The Trinity
God is a
trinity of persons: the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the same person
as the Son; the Son is not the same person as the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is not
the same person as Father. They are not three gods and not three
beings. They are three distinct persons; yet, they are all the one God.
Each has a will, can speak, can love, etc., and these are
demonstrations of personhood. They
are in absolute perfect harmony consisting of one substance. They are coeternal, coequal,
and copowerful. If any one of the three were removed, there would be no God. (See also,
"Another Look at the Trinity")
Jesus, the Son, is one person with two natures:
Divine and Human. This is called the
Hypostatic Union. The Holy Spirit
is also divine in nature and is self aware, the third person
of the Trinity.
There is, though, an apparent separation of some functions
among the members of the Godhead. For example, the Father chooses who will be saved
(Eph. 1:4); the Son redeems them
(Eph.
1:7); and the Holy Spirit seals them, (Eph. 1:13).
A further point of clarification is that God is not one
person, the Father, with Jesus as a creation and the Holy Spirit is a force (Jehovah's Witnesses). Neither is He one person who took three
consecutive forms, i.e., the Father, became the Son, who became the Holy Spirit. Nor is God
the divine nature of the Son (where Jesus had a human nature perceived as the Son and a
divine nature perceived as the Father (Oneness
theology). Nor is the Trinity an office
held by three separate Gods (Mormonism).
The word "person" is used to describe the three members
of the Godhead because the word "person" is appropriate.
A person is self aware, can speak, love, hate, say "you,"
"yours," "me," "mine," etc. Each of the three persons in
the Trinity demonstrate these qualities.
The chart below should help you to see how the doctrine of
the Trinity is systematically derived from Scripture. The list is not exhaustive, only illustrative.
The first step is to establish the biblical doctrine
that there is only one God. Then, you find that each of
the persons is called God, each creates, each was involved in
Jesus' resurrection, each indwells, etc. Therefore, God
is one, but the one God is in three simultaneous persons.
Please note that the idea of a composite unity is not a
foreign concept to the Bible; after all, man and wife are said to be one flesh. The idea of a composite unity
of persons is spoken of by God in Genesis (Gen. 2:24).
There is
only one God
The
first step is to establish how many Gods exist: one! Isaiah 43:10; 44:6,8; 45:5,14,18,21,22; 46:9; 47:8; John 17:3; 1 Cor. 8:5-6; Gal. 4:8-9
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"I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God"
(Isaiah
45:5).
“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel And his Redeemer, the
Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is
no God besides Me," (Isaiah 44:6).
"I am the
Lord, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God, (Isaiah 55:5).
The Trinity
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