Chapters 1 – 3: What Is the Bible? What Is God Like? The Trinity
This section of Knotmaking is an outline, and expanded study, of a book on the basics of Christian Theology by Wayne A. Grudem, titled: Christian BeliefsTwenty Basics that Every Christian Should Know
The outline and additional study resources below for Chapters 1 through 3 as structured in Grudem’s book are organized below. The content is mine except where I quote Scripture, Grudem, or other sources.
Chapter 1: What is the Bible?
A-CNS (CNS is a common designation for our Central Nervous System–so Gruden’s outline has that useful coincidence).
Gruden’s outline on the importance of the Bible is:
- A: Authority
- C: Clarity
- N: Necessity
- S: Sufficiency
Chapter 2: What is God Like?
Grudem outlines 23 distinctives / attributes of God. These individually or in aggregate or expanded by 100 others distinctives can never fully answer for us what God is “like.” The means by which we understand things is by putting them into categories and then making distinctions, as appropriate, between the various ‘members’ of such category. However, God is in a Category of One–there is no ‘one’ to which He can be joined or which can join Him (though we’ll address this further in Chapter 3 on the subject of the Trinity).
Further we are finite, created, fallen beings–fallen as to both our reasoning and hearts / inclinations. We, simply, cannot grasp the full measure of God.
But by the Grace of God’s revelation in His Word, and the work of the Holy Spirit providing illumination to that Word, we can know some things, however incompletely. And such “some things” are amazing beyond self-imagination, and exceedingly beautiful. We will be delighted throughout all eternity knowing them ever more deeply.
Chapter 3 Trinity
(one could say that this subject belongs in Chapter 2 as the 24th distinctive of God; however because of the importance and complexity of the Trinity, Grudem wisely and conveniently breaks it out as a separate chapter))
God is ONE. About this there can be no Biblical ambiguity. Scripture does not teach, nor should any “Christian authority” that there exists three ‘Gods.’
However, there are many (many) passages of Scripture that teaches Three–not separate Gods–but separate beings, commonly termed (by scholars) “Persons:” The Father (Person 1), The Son (Lord Jesus Christ / Jehovah; Person 2), and The Holly Spirit (Person 3, a “Who,” not a non-Person force).
How is it that there are Three Beings and One God. Grasping this is beyond the revelation in the Bible, and so, for now, beyond our full comprehension, and perhaps beyond our full comprehension even in all Eternity. This should not trouble us: God our Creator is not constrained in any way, especially as to His essential Being(s), to the comprehension of any of His creation, as anything that you or I may create, a cake or a carving, does not and cannot comprehend its creator.
Scholars have coined a summary term for this essential idea and it is “Trinity.” The word trinity itself does not occur in the Bible. But the idea and teaching behind the term is an essential truth of the Scripture.
Summary Outline of Chapters 1-3
Attached below is a pdf that may be a useful outline summary of the first three chapters of Grudem’s book.
christian-beliefs-grudem-ch-1-3-god
An important component of such outline is my attempt to distinguish how man, any one of us, might respond to each element of each chapter into one of three categories: Defy, Deny, and Humbly Accept.
- Defy is the response of simply rejecting the entire concept of the Bible’s relevance to my life and certainly to any role of authority over my reasoning, impulses, feelings, etc.
- Deny is the more subtle and tricky response. It represents, in my use of these coined terms, the idea that I judge the Bible, deciding which portions / aspects are true and which of those are relevant to me in the here and now and which of those I accept as governing me, namely my acceptance of the judgment of God as expressed in His Word (in such very specific, limited sections of my choosing) as a rightful judge of right and wrong.
- Humbly Accept is the simple acceptance that any and all of God’s Word, of course properly grasped in the plain meaning of the text, is my judge and authority.
For everyone one of us, however drawn we have been to Christ and His Word, there is at least one area of confrontation were it is very difficult for us to “Humbly Accept,” and, so, we revert to “Deny” with respect to such area. God, seemingly, has orchestrated His revelation, or the Devil his lines of attack, or both, such that we each in our own way are confronted with the difficulty of humble Faith that what is on that written page is true and even my eyes are liars (as they were for both Eve and then Adam). One example of this challenge is dealing with adversity / suffering and the justice (righteousness) of God. Theologians call this the Theodicy Issue (*Theodicy” means the righteousness or justice of God). How can God be, at the same time, all Knowing, all Powerful, and Loving, and yet there is what appears to us to be something awful and unjust occurring. An essay by Ravi Zacharias on the 15th Anniversary of 9-11 is attached below is helpful in this regard.
on-the-15th-anniversary-of-september-11-2001-life-death-and-the-search-for-god-rzim
Normally, what happens with such difficult issues is that Christians seek to Deny Scripture and ‘reconcile’ the Theodicy dilemma by explaining such adversity by claiming (1) God is not truly Sovereign as the Fall has caused Him to withdraw from His Creation or, equivalently, Satan has now, somehow, the upper hand in all such matters which hand is beyond God’s control or authority, or (2) God is not all Knowing, or (3) God is, frankly, not all Good.
Here’s the challenge, in some area, for each of us, quoting one of the great Puritan authors in one of the great Puritan books:
“Truth is truth, and error, error, and that which is unlawful is unlawful, whether men think so or not. God has put an eternal difference between light and darkness, good and ill, which no creature’s conceit can alter; and therefore no man’s judgment is the measure of things further than it agrees to truth stamped upon things themselves by God.” from “The Bruised Reed” (first published in 1630)
by Richard Sibbes