Charles Ryries uses the three forms of water: fluid, ice, and steam to illustrate the Trinity. This more accurately illustrates modalism. Because all three forms of the same water do not exist as the three forms at the same time. The boiling water becomes steam but is no longer a liquid. The water put in the frig and frozen is no longer a liquid or steam. Perhaps, marriage is a closer illustration. James Dobson in his book Marriage Under Fire illustrates the difference between husbands and wives who are declared “one” in Genesis 2:24 yet with obvious differences which dimly illuminate the Trinity.
The most eye-opening encounter between us occurred on our first Valentine’s Day together, six months after we were married. It was something of a disaster. I had gone to the USC library that morning and spent eight or ten hours pouring over dusty books and journals. I had forgotten that it was February 14.
What was worse, I was oblivious to the preparations that were going on at home. Shirley had cooked a wonderful dinner, baked a pink heart shaped cake with ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ written on the top, placed several red candles on the table, wrapped a small gift she had bought for me, and written a little love note on a greeting card. The stage was set. She would meet me at the front door with a kiss and a hug. But there I sat on the other side of Los Angeles, blissfully unaware of the storm gathering overhead.
About 8 P.M., I got hungry and ordered a hamburger at the University Grill. After eating, I moseyed out to where my Volkswagen was parked and headed toward home. Then I made a terrible mistake that I would regret for many moons: I stopped by to see my parents, who lived near the freeway. Mom greeted me warmly and served up a great slice of apple pie. That sealed my doom.
When I finally put my key in the lock at 10:00, I knew instantly that something was horribly wrong (I’m very perceptive about subtleties like that). The apartment was dark and all was deathly quiet. There on the table was a coagulated dinner still sitting in our best dishes and bowls. Half-burned candles stood cold and dark in their silver-plated holders. It appeared that I forgot something important. But what? Then I noticed the red and white decorations on the table. Oh no! I thought.
So there I stood in the semidarkness of our little living room, feeling like a creep. I didn’t even have a Valentine’s Day card, much less a thoughtful gift, for Shirley. No romantic thoughts had crossed my mind all day. I couldn’t even pretend to want the dried-up food that sat before me. After a brief flurry of words and a few tears, Shirley went to bed and pulled the covers up around her ears. I would have given a thousand dollars for a true, plausible explanation for my thoughtlessness. But there just wasn’t one. It didn’t help to tell her, ‘I stopped by my mom’s house for a piece of great apple pie. It was wonderful. You should’ve been there.”
Fortunately, Shirley is not only a romantic lady, but she is a forgiving one, too. We talked about my insensitivity later that night and came to an understanding. Once I understood how my wife differed from me---especially regarding romantic things---I began to get with the program.
This story painfully reminds us men that we differ from women.
Though both men and women share a common humanity, they are starkly unique in their persons. There is a generic oneness in all humans. We all share a common humanity, but this humanity is very different among each of us. Some have blue eyes and others brown. Some have an I.Q. of 150 and others 95. Some are male and others are female.
The Trinity is three persons and one nature of Deity according to Deuteronomy 6:4: “The Lord our God is one [echad אֶחָד].”[1] God has one nature or essence which is deity. Yet there are three persons.
Marriage is two persons, whom God declares to be “one” [echad אֶחָד](Gen 2:24): “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.” This is the same word “one” in Deuteronomy 6:4. The two persons (husbands and wives) though “one” like the three persons in the Trinity have differences. One of those differences is the biblically assigned roles. God the Father is the leader of the Trinity (1 Cor 11:3). The husband is the leader in the home (Eph 5:22-24) and the man is to be the leader in the church (1 Tim 2:11-3:12). In the next three posts, I will discuss the Biblical summary of the Trinity (click to open), the Ontological Trinity, and the Economic Trinity.
[1] Logos shows the difference between the cardinal and ordinal numbers. cardinal — The form of a numeral that gives a simple count, such as “one”, “two”, “three”. This is opposed to ordinals, which indicate a sequence, such as “first”, “second”, “third”. “One” [echad אֶחָד] is a cardinal number in both Deuteronomy 6:4 and Genesis 2:24: