What Does the Bible Say About the Trinity?
By Pastor Josh Wamble
Much of the Bible is simple and easy to understand even if it is often hard to do. When Jesus tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves, that may be a hard to do (especially without the work of the Holy Spirit inside of us), but that statement is not hard to understand. The same is even true for the Bible’s instruction for us to be holy as God is holy. So much of what the Bible says is this way—be known by humility; love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; trust in Jesus alone for salvation, don’t try to earn it; and much more.
While most of the Bible is easy to understand, there are other parts that are more difficult. Peter even said as much about some of Paul’s writings in 2 Pet. 3:15-16. Many times, these difficulties come as we are trying to understand how different parts of the Bible fit together. The Bible says that God is sovereign even over salvation and that we make free decisions. Those truths are easy to understand on their own, but we have some difficulty understanding how they fit together. How Jesus can be both fully God and fully man fits into this category as well. While there are others, we could think about, I want to look at the idea of the trinity—one God in three persons—here. The Bible says eight things about God that help us to understand (or at least believe) this doctrine.
1. There is Only One God.
The Bible says this in several places, and this is one of the main differences between Christianity and many other religions. For example, Deuteronomy 6:4-5 say, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” This is only one place where we see this truth—Is. 45:5-6, 45:21-2, 44:6-8, Ex. 15:11, and many others.
No matter how we end up understanding the trinity, one thing is certain—there is only one God.
2. The Father is God.
This truth goes almost without saying. Most of the time when the Bible uses the word “God,” it is a reference to the Father. Of course, there are some places that are more explicit than others. In Matthew 6:9, Jesus teaches us how to pray and tells us to address God as “Our Father in Heaven.” In John 6:27, John tells us that “God the Father” has set his seal on the Son of Man.
It is clear that God the Father is God.
3. The Son (Jesus) is God.
The Bible teaches that the Father is God, but just as clearly, it also tells us that the Father has a Son. God the Son who has always existed entered into time and creation and became Jesus the Christ. In the opening verses of John’s gospel, he tells us that this Son or Word was with God the Father and was Himself God. Later in John 20:28 when Jesus appears to Thomas after his Resurrection, Thomas proclaims, ‘My Lord and my God!” Jesus does not correct him or challenge him (the way that angles and others did in similar situations) but allows this statement to stand. In Revelation, we see several times where Jesus receives worship alongside the Father.
It is clear that the Son (Jesus) is also God.
4. The Holy Spirit is God.
While we don’t read as much about the Holy Spirit in the Bible as we do the Father and the Son, we are explicitly told that he is also fully God. One of the places where this is made most clear is Acts 5:3-5. There two early followers, Ananias and Sapphira, had given an offering to the church, but they lied about it. In verse 3, Peter asks Ananias how he could do such a thing as lie to the Holy Spirit. In the very next verse, Peter tells him that in lying to the Holy Spirit he has not lied to men but to God.
It is clear from this passage that the Holy Spirit, too, is fully God.
5. The Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit.
6. The Son (Jesus) is not the Father or the Holy Spirit.
7. The Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son (Jesus).
These three truths go together. This is where we begin to have some difficulty—in understanding how the Father is God and the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God and how they are all one God and not three. However, the Bible says all of those things, and we must try to understand how all four of those truths can be true at the same time.
Throughout history, some in the church have tried to explain this by saying that God is like an actor in a one-man play. Sometimes this one God plays the part of the Father and at other times he plays the part of the Son or the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t really exist as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they say, these are just ways that He presents Himself to His creation at different times. This is one way of trying to understand what the Bible says about God, but this understanding doesn’t fit with everything the Bible says.
God doesn’t just act like the Father, He is the Father. God doesn’t just act like the Son or the Holy Spirit at other times, He is the Son, and He is the Holy Spirit. The Bible makes this clear in several places. In Revelation, we see the Father and the Son both in Heaven at the same time. When Jesus was on earth, the Father was in Heaven. Now that Jesus has ascended back to Heaven with the Father, the Holy Spirit is acting in and among His people here on earth.
There are a few places where the Bible makes this truth explicit as well. Often in the gospels, we see Jesus praying to the Father. He is not talking to Himself; He is talking to His Father. Jesus told his disciples that when He went to Heaven, He would send the Holy Spirit to be with them.
In Luke 1:35, an angel appears to Mary and tells her that she will conceive a child. He says this will happen when the Holy Spirit comes upon her. He tells her that the power of the “Most High” (the Father) will come upon her, and the child she carries will be called the Son of God.
Again, in Matthew 3:16-17, we read about Jesus’s baptism. At that event, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all three in the same place at the same time. Jesus (the Son) is being baptized. When He comes out of the water, the Father speaks saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” At the same time, Matthew tells us that the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove.
God doesn’t just play the roles of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; He is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
8. God Has Always Existed This Way.
God never became the Father (or the Son or the Holy Spirit). He has always existed as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father has never not been the Father. The Son has never not been the Son, and the Holy Spirit has never not been the Holy Spirit. God has never not been God.
The trinity is a difficult doctrine to understand, and we may not ever be able to fully understand it. But, this shouldn’t be that surprising to us. When we are thinking about the trinity, we are thinking about the vey nature of God. No wonder we are not able to fully understand!
Over time, believers have come up with a summary of what the Bible says about God—a summary of these eight truths. There is only one God, and He exists in three persons.
Next week (5/2), we will publish another article helping us to think about why it is good for us that God is one and three. You can read that post here.
