“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:18-19).
Christians believe in one God, but we also hold to the Bible’s teaching that the Father, Son, and Spirit are three distinct divine persons. When we don’t teach on the Godhead, the doctrine of Christ’s deity gets attacked, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit gets ignored, and the doctrine of the Trinity gets confused. All three are critical to knowing and worshiping God.
Our aim is not to fully comprehend God but to know him. And to know the true God is to know three persons who are one God. God the Father, Son, and Spirit call you into a relationship. We’ll focus first on understanding the Biblical teaching on this subject and then consider what it means in our relationship with God.
UNDERSTANDING the Doctrine of the Trinity
“Trinity” comes from the Latin word trinitas, meaning “threeness.” This doctrine rests on a few Biblical pillars. First, there is one God (Deut. 4:35; 6:4; 32:39). And second, the Godhood of the Father, Son, and Spirit (Acts 2:32-39; 5:3-4; 20:28). The Bible also makes clear that the Father isn’t the Son or the Spirit, nor is the Son the Spirit (e.g., Matt. 1:20-23; 3:16-17; John 15:26). So there is one God, comprised of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who are different persons working together, but equal in essence.
God is unlike anything else — utterly holy. Our experience is limited to the finite. Anything we compare him to is less than God, and it’s hard not to feel that our conception of God has suffered because of the exercise. Analogies like the three parts of an egg or the three forms of water bear more resemblance to age-old heresies than the Scripture’s teaching of God. C.S. Lewis proposed that we shouldn’t expect “God to fit our conceptions: “We cannot compete, in simplicity, with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with Fact. Of course anyone can be simple if he has not facts to bother about.” We struggle to fully get our arms around his perfection, eternal existence, or infinite power, so why would we expect that other aspects of his nature — like his “threeness” — would fit our views and experiences of reality.
KNOWING God — Father, Son, and Spirit
To Scripturally teach and live the faith as New Testament Christians did, we want to relate to God as one God who is Father, Son, and Spirit. Every aspect of our relationship with God is trinitarian — because that is who he is. We are saved by the Father, Son, and Spirit (Tit. 3:4-7) and baptized “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). Our lives are a walk with God the Father, led by the Spirit with Christ living in us (Gal. 2:20; 5:16-26). Through Christ, we can pray to the Father by the Spirit (Eph. 2:18). And we imitate the love and fellowship shared within the Trinity — a community of love (John 17:20-23).