Let’s be honest. As believers, we admit that the doctrine of the Trinity is a challenge for our finite brains. We are also willing to confess that we are reluctant even to try to understand it. We readily accept that we were made in God’s image, yet he is unlike us, as we are his creation. And we are content with his “otherness” as he is God, after all. So we settle with these observations and do not attempt to understand the doctrine any further. What’s the big deal? we ask ourselves. I believe in God. Why is it so important that I try to understand him in this way? Before we address this question, let’s look at what the Bible teaches us about the Trinity.
There is only one God.
Scripture affirms that there is only one God. In the Old Testament, Moses teaches the Israelites that there is one God, and he alone is worthy of our worship: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut 6:4-5). King David also praises our one God in prayer: “There is none like you, O Lord, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears” (1 Chr 17:20).
The New Testament affirms that there is only one God as well. Paul writes to Timothy, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time” (1 Tim 2:5-6). Jesus’ brother James emphatically states that even demons believe in one God: “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder” (Jas 2:19).
God exists in three persons.
We get a sneak peek of the triune God in the Creation story: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen 1:1-2). In the New Testament, the book of John reveals that Jesus was also present at Creation and that all things were made through him: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1-3).
At Jesus’ baptism, we again find all three members present, yet performing different activities as Jesus is being baptized, the Holy Spirit is descending on Jesus, and the Father is expressing delight in his Son: “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased'” (Matt 3:16-17).
These passages show us that our God exists in three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. While all members of the Trinity are distinct, they are of one nature and possess all the same divine attributes. Many might confuse this “three-in-one” nature for three gods. But the Bible is clear that there is only one God in three persons, who each have different roles.
All three persons are equally God.
The passages above are essential to the doctrine of the Trinity not only because they reveal all three persons but because they reveal all three persons present at Creation, which points to their eternal nature. God alone is eternal. And he speaks of his own eternal and unchanging nature when he refers to himself as “I AM”:
Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. (Exod 3:13-15)
Jesus angered the Jews when he claimed to be God by referring to himself as “I AM” in John 8: “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.'” (John 8:58).
In the book of Acts, Peter also equates the Holy Spirit with God: “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God'” (Acts 5:3-4).
Scripture clearly affirms that there is only one God, who exists in three persons, and all three persons are fully God. While it is difficult to wrap our minds around this “three-in-one” nature, this is how God chooses to relate to us, his creation.
This post is part one in a three-part series in partial fulfillment of the requirements for ST5102GA, Trinitarianism.
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