Digital Logos Edition
The doctrine of the Trinity is taught and believed by all evangelicals, but rarely is it fully understood or celebrated. In The Deep Things of God, systematic theologian Fred Sanders shows why we ought to embrace the doctrine of the Trinity wholeheartedly as a central concern of evangelical theology. Sanders demonstrates, engagingly and accessibly, that the doctrine of the Trinity is grounded in the gospel itself. In this book, readers will understand that a robust doctrine of the Trinity has massive implications for their lives, restoring depth to prayer, worship, Bible study, missions, tradition, and understanding of Christianity’s fundamental doctrines. This new edition includes a study guide with discussion questions, action points, recommended reading, and more.
“A gospel that is only about the moment of conversion but does not extend to every moment of life in Christ is too small. A gospel that gets your sins forgiven but offers no power for transformation is too small. A gospel that isolates one of the benefits of union with Christ and ignores all the others is too small. A gospel that must be measured by your own moral conduct, social conscience, or religious experience is too small. A gospel that rearranges the components of your life but does not put you personally in the presence of God is too small.” (Page 112)
“Trinity and gospel are not just bundled together so that you can’t have one without the other. They are internally configured toward each other.” (Page 15)
“The Father loves by sending; the Son and the Spirit love by being sent” (Page 156)
“When all these aspects of sonship as we know it are subtracted, what is left? Two things. First, the Son cannot be a different kind of being than his Father. A Father may create a statue or a house out of something besides himself, but a Son comes from his very being. He is not a lower order of being but is on the same level as the Father. Second, the Son stands in that relationship of originating from the Father—he comes from the Father. The classic word for that relation of origin is begetting, so we say that the Father begets the Son.” (Page 96)
“The reality is that the economy of salvation is God’s intentionally communicative domestic arrangement, which he administers specifically to communicate his character and identity.” (Page 136)
When faced with dark riddles about our triune God, I turn to books by Fred Sanders for help with seeing the light of Scripture. In this book, deep questions find careful answers in a living theology that breathes and pulses with joy. As Sanders reminds us, God’s inner life, ‘in the happy land of the Trinity above all worlds, is a livelier life than any other life.’ This readable book on God’s undiluted life is fantastically perceptive, and it’s been made more valuable now in a second edition with additional features for personal study, Bible meditation, group discussion, and real-life application. Like never before, The Deep Things of God invites new travelers to hike into the glorious terrain of this happy land together.
— Tony Reinke, communications director at DesiringGod.org; author, Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books and .12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You
What is already an excellent standard work on the Trinity has just become more useful. Like the first edition of his book, Fred Sanders’s second edition aims to show the astonishingly wide relevance of this Christian doctrine to every area of our living and thinking—but now, with the addition of a helpful study guide, study questions, and other aids, the book deserves the widest circulation.
— D. A. Carson, research professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; Cofounder, The Gospel Coalition
Sanders has a gift for making the deep things of theology—in this case, the doctrine of the Trinity—clear and compelling rather than shallow and simplistic. This is as good an introduction to the essentially Trinitarian shape of evangelical faith and practice of which I’m aware. Every evangelical should be able to explain how the gospel is Trinitarian and the Trinity a summation of the gospel, and Sanders shows us how. He makes a convincing case that there is nothing wrong with the evangelical church in North America that a good dose of Trinitarian theology, if absorbed into the bloodstream of the body of Christ, could not cure. So take, drink, and prepare to be edified.
— Kevin J. Vanhoozer, research professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
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Matthew Six
4/29/2024