“To believe and love the Trinity is to possess the key of theology.”
As Charles Spurgeon stood to preach his first sermon as pastor of New Park Street Chapel, he held his Bible in his hand and the doctrine of God in his heart. Then the young preacher exclaimed, “Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.” The Trinity in Unity, and Unity in Trinity was not an optional appendage to the gospel, rather a “gospel without belief in the living, and true God… [was] a rope of sand.” When it came to the Trinity, life and death hung in the balance.
Spurgeon is well known for his Christocentricity in his preaching, but he should also be well known for his Trinicentricity in his soteriology. Indeed, his soteriology was founded on the rock of Christ embedded in the heart of the Godhead. Spurgeon marveled at the “infinite love!” of Christ, who being “‘Light of light, very God of very God’… purchased the church with his own blood.”
According to Spurgeon, “The sacred Trinity think much of salvation,” therefore, he warned, “let us not neglect it.” Salvation, certainly, all of redemption showed God’s economic love for his creation. Furthermore, believers were not called to dry duty, but divine delight. A delight emanating from the overflow of God’s delight in himself, as one person glorified another. The overflow of this triune love led Spurgeon, “to see the traces of the Trinity in every act of grace.”
While the study of God may enlarge the intellect, as Spurgeon preached that first sermon at New Park Chapel, he cautioned against a trifling approach to the study of the Triune God. He publicly pondered, “whether any man is able to pry into the mystery of the Trinity without great risk.”
Yet, Spurgeon believed that Christians were called to the dangerous duty of delight in, “the adorable Trinity in Unity.” But, not a quaint, dainty, or charming kind of adorable, but rather, an overwhelmingly worthy of adoration adorable. In Spurgeon’s view, one should not approach the Trinity without this adoration. Instead, let the following eight quotes by Spurgeon guide in adoring the lovely Trinity in Unity, and Unity in Trinity.
1. “It needs the Trinity to make a Christian, it needs the Trinity to cheer a Christian, it needs the Trinity to complete a Christian, it needs the Trinity to create in a Christian the hope of glory.”
“It needs the Trinity to make a Christian, it needs the Trinity to cheer a Christian, it needs the Trinity to complete a Christian, it needs the Trinity to create in a Christian the hope of glory. I always like these passages which bring us so near to the Trinity. Let us pause a while and adore: ‘Glory be unto the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost: as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end! Amen.’ It is most sweet to be called upon to offer special worship unto the one God in the Trinity of his divine Persons, and to feel your heart readily inclined thereto, as we do at this hour”
2. “But as they are one in creation, so are they one in salvation working together in one God for our salvation, and unto that God be glory everlasting, world without end, Amen.”
“When thou sayest, ‘Saviour,’ remember there is a Trinity in that word — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, this Saviour being three persons under one name. Thou canst not be saved by the Son without the Father, nor by the Father without the Son, nor by Father and Son without the Spirit. But as they are one in creation, so are they one in salvation working together in one God for our salvation, and unto that God be glory everlasting, world without end, Amen.”
3. “Learn, then, O believer, to love all the persons of the Divine Trinity alike.”
“Learn, then, O believer ,to love all the persons of the Divine Trinity alike. Remember that salvation is no more the work of one than of the other. They all three agree in one; and as in the creation they all said, ‘Let us make man;’ so in salvation they all say, ‘Let us save man;’ and each of them does so much of it that it is truly the work of each and undividedly the work of all”
4. “Remember, you cannot pray without the Trinity. If the full work of salvation requires a Trinity, so does that very breath by which we live.”
“Beloved friends, I scarcely need say to you, do keep the existence of the Trinity prominent in your ministry. Remember, you cannot pray without the Trinity. If the full work of salvation requires a Trinity, so does that very breath by which we live. You cannot draw near to the Father except through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit.”
5. “We are to worship the Son even as we worship the Father; but to magnify the love of the Son above the love of the Father would be to rob God. May none of us dishonor any one person of the sacred Three.”
“In preaching the sacrifice of Christ it is possible to extol the Son at the expense of the Father. It will never do to make it appear that Jesus died to make the Father merciful. God the ever-blessed, the first person of the sacred Trinity, is love, and therefore he gave his Son to die for men. We are to worship the Son even as we worship the Father; but to magnify the love of the Son above the love of the Father would be to rob God. May none of us dishonor any one person of the sacred Three. . . . Though we understand not the mystery of the Trinity, let us believe and worship, and so escape the sin of robbing God.”
6. “There is a mutual delight in each other in the persons of the blessed Trinity, so that each divine person delights to glorify the rest. God even thus glorifies himself.”
“There is a mutual delight in each other in the persons of the blessed Trinity, so that each divine person delights to glorify the rest. God even thus glorifies himself. All his works praise him, all his decrees praise him; all things which are, or shall be, show forth his sole glory. Well, dear brethren and sisters, as we do not wish to be out of gear with the works of God, or opposed to his nearest attendants, or in rebellion against the sacred Trinity, let us stand to it that our souls shall glory only in the Lord as long as we live. So much upon that first head, let us glory only in the Lord.”
7. “The will of the Father, the will of the Son, and the will of the Spirit must be one; it is a perverse forgetfulness of the unity of the Godhead to suppose otherwise.”
“We may be quite sure that the doctrine of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ cannot be opposed to the work of the Spirit of God, for never without blasphemy can we imagine anything like a division in the purposes and works of the sacred persons of the adorable Trinity. The will of the Father, the will of the Son, and the will of the Spirit must be one; it is a perverse forgetfulness of the unity of the Godhead to suppose otherwise. That which glorifies Jesus cannot dishonor the Holy Ghost, we may be quite sure of that.”
8. “This doctrine of the Trinity in Unity seems to be the place of standing or falling with public teachers and private believers.”
“Get a clear idea, then, of the Trinity in Unity. Do not reason about it; do not try to understand it: remember, it is not your duty to comprehend, but to apprehend such truths as these: you are to believe, rather than to reason. One God in the Trinity of his persons let us know and worship; for remember that, those who do not now this, very seldom know much else about divine things; for a very remarkable fact it is, that when the doctrine of the Trinity is given up, the other doctrines of the evangelical system are pretty sure to be cast to the winds. This doctrine of the Trinity in Unity seems to be the place of standing or falling with public teachers and private believers.”
Sean Stone is pursuing his Master of Divinity at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, MO. He is a member of Emmaus Church KC and a Spurgeon Scholar at the Spurgeon Library.
