Surely one of the most intriguing questions is ‘what is God like?’ The Bible tells us a lot about the nature and characteristics of God – after all, the Bible is primarily about God. But it is also teaches something supremely surprising and remarkable about God – that He¹ consists of three persons in One – each person fully God, but forming just ONE GOD. Deut.6:4 confirmed by Jesus in Mark 12:28,29.  

But it was Jesus himself who taught us about the three persons of the ‘Godhead’ – a concept we call ‘Trinity’ – a word not found in the Bible. It is thought that Tertullian (160-225) was the first to use the word, but it did not become formally accepted theology until the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. It was enshrined in the Athanasian Creed.  

Something we must get clear at this early stage is that the Trinity is not just a way of thinking about how God works – but this is what God IS.  

The idea of the multiple Godhead is only vaguely alluded to in the Old Testament. But in the first chapter of the Bible there is a very heavy hint. The word for ‘God’ in the Hebrew is Elohim which is masculine plural. The way the story is told it seems that  Elohim conceives the world; His ‘word’ of command (‘God said’) expresses that conception; and the Spirit of God (v.1) implements it. Isn’t this the ‘Word’ that John talks about in John 1:1,2? Later in the same chapter v.26 it records ‘Then God said “Let us make man in our image”, ..’ Who is the ‘us’? Again in Numbers 6:24-27, in the Aaronic blessing, Christians have seen just the faintest shadow of the Trinity.  

In the New Testament, the evidence for the Trinity is prolific. Two prime examples are at Jesus’s baptism Mark1:9-11 and his last word to his disciples in Matthew 28:19.  The sceptic (JWs?) might ask if these verses necessarily confirm the divinity of each member of the supposed Trinity. But in Matt.28:19 there is not the slightest hint of a grading, but rather a strong indication of an equality. Also we know that Jesus claimed that he and the Father are ‘one’ (John 10:30) and he taught that the Holy Spirit is divine – see John 14:16 (where ‘another’ means ‘of the same essence as me’). The apostles were convinced about the Trinity: that Jesus was the divine Son of God, and also of the Spirit’s divinity eg. Peter in Acts 5:3,4.  

So in summary, the Bible teaches (1) God is three persons (2) each person is fully God (3) there is one God. There have been various attempts at providing an analogy for this, (eg a three-leafed clover) but none of them work. It is far better to learn how to handle the idea and to recognize the co-operative work of the three members of the Trinity as we read the Bible. We will proceed to do that now.  

Let’s look at a few fundamental statements:  

1.   The Trinity is not just a way of looking at how God works: God is and always has been three persons in His very being

2.   Each member of the Trinity is fully God: no member is more or less God than any other

3.   Each person of the Trinity has the same attributes as are spoken of as belonging to God as a whole.

4.   No person of the Trinity ever acts independently of the others  

But although there is absolute equality between the members of the Trinity, there is an implied ORDER: the Father sent the Son (John 3:16); the Father gave the Spirit to the Son; and the Son sent the Holy Spirit to the church of believers (Acts 2:33). This order and the implied relationships do not in any way destroy or belittle their equality.  

Each member of the Trinity has a distinctive and complementary role:  

·    The Father originates, chooses and calls us.

·    The Son was incarnate, revealed the Father, and redeemed us by his life, death and resurrection.

·    The Spirit witnesses to Christ, awakens our dead souls, gives us new life, indwells us and delivers us to heaven  (Eph.1:13)  

It is not the Son's work to call and awaken our dead souls. It is not the Father's role to die on the cross. It is not the Spirit's role to call us or to die for us. But all are involved in the total salvation act. The work of each member of the Trinity is absolutely essential to our Salvation – see Titus 3:4-7.  

THE GOLDEN RULE IS: whenever one member of the Trinity is doing something, then all members are involved in doing it, but we must emphasis that member whose particular work it is to do that thing.   

Bible verses of ‘Distinction’ and ‘Unity’  

As we read the NT we should look out for references to the work of the Trinity – they will enrich our understanding eg Rom.8:26 and Heb.7:25 tell us that both the Son and the Spirit intercede for us with God the Father! Others – eg Eph.1:4, Rom.5:8, and 1 Thess.4:8 - tell of the distinctive work of the members of the Godhead; in choosing us, of Christ dying for us, of the Spirit empowering us. Then we must remember that ALL THREE PERSONS – the whole Trinity were or are involved!   

In other texts we can come across verses that seem to contradict the distinctive works of the three persons of the Trinity. For example, in Col.1:27 Paul says ‘..the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you.’ But Christ is in heaven at God’s right hand (Col.3:1 – same epistle!). Surely it is the Spirit’s work to indwell us? But this is a UNITY verse. Because of the unity of the Trinity, Paul can speak of either Christ or the Spirit being within us! Another such verse is Gal.4:6 ‘Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.’  Another example is Eph.3:16,17a. Don’t be confused, understand the glory of the Trinity.  

The vital thing to appreciate here is that because God consists of three persons, then He is fundamentally, in His very being, both  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . God is not an impersonal ‘force’.  So, on what is the relationship between the persons of the Trinity based? – on LOVE.  God IS love – I John 4:8b,16b. And this love overflows to us in Jesus Christ. Read 1 John 4:7-21.  

¹ We call God ‘He’ primarily because Jesus called Him ‘Father’. God must be above and outside of gender (His otherness), and has the characteristics we associate with both male and female, but based in Hebrew culture His main characteristics are male (eg the creator, provider and protector).

² Pictures from ‘Notable men and Women of Church History’ on the www.understandingthebible.org website

For further teaching on this subject go to: ‘Systematic Theology’ by Wayne Grudem (IVP), ‘Know the Truth’ by Bruce Milne (IVP), ‘New Bible Dictionary’ (IVP).

YOUR NOTES

Tertullian

of Carthage

Athanasius of Alexandria 293-373 ²

PERSONAL

RELATIONAL