The Trinity
Are they Really Three In One?
A question/statement that came up from my cousin a long time ago was this: How can they all be God? It’s not logical. When God’s word says in Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” “Our” is multiple, not one. Who is he talking too? Himself? Who is Jesus talking to when He says in Matthew 26:39, “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
The doctrine of the Trinity is foundational to the Christian faith. It is crucial for properly understanding what God is like, how he relates to us, and how we should relate to him. But it also raises many difficult questions. How can God be both one and three? Is the Trinity a contradiction? If Jesus is God, why do the Gospels record instances where he prayed to God?
While we cannot fully understand everything about the Trinity (or anything else), it is possible to answer questions like these and come to a solid grasp of what it means for God to be three in one. – Matt Perman – Desiring God
Questions to Ask
How can these three separate entities be one person? Are they really?
Is the Trinity a contradiction?
If Jesus is God, why do the Gospels record instances where he prayed to God?
Who is the Holy Spirit?
How does he speak to you?
Is He God?
What does the Bible say about it?
12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
Deuteronomy 6:4
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!”
Matthew 3:16-17
And after being baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
Matthew 28:19
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
John 10:30
Jesus said: “I and the Father are one.”
John 14:9
“He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”
Romans 8:9
If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
Matthew 1:20
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”
Luke 1:35
And the angel answered and said to her [Mary], “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.”
What do people smarter than me believe?
“…Our Lord Jesus Christ added nothing to God in his essential being and glory, either by what He did or suffered. True, blessedly and gloriously true. He manifested the glory of God to us, but he added nought to God… Christ’s goodness and rightousness reached unto His saints in the earth but God was high above and beyond it all….”
John Owen
“But of that day and hour no one knows neither the angels in heaven nor the Son but only the Father.’ We are not to think that the Son of God as he is God did not know the day or hour but only that his human nature did not know it because his divine nature had not chosen to reveal it to his human nature.”
What do people smarter than me believe?
“…Our Lord Jesus Christ added nothing to God in his essential being and glory, either by what He did or suffered. True, blessedly and gloriously true. He manifested the glory of God to us, but he added nought to God… Christ’s goodness and rightousness reached unto His saints in the earth but God was high above and beyond it all….”
John Owen
“But of that day and hour no one knows neither the angels in heaven nor the Son but only the Father.’ We are not to think that the Son of God as he is God did not know the day or hour but only that his human nature did not know it because his divine nature had not chosen to reveal it to his human nature.”
Johnathan Edwards
“The Father is the deity subsisting in the prime, unoriginated and most absolute manner, or the deity in its direct existence. The Son is the deity generated by God’s understanding, or having an idea of Himself and subsisting in that idea. The Holy Ghost is the deity subsisting in act, or the divine essence flowing out and breathed forth in God’s infinite love to and delight in Himself. And I believe the whole Divine essence does truly and distinctly subsist both in the Divine idea and Divine love, and that each of them are distinct persons.”
Interesting Facts
God, however, lives without the limitations of a three-dimensional universe. He is spirit. And he is infinitely more complex than we are. That is why Jesus the Son can be different from the Father. And, yet the same. The Bible clearly speaks of: God the Son, God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit. But emphasizes that there is only ONE God.
If we were to use math, it would not be, 1+1+1=3. It would be 1x1x1=1. God is a triune God.
Thus the term: “Tri” meaning three, and “Unity” meaning one, Tri+Unity = Trinity. It is a way of acknowledging what the Bible reveals to us about God, that God is yet three “Persons” who have the same essence of deity. Some have tried to give human illustrations for the Trinity, such as H2O being water, ice and steam (all different forms, but all are H2O). Another illustration would be the sun. From it we receive light, heat and radiation. Three distinct aspects, but only one sun.
Additional Q&A
Answer
What do you believe?
Hey everyone,
Now that we have talked about God the father, Jesus the son and the Holy Spirit, this leads to what we believe about the Trinity. Here are some questions to study over.
- How is it possible for three separate living beings to all be one?
- Are God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit equal?
- If so why didn’t God the father come down to earth as a baby?
- Why is God’s name Jesus when that just refers to one-third of God?
- Why did Jesus ask his Father to ‘forgive them for they know not what they do’, when he as on the cross? Surely if they were equal, Jesus wouldn’t need to ask God the father to forgive these people as he could do it himself? The Gospels record other instances where he prayed to God
- If they are all equal why does God the father have a title that implies he is above the son and the spirit? (on the basis that a father is always greater than his son and the spirit hardly ever gets referred to as a God)
- Why do we know so little about the Spirit? If they are equal why does the spirit seem ‘less’ than the others?
- If God the father and God the Son are one, where was God the Father when Jesus was on earth?
- When Jesus was on earth why did he pray to His father, if they are both one why would Jesus to pray to himself?
Love you guys, and see you soon.
Joe