THE TRINITY

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“If you love me you will obey my commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you a Helper, who will stay with you forever.  He is the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God.  The world cannot receive Him, because it cannot see Him or know Him.  But you know Him, because He remains with you and is in you.”  (John 14:15-17)

The Trinity is unique to the Christian faith.  It is the teaching that the one and only true God exists in three eternal simultaneous, co-equal, distinct persons known as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The three divine persons are continually interrelated and are eternally one.  The distinctiveness of the three divine persons does not dissolve God’s oneness, for they are one nature or substance.  In them there is no contradiction of will.

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The existence of the Trinity is a mystery which we will fully understand only when we are in heaven.  For now, we know that the Bible teaches it, Jesus revealed it, and the Christian Church believes it.

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The Father is the spearhead of the Trinity.  He is the Creator.  We see evidence of this throughout the first chapters of Genesis.

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The Son (Jesus) is the perfect expression of God, the only begotten of the Father, born from God’s seed. The Son is the agent and purpose of all creation.  The Son is our Redeemer who (by putting our faith in Him) is the ONLY way to get to heaven.  His purpose on earth was to do the “will” of the Father by being perfectly obedient to Him.

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The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity.  He proceeds from the Father and is worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son.  He is the Helper or Sanctifier who gives us understanding and wisdom about Biblical truth. It is when we put our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior that the Holy Spirit resides in us and makes us “perfect” in the Father’s eyes as the perfect righteousness of Jesus is imputed into us.

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The Bible clearly speaks of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  But it emphasizes that there is only ONE God.  If we were to use math, it would NOT be 1+1+1=3, but rather 1x1x1=1 as God is a triune (3 wholes in one) God.

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All three persons of the Godhead are eternal.  The Father exists and has existed forever. With Him always existed His expression, His Son.  Always the Father loved the Son, and the Son loved and served the Father.  From that relationship of love arose the Spirit of God, who is eternal and has also existed forever.  There was not a time when there existed only the Father, then later the Son, and still later the Holy Spirit.  They all have existed forever and are three distinct Persons all functioning as one.

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Additional References: Matthew 28:19, 2 Corinthians 13:13, Revelation 1:4