From the earliest centuries, Christians have regarded the doctrine of the Trinity as the most important and central doctrine of the faith. The doctrine of the Trinity, simply stated, is that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons. The Father is not identical with the Son, the Son is not identical with the Spirit, and the Spirit is not identical with the Father. They are three distinct persons and they are all fully God, and yet there is only one God, not three gods.
St. Gregory of Nyssa explained that there is only one God because the persons share one and the same divine essence. There remains one God because the persons share one will, one operation, one power, and one glory.
The Trinity was carefully defined this way in order to explain the entirety of what the Bible says concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We may summarize the doctrine in the following points:
- The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three distinct persons.
- Each of these persons is identified with God.
- There is exactly one God.
The distinct personhood of the Father and Son is seen clearly in the final prayers of Jesus before the crucifixion. When Jesus is praying, he is not talking to himself.
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.” (John 17:1–5)
The Son existed alongside the Father before creation, before the world began. Jesus addresses the Father as a person distinct from himself using distinct personal pronouns, “you” rather than “I” or “me.” The Father sent Jesus into the world, an impossibility if they are the same person. The Father is called the “only true God” because he is the only person of the Trinity who is unbegotten; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father.
“No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” (John 1:18)
Both persons are divine, referred to as “God.” The Son is called the “only begotten God” because he was eternally begotten of the Father. The Nicene Creed expresses the same thought when it describes him as “the only-begotten Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father.”
The personhood of the Spirit is evident in various ways. The Spirit speaks (Acts 13:2); it commands the apostles:
“While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’”
The Spirit refers to himself as “I,” and he claims responsibility for the work of preaching, he calls it “the work to which I have called them.” Jesus speaks about the Father and the Spirit as two persons distinct from himself (John 16:13–15):
“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 will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will 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 Spirit is called “He” by Jesus. The Spirit speaks what he hears; to be able to hear and speak and explain what he hears to others, the Spirit must be a person. Notice how Jesus distinguishes the Spirit from himself and the Father.
There are numerous “triadic passages” which describe all three persons together, most famously in the baptismal formula given by Christ (Matt. 28:19):
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
The three persons share one and the same name, the name of God himself, and it is into this threefold name that Christians are baptized. They are not baptized in the name of God, a creature, and an active force. Again:
2 Cor. 13:14
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.”
1 Pet. 1:2
“According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.”
1 Pet. 4:14
“If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.”
There are dozens of other passages that may be cited which mention the Father, the Son, and the Spirit alongside one another, which demonstrate they are in fact three distinct persons.
Each of these persons is identified with God. The Father is so clearly identified as God that the Unitarians, the Arians, and the modalists all admit this point. Jesus is also frequently called Lord and God. Upon his resurrection Thomas addresses Jesus as “my Lord and my God” (John 20:28), and Jesus blesses him. No mere creature, nor created angel, could be addressed in this way. Jesus accepts worship throughout the Gospels. Jesus does divine actions such as forgiving sins, walking on water, and speaking in the place of God himself. Jesus does not pray before exorcisms, but casts out demons in his own name and authority. Jesus does and says the things God does, and is addressed the way that God is. It is for this reason that his opponents sought to kill him for blasphemy. At John 5:17–18:
“But He answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.’ For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.’”
The author’s own commentary is that Jesus was making himself equal with God. Jesus claims that he can do everything God does; whatever God does, Jesus sees it and does it in like manner. Does that sound like a created angel? Could any creature make that claim?
Repeatedly the Bible describes Jesus as divine by nature, divine and human. “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Col. 2:9) the whole fullness of Deity. He is fully divine; he is not a lesser created god. All the fullness, or the completeness, of Deity dwells in him in bodily form. It is in bodily form because he became flesh.
Jesus is repeatedly described as the Creator of the world. Hebrews 1:2 says “the universe was made through him”; Hebrews 1:10, “You, O Lord, laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands”; John 1:1–3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… all things were made through him and without him was nothing made that was made”; John 1:10, “He was in the world and the world was made through him”; John 1:14, “and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”; 1 Cor. 8:6, “yet for us 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.”
The Father is God, and Jesus is described as God, the Creator made flesh, and the Holy Spirit is described as a divine person alongside them both. Yet there is only one God, and from this basis we derive a doctrine of the Trinity.
In conclusion, the doctrine of the Trinity alone makes sense of the full witness of the New Testament. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are revealed as three distinct persons who each bear the name, nature, and works of God, and yet together are one God. The Son prays to the Father, is sent by the Father, and shares the Father’s eternal glory; the Spirit speaks, commands, and sanctifies as a person could. The Son is the creator, worshiped, called “Lord” and “God,” and performs divine actions. Without the Trinity, the unity of God’s revelation collapses, and the gospel itself loses coherence. Only the Triune God, the Father who sends, the Son who redeems, and the Spirit who sanctifies, can be the living God of Scripture, the one who saves, and the one whom Christians have always worshiped as Lord.
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