WHAT IS THE TRINITY?

By Paul Taylor

The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most significant doctrines found in all of Scripture and foundational to the Christian Church.  Knowing and having some understanding of the Trinity is therefore important to knowing God and how we are to relate to Him.  The great challenge lies in how to effectively communicate this spiritual truth in a clear manner. There is nothing in our natural world that remotely compares to the Trinity and any attempt to draw from nature or human experience as a way of such comparison falls woefully short. 

Therefore, Scripture will be our sole source in this brief outline of this great spiritual truth.  Though the word Trinity never appears in the Bible, it will be demonstrated by many passages that the doctrine of the Trinity is certainly biblical.  Let us then begin with a simple definition of the Trinity: “There is one God in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”   Admittedly, this definition needs to be parsed and unpacked for the meaning of each of these words. This article will be our attempt to accurately and faithfully define the God of the Bible. 

The Trinity is not:

- The Trinity is not three gods.  Christianity is a monotheistic religion.  We are not polytheists.  R.C. Sproul in his booklet “What is the Trinity” states, “When we come to the New Testament, we find the church affirming the notion of monotheism, but also declaring that God the Father is divine, God the Son is divine, and God the Holy Spirit is divine. We have to understand that the distinctions in the Godhead do not refer to His essence; they do not refer to a fragmentation or compartmentalization of the very being of God.”

- The Trinity is not God who reveals Himself in different forms at different times.  He does not present Himself at one time as Father, then appears at a different time as a Son and finally as a Spirit. The Trinity is not like water; existing as ice, steam, or liquid.  We have all probably of heard this example and hopefully we all recognize it as the heresy of modalism; God exist in three non -coexisting modes .

-The Trinity is not a collection of demigods who collectively make up one final supreme Being. 

The Trinity is:

- The Trinity is one God consisting of three distinct, divine Persons. Each person of the same essence and each person fully God. 

God is One

The Lord our God is one, the only true living God. (1 Cor. 8:4;1 Tim 1:17;)

 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” Deut. 6:4

This divine and infinite Being consists of three real Persons; The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. These three have the same substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence without this essence being divided.  (1 John 5:7; Matt. 28:19; John 1:14,18; 14:11)

God is One in Three Divine Persons

God The Father

- The Bible clearly refers to God as Father (1 John 3:1)

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why he world does not know us is that it did not know him. 

- Matthew 6:6 we are commanded to pray to The Father

- Philippians 4:20 He is referred to as “Our God and our Father.”

- Other pertinent texts are: John 10:28-30; 14:6, 23 ;17:3, 24; 1 John 2:15; Luke 12:32; Matthew 26:53; 

God The Son

- Clearly, the New Testament affirms the deity of Jesus. The opening to John’s Gospel states, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God (distinguishes the Word from God) and the Word was God. (identifies the word with God)” If there is any confusion on who the Word is referencing verse 14 makes it clear. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”  

- Both the opening chapter of John as well as Colossians state that all things were created by Christ, reaffirming His divine power and attributes. 

- Philippians 2 plainly states that Christ is God in human flesh.

- Jesus’ statements in His high priestly prayer of John 17 concerning that He and the Father are one and later in the same chapter stating that God the Father would restore His glory that He shared with the Father from the beginning.                                                                

God The Holy Spirit

- The Holy Spirit is not an “IT”.  All through Scripture, the Holy Spirit is referred to with the personal pronoun “Him” or “He.”   

- The Holy Spirit is Divine.  In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is linked as the Third Person of the Godhead. Matt. 28:19  “….baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  The redemptive plan of the Triune God, acknowledges the cooperative work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (1Thess. 2:13-14; 1 Pet. 1:2)

- From the early days of the church it was clearly understood by the Apostles that the Holy Spirit was in fact, God. Let’s look at the story of Ananias and Sapphire found in Acts 6.  This couple purposely defrauded the church and in doing so lied to the Holy Spirit and to God. In verse 3 Peter confronted Ananias by stating , “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?” Then, in the very next verse Peter says, “You have not lied to man, but to God.”

  In these texts, plus many others, the Deity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are both explicitly or implicitly stated.  In keeping with God’s divine revelation in the Old Testament, the early church also firmly maintained the oneness of God. With the complete revelation of the New Testament, the Bible clearly affirms that God is one existing in three divine Persons-- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

This diagram is helpful in seeing this remarkable truth!