Can One God Exist as Three Persons? – Essential Beliefs, #31, The Trinity
I take up again my posts on essential doctrines, of which belief in the Trinity is one. True believers are trinitarian. We’ve seen that many of God’s attributes—infinite, eternal, unchangeable—are beyond human comprehension. So, it should not surprise us when we come to the tri-unity of God to find mystery.
Early in this series we stated, with proofs, the infallibility of the Scriptures. Without using the Scriptures as the foundation of all inquiry into ultimate questions, we will be at sea in a leaking boat without paddles. (Please excuse me for failing to shorten this enormous subject into a brief post. )
When we turn to the Old Testament Scriptures what do we find? Mystery. “Then God said, let us make man in our image” (Gen. 1:26). Plural language. We discover a visible being called the Angel of Jehovah (LORD) and later the Angel of God speaking to Hagar (Gen. 16:7ff; 21:17ff), the LORD appearing to Abraham who looks up and sees three men, and later two angels appearing to Lot to deliver him from Sodom. In Proverbs Wisdom is personified. (See Prov. 8:12-31). Multiple persons are mentioned in Psalm 45:6,7. Isaiah 61:1, a passage clearly prophetic of Jesus’ ministry states, “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. The Spirit, the LORD, and the one anointed are distinct.
And yet the OT states clearly that God is one. To this day Jews repeat this phrase, the Shema, as a declaration of faith. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deut. 6:4). One might understand why Muslims and Jews stumble over our belief in the Tri-unity of God. If we brought mere reason to bear on this belief, and not revelation, we too might stumble.
However, we must believe what God through Scripture affirms. That the Father is God, which no one doubts. That Christ is God, the Son of God, is clear from the attributes attributed to him, the works he accomplishes, and the praise offered him. The Sanhedrin understood his claim to be equal with God and for this assumed blasphemy crucified him. But we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…through him all thing were made…the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only” (John 1:1,3,14). Multiplied verses could be cited, which I will not do at this time.
That the Spirit is God is also clear from the attributes, works and praise attributed to him. That His personality, as the Holy Spirit, is distinct from the Father and the Son is clear as Berkhof states, “He searches, speaks, testifies, commands, reveals, strives, creates, makes intercession raises the dead, etc.” (See Gen. 1:2, 6:3, Luke 12:2; John 14:26; 15:26; 16:8; Acts 8:29; 13:2 and Rom. 8:16) (Systematic Theology, L. Berkhof, p. 96)
“The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything” (John 14:26). “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ…And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you,…give life…those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God? (Romans 8:9,10,11,14).
The baptismal formula makes no sense without faith in the tri-unity of God. “Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19).
After the study of scholars and various church councils, the main confessions of faith define the Trinity, with small variations in wording as follows: “Three divine Persons constitute the Godhead—the Father, the Son (or the Word), and the Holy Spirit. They are one in substance, in power, and in eternity. Each is fully God, and yet the Godhead is one and indivisible. The Father owes His being to none. He is Father to the Son who is eternally begotten of Him. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. These Persons, one infinite and eternal God not to be divided in nature or in being, are distinguished in Scripture by their personal relations within the Godhead, and by the variety of works which they undertake. Their tri-unity, (that is, the doc trine of the Trinity) is the essential basis of all our fellowship with God, and of the comfort we derive from our dependence upon Him.” (The 1689 Confession)
One cannot be a Christian without faith in the Trinity. Nor can one find the comfort that flows from the glorious Three-in-One, the God of all comfort.
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