Before explaining the Trinity, let’s begin with a basic understanding of God.
1. God is one and there is no other.
“Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4, WEB)
“that all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh is God, and that there is no one else.” (1 Kings 8:60, WEB)
“This is what Yahweh, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says: ‘I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God.’” (Isaiah 44:6, WEB)
“since indeed there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith.” (Romans 3:30, WEB)
“We know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.” (1 Corinthians 8:4, WEB)
“yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.” (1 Corinthians 8:6, WEB)
“Now a mediator is not between one, but God is one.” (Galatians 3:20, WEB)
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Timothy 2:5, WEB)
2. There are three persons within the one God.
“God said, ‘Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’” (Genesis 1:26, WEB)
“I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am. Send me!’” (Isaiah 6:8, WEB)
“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, WEB)
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14, WEB)
“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him;” (Ephesians 1:17, WEB)
“how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14, WEB)
“according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.” (1 Peter 1:2, WEB)
3. These three persons are distinct, yet are the same God.
3-1. Jesus is fully God and fully man.
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6, WEB)
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you one will come out to me who is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings out are from of old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2, WEB)
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel; which is, being interpreted, ‘God with us.’” (Matthew 1:23, WEB)
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.” (John 1:1-2, WEB)
“I came out from the Father, and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.” (John 16:28, WEB)
“Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.” (John 17:5, WEB)
“All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.” (John 17:10-11, WEB)
“Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24, WEB)
“who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8, WEB)
“who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” (Colossians 1:15, WEB)
“His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purified us of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,” (Hebrews 1:3, WEB)
“who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of times for your sake,” (1 Peter 1:20, WEB)
3-2. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God.
“It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” (Joel 2:28, WEB)
“For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” (Matthew 10:20, WEB)
“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.” (Romans 8:9, WEB)
“But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11, WEB)
3-3. The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of Christ, coming in Jesus’ name.
“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.” (John 14:26, WEB)
“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.” (Romans 8:9, WEB)
“Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18, WEB)
“And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Galatians 4:6, WEB)
3-4. The three persons exist simultaneously and each performs their own work.
“Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him. Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’” (Matthew 3:16-17, WEB)
“Jesus said to him, ‘You have said it. Nevertheless, I tell you, after this you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of the sky.’” (Matthew 26:64, WEB)
“Jesus said, ‘I am. You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of the sky.’” (Mark 14:62, WEB)
“But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” (Luke 22:69, WEB)
“I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,—the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you.” (John 14:16-17, WEB)
“When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.” (John 15:26, WEB)
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:7, WEB)
“Now there are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are various kinds of service, and the same Lord. There are various kinds of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-6, WEB)
“that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love,” (Ephesians 3:16-17, WEB)
3-5. The three persons are one.
“Jesus cried out and said, ‘Whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me. He who sees me sees him who sent me.’” (John 12:44-45, WEB)
“Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, “Show us the Father?”’” (John 14:9, WEB)
“Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works’ sake.” (John 14:11, WEB)
“I am not alone, because the Father is with me.” (John 16:32, WEB)
“that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.” (John 17:21-23, WEB)
Next time, we will discuss why the Bible describes this God with three persons as “the only one true God,” and how we can understand this concept.
