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).