“And the catholic (or universal) faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance for there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.” – The Athanasian Creed
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” – Matthew 28:19
There are quite a few things that set Christianity apart from other religions. There is the death of Christ for our sins. There is salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, and not by any works. But a very unique thing to Christianity is the doctrine of the Trinity. That is to say, there is one God, and yet this one God exists in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, yet there are not three Gods, but one God. This is uniquely Christian. If you do not have the doctrine of the Trinity, you have something different from Christianity. A major tenet and pillar of Christianity is that God is Triune. No other religion holds to the orthodox teaching of the Trinity, whether you are Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon, and so on. This is a crucial truth, and yet this is one of the most confusing things ever.
And while the early Church Fathers spent time and energy defending and defining this truth, many of us today seem to take this doctrine for granted. It is sadly a neglected doctrine. Yet it is a truth that is central to our very faith. It deserves our utmost thought, yet we often forget it! I think one of the reasons so many of us have a hard time with this teaching (that God exists in three Persons, and yet remains one God) is because we do not find it practical. We don’t know how this matters in our daily lives.
So how exactly are we to think of the Trinity? Do we really need to use this old school terminology of “persons” and “substance”? And how does this apply to me? We will look what the Trinity is, Biblical evidence for the Trinity, and practical application.
