Three in One (#KnowMore Part 9)

The penultimate post! I never thought this day would come, but now it has. And what a journey it’s been, getting to look at what Christianity at its core is; God redeeming man back to Himself. We don’t see this in other belief systems, which set up a means for man to restore His broken relationship with God through works and ‘good’ deeds. Yet this is where their fatal flaw is; whatever we offer as ‘good’ is stained with our wrong and sin, and God can’t accept that. Only when we approach Him clothed in the rightness of Christ are we pronounced right in His eyes, and He then causes us to produce the same good works, but out of a heart of obedience. That’s the message of the Bible in a nutshell.

I bet as we were going through the series, one thing must have been really been your mind is, Hold
up, are you talking about three gods, like God (the OG, the Supreme Creator), Jesus and the Holy
Spirit? And how is Jesus God? How is the Spirit God? How are they all God?

Not to worry, you are actually grappling a question that has baffled people for centuries, one that every person everywhere has in one way or another asked themselves. I claim no special knowledge to this, except for what God has revealed through Scripture, so let’s look at the Christian doctrine of God’s triune (fancy word for three-in-one) nature.

First, we have to face the fact that it is impossible to perfectly and concisely explain what the triune nature of God is. This is because God is infinitely greater than we are or ever hope to be, and our limited thoughts cannot contain that which is infinite. However, God in His goodness has made it possible for us to understand some facts of the relationship of each of the three Persons in His nature. Simply put, God exists as three Persons who are co-existent and co-eternal, and the term used to attempt at describing this is called the Trinity, and is not found in Scripture, but the concept behind it is.

Let’s start from the ground up, known to unknown. We know that God is one, as seen in Deuteronomy 6:4

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

So, we’d naturally assume that the God at creation is one Person. But Genesis 1:26 says something peculiar;

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

If God is one, then why is He referring to Himself as ‘us’? This gives us a glimpse into Him being God, but existing in distinct Persons He has revealed through Scripture. The ‘us’ here uses the Hebrew word Elohim, which is a plural pronoun and definitely allows for the argument of the Trinity. The term Person means “centre of self-consciousness”, meaning that each of these Persons has a mind, a will, emotions and the ability to communicate and perform an action.

Who are the members, then of this Trinity? According to Scripture, there are three; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. At Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3, we see the Holy Spirit descending on God the Son while the Father proclaims His pleasure in the Son. Each of them is distinct from one another.

Jesus said He’d speak to the Father about sending the
Holy Spirit as a helper, meaning He did not consider Himself to be God the Father or the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17). Also consider the times when Jesus spoke to the Father; He was speaking to another Person of the Trinity.

Before we drift to thinking that they are separate from each other, let’s remember that each of these maintains the essence of God; they are each equally God. The Father is God (Romans 1:7), the Son is God (Colossians 2:9), and the Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4). Again, these are not three different Gods. Yes, they are distinct, but they share the same essence that is God; eternal, all- knowing, all-powerful, infinite.

Throughout this series, we have seen the different ways in which these Persons work to bring about the salvation of man from death and the destructive effects of sin. The Father is the ultimate source of the universe, salvation and divine revelation. Jesus, who is the Son in sinless human form, is the agent through whom the Father accomplishes these things as evidenced in these words;

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:16-17 ESV

The Holy Spirit is the Person through whom the Father dispenses divine revelation (John 16:12-15) and salvation (John 3:6) to the human race as we saw in the previous post.

Naturally, some analogies have come up with ways of attempting to explain the Trinity. One is using water, which exists as ice, liquid and vapour, but still is water at its essence. However, the problem with this arises in that these states are forms of water; the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not forms of God, they are each God.

Another is the egg; it has a shell, a yolk and a white, all which form the egg. But each of these are parts of the egg; apart from each other, they are not the egg in themselves. The Trinity’s members are not parts of each other; they are, again, each God. Mind-bending, I know. Thankfully, The Bible Project (again!) has done an amazing video that attempts at explaining this concept that you can watch here.

Of what importance, then does this have for us as Christians? Does understanding the Trinity have any impact in our walk of salvation? It helps us understand that there is unity in diversity. Each of the members of this tri-unity are diverse in their works of carrying out our salvation, yet their individual works are carried out in complete unity. As Christians, it is a clarion call to us to put aside our differences and work together for the furtherance of this good news.

It is also important in that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have always been in an eternal relationship of love. Therefore, love has been from the beginning. God didn’t have to create it as an expression of Himself, because it is as much a part of His nature as holiness, justice and mercy. God is love, and in Him being three Persons, we have this God who is love fully.

Ultimately, the fact that knowing God is the most important thing in the whole world makes the Trinity matter. If we have been called by this God who exists as three Persons, and baptized and commissioned in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then we ought not be ignorant of these realities.

We can try to fit all this in the box of our understanding, but God is, as we saw, infinitely above our ways and thoughts. All it takes is to believe that God is truth, and what He says is truth. If His word is what He says, then indeed He exists as the Trinity whose relationship we know about in part, but will know in greater fulness when He returns. For now, we can reflect on His greatness like Paul;

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?”

Romans 11:33-34 ESV

This has been one of the most researched posts I’ve done for this series, and it was truly worth the effort if it has helped you, in a small way, get a deeper understanding and awe of the majesty and glory of God. May God grant you the faith to trust in His word and in His plans for each of us.

See you on Thursday as we wrap all this up. Grace.