How much does the Trinity really matter? If you found out tomorrow that God is actually only one person instead of three, would it make any practical difference in your relationship with God? Would it require a drastic overhaul in the way you think or witness or pray? Would it effect the way you worship on Sunday? My guess is that for many it would make a difference, but they would not know why. To some among this group, the idea of Trinity is at best a problem to be explained. To the question, “How can God be one God and yet three?” They try to come up with answers that the Trinity is like the shell, the yolk, and the white, and yet it is all one egg. Or, the Trinity is like the shamrock leaf: one leaf with three parts sticking out. As the Trinity is often compared to plants, three states of H2O, or food, it begins to sound rather strange or trivial.
To others the Trinity sounds like a logical contradiction that cannot be explained. How can God be three and yet one? One scoffer accused Christians of being people who cannot count: 1+1+1=1. Really? The math doesn’t work. Some scratch their heads in puzzlement asking: “The Father is not the Son? And the Son is not the Father? The Holy Spirit is neither? All are one God, not three? They are each other, but they are not?” Confusion reigns.
Nothing could be more idiotic and absurd than the doctrine of the Trinity.
Robert Ingersoll
Despite all of the questions and confusion around the Trinity, it is the most important picture and understanding that Christians have of God. It distinguishes our understanding of God from every other faith and religion. There is no more important idea of God Christians have than the Trinity.
What is the Trinity?
A simple definition of the Trinity is:
God is one God who exists as three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
He is one God who exists as a multiple or plurality of persons. The first statement about God in the Bible contains this very understanding—one God who exists in multiple persons. The first statement about God is in Genesis:
“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…’”
Genesis 1:26
Genesis 1:1-25 refers to what God does as Creator in making the universe and all that is in it. Then in Genesis 1:26, it refers to who God is as a person. “God” is one, not plural–“gods.” This one God also speaks in the plural form: Let “us” make man in “our” image. It does not say let “me” make man in “my” image. The very first reference as to who God is states that he is one God existing as a plurality of persons.
John, referring to Jesus as the Word, declares:
1“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.“
John 1:1-5
- v.1 Jesus (the Word) was God.
- v.2 Jesus (the Word) was with God in the beginning.
- v.3 Through Jesus (the Word) all things were made.
Jesus was God and with God at the same time. There is one God existing in multiple persons. In fact, in the very opening verses of the Bible, there appears to contain the seeds for John’s declaration about Christ as the Word existing as Trinity:
1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Genesis 1:1-3
In these verses we see that:
- v.1 God the Father created. “God created the heavens and the earth”
- v.2 God the Holy Spirit hovered. “the Spirit of God was hovering “
- v.3 God the Son spoke light into being. God said, “Let there be light” (See John 1:4-5 above.)
This understanding of God is woven throughout the Old Testament and comes into a clearer picture in the New Testament. There is Jesus at his baptism where we see the interplay of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
16 “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3:16-17
Jesus on the night before his crucifixion taught:
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
John 14:15-17
Here we see the interaction of Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit together. After his resurrection, Jesus commanded us to baptize in the name (singular: one God) of all persons of the Trinity:
Therefore 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
These are just a few examples among many that can be provided.
Is the Trinity an absurd contradiction?
But immediately questions arise. How can God be “three” and “one” at the same time? Isn’t that as odd as saying someone is a steak eating vegetarian or a married bachelor? It just sounds contradictory. It is not a contradiction and here is why. God is not three in the same way he is one. It would be a contradiction to say that my house is black and white if what I meant is that it is black and white in the same way. That cannot be. Yet, if I mean that my house is painted white with black shutters and black trim then it is not a contradiction. My one house is black and white in different areas. The Trinity is one and three in different ways.
How is the Trinity one?
Let’s look to Ephesians 4:3-6 to see that the way God is one is not the same way God is three.
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.
Ephesians 4:3-6
Notice that all the persons of the Trinity are referenced: “Father,” “Christ,” and “Spirit.” You will also see the word “one” mentioned several times. (Three have been underlined that relate to God). So how is the Trinity one?
The math of the Trinity is not 1 + 1 + 1 =1. Yes, that would be absurd. Rather, the math of the Trinity is 1 x 1 x 1=1. While still existing as three persons, they are one God.
They are one in divine nature. They are equally divine, equally eternal and equally God.
They are one in unity. They each live out the tightest bond and connection with the very same purpose, intentions, love without any friction or confusion. In this way they are one God, in complete divinity and unity.
How is the Trinity three?
They are three in their differing roles. As it states in our passage above, when it comes to the plan of salvation the Father is “over all,” the Son is the “Lord” who paid the price for our sin, and the Spirit is the one who builds unity in church as “one body.” Comparing it to a construction project, God the Father is the architect who created the design, God the Son is the lending company who paid the costs for the work, and the Holy Spirit is the one who does the actual construction.
- The Father set and designed the plan.
- Christ made the payment.
- The Holy Spirit comes into the church and does the building.
In a different analogy, Joshua Butler explains the roles of the Trinity as follows:
Say a family is trapped in a forest fire, so a helicopter team undertakes a rescue. One fireman flies the helicopter over the smoky blaze to coordinate the operation and see the big picture. A second fireman descends on a rope into the billowing smoke below to track down the family and stand with them. Once he locates the family, he wraps the rope around them, attaching them to himself, and they are lifted up together from the blaze into safety. In this rescue operation the first fireman looks like the Father, who can see the whole field unclouded from above to sovereignly orchestrate the plan. The second fireman looks like the Son, who descends into our world ablaze to find us, the human family, and identify with us most deeply in the darkness of the grave. The Spirit is like the rope, who mediates the presence of the Father to Jesus, even in his distance, and raises Jesus—and the human family with him—from sin, death, and the grave, into the presence of the Father.
No analogy to the Trinity will ever be perfect. This one falls short in that the Holy Spirit is a person and not a rope. Yet, it shows one rescue team in three different roles.
Why is the Trinity important?
The most important picture of God in the Bible is the Trinity. This distinguishes the Christian understanding of God from all other religions or faiths. God is a family of loving relationships which has existed from eternity. God is fore mostly a loving relationship of persons, and there was never a time when God was not this.
God is fore mostly a relationship of love. When the Bible says that God is love, it means that God has always been a relationship of love.
“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”
1 John 4:16
Love requires a relationship. Love can only be expressed in the presence of another person. If God were only one person, without the other two, then God could not be love because there would be no one else to love. Apart from his creation he would be isolated and non-relational. God would have created everything out of some other motivation than love because love would not have existed without God being Trinity. From eternity the Father has loved the Son and the Son has loved the Father; they have done so through the Holy Spirit. Out of the fullness of this love, they created all things.
You may say, “I don’t completely understand all of this.” Here’s the beautiful thing: you don’t need to fully understand the Trinity to worship the Trinity, pray to the Trinity, and enter into the life of the Trinity. For example, we are told that deep within the core of the sun, the temperature is 27 million degrees. The pressure is 340 billion times what it is here on Earth. And in the sun’s core, that insanely hot temperature and unthinkable pressure combine to create nuclear reactions. In each reaction, 4 protons fuse together to create 1 alpha particle, which is .7 percent less massive than the 4 protons. The difference in mass is expelled as energy through a process called convection, this energy from the core of the sun finally reaches the surface, where it’s expelled as heat and light. To be honest, I really don’t understand all of that. The good news is that I don’t need to in order to bask in the warmth of the sun or to even get a tan.
For further equipping:
Memorize: 2 Corinthians 13:14
Additional reading:
Understanding the Trinity: How Can God Be Three Persons in One?
Story of Grace 