I’ve been speaking on personal discipleship the last couple weeks. The subject has been on my mind, and the application of the Trinity for our church seems as important as ever.

Personal (life on life) discipleship isn’t merely one methodological option, it is deeply, eternally theological. The ground and the goal, and the process in between, are all Trinitarian.

Interestingly enough, one of the clearest, conspicuous statements of the Trinity comes in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20). We also see the Trinity at work in the ascension account (Acts 1:1-8).

Acts 1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen [the Great Commission]. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

This is more Great Commission speak: “be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” In other words, make disciples of all nations. The Trinity is hidden in plain sight again. We see the Father with authority, a global witness program for Jesus, carried out by the power of the Spirit! The ground and the goal of discipleship, as well as the entire process of discipleship, are all Trinitarian.

Really?!

Why, oh why, so much Trinity stuff? Is this really necessary? How much of this is on the test? Isn’t the God-man difficult enough to explain to people? Isn’t the cross enough of a scandal and offense? Isn’t the call to take up your cross and lose your life demanding enough?

It’s safe to assume that God knows exactly how difficult the doctrine of the Trinity is for us to wrap our minds around. I think it’s also safe to assume that He revealed it because it is important, and that there is also a reason it is so intricately woven into our disciple-making commission. In fact, perhaps one of the reasons we don’t know how to approach personal discipleship (as well as marriage and Body life) is because we don’t know how to approach the Trinity. So? There are at least two reasons the Trinity is the theological basis for discipleship.

1. Factual Identity

Disciple-making relates to a particular God. God is unique above the gods of the nations and God reveals Himself as one-of-a-kind and three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Disciple-making is Trinitarian, not unitarian (one God - one Person). We talk about three Persons, not three different modes of God, as if He changes from one form into another depending on the time or situation. All three Persons have always existed as their own Person.

There is a confessional commitment to discipleship. When we baptize disciples, the disciples identify with a specific God. From the earliest doctrinal debates, the church has worked hard to distinguish the Trinity with accuracy.

Certain facts about God must be communicated in the form of words to disciples. God is who He is, we are to worship Him as He is, not as we imagine or prefer, and God is Triune. “God minus creation would still be God, but God minus Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would not be God” (Sanders, 70). If we do not teach who He is, if we leave the Godhead vague or foggy, we are making disciples of another god. Unless disciples identify with and worship the triune God, they are idolators.

That doesn’t mean that a person must be able to explain the eternal generation of the Son and procession of the Spirit in addition to the hypostatic union before they can repent and believe for salvation. It does mean, however, that we are responsible to teach theology proper in order to fulfill the Great Commission.

I think we probably get that part okay; we’re mindful of the need to stay out of the ditch of inaccuracy. So is that it? Is discipleship nothing more than passing along true, though often undigested propositions about God and parroting a Trinitarian formula when we dunk disciples under water?

2. Familial Intimacy

Disciple-making relates to a particular God who is a personal God. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit, all three Persons, work as a tri-unit, not only that we may know certain facts about them, but also that we would have fellowship with them! Yes, there is a confessional commitment to discipleship. But we also have a relational commitment.

There are two ditches, not one, to avoid. The Trinity keeps disciple-making from being idolatrous. The Trinity also keeps disciple-making from being impersonal. Which implies that, to the degree that our disciple-making is impersonal, we are reflecting another god/idol, too.

Many truth-toting Christians are in this ditch. We can see all the people in the opposite ditch because we’re standing on our Bibles, and we may presume that since their heads aren’t as high as ours that our ditch is better. It isn’t.

God reveals Himself in creation and redemption for sake of our fellowship with Himself. Let’s take a little time to work through this.

Creation: God Sharing Himself with Persons

Why did God create persons? Because He is Persons and we’re made to reflect Him. “Let us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1:26); “image” includes the capacity for relationship because He enjoyed His own relationships so much. Why is it not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18)? Why are two better than one (Ecclesiastes 4:9)? How can two totally different persons be so intimate that they become one (Genesis 2:24)? Because of the Trinity.

He made us social beings because He is social by nature. Though He could have left us with horizontal experience of relationships only, He also invited men into a vertical relationship with Himself. It’s almost impossible to imagine how good Adam and Eve had it in the garden with the LORD. What made it good, though, was not that Adam and Eve were able to write the best systematic theology book about God. They had fellowship with God.

Then what happened at the fall? The intimacy (horizontal, but especially vertical) was shattered; the fellowship was broken. Note that Adam and Eve still had the facts, what they lost was the fellowship.

But don’t miss that God made men and women to reflect His own nature, His relational nature, His eternal joy shared with other Persons.

Redemption: God Restoring Persons to Himself

Redemption is the work of the Trinity to save sinners. That’s the gospel, that’s the message of disciple-making. But we can make that sound so impersonal depending on how we say it.

Maybe this question would help to clarify the difference in tone. Do you think God prefers justification or adoption? Based on how we usually speak and disciple, adoption sounds good, but “justification is the doctrine by which the church rises and falls” (per Luther). In it’s Reformation context, sola fide was a watershed that provided relief to many burdened souls who believed they needed to purchase or earn their approval with God, no doubt. But in itself, would you rather get your freedom from prison or a Father who provides?

Consider the purpose statements in these verses.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God…

The substitution of Christ, the righteous taking on our unrighteousness, justification, was so that “He might bring us to God”!

Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

The Father’s eternal plan, the history of redemption, involves delivering men from the law in order to adopt sons. We’re brought close enough to cry, “Abba, Father!” The Son redeems “so that we might receive adoption as sons,” making us brothers with Himself (cf. Romans 8:29). The third Person of the Trinity, “the Spirit of His Son” (v.6), “the Spirit of adoption” (Romans 8:18), indwells us. We are brought into the family of the Trinity.

God’s redeem-to-adopt (not foster to adopt) mission is Trinitarian, and He funds every part of it personally. “Christian salvation comes from the Trinity, happens through the Trinity, and brings us home to the Trinity” (Sanders, 10).

Consider Jesus’ high priestly prayer.

John 17

Is disciple-making about eternal life? Yes. Truth-telling? Yes. Sanctification by truth? Yes. But why? So that we might be one just as the Father and Son are one (v.11). So that we might be brought into Trinitarian unity and into Trinitarian joy (v.13). So that we might be with Him and see eternal glory (v.24). So that the Father’s love for the Son—and what kind of love is that?—might be in us, too (v.26).

So, when we tell others the gospel, what are we telling them? Yes, we are telling them that they can have forgiveness. But that’s not it! God does not forgive you and let you into heaven reluctantly (because He said He would) and then keep you as far away from Himself in heaven as He can.

God’s eternal purpose is to bring individuals into eternal life, that is, to invite persons into intimacy like the Trinity and with the Persons of the Trinity. It’s not business. It’s personal.

That means that impersonal discipleship is false discipleship. That’s why the air war can only do so much. When I stand behind the music stand, I can set a direction, I can set a tone, but that is only a start and a small part of the process. The disciples of Jesus weren’t His disciples because they heard all His sermons, but because they followed Him around and asked Him questions later in small group. Discipleship (and life itself) requires relationship.

The basis for us to make personal disciples, to bring men and women from every nation into fellowship with God the Father through Christ by the Spirit, is that making disciples is God’s goal to share Himself, eternal life, the relational joy of the Trinity with men and women from every nation. God delights in Himself, and discipleship is His delight extended and shared with persons.