“So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord; And yet they are not three Lords, but one Lord. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord; so are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say; There are three Gods or three Lords.” – The Athanasian Creed
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” – 2 Corinthians 13:14
The doctrine of the Trinity is most easily defined as this: There is only one God who exists, who rules over all and is eternal, and this God exists in three Persons. So we have three Persons in God, and yet one Substance in God… This can be confusing! And many mock it as nonsensical. They hear it much like if I said “1+1+1=1″. But this is the Biblical account of the nature of God. He reveals Himself in this way. First, let’s break down some common statements to help us arrive at this conclusion.
1. There is one God. “Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4); “To you it was shown, that you might known that Yahweh is God; there is no other besides him” (Deuteronomy 4:35). One of the most basic and simple things to understand when reading the Scriptures is that there is one God. It is so consistent throughout all the Scriptures that it hard to just pinpoint a few verses. Not only does the Bible tell us there is one God plainly, but we see this in the many stories of the Old Testament, where false gods are mocked and shown to do nothing, because they have “no real existence” (1 Corinthians 8:4). Because of this, any notion of multiple gods is heretical and idolatrous. We do not worship more than one God. Christians are monotheists (meaning we believe there is one God). And from the beginning, we are told that there is only one God, Creator of the universe, and to worship no other but Him alone (Exodus 20:3).
2. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. As we read throughout the New Testament, while maintaining that there is only one God, we see that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all called God. The Bible clearly testifies that the Father is God. “Paul, an apostle… through Jesus Christ and God the Father…” (Galatians 1:1). Likewise, the Bible is clear that Jesus is God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son…” (John 1:1, 14). “…waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ…” (Titus 2:13). He is the Creator of the universe, has no beginning and no end, knows all things, sustains all things, and is to be worship and glorified. He is not an angel (as some claim), but in Hebrews we are told that God says concerning Jesus, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” (Hebrews 1:6). And finally, we see that the Holy Spirit is God. “…Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit… You have not lied to men but to God.” (Acts 5:3-4). “Now the Lord is the Spirit… For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). He is not simply the power of God, but He is a Person. He can be grieved. He can be lied to. He can speak. He truly is God.
3. The Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit. The Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son. The last thing we see in the Scriptures is that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct from each other and are not different names for the same exact deity. For instance, in Matthew 3:16-17, it says, “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” We see that Jesus was on earth being baptized, the Father is speaking from heaven, and the Spirit is descending from heaven onto Jesus. Likewise, throughout the Gospels, Jesus prays to the Father. In one conversation I had, some girl told me that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are just different titles for God. She compared it to her being a mom, a daughter, and employee all at the same time. One of the big problems with this is that we never see her daughter-side praying to her mom-side. Nor do we see her mom-side sending her employee-side down to hug her daughter-side.
With these three statements, we come to the basic skeleton of the Trinity, that God is one God, yet he exists as three different persons. There are not three Gods, but one God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God, and yet they are of one substance, they are one God. And the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct from one another.
