What Is the Trinity?

Warren Wiersbe explained, "Our salvation involves all three Persons in the Godhead (Eph. 1:3-14; 1 Peter 1:2). You cannot be saved apart from the Father's electing grace, the Son's loving sacrifice, and the Spirit's ministry of conviction and regeneration." 

The Trinity is God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our salvation is the work of the Godhead. It is the purpose and plan of God the Father. It was accomplished by the death, burial and resurrection of God's Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Our salvation is applied through the conviction and regeneration of the Holy Spirit.

God the Father elected or chose to save us by grace through faith in Christ (Eph. 2:8-9). Grace defines salvation as the gift of God. Election is the choice of God (Eph. 1:4-6). The elect of God includes all who have or will repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God (1 Peter 1:2).

God the Father sent His Son into the world to seek and save us (Luke 19:10). He died to save us from our sins (Matthew 1:21). Christ died to save sinners. Christ was raised from the dead to justify us from all sin. We are truly saved, when we believe the gospel of Christ (1 Cor. 15:1-4). The faith to believe in Christ is an abiding gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3, 13:13).

God's Will of Decree

Millard Erickson wrote, "We must distinguish between two different senses of God’s will, which we will refer to as God’s "wish" (will-1) and God’s "will" (will-2). The former is God’s general intention, the values with which He is pleased. The latter is God’s specific intention in a given situation, what He decides will actually occur."

Dr. Erickson spoke of two senses in which God's will is expressed in the Bible. One way is God's will in the sense of a wish. The other sense is God's intention. You could say that the Bible speaks of God's will of command and God's will of decree.

God's will of command is what he wants us to do. It's God's revealed will for our lives. We have all disobeyed God's revealed will in one way or the other. That is sin, and we have all sinned (Romans 3:23). Understand the other sense of God's will is his decree. It shall be done. 

God's will of command is seen in Acts 17:30. God commands all people to repent. That side of God's will is his desire for all to repent. However, God's will of decree is seen in Acts 17:31. He has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. It shall be according to God's decree.

When God Loved Us

Charles Spurgeon said, "If a man could know that he was loved by all his fellowmen, if he could have it for certain that he was loved by all the angels, yet these were but so many drops, and all put together could not compare with the main ocean contained in the fact that “God loved us.”

God loved us when he foreknew us, even before we were born. God loved his people in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Such a thought is beyond our comprehension. God is greater than we ever thought, and that includes his love for us. To use Spurgeon's words, that is "contained in the fact that 'God loved us.”

God loved us when we were yet sinners. He did not wait until we got good enough to love us. Had God done so, he would have never loved us. God never loved us because he saw something good in us. Far from it. God proved his love for us while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). It's not based on what we are, but who God is. God loved us, because "God is love" (1 John 4:8).

God loved us when he changed our hearts. We could no more change our hearts than a leopard could change his spots (Jeremiah 13:23). God loved us enough to change our hearts. He poured out his love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us (Romans 5:5).

We Are One In Christ

Charles H. Spurgeon wrote, "As a believer, you are one with Jesus. Therefore you are secure. You will be confirmed to the end until the day of his appearing." In these words, Spurgeon spoke of every believer in Christ. We are one in Christ.

We are one with Christ through new birth. Every true believer is born of the Spirit. We have been born again unto faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. As we are one with Adam in our first birth, so we are one with Christ in our new birth.

Every true believer is one with Christ through the Holy Spirit. We are baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). Christ is the head, and we are the body. As Adam was the head of the human race, so Christ is the head of the church, which is his body (Colossians 1:18).

As the human race is in Adam through sin, so believers are in Christ through salvation from sin (Romans 5:19). As we were born with a sin nature in Adam, so we are born again as a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

We are one with Christ as our representative. We are one with Christ through his death and resurrection (Romans 6:5-6). We have died to the old life, buried with Christ, we are risen with him in newness of life. Water baptism is the symbol of our death, burial and resurrection with Christ (Romans 6:3-4). Therefore, Spurgeon said, "As a believer, you are one with Jesus." That's what it means to be one in Christ.

Predestined Inheritance

Charles C. Ryrie wrote, "To predestine is to preplan a destiny. The word proorizo means to mark off beforehand. The death of Christ and its meaning were predestined by God (Acts 4:28; 1 Cor. 2:7).  God's elect are predestined to adoption (Eph. 1:5), to an inheritance (v. 11), and to ultimate conformity to Christ (Rom. 8:28-29)."

The root word for predestine pictures the horizon of the sky and earth. At a distance, we may see where the landscape of the earth ends and the sky begins. That's a line drawn by God Himself. So, predestination in Christ draws the line between those who are saved and those who are not. God has "marked off beforehand" to save all who believe in Christ (Acts 16:31).

All who have faith in Christ are predestined to be glorified into His likeness (Romans 8:29-30). We shall be glorified in a body like unto that of our risen Lord. "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). That's what Ryrie called "ultimate conformity to Christ."

Ryrie made it simple and clear, "to predestine is to preplan a destiny." That is the security of every believer. Our destiny is certain and God's plan for every believer is certain. We are predestined as God's adopted children, by faith in Christ, unto an eternal inheritance to be glorified in Christ.