Ever wondered what the central beliefs of Christianity are? Have you been questioning whether you have it right? This post completes a series on the Godhead, including God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit.
The word ‘trinity’ isn’t found in the Bible 
But the idea it presents is seen everywhere in Scripture from the use of the plural ‘us’ in Genesis 1:26, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us‘ to the formula of Matthew 28:19, ‘…baptising them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.’
Trinity means ‘threeness’ an speaks of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We don’t believe in three Gods. Scripture is clear that there is only one (Deuteronomy 6:4; 1 Timothy 2:5).
There is no doubt that this is a very difficult doctrine (way of believing) to understand.
Augustine, one of the great Christian leaders of the fifth century, gave a great deal of time to thinking about the doctrine of the Trinity.
One day as he was walking along the seashore, he saw a boy digging in the sand. He asked the boy what he was doing and the youngster said that he wanted to empty the sea into the hole he was digging.
This was a profound moment for Augustine as he thought, ‘Isn’t this what I’m trying to do? I’m attempting to understand an infinite God and to collect him within the limits of my own mind.’
One God, Three Persons
Christians have been accused, particularly by the followers of Islam, of worshipping three Gods, but, as we’ve seen, this ins’t true.
God is so great and glorious that it’s impossible, as Augustine discovered, for the mind of man to grasp all that he is.
Our minds a limited and in order to try and explain the Trinity we have come up with various illustrations of one substance in three forms:
– Water, Ice and Steam
– The three leaves of a clover
– Sun, Heat and Light
These may help, but not much, because there’s nothing in human experience to compare with God in his Trinitarian form.
The word ‘person’ doesn’t help all that much either. If we think of a person, he will have his own identity and being, so three persons will be three individuals.
Language, even though we must use it, cannot do justice to the Almighty God. When it comes to Him, we’re simply left with what He chooses to tell us about Himself in the Bible.
And it here we find that God reveals Himself to be Father, Son and Holy Spirit – One God, three persons.
The Trinity is not a matter for debate or even attempted explanation, but for reverent, trusting acceptance.
The Trinity at Work
In the Trinity there is a certain order: first is the Father, then the Son, and then the Holy Spirit. Yet at the same time the three persons are all God, equal with each other and as important as each other.
One is no more superior than the other two but they have different works or functions. We can see this is God’s works of creation and salvation.
In creation God is said to have created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1). But we’re also told that He did this through the Son. And if we go back to Genesis 1:2 we see that the Holy Spirit was involved in creation, hovering over the waters and bringing into existence what God had ordained.
This is referred to in Psalm 104:30, ‘When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.’
So God the Father created the world and he did it through the Son and by the means of the Holy Spirit.
In salvation we can again see the whole Trinity at work. God the Father planned it. It was He who loved the world and out of this love sent Jesus the Son to be our saviour.
Without this initial act of the Father there would be no salvation. Jesus makes this clear in John 6:37-38,
‘However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will.’
God the Son died in our place on the cross. Jesus ‘was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.’ (Romans 4:25).
God the Holy Spirit makes all this real and applies to us the merits of Christ’s death. Paul acknowledged that what saved the Christians at Corinth was not the persuasive words he preached but the Holy Spirit exercising his power by using the message preached.
Peter brings all this together,
‘God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.’ (1 Peter 1:2)
Further Reading: ‘The Three are One’, Stuart Olyott
Inspired by Peter Jeffery, ’Bitesize Theology’, Evangelical Press, 2000
