The Gospel of the Triune God: A Summary

By Sonny Hernandez

Many professing Christians claim to know God and the gospel. However, they often leave out the doctrine of the Trinity in their supposed presentations of the good news. Additionally, many preachers do not deliver full sermons on this vital topic. Without the Trinity, it is impossible to fully understand God or the gospel, as the One True God is Triune and the true gospel is rooted in the biblical doctrine of the Trinity (Matt. 28:19; Eph. 1:3-13).

According to the Bible, there is one God (Deut. 6:4), not three independent divine beings. Scripture describes this one true God (monotheism) as the sovereign and eternal Creator who ordained all things, without exception (Is. 46:10; Eph. 1:11). Nothing happens outside of God's will. As the one true Being of all beings, God exists as a pure act, devoid of potentialities or competitors. He derives nothing from creation and is not dependent on it. God alone, the self-existent Originator, possesses the incommunicable attributes such as omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and immutability (Exod. 3:14). Therefore, to worship anyone other than the one true God is prohibited and considered blasphemous (Exod. 20:3-5).

The one true God exists in a Trinity of distinct, coequal, coeternal, and co-glorious persons (2 Cor. 13:14). In other words, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—three persons—are indissolubly united in One Being (One God). This represents the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. Within the eternal Trinity, there is no hierarchy, superiority, subordination, or generation. Instead, there is a perfect coequal Trinity. Also, since the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit share the same Being, their external works and operations are undivided (John 14:10-11).

Moreover, the chief focus in the sovereign decree is the eternal, sovereign purpose, and glory of the Triune God in the salvation of the elect and the reprobation of the goats. Thus, in the logical order of God's decree, God ordained the salvation of the sheep for Heaven and the reprobation of the goats for Hell before the decree to create the world and the decree to cause the fall.

For further clarification, election and reprobation are equally ultimate in the singular decree of God, and both are active and unconditional (Rom. 9:11-13). A rejection of active and unconditional reprobation is also a denial of the doctrine of election, as both election and reprobation are parts of the same decree of predestination. And both are gospel essentials. To elucidate, there is no gospel apart from the doctrine of election, as the Son's death appeased God's wrath for only the elect whom the Father had given to Him (John 6:37-40; 1 John 4:10). Regarding reprobation, the doctrine of Hell emphasizes the eternal value of Christ's blood. Put another way, the elect will never experience Hell because the Son redeemed them from the totality of death (Heb. 2:14), including eternal conscious torment. His propitiatory death was equivalent to consciously suffering as the object of God's wrath for an unending duration (Is. 53:10; Matt. 27:46). Hence, as a gospel essential, the biblical doctrine of double predestination is all to the glory of God and in accordance with His sovereignty.

After the decree to predestinate the saints for Heaven and the goats for Hell, God decreed to create the world and everything in it, along with the fall of Adam (Gen. 1-3). In the garden, Adam received a commandment from the LORD (Gen. 2:16-17), reflecting God's character, and thus requiring perfect obedience. Death was the penalty for disobedience. Adam transgressed God's perfect law, resulting in sin, death, and condemnation, reckoned to all of humanity (Rom. 5:12). It is clear that the garden reveals Adam's corruption or rebellion. However, the gospel unveils Christ's righteousness, as He accomplished what the creature could not (Rom. 5:18-19). Since God demands perfection and the penalty for disobedience is death, God's people must rely solely on the perfection of Christ's life and His once-and-for-all death as their righteousness by imputation before God.

Before the incarnation, Christ always existed as the eternal God (John 1:1). What does this mean? Since the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (three distinct persons) share the exact divine nature (one God), all the incommunicable attributes apply to the Son, and whatever the Bible says about God can also be said about Christ.

In the fullness of time, the Virgin Mary, conceived by the Holy Ghost, gave birth to Jesus with respect to His humanity (Matt. 1:21ff.). The eternal Christ assumed an actual body and a reasonable soul (John 1:14; Matt. 26:38), and is thus fully God and fully man, "without sin" (Heb. 4:15), in one person. In other words, the two distinct natures (wholly God and wholly man) — inseparably united in Christ (one person) —highlight the doctrine of the hypostatic union.

During the incarnation, the sinless Savior lived a perfect life, having never broken any law. God's law, reflecting His divine nature, was kept perfectly by Christ (preceptive obedience), in accordance with God's will. In addition, He died a substitutionary and propitiatory death on behalf of the sheep (penal obedience). Thus, the preceptive and penal obedience of Christ emphasizes the entire life of Christ or the whole work of His righteousness in its compact unity (Rom. 5:10-21).

In the great exchange, since God loves only the elect, He reckoned their sins to Christ, and imputed the perfect righteousness of God to them (2 Cor. 5:21). His perfect obedience, in life and death, accomplished justification, redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation for the elect (John 19:30). To elaborate, Christ's life and death [including the resurrection and current session] are the only basis of justification. He redeemed the sheep from the power of sin, Satan, Hell, and the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13; Heb. 2:14). His blood reconciled the sheep to God (Rom. 5:9-10), and He placated the Father's wrath in their stead (Rom. 3:24-26). In accordance with God's will, the Spirit will lead all the elect to know that God has paid their debt, pardoned their sins, washed away all their iniquities, granted them gospel repentance, guaranteed them everlasting life, gave assurance of salvation, and provided unending love to them —all because of the imputed righteousness of Christ alone, received by faith alone excluding works (Rom. 3:30; 4:6; Phil. 3:9).

Christ's propitiatory and substitutionary death also emphasizes the perfect unity of the Trinity. In simple terms, the Father decreed to save only the elect (Eph. 1:4-5), Christ gave His life specifically for these chosen individuals (Eph. 1:7), and the Holy Spirit applies the benefits of the gospel to the elect of the Father for whom Christ died (Eph. 1:13). Asserting that the Father decreed to save fewer people than those for whom the Son died, or that Christ shed His blood for more individuals than those whom the Father chose to save, would promote disunity and thus undermine the doctrine of the Triunity of God.

After His death, Christ arose in his numerically identical body (Luke 24:36–43); therefore, the elect will also at the last day (Phil. 3:21). As the exalted Savior, the Son ascended to Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. And He will come again on the last day (the second coming).

All of the truths above are made known to the elect by the Holy Ghost. According to Scripture, the Holy Spirit is a person (Acts 13:2), not an impersonal force. Biblically, the Holy Ghost will bear record of those who belong to God. God the Spirit indwells, seals, regenerates, sanctifies, testifies, instructs, and intercedes on behalf of the elect (Rom. 8:16, 27; Eph. 1:13). In addition to testifying about the gospel (John 15:26), the Holy Ghost pours out the love of God in the hearts of the elect of the Father for whom Christ died (Rom. 5:1-10).

Furthermore, God's elect should rejoice in the truths explained thus far, and here is why: at death, the bodies of both the elect and the reprobate will return to the ground and decay. However, their souls will enter the intermediate state. Specifically, the souls of the reprobate will immediately go to Hades, where they will experience conscious suffering (Luke 16:22-25). In contrast, the souls of the elect will be immediately with Christ in Heaven (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:8), where they will await the resurrection.

At the one general resurrection of both the just and the unjust (Acts 24:15), God will raise everyone and judge them. Since He will judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31), God will acquit the elect based on the imputation of Christ's completed, saving, and effectual work alone. Conversely, God will send the wicked to eternal conscious torment because He decreed their predestination to Hell in eternity, and Christ did not placate the Father's wrath in their place (Rev. 20:11-15).

In conclusion, the gospel is not an offer, nor is it a statement that Christ loves and died for everyone. It does not hinge on accepting Jesus to achieve salvation. Instead, the gospel highlights the righteousness of God in contrast to the conditions imposed by sinful beings. The gospel is a proclamation of the doctrine of justification, with God as the sole author (Rom. 8:33). God given faith alone is the means, not the ground or cause. And, faith alone always looks to Christ alone as the object (Gal. 2:16). Concerning the source (Rom. 11:5-6), God's grace is neither universal, common, nor resistible. Rather, grace alone is discriminative, irresistible, and applied solely to the elect. Additionally, God’s righteousness is the only basis and assurance of salvation (Rom. 5:9). Disagreeing with these truths leads to a different Christ and false assurance of salvation (Gal. 1:8-9).

Praise the Triune God for the offense of gospel truths. Saints of God will say "amen," but the goats will abhor it (1 Cor. 1:18). Nonetheless, God receives glory in the predestination of the elect whom He loves. In addition, He also receives glory in the predestination of the goats whom He hates (Rom. 9:13), regardless of whether people agree or not. Amen.