Matthew 3: 16-17

Scripture

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."
-- Matthew 3:16-17

Observation

Who?

• John the Baptist
• The people of Jerusalem, Judea, and the region around the Jordan
• Pharisees
• Sadducees
• Jesus, the One is to come
• The Holy Spirit
• God the Father

What?

• v16: Jesus comes up out of the water. The heavens open to Him. The Spirit of God descends on him in the form of a dove.
• v17: A voice from heaven declares Jesus to be His beloved Son and that with Him, He is well pleased.

Where and When?

The location and historical setting is the same as in Matthew 3:1-6, Matthew 3:7-12, and Matthew:3 13-15. 

Interpretation

Not too long ago, a friend of mine asked me a question about the history of the doctrine of the Trinity. He was not asking what the doctrine of the Trinity is, but how Christians got the idea that God is triune in the first place. My answer was that as Christians started studying the statements and actions of Jesus and tried to reconcile them with the teaching of the Old Testament, the idea of the Trinity is what emerged.

One of the main truths established in the Old Testament is that there is one God. As Deuteronomy 6:4 says:

Hear, O Israel: the Lord Our God is one.

A lot of the Old Testament deals with the issues the people of Israel had coming to understand that there is no other God than the One who had revealed Himself to them.

Things begin to get more complicated in the New Testament. John 1:1 says,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

In this verse, we see that in some way the Word, Jesus, is identified with God, but in some other way, He is distinguished from God. In all of the Gospels, Jesus talks about (and to) His Father. He is also said to do his miraculous works by the power of the Holy Spirit. In John 14:16-17, Jesus talks about the the Father sending the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter or Helper (depending on translation). In these verses, Jesus is primarily talking about the role of th Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, but one of the underlying assumptions of what He says is that the Holy Spirit is separate from both Himself and His Father. If you explore the New Testament, you will find a number of other places where the Fathe, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are treated as distinct Persons.

Looking at the Old Testament portrayal of God as one together with the New Testament distinctions between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the early Christians said, "Huh? How does that work?" After a couple centuries of arguing and figuring and working and praying, orthodox Christians settled on the doctrine of the Trinity to explain these apparently contradictory statements in Scripture.

St. Augustine summarized the doctrine of the Trinity with the following seven brief statements:

• The Father is God
• The Son is God
• The Holy Spirit is God
• The Father is not the Son
• The Son is not the Holy Spirit
• The Holy Spirit is not the Father
• There is one God

The idea here is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct from one another. Each of Them is God in His own right, but somehow those Three are in essence One God. They are equal to and united with One Another, but somehow different from one another as well. When speaking about the Father, Son, and Spirit as individuals, they are often referred to as the "Persons." When speaking about Them as a unified whole, that Unit is often referred to as the "Godhead," a term taken from Colossians 2:9.

Opponents of Christianity have often pointed to the doctrine of the Trinity as evidence that Christianity is false (they often go on to add that it is stupid as well). They argue, quite rightly, that three is not equal to one and they go on to say that if one of the fundamental "truths" of Christianity is so patently and obviously false that the whole of Christianity must be false as well. The Christian response has been that this is not a  contradiction, but a Mystery.

The most fundamental rule in logic is the rule of non-contradiction. This rule states that's thing and it's opposite cannot both be true, or at least that they cannot both be true at the same time and in the same sense¹. If, for example, you tell your mother that you ate your grilled cheese sandwich, and she has already seen it in the trash, she will know that you are not telling the truth².

According to Wikipedia, a paradox is a statement which appears to contradict itself and yet might be true. Upon further examination, it will will either be possible to resolve an apparently paradoxical statement, or it will be discovered to be truly contradictory. In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis used the statement, "The lazy boy works hardest" to illustrate this idea. On the surface, this appears to be false--of course the lazy boy doesn't work as hard, he's lazy! However, when digging deeper, we find that by the end of the semester, the boy who buckled down, did his homework, and learned the material will be ready for the exam without too much additional studying. The lazy boy, meanwhile will be scrambling to cram a semester's worth of learning into the week before the exam.

Paradoxes which cannot be resolved reveal logical problems in the system of thought from which they arise. Russell's Paradox, for example, revealed a flaw in mathematical set theory which gave mathematicians years and years of work to do.

In theology, a Mystery is a paradox that cannot be resolved by human minds, but which, by faith, we believe to be true nevertheless. There is a set of Mysteries at the heart of Christianity³:

• The Trinity - The triune nature of God
• The Incarnation - The Son, Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, becoming a Man in addition to being God
• The Atonement - The death of Jesus, the God-Man, through which our sins are forgiven

Christians believe that these paradoxes are not actually contradictory, but that our finite minds are not big enough to resolve the apparent contradictions. Opponents of Christianity balk at these Mysteries, but Christians see them as evidence of the greatness of God. To the one, they are a scent of death, to the other, the scent of life.

All of this begs the question: why can't I just say "it's a Mystery" to excuse whatever sloppy, incoherent so-called thought I come up with? The answer is Scripture. The ideas of the Trinity and the Incarnation were not made up simply to be confusing. Christians looked seriously at what the Bible says about God's nature with the assumptions that (1) the Bible is the Word of God and (2) whatever God says is true. In the Scriptures, God makes the claims described  above about His nature. Since they all must be true (God is not a liar), they must not be contradictory, even though neither I nor anyone else in history has been able to figure out how they fit together. 

This is one of the rare passages in Scripture where we see all three members of the Trinity together. As discussed in my last post, in His baptism, Jesus is leaving behind His former way of life to begin His work fulfilling the Father's plan of Salvation. As He comes up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descends and rests upon Him. This fulfills two prophecies given by the prophet Isaiah⁴:

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
    the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and might,
    the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
-- Isaiah 11:2

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
    he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
    and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
-- Isaiah 61:1

At the same time, Jesus' Father speaks from heaven, dramatically and publicly confirming Jesus and His mission. This serves as the final confirmation that Jesus is the Messiah who was to come.  All the build up, starting in chapter one with the virgin birth, the dreams, the Magi, the fight to Egypt, the coming of John the Baptist to prepare the way, all of it culminates here with God the Father's statement: "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased."

Application

Jesus is the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity. He is fully God and fully man. He is the Messiah who has come to save His people. This has been affirmed by His fulfillment of prophecy, by signs in the heavens, and, in this passage, the personal affirmation of the other two Persons of the Trinity. He has come to save. Put your trust in Him. He is worthy of it.

Reflection

• Read Colossians 2:9.
• Contemplate the idea that God, in His infinite majesty, dwells fully in the Man, Jesus.
• Contemplate the idea that God became Man for the express purpose of rescuing you from your sin.

If you have never done so before, now would be a good time to pray and receive Christ in your heart. You might pray something like this:

Father, I recognize that I have sinned. I have fallen short of Your desires for me and, by my thoughts and my actions, I have made myself Your enemy. Please help me to turn away from my evil desires and to follow You. Thank You for sending Your Son Jesus to rescue me from my sins through His death and resurrection. Please come into my heart and guide my life by the power of your Holy Spirit. I surrender myself to You, and I ask You to reign as King in my heart.

If you have prayed this, you have just made the first step into a new world. In order to succeed in your new life, you need to connect with other believers in a church. I would love to help you to do this. Please feel free to contact me. Sometimes I'm a little slow about getting to my email, but I will get back to you.

Praise God for His mighty and glorious works.

Footnotes

1 This assumes a classical understanding of truth, which I do. There are a number of other theories of truth (Relativism, Pragmatism, etc.), all of which are, in my opinion, loathsome and depressing. Other theories of truth basically argue that, while the traditional understanding of truth works very well as a rule of thumb, it is not True at all times for all people.^↩
2 I can attest to this personally.^↩
3 This list is intended to be representative, not exhaustive.  I'm sorry if I missed your favorite Mystery.^↩
4 Thank you, Matthew Henry.^↩