Collective Writings from the Books of A.W. Tozer

• One and Three

  (Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:00:00 -0700)

  God of our fathers, enthroned in light, how rich, how musical is the tongue of England! Yet when we attempt to speak forth Thy wonders, our words how poor they seem and our speech how unmelodious. When we consider the fearful mystery of Thy Triune Godhead, we lay our hand upon our mouths. Before that burning bush, we ask not to understand, but only that we may fitly adore Thee, One God in Persons Three. Amen.
  
  To meditate on the three Persons of the Godhead is to walk in thought through the garden eastward in Eden and to tread on holy ground. Our sincerest effort to grasp the incomprehensible mystery of the Trinity must remain forever futile, and only by deepest reverence can it be saved from actual presumption. Some persons who reject all they cannot explain have denied that God is a Trinity. Subjecting the Most High to their cold, level-eyed scrutiny, they conclude that it is impossible that He could be both One and Three. These forget that their whole life is enshrouded in mystery. They fail to consider that any real explanation of even the simplest phenomenon in nature lies hidden in obscurity and can no more be explained than can the mystery of the Godhead. Every man lives by faith, the nonbeliever as well as the saint; the one by faith in natural laws and the other by faith in God. Every man throughout his entire life constantly accepts without understanding. The most learned sage can be reduced to silence with one simple question, What? The answer to that question lies forever in the abyss of unknowing beyond any man?s ability to discover. "God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof," but mortal man never.