Understanding the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit
How is it that God can be three persons? Why do we need Jesus as a Savior? Why do Christians pray in Christ’s name to God? What is the role of the Holy Spirit? These are some of the questions we have all asked, and scholars have struggled to explain, because there is a lot of mystery and wonder around this powerful reality: God, the three in one.
Deuteronomy 29:29: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”
When I was in school, I struggled with those teachers and professors who could not provide practical application of the concepts and knowledge they were imparting…if I could not apply what I was learning, the information went in one ear and out the other, and I have the grades to prove it! Therefore, to understand some of what God has revealed about himself in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I want to focus on the roles they each play from scripture. My hope and prayer is that we will understand and be blessed by the reality of the Trinity by applying the truth of God, the three in one, in our daily lives.
First, let’s look at what the bible tells us about the origin of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The Hebrew word for God used here is “Elohim”, which is the masculine plural noun used by Moses when he wrote Genesis. Again, in Genesis 1:26, we read: “Then God (Elohim) said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…’” So who else was with God in the beginning? Genesis 1:2 tells us that the Spirit of God was there: “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” John 1:1-3 says, “In the beginning was the Word (Logos – masculine noun), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” John’s gospel is all about Jesus – the Word of God.
In Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, we learn something about the roles of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
1 Corinthians 8:6: “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.”
1 Corinthians 2:9-12: “However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’, but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.”
From God, through Christ, by the Holy Spirit.
The bible is completely unique among all the books ever written in the history of the world. It is comprised of 66 books, written by 40 different authors, over a period of about 1,200 years. No other religion offers such corroboration by so many over such a long period. And as a religion, Christianity is the only one in which the creator of the universe offers himself to us because of his desire to have a relationship with us, and he makes a way for that love to be received by sacrificing his only Son (John 3:16) to prove his love toward us (Romans 5:8). Every other religion says that we have to do something to be made righteous – do good things, pray five times a day, make sacrifices of some type, live a good life (whatever that means). The bible says: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:19-24). As I heard an old Baptist preacher say, “God, I can’t, and you never said I could; God, you can, and you always said you would.”
Notice that Paul tells us this righteousness comes from God through Christ. What makes Christ qualified to deliver this gift to us? “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). That’s why Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). That is also why he prayed that “all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (John 17:21). We can only come to the Father through the Son because our sin prohibits us from approaching God as unrighteous (sinful) beings…we must have our sins remitted in order to stand blameless before God. That is why Jesus is God’s gift of salvation to us (from God) so that we may approach the throne of grace through Christ, and thus be one with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
So now that we know that we are made righteous before God through Christ by faith, what is the role of the Holy Spirit? First, when we make our confession that we cannot approach God on our own merit and ask Jesus to save us, God gives us His Holy Spirit: “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14). Our position is made secure by faith and confirmed by our receiving the Holy Spirit. But what about our practice? I don’t know about you, but while I am overwhelmed by God’s grace through Christ for my salvation, I still find myself struggling with sin.
God gave us His Son to change our position; He gave us His Holy Spirit to change our practice:
John 16:13-15: “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”
Galatians 5:16-25: “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
Philippians 2:12-13: “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
Romans 8:26-27: “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
Matthew 26:41: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
John 4:24: “God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
1 Corinthians 2:4-5, 13-14: “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
2 Peter 1:20-21: “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
You see, God’s Word tells us that Christ opens the door to God through his blood shed for us on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins; the Holy Spirit makes the way for us to go through the door, as it were, to God; and God, the Father, gives us both so that we may be in union with Him, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That’s why Jesus said we are to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). From God, through Christ, by the Holy Spirit.
This is an attempt to give you just enough from God’s word to have a basic understanding of the Trinity and of the critical importance of the triune God. Without a Savior to give us a right standing before our Creator, we cannot approach God on our own merit (position). In order to become more like Christ in our Christian walk, we must have God’s Holy Spirit to give us wisdom and power (practice). Both God’s Son and His Spirit are a result of God the Father desiring to be in relationship. He doesn’t need us – He wants us! I pray this brief explanation of the Trinity will be a blessing and spur you to study and learn even more from God’s word!
“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude 1:24-25)
Mark Maund, Pastor
Riverview United Methodist Church
Evans, GA