a mystery, not a contradiction. The Trinity violates no known law of logic. And remember, the mathematics of the triune God is not one plus one plus one, equals one. It is one times one times one, equals one.

We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons: nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father: another of the Son: and another of the Holy Spirit. But the godhead of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is all one: the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal (Excerpt from the Athanasian Creed).

The modern Jewish religion, Islam, and the Jehovah Witnesses proclaim that God is an absolute one, a monad, a unitarian deity. The famous Rabbi Rashi, in his commentary on the third day of creation, taught that before God created the universe: "He was yachid ba' olam: all alone." Only the Christian God, the true God, did not create out of necessity, but out of liberty. He is self-existent, He has aseity and needs nothing. God does not need the creation to have someone to care about and love. Within God Himself, He is love and "love happens." God is a noun and a verb. He is a triune being who is actively involved within Himself and His creation. He is stupendous, magnificent, and resplendent in His infinite triune glory. A god who has "needs" is not perfect and infinite. That god cannot possibly exist. It is not just reasonable to believe in the deity of Christ and the triune nature of God, the contrary is impossible. God is Trinity. The Trinity is a mystery among us, and above us, and beyond us. He dwells within all Christians by faith, and this mystery is the key to understanding our world. The sundry religious theories about God demonstrate the ineptness of man's unaided reason. Without God's revelation in His word, all man-made religions create a god who is a divine monad, or the plural pantheon of gods in polytheism. Mankind needs revelation to discover the only true and living God.

God is a self-complete and self-contained unity. There is but one God. God is an absolute personality. There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Within the being of God, diversity is no more fundamental than unity. God is a tri-unity. The persons of the one God are mutually eternal and exhaustive of one another. The Holy Spirit and the Son are ontologically equal with God the Father. This is the solution to the problem of the "one and the many." We baptize in the name (singular) of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (plurality). The unity of the particulars is grounded in the being of God. There is a unity and a diversity in God and there is a unity and diversity in the cosmos. The cosmos is called the universe. It is a unity and a diversity. A unity and a diversity make up the physical reality. The cosmos has unity that is on par with the diversity because in the nature of the triune God there are no particulars not in equal relationship with the universals. There is nothing universal that is not equally ultimate in the particulars. God said, "Let us (plural) make man in our (plural) image (singular) and our (plural) likeness (singular)." No aspect of the universe is more ultimate than the other. The unity in the universe is equal with the diversity in the universe. They are equal because the triune God created and sustains them. All non-Christian worldviews sacrifice the unity for the diversity or the diversity for the unity. Only God in three persons can provide the solution to the problem of "the one and the many." Thus other systems of thought are false.

God in Trinity as the only Starting Point

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:3).

The God of the Bible in Trinity is the starting point for epistemology, apologetics, and philosophy. The triune God is reflected and revealed everywhere in the material and nonmaterial worlds. The Trinity "confronts" humanity and all creation everywhere at all times. You cannot look into a microscope or a telescope or a mathematical table and fail to be confronted by the God alone who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The triune God is the foundation and the solution to the problem of the one and the many. God is the solution and not the problem. Within the being of the triune God: unity and diversity, the one and the many are equally ultimate and infinite.

We see God in His triune nature revealed from Genesis to the book of Revelation. We must declare the truth of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God in three persons, the blessed Trinity. He is not the god of the philosophers or the pagan religions. God is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. We must affirm, trust, and love the true and living God. The triune God is the solution that makes sense out of everything in the world. This is one reason the believer is to study theology. Theology is the study of God. Many Christians confess that they dislike theology and try to avoid it. But the foundation for all reality, and understanding that reality, is the triune nature of God. The explanation of all entities, phenomenon, things, laws, and concrete objects begins with God. Beginning with any starting point or presupposition other than the Trinity is self-defeating.

The God revealed in scripture is the standard for truth, philosophy, and science. This is not a debatable predication. We must begin, move, and finish with God, or we cannot justify anything we do. The Trinity is the solution to all questions, and the source of all true knowledge. All thought presupposes the true God. This does not mean that we cannot do anything without employing theological rhetoric as Gregory of Nyssa lamented in his time, "If you ask for change, someone philosophizes you on the begotten and the unbegotten. If you ask is the bath ready, someone answers the Son was created from nothing." Presupposing the Trinity, as the solution to all questions and the standard for truth, doesn't mean that we must construct a theological postulation just to perform simple mundane tasks. Yet every simple task, and every piece of routine communication presupposes the triune God because we use logic and morality in all those endeavors. God is the precondition for all logic and morality. If we presuppose anything other than God as our starting point, we end up with absurdity and contradictory affirmations. God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is inescapable if we want to make sense out of our world. If you reject the triune God, you end up asserting your philosophical demise. Deny God and you commit logical suicide.

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Sander's volume is an easy read, yet deeply devotional, nevertheless loaded with simple-to-understand academic thought regarding the Trinity. Thus I recommend it to a wide assortment of believers; including students, housewives, ministers, and those in academic circles.

Endorsed by: Gerald Bray, WTS bookstore, and Kevin Vanhoozer.

See the apologetic book that contends for the necessity of the Trinity and Triune Theism in:

"God Does Exist!: Defending the Faith using Presuppositional Apologetics, Evidence, and the Impossibility of the Contrary" type in ASIN #:1420827626

or see

Truth, Knowledge and the Reason for God: The Defense of the Rational Assurance of Christianity