The doctrine of the Trinity is challenging. God is unique and as a result, no analogy is equally comparable. As a result, there may be times while attempting to understand the Trinity, when we will feel comprehension eludes us. This can be rather frustrating. In reality though, what sort of God would God be, if in our finite (limited) nature we could grasp everything about him? A god like that, would not be a god worth worshiping. While we won’t be able to understand everything about God, since He has chosen not to reveal everything about himself to us, we should still do our best to understand him to the best of our ability and to the extent that he has chosen to reveal himself to us.
Also, for the sake of clarification, as we begin to look at the Trinity, it’s important to note that the second person of the Trinity (God the Son) is not called Jesus until he takes on human nature in the incarnation. This is why you will not see God the Son referred to as Jesus in this article.
The Doctrine of the Trinity
“God eternally exists as three persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God” (Grudem, 226).
I. God is three persons
II. Each person is fully God
III. There is one God
I. God is three persons
God is one in respect to essence and three in respect to persons. When we use the word person we must not understand this to mean a physical, material person. We use the term person because it shows that God is relational. He relates to himself in personal ways; he self-communes. Also, God should not be thought of as triple because this denotes parts, and God is one. The Father, Son and Spirit cannot separate or divide. This is why we use the word triune, which emphasizes the unity or oneness of the three persons of God.
Also, each person of the Trinity is distinct. This means that The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, etc. Furthermore, the persons of the Trinity do not exchange their modes of existence. In other words they do not “morph” into each other. The persons of the Trinity have eternally existed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that is how they will always continue to exist.
In their distinction, the persons of the Trinity have different primary functions in relating to the world. This is called the Economy of the Trinity and refers to the idea of ordering activity within the Trinity.
Examples:
The Work of Creation
(1) God the Father spoke the creative words to bring the universe into being (Gen. 1:1).
(2) God the Son carried out the creative work (John 1:3).
(3) God the Holy Spirit was active at creation, “hovering” over the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2).
This is generally understood to be the manifestation of God’s presence at creation.
The Work of Atonement
(1) The Father planned it (John 3:16, Gal 4:4, Eph. 1:9-10).
(2) The Son accomplished it (John 6:38, Heb. 10:5-7).
(3) The Holy Spirit applies it – regeneration (John 3:5-8) and sanctification (Rom. 8:13).
II. Each person is fully God
All persons of the Trinity are co-equal and uncreated. Additionally, each person of the Trinity possesses all the attributes of God. The only distinctions between the members of Trinity are the ways they relate to each other and to creation.
It is also important to understand that the Holy Spirit is not just “the power of God.” He is a distinct person of the Trinity. Those who want to relegate the Holy Spirit to merely being the “power of God” have a challenge to explain several verses: Luke 4:14, Acts 10:38, Rom. 15:13, and 1 Cor. 2:4. Scripture clearly teaches the person-hood of the Holy Spirit. We, see this when personal activities are ascribed to the Holy Spirit: (1)Teaching in John 14:26, (2) Bearing Witness in John 15:26 and Rom, 8:16, (3) Interceding or praying on behalf of others in Rom. 8:26 -27, (4) Restraining certain actions in Acts 16:6-7, and (5) Being Grieved in Eph. 4:30. So, the Holy Spirit should not be thought of or understood as a synonym for “the power of God.”
Finally, Scripture teaches that each person of the Trinity is God.
(1) The Father is God – Ex 15:11, 1 Kings 8:60, 1 Cor. 1:3, Eph. 4:4-6
(2) The Son is God – John 1:1-5, John 10:30-33, John 20:28, Heb. 1:6-8, Phil. 2:9-11
(3) The Holy Spirit is God – Acts 5:3-4, 2 Cor. 3:16-17, Ex. 34:34
III. There is One God
Scripture is abundantly clear that there is one and only one God. The three different persons of the Trinity are not only one in purpose and in agreement on what they think, but they are one in essence. They are one in their essential nature. In other words, God is only one being (Deut. 6:4, Is. 43:10, Rom. 3:30, 1 Tim. 2:5).
Common Analogies of the Trinity
All analogies from human experience will have shortcomings, because as mentioned at the beginning of this article, there is nothing from human experience that we can use to adequately describe the unique nature of the Trinity. So, analogies can be helpful on an elementary level, but as we dive deeper into understanding of the Trinity they can also be misleading if we are not careful.
(1) One person who fills three roles
This is the idea that one man is a grandfather, father and son. The problem with this analogy is that the man cannot be all three roles to the same individual. He cannot be grandfather, father and son in relation to the same individual.
(2) Parts of an Egg
This analogy shows one egg that consists of the shell, egg white and yoke. However, it is incomplete because it represents God as three separate and dividable parts. You can remove the shell from the egg and still have an egg. You cannot remove a person from the Trinity.
(3) Forms of Water
This example gives the picture of one element that can be in liquid (water), solid (ice) or gas (steam) form. This analogy is dangerous because it represents God as shifting between modes. Water cannot be all three states at the same time, and yet that is exactly how God is.
(4) The Triangle
In my opinion the best analogy of the Trinity is an equilateral triangle. This triangle has three distinct angles that are the same, but they do not separate or ever become something else. While you have these distinct angles, if you take any angle away you no longer have a triangle.
Endeavoring to comprehend the Trinity can be quite the undertaking, but coming to a deeper understanding of who God is makes the effort worth it. I will end with one final thought. It is sometimes argued that the word Trinity, itself is not in the Bible. As a side note, neither is the word incarnation, and yet we clearly see the confirmation that God became man in Scripture. The same is true the Trinity. We clearly see the Scriptural evidence for understanding God as 3-in-one.
Sources for this article:
Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology; An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000.
Lewis, Kevin. Personal notes from Essential Christian Doctrine Lectures. Biola University; La Mirada, CA, 2013.
Shedd, William G.T. Dogmatic Theology. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2003.
