One of the first roadblocks many Christians run into when trying to understand God, is trying to understand a word that doesn’t even exist in the Bible — the “Trinity.”
But, does the Bible teach us about the Trinity? Absolutely! There is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4; 1 Corinthians 8:4). However, the Father is God (John 6:27; 1 Peter 1:2). Jesus Christ is God (Romans 9:5; Colossians 2:9). And the Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4; 1 Corinthians 3:16).
How can three people be one person — God? Biblically, all three Persons of the Trinity have the same spirit and nature. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are not forms of God; each of them is God. However, each One has different roles or activities when it comes to how God relates to the world.
Therefore go and make disciples in all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19
So how can we, with our human minds, understand something that comes from the mind of God? The simple answer is we can’t. It is impossible to understand how God could be three in one as well as One in three. Why?
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT)
I simply cannot adequately explain this mystery. I can only believe what the Bible says without attempting to justify it. Nowhere does the Bible require that we align the Word of God or attempt, through human interpretation, to reconcile its statements. We are simply to believe whatever God has spoken. Simply put, we have to stop trying to figure it out and just accept, by faith, what the Bible says. I agree.
However, I don’t believe we should ignore a discussion about the Trinity just because everyone tells us we’ll never understand it. I realize that I will never truly comprehend the complexity of the Trinity. But, this is who my God is and even with our limited understanding, why shouldn’t we at least try and trust God to give us the wisdom and knowledge to understand what He wants us to?
For my journey to eternity, I want to know as much about my God as I possibly can before I join Him for all eternity. I am seeking to know, even with my limited earthly mind, the breadth and depth of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, including the different roles and activities each One plays in my life and the world.
When I view and identify the God of the Universe through His three distinct eternal persons He becomes real to me. What do I mean by three distinct eternal persons? I don’t mean there are three separate gods; there is only one that exists in three persons — the Father, Son, and Spirit eternally co-exist in the inner being of God.
God of the Universe
There is only one God. He is the God of the universe, the creator of everything. Nothing exists that wasn’t made by Him Isaiah 40:28-31. He is the King of all kings and Lord of all lords. 1 Timothy 6:15. Through His three distinct persons He plays the role of my Father, my Lord and my guiding Spirit. Matthew 3:16-17
Studying the God of the universe through these three distinct eternal persons has helped me to understand the role God desires to play in the justification, sanctification and glorification of my life. I refer to this as the Salvation Trinity. This is the three step process where my God uses my Father, my Lord and my guiding Spirit both individually and together to prepare me for eternity with Him.
We are made in the image of God. The three persons of God are inside each of us when we become Christians John 14:23. Literally, God’s Spirit begins to reveal Himself inside of us. And because we’re made in His image, the more we seek to know Him, the better we understand ourselves, and who we really are, as well as those around us.
One Godhead works through His three distinct eternal persons in this lost world in association with each other, but also in voluntary subordination with each other in order to implement the Plan He developed before time began. What plan is that?
Long ago, even before he made the world, God chose us to be his very own through what Christ would do for us; he decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single fault—we who stand before him covered with his love. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because he wanted to
low all praise to God for his wonderful kindness to us and his favor that he has poured out upon us because we belong to his dearly loved Son. So overflowing is his kindness toward us that he took away all our sins through the blood of his Son, by whom we are saved; and he has showered down upon us the richness of his grace—for how well he understands us and knows what is best for us at all times.
God has told us his secret reason for sending Christ, a plan he decided on in mercy long ago; and this was his purpose: that when the time is ripe he will gather us all together from wherever we are—in heaven or on earth—to be with him in Christ forever. Moreover, because of what Christ has done, we have become gifts to God that he delights in, for as part of God’s sovereign plan we were chosen from the beginning to be his, and all things happen just as he decided long ago. God’s purpose in this was that we should praise God and give glory to him for doing these mighty things for us, who were the first to trust in Christ. Ephesians 1:4-12 (TLB)
Our God is in the process of gathering together all of His Children He chose before time began to spend eternity with Him. You should be thanking Him every day for selecting you from the 7.5 billion people living on this earth to be one of His adopted children. What a privilege it is to be called a child of God, knowing the inheritance we have waiting for us. At some point in time which no one knows, not even the angels, when the time is right, our God is going to gather us all together from wherever we are—in heaven or on earth—to be with him in Christ forever. Praise God for His extravagant generosity.
Before we look at the three distinct eternal persons of the Godhead, let’s take a look at who the God of the Universe is. The best place to find out who God is lies in the many names of God found in the scriptures. To understand the scriptures is to understand God. Let’s read through the names of God in our search of who He is. They are as follows:
Names of God
Yahweh – LORD “I Am,” meaning the eternal self-existent God (Exodus 3:13-14).
Yahweh-Jireh: The Lord Will Provide (Genesis 22:14)
Yahweh-Rapha: The Lord Who Heals (Exodus 15:26)
Yahweh-M’Kaddesh: The Lord Who Sanctifies, Makes Holy
(Leviticus 20:8)
Yahweh-Shalom: The Lord Our Peace (Judges 6:24)
Yahweh-Elohim: LORD God (Genesis 2:4)
Yahweh-Tsidkenu: The Lord Our Righteousness (Jeremiah 33:16)
Yahweh-Rohi: The Lord Our Shepherd (Psalm 23:1)
Yahweh-Sobaoth: The Lord of Hosts (Isaiah 1:24)
Elohim – strong One, divine (Genesis 1:1)
Adonai – Lord, indicating a Master-to-servant relationship (Exodus 4:10, 13)
El Elyon – Most High, the strongest One (Genesis 14:20)
El Roi – the strong One who sees (Genesis 16:13)
El Shaddai – Almighty God (Genesis 17:1)
El Olam – Everlasting God (Isaiah 40:28)
The God of the Universe has no beginning or end. He is self-sufficient and needs nothing, He is our provider and healer. He sanctifies and makes us Holy. He is our peace. He is the Lord of Lords. He is our righteousness and our shepherd. He is our Father, Lord and Savior and guiding Spirit. He is full of mercy and grace, as well as compassionate and powerful. There isn’t anything He can’t do. He is a God of righteous judgment. He is Omnipotent (has all power and authority), He is Omniscient (knows everything) and He is Omnipresent (exists everywhere).
The Three Eternal Persons of God
Now let’s take all of these characteristics of the Godhead I’ve just described and place all of them into the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Let me now tell you about the three distinct eternal persons of God as I view them from God’s Holy Word, the Bible.
1. God the Father: As God, He is my loving and caring Father.
God’s first person is that of a loving, caring and forgiving Father. Someone you can trust and confide in with your innermost thoughts and secrets. Someone who forgives all of your failures and sets you back upon your feet and says try again. Someone whose love for you is so strong He did what was necessary to reclaim you as one of His children. God’s Holy Word tells me that “17 Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.” James 1:17 (NLT) and that “3 Grace, mercy, and peace, which come from God the Father and from Jesus Christ—the Son of the Father—will continue to be with us who live in truth and love.” 2 John 3 (NLT) He is also a Father who will display His anger and righteous judgment against this world when the time is right. Romans 2:5-8
God through His person as my Father chose me before the foundations of the earth were ever created to spend eternity with Him as one of His children in the new Heavens and Earth. (Ephesians 1:4-5) But, Satan came along and blocked that promised future for me and separated me from my Father’s love both physically and spiritually. But this was all part of God’s plan.
Satan stepped in and hijacked my destiny to be with my Father with the Sin that he brought into this world through Adam. (Romans 5:12) Instead of Heaven being my final destination, Satan flipped it 180 degrees in the opposite direction and now I’m headed to Hell with him and his demonic minions for a life of burning sulfur and torment for all eternity separated from God. (2 Thessalonians 1:9)
But, God already knew long ago, before he made the world, that this was going to happen, even before that fool Satan had thought about it. Through His loving person as my Father, He prepared the way for my return back to His loving arms. He never stopped loving me.
God, was determined to regain His lost children that Satan stole from Him. “16 For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.” John 3:16
2. God the Son: As God, He is my Savior, Lord and Master.
God is now coming to redeem me and the others He has chosen to spend eternity with Him through His person my Savior, Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. (7)
God had to came into this world as a man, born of flesh and blood just like you and me. So He in His person of Jesus Christ, God the Son, (John 1:1-4) came to earth to be the final sacrifice that would destroy Satan’s power over sin and death. (Romans 8:3)
God through the person of the Son, Jesus Christ, willingly went to the cross to die for us in order to put an end to the control of sin and death in our lives. He opened the door back to God the Father who is waiting to share the Fatherly Love He has for us again. God, through Jesus Christ, first became my Savior. He freely gave Himself for me without question or hesitation. (Hebrews 2:14)
The only thing I had to do to get back to God’s Fatherly love was accept the free gift of grace and redemption that was offered to me through the death, burial and resurrection of God the Son, Jesus Christ. (Romans 10:8-10)
My acceptance came through believing in what my Savior did for me, and by asking Him to forgive the sin that was inside of me — the very thing that separated me from God’s Fatherly love — and to become the Lord and Master of my life from that point on. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) I was now justified and redeemed in the eyes of God through His Heavenly Father person. I was restored to my rightful place in Heaven that existed before Satan came along. (Romans 5:21)
I owe that reunion with God the Father to my Savior, Jesus Christ. God the Son now moves from being just my Savior to now Lord and Master of my life. Without His sacrifice I would still be headed to Hell and eternal damnation. (Romans 6:23)
God now owns me through what His Savior, Lord and Master Jesus Christ did (1 Corinthians 7:23). That’s explaining it as clearly as I am able. For what He did for me, I have happily chosen to serve God through Jesus Christ, to become His slave and do everything He desires and directs me to do without question. (Romans 6:18)
But even though I was back in His Loving Fatherly arms full of grace and mercy, God wasn’t finished with me just yet.
3. God the Holy Spirit: As God, He is my teacher, mentor and protector.
The next marvelous thing God did for me was to place a piece of Himself inside of me — a piece of His person that God calls the Holy Spirit, the very same spirit He had placed in Adam and Eve before they sinned. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people. This was just His down payment for all of the wonderful things He now has planned for us. (2 Corinthians 1:22)
So now with God’s Spirit inside of me, I am able to understand His handbook for life (the Bible) that He wrote for me to follow. (1 John 2:27)
God’s Spirit helps me to understand the things the Lord of my life wants me to understand. Everything God’s Spirit teaches me comes from my Savior, Lord and Master. (John 16:13-15) My Spirit knows the will of God for my life and leads me in that direction. How, you ask? Because Jesus is in me and I am in Jesus, just like Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Jesus. (John 14:20) It is a direct link with my Father through my Lord and is revealed to me through my Spirit.
It all works as one. One God working in me through His three distinct persons. God uses each one of His three persons to play a different role in God’s desire for me to become more like His Son, more like Himself.
Since God the Father is spirit and cannot be seen by anyone except the Son, My Lord has become my spiritual and physical example to follow. God’s Spirit inside of me helps me to understand this and leads me to maturity in my Lord. This is pleasing to my Father and this is called sanctification.
Yes, there is only one God. The God of the universe. But, He is active in my life through His three distinct eternal persons. God through His Loving Fatherly person of God the Father is my everything, without Him I wouldn’t exist and neither would you. He rules my life through His Savior, Lord and Master person, God the Son, and directs me in everything I do on this earth. He also teaches and guides me to the knowledge I need to know for my preparation for eternity through God the Holy Spirit. I can now know how to please the will of God, and how to worship and praise Him.
There are many places where the doctrine of the Trinity underlies and is interwoven throughout the texts of Scripture. Someone put it well by saying; “the doctrine of the Trinity is in the Bible like the salt is in the sea.” You can taste it everywhere, but you can’t very well separate it out, because it is so grounded in the very nature of God himself.
Join me next month as I continue the discussion of Your Journey to Eternity where we’ll look at God’s Word and find out what it means to be “Chosen as a Child of God.”
Until then, may His mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you.
