What do you know about the Trinity?
What do you believe about who God is?
These are fundamental questions to our Christian faith.
Consider this statement:
There is one true God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Would you agree or disagree?
In the 2022 report on the State of Theology, they found only 54% of professing evangelical Christians strongly agreed with this statement—just over half!
Tara-Leigh Cobble asserts that, “without the Trinity as the core of our beliefs, every other doctrine of our faith starts to come unglued and unhinged." Our belief about the nature of God’s oneness and threeness is essential and she writes The Joy of the Trinity: One God, Three Persons to teach us about it.
The Joy of the Trinity | Book Review
Content
Content
Purpose of the Book
The author’s purpose in writing this is to help Christians consider their understanding of God, specifically his Trinitarian nature. She acknowledges the three-in-one can be difficult to comprehend, but knowing more about our God leads us to greater joy in worship of him.
Table of Contents
Introduction
CHAPTER 1 Unity & Diversity
CHAPTER 2 God the Father
CHAPTER 3 God the Son
CHAPTER 4 God the Spirit
CHAPTER 5 Prayer & Communication
CHAPTER 6 In His Image
Summary
This resource outlines what Christians believe about the Father, Son and Spirit and how it makes a difference for us. First that God is one but has three natures; both unified and diversified. Then she takes a chapter to look at the unity and diversity within each member of the Godhead, Father, Son and Spirit. Then, she takes a chapter to discuss how the doctrine of the Trinity shapes our life of prayer, and, lastly, how knowing God as three-in-one informs our relationships with the world.
My Take: On Knowing and Loving the Lord
To love God we must know him.
You might think this is easy for me to say, since my personality bends toward learning and reading. But knowledge alone isn’t sufficient for discipleship, for “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1). Yet neither is love sufficient on its own because, “the heart cannot love what your mind does not know.” [1] Knowing and loving exist as both-and in our relationship with the Lord.
The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks;
What is the chief end of man?
The answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
Our ultimate purpose is to make God’s name great and to enjoy him, so we learn to know who he is as he’s revealed in the scriptures that we may believe and behold his greatness. Trevin Wax describes it this way, “Christians care about the details of doctrine because we love the God those doctrines describe.” [2]
We may approach the topic of the Trinity with trepidation because it seems difficult to describe, but the purpose of theology—of knowing God, “is for doxology and devotion—that is, the praise of God and the practice of godliness.” [3]
Reflecting on the unity and diversity of the Father, Son and Spirit helps shift our gaze upward so that we can worship him rightly for who he is and find joy in his presence with us.
My Recommendation
For extra resources, you’ll find the bible study she’s written and published through Lifeway titled, He’s Where the Joy Is, and the accompanying video sessions and leader’s material.
For an introductory book to the doctrine of the Trinity, add this one to your list! You’ll be encouraged and a little challenged to step into theological concepts and understanding.
Quick Stats
# of Pages: 224
Level of Difficulty: Easy-Moderate
My Rating: 4 stars
[WATCH] Intro to the Study
I'm a reader, but maybe you aren't or you just don't have the time. Check out this quick video as an introduction to the bible study, and the topic of the book.
[LISTEN] Episode from the Podcast
In this first episode she's teaching from Genesis 1 on the podcast. Catch her other sessions as well.
More Like This
I've read and reviewed:
From t he footnotes: (and widely recommended)
Scriptures About the Father, Son and Spirit
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19-20).
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Cor. 13:14).
According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you (1 Pet. 1:2).
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph. 4:4-6).
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God (Luke 1:35).
Follow Along
*A big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review!
[1] Jen Wilkin, Women of the Word: How to Study the Bible With Both All Our Hearts and Our Minds , p.31
[2] Trevin Wax, The Thrill of Orthodoxy: Rediscovering the Adventure of the Christian Faith, ch.4
[3] Amy Gannett, Fix Your Eyes: How Our Study of God Shapes Our Worship of Him, introduction
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