Trinitarian Prayer

We talk about the Trinity of God a lot at Living Stones, as we should, and it has often rightly been said that understanding the Trinity is incredibly difficult. There is only one God after all, but that one God is somehow made up of 3 distinct persons. To separate them too far is to fall into heresy, because they are not 3 separate God’s. To unite them too far is also heresy, because Jesus the Son of God died on the cross, but it would be wrong to say that the Father died on the cross or the Holy Spirit died on the cross.

Because there are distinctives in the roles of the members of the trinity, I think it’s appropriate to read the Scriptures carefully and find out as much as we can about their distinct roles and submit to those distinctions. One of the areas where there might be distinction but this distinction is rarely explored and often debated when it is explored is prayer. As with anything, I think it’s clear that all three members of the Trinity are actively involved in prayer, but are there distinctions in Scripture about the various ways that they express their involvement?

Before I discuss the nature of Trinitarian prayer I want to be clear on two things: 1) this post is not necessarily an espousal of a specific position, but rather a discussion starter through a series of questions and observations. 2) The direction I tend to lean on this issue is not an official position of Living stones and if I had to guess by observing the prayers of our other elders I would say most would hold a different view on the issue (but again, I’m not necessarily espousing a view as much as exploring).

Model #1

For most people it seems that Trinitarian prayer simply involves praying to all 3 members of the Trinity of God. I know many people who pray to the specific members of the Trinity depending on the topic they are praying about so as to pray to the member of the Trinity most applicable. So for example, when praying about spiritual gifts they will pray to the Spirit, but when thanking God for the work of Jesus on the cross they will thank Jesus directly. After all, all 3 members of the Trinity are equally God, so it stands to reason that all 3 persons of the Trinity can hear our prayers equally and that it’s equally valid to pray to all 3, right? Maybe – and if this is the conclusion that someone comes to then I don’t see any reason to warn them that they are sinning against God. After all, there is no passage of Scripture that forbids praying to any of the 3 persons of the Trinity.

However, just because there are no verses forbidding praying in the way described above, does that necessarily mean that we should pray that way? In other words, if I had to guess I don’t think God is displeased by a Christian praying to the Holy Spirit, but has God given instructions for prayer in Scripture that might lay out a model for Trinitarian prayer that is different than the one mentioned in model #1? When I’ve asked these questions in the past people have simply responded with – “well why wouldn’t God want us to pray to Jesus or the Holy Spirit?” My response is always “I’m not sure”. But just because we can’t think of a good reason, doesn’t mean God doesn’t have one. So the question about Trinitarian prayer is not “why shouldn’t we follow model #1?” The question is rather “Has God instructed us in Scripture on how he would like us to pray?”

Consider some things with me. Although Scripture never forbids praying to either Jesus or the Holy Spirit, it also never once commands us to or even teaches us to. When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, he prayed “Our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). When Jesus prayed he obviously wasn’t going to pray to himself, but he never prayed to the Spirit either, he always prayed to the Father. When Paul wrote out his prayers in his letters, he always used “God” which was synonymous with the Father, or even specifically used the Father. He never wrote his prayers out to Jesus or the Spirit. Jesus often talked about us praying in his name, but he said to “ask the Father in my name” (John 15:16).

Many have argued that there are certain times in Scripture when people pray to Jesus, but I don’t buy those arguments. When Stephen cries out to Jesus as he is dying in Acts 7, is that a prayer? I don’t think it fits, he cried out to Jesus because he saw Jesus in the moment that he cried out to him (verse 56). He called to his savior who was visible to him. The same holds true for the argument made about Ananias praying to Jesus in Acts 9. He wasn’t praying, he was having an actual verbal exchange with a Jesus whom he could visibly see at the moment. This seems more akin to me talking to someone face to face than praying to them. There are other examples people use to prove that the Scripture sets precedent for us to pray to Jesus, but I’ve reviewed them all closely and none of them except possibly 2 Corinthians 12 seems like it could be seen as praying in the way that Christians usually experience prayer. As far as the instance in 2 Corinthians, even that passage is tough. Paul says that he asked the Lord to remove a thorn in his side. The word used in Greek is “Kurion”, which means Lord and is usually a reference to Jesus. However Paul quotes the response that he received from Jesus word for word. Was Paul just saying that this was the “sense” that he received from God as to the answer to his request? Are we missing something about the nature of the relationship between Paul and Jesus at the time? Was Paul in direct face to face contact with Jesus? It’s possible, that’s how Paul became a Christian after all. When Jesus taught us to pray to the Father, and Paul clearly addresses the Father in clearer passages in his writing on prayer, is this passage in 2 Corinthians enough to build a theology on to pray differently, especially when this passage has so many questions?

So if it’s possible that the teaching of Scripture is that we should pray to the Father, then does that leave the other 2 persons of the Trinity out of prayer? Not at all. In fact, I think the fact that the other two members of the Trinity have such active roles in other ways lends even more credibility to the possibility that it is the Father we should be praying to.

Model #2

In the Old Testament era people had to go to a priest to be represented before God. Because of their sin they didn’t have direct access to God on their own. Job even cried out for a mediator that would make it possible for him to be in true relationship to the Father. In the book of Hebrews in the New Testament in chapters 4 through7 the author lays out for us that because of the work of Jesus on the cross he is now our High Priest, and when we want access to the Father we now go through him. Jesus says the same thing in John 14:6 when he says that “no one comes to the Father except through me.” Our sin separated us from our Father in heaven, and getting back to the Father is the goal of salvation. When we are saved by Jesus, it is the Father whom we receive justification from. In 1 Timothy 2:5 Paul says “there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” In Ephesians 5:20 Paul says that he gives “thanks always in everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus.” Is it possible that it is the Father who desires to be prayed to, and that we pray through Jesus as mediator rather than directly to Jesus? And what about the Holy Spirit? Well, in Romans 8 it says that when we don’t know what to pray that the Spirit prays on our behalf. But the Scripture also says in a few different places that we are to pray “in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18, Jude 20). It never says pray TO the Spirit, but rather IN the Spirit. To pray in the Spirit means to pray in the power of the Spirit, or in recognition of the presence of the Spirit of God who lives in you. As we pray to the Father, the Spirit gives us the ability to connect with Jesus as he mediates between us and the Father. It is the sealing of the Spirit and his power that guarantees that we are a part of the covenant family of God, making it possible for us to utilize the access that we have to the Father as secured by Christ.

All 3 persons of the Trinity active in prayer, but serving distinct roles. Just as all 3 members of the Trinity are active in salvation but with distinct roles. The Father chooses us to salvation, the Son secures our salvation, and the Spirit seals our salvation.

Model #2 says that we pray TO the Father, THROUGH the Son, and IN the Spirit.

Now even if I was to espouse model #2 as my view (which I may not be), I don’t think we have any reason to believe that God is displeased with people praying with model #1 in focus. I just believe that if there seems to be a pattern of what prayer looks like in Scripture, and if Jesus taught prayer a certain way, we should pay attention to that. Even if we could argue that 2 Corinthians 12, Acts 7, Acts 9, and similar passages teach that prayer to Jesus is just fine with God, it’s clearly not the biblical norm. So even then should the majority of prayers be directed to the Father? It’s a good question. What do you think?