#17 On the Nature of God: the TRINITY

The word, Trinity, a word devised to describe the three-fold nature of God, is not mentioned in the Bible. Nevertheless, the triune nature of God—God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit—is at the heart of God’s actions and is often mentioned in the Bible.

Sometimes the Triune nature of God is hard to understand because God is said to be one in both the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 6:4-5:

“The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

and the New Testament, 1 Timothy 2:5:

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,”

In Mark 12:29-30, Jesus taught the oneness of God by quoting the verse from Deuteronomy 6:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

What all this means is that the three natures of God are united in purpose and action. The Father directs, the Son and the Holy Spirit obey and act. The Apostle Paul emphasized this unity and oneness in Ephesians 4:4-6:

“There is one body and one Spirit— just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

Perhaps it will help our understanding to think of the human body as an analogy. I am one person. My body has various parts which my brain directs. My arm is a member of my body. It does nothing on its own. It is directed by my brain. Likewise, my feet take me where the brain directs. Neither the arm nor the feet make independent decisions. Both obey.

In some respects, the analogy with the body is a poor one because all three parts of the Godhead can exist apart in different forms while the arm or foot cannot act if unattached from the body. When Jesus was baptized, all three persons of the Godhead appeared—the Father was a voice from heaven, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, and Jesus was a human, Matthew 3:16-17:

“…when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

This is so significant that Luke also tells of this occasion in Luke 3:21-22:

“Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

This triune nature of God is important in understanding how God functions as three personages on this earth. The Father is the director of actions, the Son was obedient to the Father and died on the cross. The Holy Spirit preformed various tasks. For example, God’s Spirit was sent to infuse Jesus into a human body, Matthew 1:18:

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”

What does all this mean to the individual?

  1. When God is viewed as a three-part Godhead, we can better understand both the Old and the New Testaments. For example, when the children of Israel went astray into idol worship, God sent prophets who wrote eighteen books that are now part of the Old Testament to try to bring them back. These writing prophets were guided in what they spoke and wrote by the Holy Spirit, 2 Peter 1:20-21:

“…knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Knowing of the triune nature of God helps in understanding creation. In the first chapter in the Bible, God is depicted as a Spirit, Genesis 1:1-2:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth… And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

A plurality of Beings is noted in the creation of man, Genesis 1:26:

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…”

Jesus was part of ‘us’ and ‘our’ in the creation of man, John 1:1-3; and 14:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…

  1. Knowing the power of the Godhead as depicted in the Bible shows that God is very different from the so-called gods that much of the world worships. God is not a mono-acting being but a triune being of three personages all in one.
  2. Knowing there is one God is comforting to the individual. I do not have to please three or more ‘gods,’ as so many in the world are trying to do.

Thus, the true nature of God is that of a triune being.

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