Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 16:1 (Spring 2012)
Article: Knowing The Trinity From Scripture
Author: Keith Goad

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SBJT 16:1 (Spring 2012) p. 44

Knowing The Trinity From Scripture

Keith Goad

Keith Goad is Pastor of Jefferson Park Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Virginia.

He received the Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The doctrine of the Trinity is unique. On the one hand, it is absolutely essential for Christians to believe, while on the other hand, it is beyond our human comprehension to understand fully. In fact, it is due to the latter that the doctrine has been denied, distorted, and ignored numerous times throughout the history of the church, and it is due to the former that Christians have been willing to give their lives to defend it. My goal in this article is to provide some clarity concerning how we can know the Triune God from Scripture so that the church’s confession is confident, clear, and faithful. We must confess the Triune God robustly and carefully according to how the Triune God has revealed himself. The doctrine of the Trinity must be robust because we must say all we can say about the Triune God based upon God’s own self-revelation. We cannot shy away from the doctrine because it is beyond our ability to comprehend. The church must know all they can know about the Triune God from Scripture and then seek to protect it. The doctrine of the Trinity must also be carefully affirmed in the sense that we must not try to be novel or clever in our articulation and confession of the doctrine. As we will see the theological task is to defend what God has revealed, not add to it in order to explain it. The church is not called to make complete sense of the Trinity, but to trust him knowing his ways are above ours.

Studying The Trinity As Creatures

Before we look at specific texts, a few preliminary theological rules need to be established as to how Scripture should be read in order to know the Triune God. The most basic theological principle that must be remembered is God is the Creator and man is his creation. The Creator-creature relationship establishes clear limits concerning what we can know about God. God is spiritual, infinite, eternal, and perfect in his nature. We are finite and temporal, and now sinful.

Our limitations as his creatures and his infinite greatness means we must be careful in what we

SBJT 16:1 (Spring 2012) p. 45

say about God. We do not have access to God’s essence/nature in itself to know it and study it as we would things in the created order. No human being is capable of comprehending God’s nature as they would something in the created world. God is beyond our limits to measure or observe. This is why our knowledge of him is dependent upon his actions and declarations. We have true knowledge of G...

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