BASIC CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY- By Ed Strickland

Part 5: The Trinity

As we survey the basic doctrines of Christianity, we come now to one of the most fundamental and unique teachings: the Holy Trinity. Even though man cannot fully grasp this doctrine, it is clearly set forth in God’s Word. First, we will state the points that make up the doctrine, and then give the biblical support.

The doctrine of the Trinity states that there is one God, eternally existing in three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let’s break this down and look at the main elements: 1. There is one, and only one, God. 2. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. 3. The Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct from each other.

1. The first main point of the Trinity doctrine is that God is one. There is one, and only one, God. That is to say, God is only one Being, one essence, which is simple, undivided, not composed of any parts. The Trinity does not say there are three Gods or three Beings. The one God is only one Being. Of course, this monotheism was believed by the Jews and has been a main feature of Judaism, being taught throughout the Old Testament. The Shema, taken from Deut. 6:4 says “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!” Jesus and the apostles re-affirmed that there is only one God (See Mark 12:29, 1 Cor. 8:6). The Trinitarian position begins with this fact.

2. Then, the second point is that the Father is God, Jesus, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. The Deity of the Father, Son, and Spirit can easily be demonstrated by examining the many scriptures which describe each as having the titles of Deity, the attributes of Deity and the works which are only done by Deity.

One of the many passages that shows Jesus is God is John 1. Verse 1 says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God .”Then verse 14 makes clear that the Word is Jesus Christ (See also John 5:58, Phil. 2:6-10, Col. 1:15-18, Heb. 1:1-3. More will be said on Christ’s Deity in a future article in this series).

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. Acts 5 is a good passage that demonstrates both the deity and personhood of the Holy Spirit. We read, starting at verse 3, “But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land?4 “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God.” This shows that 1) the Spirit is equated with God. In lying to the Holy Spirit, Ananias was lying to God. 2) This also shows that the Holy Spirit is a person, and not just an impersonal force or power. One can lie only to a person. See also John 14-16, Acts 13:2.

Finally, the Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct from one another. This is clear from the many passages where all three persons are mentioned, like in annunciation of Jesus’ conception (Luke 1:32-35), Jesus’ baptism ( Matt. 3:16-17) and the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20). Other such Trinitarian scriptures include 1 Cor. 12:4-6, 2 Cor, 13:14, Eph 4:4-6, 1 Pet 1:2.

Much more could be said about God’s Triune existence. It is a wonderful, though mysterious, truth of the Christian faith, revealed in scripture, and formalized in the early church creeds. For further study, there are many good books on the Trinity, including Why You Should Believe in the Trinity by Robert M. Bowman Jr and The Trinity: The Classic Study of Biblical Trinitarianism by Edward Henry Bickersteth. Next time we’ll look more at the center of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

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