The Trinity Changes Everything

I didn’t come up with the subtitle to The Deep Things of God, but I like it: “How the Trinity Changes Everything.” Michael Easley picked up on the claim made by that subtitle, and talked with me about it. Does the Trinity really change everything? Yes, in terms of our actual salvation and our understanding of it, this doctrine makes a huge difference.

Here’s part of what I said about the power of trinitarian theology for binding together the doctrine of salvation:

This is a matter of taking the broad, comprehensive view. I keep making that point because, as a systematic theologian, I’m not following axioms like I’m doing Euclidean geometry. “Systematic” means I’m trying to get all the evidence on the table at the same time and think through it so that it goes together. Salvation is one unified thing with many different parts you can explore, but those parts have a primal unity, cohering and fitting together organically. The fact that we are freely justified by the grace of God without reference to our works goes with the fact that we are created in Christ to do good works that He prepared beforehand for us to walk in. That’s all in Ephesians, both truths, side by side in the same passage. Over and over, you see this in Scripture—these things go together. If we approach this in a fragmented way, you can tear apart the whole message of salvation and run off with little bits and scraps, then later ask how these bits and scraps go together. The benefit of the doctrine of the Trinity for all this is that a Trinitarian theology of salvation is elaborate and holistic, taking in the full counsel of the Word of God. That solves so many problems. If I were teaching a class on salvation or soteriology, there would be all these subsections and subchapters. After working through the individual ones, you’d have to step back and say, “How do these all go together? How are these nine different subjects one class on salvation?” As soon as you start asking that systematic overview question, you’re going to be glad there’s an even larger holistic unit, which is triune salvation, a Trinitarian gospel that keeps you from getting into these little ruts and wondering how the different parts go together.

That part’s at 36:20. But here’s the whole conversation if you’re interested.