The Holy Trinity: Part 1
One of the most often asked questions is, “how can Christians claim to be monotheistic and yet subscribe to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity—that is, believe in one God of a single nature who is comprised of three persons: Father, Son and Spirit?” Members of other faiths will even accuse Christians of being polytheistic. Nothing could be further from the truth—Christians believe in one God, Creator of the universe who manifests Himself in three unique ways to his Creation. Many metaphors and earthly analogies have been attempted to describe this, but each one falls woefully short. For example, it would be completely inadequate to say that the Holy Trinity is similar to one person experiencing three different moods during the day—happy, sad, and angry. Emotions or moods are experiential and shift over the course of time, and transient emotions are a poor representation of the essences in which God reveals himself; it would also be insufficient to say that it can be understood through the different roles that a man or woman holds in his or her lifetime. For example, my name is Kyle Reynolds, and I am a Pastor, Husband and Father. While this gets closer to understanding God’s different expressions of his nature, in that all three of these titles are associated with my singular nature as one person holding three different positions or relationships to others, once again, the deficiency of this analogy is found in that my nature as a Pastor in relationship to my flock does not then apply a direct correlation to my relationship of myself as a husband to my wife or as a father to my children; rather, they are all independent of one another. The Trinitarian God, however, in the form of Father, Son and Holy Spirit act and operate coterminously, and in complete agreement and harmony with one another and through one another simultaneously. It is a profound and incredible truth that stretches the cerebral capacity of human consciousness.
How do we know it’s biblical? How do we know that the Trinity is real? It is important to note that never once does the Bible use the terms “trinity” or trinitarian.” However, over the course of Scripture we see the essence of God described in the plural form rather than the singular. This is apparent from the opening chapter of Genesis when God says in verse 26 of chapter 1, “Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness.” The Hebrew verb communicates via the first-person plural conjugation of the verb, “make,” or “na'aseh (נַעֲשֶׂ֥ה).” So, from the opening chapters of Genesis, we have an indication that God, in holy unity, has multiple expressions of himself. If that were not enough, the word for God, “Elohim” in Hebrew is morphologically plural as well and is used at several points in the Genesis account, hinting at the Trinitarian nature of the Lord.
And while we often think of Matthew 28:19 and other verses in the New Testament as the clearest expressions of God’s trinitarian nature, when Jesus commissions the disciples to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” we need go no further than the opening three chapters of Genesis to see the Trinity on display. For in the opening two verses, you see God the Father, as the Creator of the heavens and the Earth in verse 1, and then the Spirit of God is hovering over the face of the waters in verse 2. What’s more, you need only go to the third chapter of Genesis, after the Fall of Adam & Eve to see the first evidence for the Son’s existence in which God speaks, “I will put enmity between you (the serpent) and the woman, and between your offspring (the offspring of the serpent) and her offspring; he (the Son) shall bruise your head, and you (the serpent) shall bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). Remember this prophecy from God about offspring, as we will address this mystery at the end of this entry. This prophecy in the early pages of Scripture, of course, symbolizes the cosmic battle between good and evil, but it also forecasts the salvific need for the Son of Man to come to rescue mankind from sin, death and evil. This battle reaches a culmination point at Calvary, where Jesus gives his life as a final sacrifice for all the sin of the world. Those that choose to believe and follow him will be saved. Indeed, no power of evil or Hell can overtake those who become part of the family that Jesus Christ solidifies at his resurrection in which death and evil are forever conquered. There are so many verses that communicate this essential truth, but here are just two:
“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:2-4).
AND
“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things….for I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31b-32, 38).
It would be a challenge to read these verses and not see the power of God as represented in his Trinitarian nature—as the God who is active through the Spirit in those who have confessed Jesus as Lord and savior, as the God who sent and is well pleased with his Son, Jesus Christ, and as the Son who came in the form of a man to crush the false spirit of the antichrist, which is quite matter-of-factly just the offspring of the serpent, that is Satan (this fulfills the prophecy of Genesis 3 that was mentioned earlier).
To go more deeply, one has to comb through all of Scripture, so while today we have looked at the beginning and the end of Scripture to observe the manifestations of the Trinity during Creation and at the eschatological conclusion of God’s plan, next week we will go into the heart of Scripture to observe God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit working across the 66 books of the biblical narrative and prophecy.
