Father, Son, & Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, & Relevance

A few weeks ago, while I was in one of my favorite bookstores, a guy made a comment about how the Holy Spirit has been forgotten in contemporary Christianity. I replied by suggesting that we haven't forgotten Him, so much as we have misunderstood Him. Whether we misunderstand or forget Him altogether, it's clear that we don't have a robust understanding of the Holy Spirit, or the Trinity in general. Bruce Ware's Father, Son, & Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, & Relevance, seeks to provide us with the robust understanding we lack. The brief 158 page book is an adaptation from a series of lectures Dr. Ware gave at a conference in 2004 and is broken down into six chapters. Chapter One addresses the importance of the doctrine of the Trinity. "Would God have chosen to reveal himself to us as the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, unless he knew that this would be important to our understanding of him and our faith?" (13) Chapter Two claims to be an historical overview of the doctrine, though it's really more of an analysis of the Biblical evidence for the Trinity. Chapters Three through Five are each on a different person of the Godhead. Each chapter describes the unique roles of each person, how they relate to one another, and what relevance each person's roles has for our lives. The final chapter, six, concludes with ten "lessons for our lives and ministries from the relationships and roles of the triune God." (132) Since we are made in God's image, we must start with understanding of God in order to understand ourselves. The applications include living in community, the harmony of unity, the importance of authority and submission within our families and churches, how to pray, and how to worship. The book is a very easy read, though it is far from simple. I still think James R. White's The Forgotten Trinity is the best book available in regards to the Biblical basis of the doctrine. However, Dr. Ware's is the best I've seen that explains the roles of each person and how the doctrine should apply to how we live. For instance, "Here in the Trinity... we see hierarchy without hubris, authority with no oppression, submission that is not servile, and love that pervades every aspect of the divine life." (157) If you're questioning the Biblical basis of the doctrine, go read James White. If you are seeking a deeper understanding of the Trinity and the relevance the nature of God has in your life, Dr. Ware's book is a must read. I know of no other book that explains these profound truths with such clarity and warmth while maintaining their depth and weight.

Something I appreciate about a good teacher or a good writer, is the ability to make complex ideas understandable and abstract ideas practical. Bruce A. Ware has accomplished this as he writes on perhaps the most complex and misunderstood doctrine of the Christian faith: the Trinity. In Father, Son & Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, & Relevance, Ware explains the doctrine and its history, and then focuses on each person of the Godhead, explaining their distinctive roles in the accomplishment of God's will, and yet maintaining their unity of essence as One God. Bruce A. Ware is Senior Associate Dean and Professor of Christian Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. The book stems from five talks Ware gave at a pastor's conference in 2004. Though first directed toward pastors, it is not just for pastors. Anyone with basic Bible literacy will benefit from it. It would make an excellent gift for new believers or anyone struggling to understand the doctrine of the Trinity. If I were to make a list of books that every Christian ought to read, I would include this one. The subtitle of the book: Relationships, Roles and Relevance, reveals its basic structure. Each person of the Godhead is studied in regards to His relationship to the others, to His role in accomplishing the will of God, including the salvation of His people, and also in terms of how these truths are relevant to our understanding of and relationship with God. Ware's thoughts on relevance and application are very profound and thought-provoking. I found myself reflexively setting the book down to ponder the wonder and majesty of our most glorious God and how the relationships within the Godhead are imaged in His relationship with us, and our relationships to one another. With its approximately 150 pages of text, the book can be quickly read; but it deserves to be pondered and slowly digested. The application section of the chapters on each person of the Trinity would make excellent material for personal devotional time. The book could also be used profitably by study groups. Perhaps Dr. Ware will bless us soon with a study guide. This book is a gem.

The triune nature of God is one that Christians have tried to get a grasp on for the last two thousand years. The scriptures affirm that God is one and that He exists eternally as three persons. Each of the persons are fully God and there is but one God. This is a difficult doctrine to understand to say the least, but it is one that God has presented in His word repeatedly, so we have a responsibility to understand it correctly, if not completely. I believe it impossible to understand the triune nature of God completely in this lifetime, and perhaps in the next as well. The infinite cannot be contained within the finite. As I said earlier, we do have a responsibility to understand this revelation as best as we can, but most of us, myself included, have put off this theological doctrine in favor of things that are easier to grasp. This does not constitute apathy per se, but we honor God by seeking His face as clearly as possible. For us to deny any aspect of the trinity or to try to amend the trinity to meet our expectations is to diminish God in our own hearts and try to reform His being into one of our own likeness. In Father, Son and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, & Relevance, by Bruce Ware, we are given a good overview of the trinity, beginning with a list of ten great reasons every Christian should study this doctrine. It continues with a historical look at how the early church met heretical understandings of the trinity with biblical proof, always leaning toward the scriptures and not on logical statements of others speaking of a God no greater than their knowledge could comprehend The meat of the book comes after this, as each person of the trinity is given a chapter to discuss the differences of role and not of essence that they have. I found this to be extremely helpful in my Christian walk, as virtually every aspect of a Christian's life is impacted by our triune God. Take prayer, for example. I was taught as a child that praying was just talking to Jesus about whatever was on your mind. According to the Lord's Prayer though, Jesus tells us to pray to the Father. We are also told that our prayer to the Father is offered through our mediator, Jesus Christ. And this prayer to the Father, through the Son is to be offered up by the power of the Holy Spirit. Proper prayer acknowledges the trinity. The roles of the trinity are quite complex, with the Holy Spirit pointing us toward the Son who seeks to glorify the Father. Thus the eternal roles of each of the persons should be rightly understood by all Christians if we are to discern error. For example, if someone claims that the Holy Spirit has come upon them for any reason other than to point us toward Christ, our ears should listen attentively to what is said that we may be able to lovingly correct the statement which is bound to contain errors, based on the errant foundation of the source of this information. I have yet to see a book that is more informative on this doctrine tha

You may believe in the Trinity, but how much do you know about it? Are you like me, and you know that you believe in it, you can quote the traditional formulations of it, but you still don't know much about the relationships between the persons of the Trinity; the roles those three persons have; or especially, how knowledge of the relationships and roles within the Trinity ought to affect the lives of believers within their own relationships? If the previous statement describes you, too, then this is a book you'll want to read. "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" is theology at its best--the study of God with a view toward the practical implications of that study in the lives of the Christian. This is one of those rare books that is short, easy to understand, but so dense with important truth that it oughtn't be read quickly. If I had a vote in the matter, I'd vote this one straight onto the list of Christian classic books for the lay person, valuable to be read and then reread through the years. In all the reading of Christian books that I've done, I'd have to go back a few years before I'd find a book that I think is as important for every believer to read as this one.