The Trinity in Which We Share

The three persons who eternally and inseparably comprise the One God are God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit.  The Father is God.  In John 6:31, Jesus called him “God the Father.”  In John 4:21-23, Jesus identified “the Father” as the God the Jews and Samaritans both worshipped.  Jesus also prays to his “Father” in numerous places^1–2, and teaches his disciples to pray to “our Father³.”

But Jesus, the Son, is also God.  In the prologue to his Gospel, the Apostle John writes that the Word that was in the beginning with God, the Word through which all things were made, was God⁴. Just a few verses later, John states that this Word, which was God, was made flesh and lived among us⁵.  Later, in his First Epistle, John teaches that only a person who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God overcomes the world, is born of God and has life⁶. Anyone who does not believe this calls God a liar⁷.  1 John 5:20 calls both God and his Son “him who is true,” “the true God” and “eternal life.”  The Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians that Christ Jesus “having the very nature of God,” emptied himself, taking on the very nature of a human being⁸—and a slave (doulos) at that.  He also wrote to the Colossians that the Son is “the image of the invisible God⁹” in whom “all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form¹⁰,” that he is the one for, by and through all things were created and in whom all things now are held together¹¹.  The Writer to the Hebrews echoes this, declaring that it was by the Son that God “made the worlds,” and that this same Son “is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, who, when he had by himself purified us of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high¹².”

But most convincing, as against later writers who have insisted that the deity of Jesus the Son was invented by the Apostles or others after Jesus’ death, and was not something Jesus taught, are the three incidents recorded by John in which the crowds listening to Jesus tried to kill him because they correctly understood him to be claiming to be God.  In the first incident, recorded in John 5, the confrontation was precipitated by a healing on the Sabbath.  When asked to explain his Sabbath-breaking, Jesus says, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working¹³.”  John records that the people then picked up stones to stone Jesus, not only for breaking the Sabbath, but because he “also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God¹⁴.”  Jesus then explained to the crowd that he, the Son, was doing only what he saw his Father doing, that the Father had given him the same power to raise the dead possessed by the Father, and had committed all judgment (always a divine prerogative!) to the Son, so that all men would honor the Son in the same way as they honored the Father¹⁵. “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.”

The next incident is recorded in John 8, at the end of a long discourse that started with Jesus declaring himself to be the light of the world, and the Pharisees immediately challenging this declaration by asking Jesus to provide a witness other than himself to verify it¹⁶.  Jesus gave them another witness—his Father—and the Pharisees asked who his Father was¹⁷. The rest of the dialog deals with Jesus’ truthfulness, as the Truth itself, the identification of God as Jesus Father, and of the Devil as his questioners’ father. Toward the end of the conversation, Jesus asserted “if anyone keeps My word he will never see death¹⁸.”  The response of the crowd to this was ask him whether he was saying he was greater than “Abraham who died,” and precisely who he was claiming to be¹⁹.  Jesus answer shocked them—“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad²⁰.”  Their next mocking question was how a man not yet fifty years old could have seen Abraham.  Jesus answer to this question caused the people to pick up stones again to throw at him: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.²¹”.  This answer at once asserted Jesus shared eternity with God, and applied to Jesus the Name God had given Moses for himself (“you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you²²”).  The people correctly understood that Jesus was calling himself God and picked up stones, supposing that he had blasphemed by doing so.

The last incident, recorded in John 10, is the most pointed of all of them.  The people had asked Jesus to tell them plainly whether he was the Messiah²³.  His answer was that he had already told them, and they did not believe him²⁴.  Jesus then explains that they did not understand either his words or his miraculous works because they were not his sheep²⁵.  Jesus’ sheep hear his voice, follow him, he gives them eternal life, and no one can take them out of his hand²⁶, but the Jews who were questioning him an that occasion were not his sheep. Then comes the part of the explanation for which the crowd tried to stone him:

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.

John 10:29-30

When the people picked up stones, Jesus then asked for which of his works they wanted to stone him.  Their response was “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God²⁷.”  On the last point, the crowd was right—Jesus had very clearly called himself God, one with the Father.  But it wasn’t blasphemy, because he really is one with the Father. This brings us back to our point of departure, at least as far as Jesus the Son is concerned.  God is a complex unity, a united one.  The members of the Godhead are one with each other.

It can also be shown that the Holy Spirit, though distinct, is one with the Father and the Son. On the one hand, God is spirit, this is his very nature, so that those who worship him must worship him in spirit²⁸.  As it is only the spirit of a person which truly knows that person’s mind, so it is only the Spirit of God which searches even the deep things of God and knows God’s mind²⁹. 

On the other hand, the Holy Spirit is a distinct personality.  The Spirit has a mind²⁹.  The Spirit can be grieved³⁰ and can groan in intercession for us³¹.  When God created the heavens and the earth, he spoke out his Word while the “spirit of God” moved over the waters to accomplish that Word³². Likewise at the Incarnation, the angel spoke the words of the Father and the Holy Spirit came upon Mary to conceive the Son. Luke 1:29-38.

At Jesus’ baptism, the Father, Son and Spirit were all present, acting in concert, as always, but playing different roles: Jesus submitted to baptism by John, the Holy Spirit appeared like a dove and rested on Jesus, and the Father spoke from above declaring Jesus to be his Son.   Matthew 3:13-17; Luke 3:21-22. 

During his earthly ministry, Jesus promised to send his followers the Holy Spirit from the Father, to help and comfort³³, teach³⁴ and empower³⁵ them and to guide them into all truth³⁶.  Indeed, he told them that it was good for them that he was going away, because, until he left, he could not send the Holy Spirit to them, but he would send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, after his departure³⁷.  After his resurrection, the scriptures indicate that Jesus kept this promise, receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit from the Father and pouring him out on his followers who were gathered together³⁸.  And, at the present time, it is the Holy Spirit who convicts those in the world of their need for Christ³⁹, who lives in believers giving us the life of Christ⁴⁰, who shows us the things of God. John 14:26; John 16:12-15; I Corinthians 2:10-16; Ephesians 1:17-19. It is also the Holy Spirit who gives gifts for service “as he wills⁴¹.”  So the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father and the Son.

But the Holy Spirit is one with the Father and the Son.  In one chapter of Romans—the eighth chapter—the Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus⁴²,” “the Spirit of God^43,44,” “the Spirit of Christ⁴⁵,” “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead⁴⁶” and “the Spirit of adoption⁴⁷.” “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”  Romans 8:9 (NASB).  Further, in 1 Corinthians 12:3-7, the “Spirit of God” and the “Holy Spirit” are identified with the “same Spirit” who gives gifts, the “same Lord” who receives our service and the “same God” who works in each of us. Thus, it is clear that the New Testament asserts the Holy Spirit is one with the Father and the Son, and belongs to the same complex unity we call God.

It is this same Holy Spirit who dwells in us who follow Christ, and brings us into that same complex unity. It is through the Holy Spirit that we share in the Trinity, Being one with Jesus, the Head of the Church, through the Holy Spirit, we are also, in reality, one.