Bible Studies

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GOD THE TRINITY

In this article we will not waste time convincing you that there is a trinity of persons that make up the One God. The scriptures themselves, as we shall see, make this abundantly clear. Webster's Unabridged Dictionary defines Trinity as: "The union of three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) in one Divine head or the three-fold personality of the one Devine being". It is also defined "as a group-of-three or triad".

The first indication that God is more than one Divine being is found in Genesis 1:26: "Let US make man in OUR image” (emphasis added). Therefore God is a triune being as man is also a triune being; spirit, soul and body. Let us examine each personality/expression individually and then see how each part works in a total and complete oneness with the other parts.

THE FATHER

"He is the first person of the trinity of God" (Webster's). He is the creator (Genesis 1:1). He is the one who raised Jesus from the dead (Galatians 1:1). He is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:3). 1 Corinthians 8:6 says of the Father:
"there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him" (creation is from the Father but made for the Son). The Father knows all things (1 Peter 1:2). He has and bestows glory (2 Peter 1:17). We relate to God the Father through the Son (Colossians 3:17). "every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:11).

Perhaps it is easier to understand this first person of the trinity as a Father of a family. There is also the Adoptive Fatherhood (Romans 8:15). This is the redeeming relationship that belongs to all believers, and in the context of redemption it is viewed from two aspects: that of their standing in Christ, and that of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in them making them also Sons.

This relationship to the Father is basic for all believers, as Paul reminds the Galatians: “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith" (Gal. 3:26). In this living union with Christ they are adopted into the family of God, and they become subjects of the regenerative work of the Spirit that bestows upon them the nature of children of God. Because of their new standing (justification) and their relationship (adoption) to God the Father in Christ, they become partakers of the divine nature and are born into the family of God.

John made this clear in the opening chapter of his gospel: “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right (authority) to become children of God - children born, not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God” (Jn. 1:12, 13). And so they are granted all the privileges that belong to that filial relationship: "if a child, then an heir is the sequence" (Rom. 8:17).

God is the perfect Father. It is under this relationship of Father that brings out the tenderness aspects of God's character, his love, his faithfulness and his watchful care. It also brings out the responsibility of our showing God the reverence, the trust and the loving obedience that children owe to a father. However intimate, rich and warm-hearted his love, God remains God, majestic, amazing and awesome.

He disciplines us but for our own good. Hebrews Chapter 12:4-11 puts it this way:
"You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the lord, for those whom the lord loves he disciplines,
and he scourges every son whom he receives." [Job 5:17; Proverbs 3:12]

“It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons".

"Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwords it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness".

The Father, in all His tender mercy, is also the author of judgment. He judged Egypt and its Gods by plagues. He judged Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness. He judged the peoples who occupied the Promised Land before Israel. He even judged His chosen people Israel for their apostasies and idol worship.

“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example …what is going to happen to the ungodly [?]… (2 Peter 2:4-6).

The Father is also the recipient of the labors of His Son, and we as Sons, in the bringing forth of the Kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 15:24-25 says: "then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He [the Son] has abolished all rule and all authority and power" and made all His enemies the footstool of His feet, so God can be “over all, in all and through all”.

The main thing to remember is that the Father is our perfect Father, loving us each in a relationship that surpasses all understanding. And that as His family we are one with Him and each other even as the Trinity is one.

THE SON

The Son is the Word of God. He has been with God the Father since the beginning as He is the vehicle through whom the creative powers of the Father were exercised. The Apostle John puts it this way: Since the beginning, the spoken Word of God (logos in Greek) has caused all things to come into being. The Bible itself is the Word of God in written form but the written Words of God are not mere words but Spirit:“My words are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63),

The Apostle John defines the Son in this way (John 1:1-12, 14, 17):
“In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men... But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ".

The Son came to forgive people their sins but that was not an end in itself. It was so they could receive His nature and, like Him, also become Sons in the Kingdom of God. Hebrews 2:10 confirms this:

"For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing MANY SONS to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings" (emphasis added).

The Son came to offer the ultimate sacrifice on the cross that we too may partake of His and the Father's nature-to become like Them. "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be LIKE HIM, because we will see Him just as He is" (John 3:2).

The Son came to initiate a New Covenant between God and man (hence New Testament). Hebrews 9:11 explains: "Now the first [old covenant of Moses] covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;”

The Old Covenant, made between God and the Nation of Israel, was conditional. That is to say God agreed to bless Israel as long as they were obedient to Him and followed all His laws. He made a provision for the forgiveness of sin, through the blood of bulls and goats, but the provision was temporary in that Israel had to come at least once a year to have the forgiveness applied again. There were other sacrifices that needed to be made to forgive certain types of sin (Leviticus 1-7). The Old Testament sacrifices were but a “type and shadow” of the perfect ministry Christ was to initiate.

The New Covenant was unconditional, not depending on works and sacrifices. It was fulfilled through grace (unmerited favor) by faith in the Christ who made the perfect eternal sacrifice on our behalf.

And what is this New Covenant?
"You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:1).

Jeremiah, Old Testament prophet, speaks prophetically of the New Covenant: "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, "declares the LORD. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people" (31:31-33; quoted in full in Hebrews 10:16-17).

Thus where the Old Covenant offered only temporary forgiveness for sin, the New Covenant of Christ was eternal; the laws of God were written on man's heart.
when the fullness of the new Covenant is manifested, it will be impossible for man to sin since his old nature will be changed into the sinless nature of Christ. This is why Jesus said that He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it to its very jot and tittle. Christ was the embodiment of the Law of God, the Word of
God in that He did nothing but what He saw the Father do; we likewise partake of this eternal promise through grace.

THE HOLY SPIRIT

The first reference in the Bible to the Holy Spirit is in Genesis 1:2: "The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the spirit of the deep, and the SPIRIT OF GOD was moving over the surface of the waters" (emphasis added). As Christ was the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. The Father and Son are also spirit and the Holy Spirit is that Spirit which emanates from God and does His work throughout the earth and the universe. Although we will here be referring to the Spirit as it manifested in the New Testament, it is safe to say whenever a reference is made to the Spirit of God in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit is being spoken of.

The purpose of the Holy Spirit, as it pertains to us and Jesus Christ, is discussed most frequently in the Gospel of John. In John 15:5-15, Jesus Says:
"But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?' "But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper [the Holy Spirit] shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you". The Holy Spirit does not minister on His own initiative but as Christ was the representation of the Father on the earth, so the Holy Spirit takes of Christ and ministers the things of Christ to us.

The Holy Spirit is our helper (Paraclete in Greek). He will help us by revealing the things of Christ to us. Remember, Christ had a limited ministry of 3 years and He ministered in an area not more than a short distance from Nazareth His home town. He had more to tell us while he was here, but at that current state of the disciple’s growth they could not bear such truths at that time. So He sent the Helper to guide us into ALL the truth.

The Holy Spirit also came as the Parousia, the Presence of God. Suffice it to say that anytime we feel God's presence, receive a revelation of Him or exercise a gift of the Spirit like prophesy or worship all of this is initiated and directed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is one with the Father and Jesus Christ, but the Father has turned all things over to the Son and the Son is at His right hand. Christ went away, out of physical sight, so He could send the Helper, a manifestation of God, to guide us in our Christian walk.

The Book of Revelation is full of references to the Spirit. Also Christ teaches us that “The Father seeks worshipers that worship Him in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24). It was the Holy Spirit that fell on the many on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-8). And in Romans Chapter 8 Paul focuses on our spiritual relationship with God; it is the Holy Spirit he is referring to, which is also the God and Son since all three are one.

Of course Christ said that when you have seen Him, you've seen the Father. When we are aware of, and walk by the Spirit, we are also walking with the Father, Christ-- they are one.

ONENESS OF THE TRINITY

Jesus fervent prayer, recorded in John 17, speaks of the oneness of the "Trinity", and explains that we too are to be one as they are one. Verse 20-21 state:
"I do not ask on behalf of these alone [the 12 disciples He was speaking to] but for those also who believe in me through their word; that they may all be one; even as you Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us"
He goes on: "the glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one as we are one; I in them and You in Me that they may be perfected in unity. Father I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My Glory (John 17:22-24).

The Helper will guide us into God’s and Christ's ultimate vision of perfection by being one, spirit, soul and body, with the three-fold Trinity of God.


Ken B. Alexander

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