How do you understand the Trinity? How do you explain it? Fred Sanders talks about why he wrote The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything.
Archive for the ‘The Trinity’ Category
The Work of the Trinity in Salvation
“God plays the symphony of our salvation in three movements,” say Philip Graham Ryken and Michael LeFabvre in Our Triune God. Each of these movements is associated with and facilitated by a different Person of the Trinity.
The Father: Salvation originated with the Father. Ephesians 1:3-6 tells how the Father chose us before the foundation of the world, and predetermined our adoption as this children through Jesus Christ. The Father is the administrator of salvation, and he oversees the process from beginning to end.
The Son: Salvation is brought to fruition in the Son. Everything the Father does for our salvation, he does through Christ. The work of the Son means redemption, adoption to the Father, reconciliation, sanctification, and glorification (Ephesians 1:7-12). It operates horizontally as well as vertically, and it is for Jew and Gentile alike. It is through the Son that we achieve salvation and come into full relationship with the triune God.
The Spirit: Salvation is communicated by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit changes us from the inside out, preforming the gracious act of regeneration. With this comes the gift of faith and the spiritual ability to believe in the Resurrection. Through the Holy Spirit, our salvation becomes a present reality, applicable to our lives in our own specific context. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives that serves as a seal, establishing us as children of God (Ephesians 1:13-14).
Excerpt modified from of Our Triune God.
“Why the Trinity Matters”—A Free Seminar
If you’re attending The Evangelical Theological Society’s (ETS) annual meeting next week or you call the Atlanta area home, we’d like to invite you to join Dr. Fred Sanders for Why the Trinity Matters—a free seminar and a book signing based on The Deep Things of God: Why the Trinity Matters.
When?
Thursday, November 18, 2010 from 6:30-8:30pm EST
Where?
Crapapple First Baptist Church
12760 Birmingham Hwy
Milton, GA 30004
Please RSVP on behalf of yourself and your guest(s) to 770-475-6111 or events@crabapplefbc.org.
Differentiating the Work of the Son & Spirit in Salvation
If you’ve ever been confused about the Trinity, Fred Sanders just came out with a helpful book called The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything. In chapter 4, “The Shape of the Gospel“, Sanders distinguishes the separate but complimentary roles of the Son and the Spirit in salvation:
“We would be in danger of missing the Spirit’s distinctive work by confusing his work with Christ’s,” Sanders explains. “The best way to keep them unified is to see their difference.”
“A classic way of looking at the two-handedness of God’s work in salvation is the relationship between how the Trinity accomplishes redemption and how the Trinity applies that redemption to us. This idea of redemption accomplished and applied is a handy way of considering salvation in its objective and subjective aspects, even when the two phases of God’s saving work are not correlated with the Son and the Spirit. Redemption would not reach its goal without being applied, but there would be nothing to apply if it were not already accomplished. But recognizing the Son and the Spirit, respectively, as the leading figures in the two phases enriches the idea even more. Christ the Son accomplishes redemption in his own (Spirit-created and Spirit-filled) work. The Holy Spirit applies that finished redemption to us in his own (Son-directed and Son-forming) work. The two works are held together by an inherent unity. The Son and the Spirit are both at work in both phases; nevertheless, the Son takes the lead in accomplishment, and the Spirit takes the lead in application.”
Learn more about The Deep Things of God.
Sanders Pushes Readers Beyond the Surface of the Trinity— “The Deep Things of God”
The Trinity is undoubtedly a mysterious and deep doctrine. There’s an old quote that goes something like: try to understand it and you’ll loose your mind; try to deny it and you’ll lose your soul.
In his new book The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything, author Fred Sanders helps readers not only grasp the doctrine of the Trinity, but what it means to be immersed in what he calls Trinitarian reality.
“Nothing we do as evangelicals makes sense if it is divorced from a strong experiential and doctrinal grasp of the coordinated work of Jesus and the Spirit, worked out against the horizon of the Father’s love,” explains Sanders. “Personal evangelism, conversational prayer, devotional Bible study, authoritative preaching, world missions, and assurance of salvation all presuppose that life in the gospel is life in communion with the Trinity.”
Check out Fred Sanders’ two recent blog interviews with Michael DeBusk and Andrew Faris or learn more about The Deep Things of God.
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