01.16. Chapter 2 A triune God
Chapter 2 A triune God Three-in-one and one-in-three
Although there is only one God, that God is a trinity. The word ‘trinity’ comes from the word for ‘three’, but any attempt to define it in relation to God is difficult and dangerous. This is because human language is not capable of explaining the unique-ness of the divine trinity fully or exactly. Within the one personal God there are three personal distinctions, which, for lack of a better word, are called persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each of these persons is fully God, yet there is only one God, not three. He is a triune God – three-in-one and one-in-three. Our understanding of the Trinity is tied in with the Bible’s record of God’s dealings with the human race. God did not make known his truth to humankind in one great initial revelation, nor did he reveal it in the form of abstract teachings. He revealed it stage by stage and in a way that was related to people’s needs. At each stage the truth he made known was relevant to circum-stances in the lives of those who received it. In this way God developed his plan of salvation and brought it to finality in Jesus. In Old Testament times, however, Jesus had not yet come, and therefore there was no immediate need to teach people about the Trinity. The emphasis in Old Testament times was on the oneness of God. Because the Israelites lived among nations who believed there were many gods, they were reminded constantly that there is in fact only one God, and he is a unity. With the fuller knowledge we now have through the New Testament, we may look back and see suggestions of the Trinity in the Old Testament. But our clearer knowledge of the Trinity comes mainly through the life and work of Jesus Christ. This does not mean that the God of the Old Testament was different from the God of the New. It does not mean that a God who was previously ‘one’ now divided into three. God has always existed as a Trinity. The new element in the New Testament is the revelation of the Trinity, not the Trinity itself.
Made clear through Jesus
Jesus Christ not only made God known to the human race; he himself became one of the human race. When people saw Jesus, they saw God. Yet there was a mystery, because although God was physically present in the world in the person of Jesus, in another sense God was not physically present in the world. Jesus explained this apparent contradiction by pointing out that he was God the Son, and the one from whom he came was God the Father. The two were distinct, yet they were inseparably united. ‘The Father and I are one,’ said Jesus (John 10:30).
There is no suggestion that God the Father existed first and God the Son came into existence later. Both are God, and therefore both have existed eternally, but they have existed in this relationship of Father and Son. The Son began his human existence at a certain time in history, but as God he has always existed. Because he is both divine and human, he is the only one who can truly make God known to humankind, and the only one through whom humankind can be brought back to God.
Having become one of the human race, Jesus then gave the additional revelation that there was a third person in the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. As his crucifixion drew near, Jesus explained to his disciples that after his resurrection he would return to his Father. But he told them also that, although he no longer would be physically in the world, he would still be with them. His Spirit would come to dwell in them, and give them the sort of help and teaching that he had given them. They had known God as the Father, they had seen him as the Son, and now they would have him living in them as the Holy Spirit. No change in God
Before he returned to his Father, Jesus told his disciples to go and make more disciples, and to baptize those new disciples ‘in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’ (Matthew 28:19). By this statement Jesus showed his disciples that the God they were beginning to understand as ‘three-in-one and one-in-three’ was the same God as their ancestors worshipped as ‘one’. The disciples were Jews, and in Jewish thought the name represented the person. Jesus here spoke of ‘the name’ (singular), indicating one God, but at the same time he showed that this God existed as three personal distinctions. As a God-fearing Jew, Jesus gave his total allegiance to the one and only true God, and he taught his followers to do likewise. In Old Testament times God’s people worshipped him under the name ‘Yahweh’; in New Testament times they wor-shipped him under the name ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’. The God who is ‘one’ is also a Trinity.
What the early Christians understood The New Testament writers seem to have had no difficulty with Jesus’ teaching. They accepted both the Old Testament revelation of the oneness of God and Jesus’ revelation of the Trinity. They never tried to define or prove the Trinity, but assumed it always. Since the God they worshipped had given his Son to die for them and given his Spirit to indwell them, the only way they thought of God was as a Trinity. In keeping with the teachings of Jesus, the New Testament writers show that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are fully and equally God. No one is inferior to, or superior to, the other. But in their operations there is a difference. The Son is willingly subject to the Father, as seen in Jesus’ obedience to his Father. The Spirit is willingly subject to the Son, as seen in his work of reminding the disciples of the things Jesus taught them.
Nevertheless, there is no suggestion that the work of God is divided among three persons. The unity between Father, Son and Spirit means that all three are active in all the work of God. The New Testament writers may not have understood fully the divine activity within the Trinity, but they knew the character of the God who was at work. He was a triune God and he was changing people’s lives through the message they preached.
Why the subject is important The reason Christians try to understand the Trinity is not to satisfy their curiosity or work out a scheme to explain how God exists or operates. The New Testament writers never attempted a theoretical analysis of God, though they constantly sought to understand more of his character and activity. Christians should always want to learn about God, because their new life in Christ depends on God being the sort of person he is.
Only because God is the sort of God he is (a Trinity), is the salvation of men and women possible. The word ‘father’ has to do with origins, and salvation comes from the Father. But the Father works through the Son. God made himself known to the world through Jesus, who carried out God’s work of salvation. The Spirit, through whom God’s power works in the world, applies the benefits of Jesus’ work to people’s lives.
Paul, a leading teacher in the early church, summarizes this in Titus 3:4-7. Salvation, he points out, originated with God the Father: ‘When the kindness and love of God was revealed, he saved us’. He goes on to say that it was ‘through Jesus Christ our saviour’, through the Son, that God carried out this work. And the benefits of that work are applied to believers ‘through the Holy Spirit, who gives us new birth and new life.’
Just as God’s salvation comes to people because God is a Trinity, so people can come to God because he is a Trinity. Their approach to God is by the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father (Ephesians 2:18). Even the most basic of all Christian exercises, prayer, is possible only because God is a Trinity. The Holy Spirit within believers helps them to pray, the Father in heaven is the one to whom they pray, and the Son is the heavenly mediator who supports their requests.