Uncovering what the Bible says about the doctrine of God gives us an excellent example of how to study the Bible. That’s because, in order to understand what the Bible says about God rightly, we can’t just rely on a single or even a few verses. We must consider many relevant verses.
Some of the verses may seem to contradict each other, but with effort, all of the verses can be reconciled, resulting in a better understanding of what God wants us to know about Himself.
Since the Bible is our final court of appeals for Christian doctrine (see last week) we are not free to define God however we want, even if our personal definition is simpler to understand.
What’s at risk is the very God we worship. If we fail to understand God the way He wants to be understood, we risk worshipping a God that’s not even real.
Here’s What We Believe
"We believe in one God existing in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We believe the persons of the Godhead to be co-equal and eternal (Matthew 28:19; John 3:16; Philippians 2:5-8; Acts 5:3-4)."
This statement has two parts. The first gives us the definition of God, and the second describes the essential nature of the Godhead.
1) The Definition of God…
"We believe in one God existing in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit."
Let's break this down into three parts: A) There is one God, B) God exists in three persons, and C) Each person of the Trinity is fully God.
A) There is One God
We don’t worship three gods, only one. For example, Deuteronomy 6:4 says, "Listen, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one."And James 2:19 says, "You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder."
There are dozens of other places that we could turn to, but you get the idea. The Bible teaches that there is only one God.
But this one God…
B) God Exists in Three Persons
Human language is inadequate to describe God fully, but we use the word “persons” to emphasize what the Bible teaches about the distinctiveness of the persons of the Trinity. The word Trinity isn’t in the Bible, but it is nevertheless a good way of describing what the Bible teaches.
The three persons of the Trinity are distinct but not separate. The person of the Father is not the Son. For example, John 1:1-2 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning."
In addition, the person of the Son is not the Father. For example, 1 John 2:1 says, "My little children, I am writing you these things so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the righteous one."
Also, the person of the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son. For example, John 14:26 says, "I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you."
And there are many other verses we could use to show that the three persons of the Trinity are distinct. The three persons are distinct, but they are not separate.
In summary, there is one God that exists in three persons. Each is distinct from the other but never acts independently. They are one in nature and purpose.
Next, the Bible reveals that…
C) Each person of the Trinity is fully God
Our statement of Faith says, "We believe in one God existing in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit."
So, the Father is fully God, and many places teach us this. One is found in 1 Corinthians 8:6, "Yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from him, and we exist for him."
So, the Father is fully God, and the Son is fully God. And continuing on in the same verse, "…And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through him, and we exist through him."
So both the Son and the Father are fully God. We can also look at John 1:1-4, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life and that life was the light of men."
The Word, also called Jesus Christ, is fully God, which is why in John 20:28, Thomas responded to Jesus’ invitation to touch his wounds and called Him, “My Lord and my God!”
John 3:16, which we know so well, also assumes Jesus is God, "For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."
Who are the saved? Those that believe in God, those that believe in the Son who is God.
So the Father is fully God. The Son is fully God, and so is the Holy Spirit. The Bible places The Holy Spirit on an equal level with the Father and Son.
For example, Matthew 28:19 says, "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."
In the name of who? In the name of God and all three persons are stated, including the Holy Spirit.
In Acts 5:3, Ananias is said to have lied to the Holy Spirit, "'Ananias,' Peter asked, 'why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land? …You have not lied to people but to God.'" Peter speaks this way because he believes the Holy Spirit is fully God.
In John chapter 16:13 the Bible describes the Holy Spirit as doing things only God does, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come."
So the Holy Spirit is God, too, and there are many more verses that we could turn to to make this point.
For example, the Holy Spirit has the attributes of personhood, performs the actions of persons, and has personal relationships. He has insight (1 Corinthians 2:10-11). He knows things, which requires an intellect (Romans 8:27). He has a will (1 Corinthians 12:11). He convicts of sin (John 16:8). He performs miracles (Acts 8:39). He guides (John 16:13). He intercedes between persons (Romans 8:26). He is to be obeyed (Acts 10:19-20). He can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30), blasphemed (Matthew 12:31), and even insulted (Hebrews 10:29).
So, the Father is fully God. The Son is fully God, and the Holy Spirit is fully God. That’s what we believe.
In Summary: 1) God is three persons, 2) Each person is fully God, and 3) There is one God. If we deny any of these in order to make God more “understandable,” then we deny what Scripture teaches.
It might be easier to think of God as three separate Gods, but that denies the Bible's teaching there is only one. It might make more sense to describe the Holy Spirit as only a power, but then we have to reject or explain away all of the verses with the Holy Spirit doing things only God can do.
Now, what about…
2) The Essential Nature of the Godhead
Our statement says, "We believe the persons of the Godhead to be co-equal and eternal."
“Godhead” is a word that means deity or divine nature. The Godhead is the essence of the divine being, it refers to God’s essential nature. The three persons of the “Godhead” are at least two things: they are co-equal and eternal.
A) They are “Co-equal.”
They are “co-equal” in terms of their qualities. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all omnipresent, omnipotent, omnipresent, etc.
Colossians 2:9 says, "For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ."
So, everything that makes up God the Father, his essential essence is also found in the person of Jesus Christ, and vice versa, and is also true of the Holy Spirit, since He too is fully God as we already showed.
In other words, all of God’s attributes are found in all three persons. God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Father are all equally and infinitely wise. They are all infinitely holy, infinitely loving, and so forth.
In addition…
B) They are equally “Eternal.”
Psalm 90:2 says, "Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, you are God."
Because all three members of the Trinity are equally and fully divine, then it makes sense for all three to have also existed from all eternity.
We see this in the very first pages of the Bible. Genesis 1:2 and 26 say, "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters…Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.'"
God the Spirit was there from the very beginning, but so was God the Father, and so was God the Son. John 1:1-2 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning."
So, "We believe in one God existing in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We believe the persons of the Godhead to be co-equal and eternal."
Importance
Why is this understanding so important? Because it’s how God reveals Himself in the Bible and if we want to know Him, we have to know Him in the way He reveals Himself.
The Mormon way doesn’t work because they don’t believe in the eternity of God. They believe Jesus was created and is just one of many sons of God. Lucifer is his brother. They even believe God the Father was once a mortal from another planet who worked his way up to become a god.
False religions may use the same terms we do, but they define them differently, so the object of their worship is different than ours, which means we don’t worship the same God.
God wants us to both know who He is and to experience Him as He reveals Himself to be. The Puritan theologian John Owen said, “The doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our Communion with God…." meaning that if we, either intentionally or unintentionally, dispense with the doctrine of the Trinity, then we cannot, in any Christian sense, know God.
Humility
The doctrine of the Trinity identifies who we worship and how we should approach Him. And since we don’t know everything there is to know about God, we should come before him reverently and humbly.
Listen to how Isaiah approached God in 6:1-5…
"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphim were standing above him; they each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 And one called to another: Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Armies; his glory fills the whole earth. 4 The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said: Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips and because my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Armies."
Isaiah probably didn’t understand the Trinity in the same way we do because we know so much more about the Son than He did. But what He did rightly understand made Him tremble. It made him reflect on how unworthy he was.
When we encounter the God of the Bible, the God who is “holy, holy, holy” we can’t help but be awestruck with amazement, wonder, and humility.
The Bible teaches that there is one God who exists in three persons and that each person is fully God, but this is beyond our full comprehension. To knowingly deny any of these truths is to deny God himself but let us recognize there is still much to learn.
Analogies
Now, sometimes we use analogies to help us understand the Trinity, but we should use them cautiously.
Maybe you’ve heard the “three-leaf clover” analogy or “the egg” analogy, but these imply that God has three separate parts, which we don’t believe. We believe that each of the three persons of the Trinity is fully God. God the Father is fully God, not just a part of God.
Or maybe you’ve heard the “three forms of water” analogy which says God is like water that can become liquid, steam, or ice. But this isn’t a good analogy either because God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all at the same time. He doesn’t just take on a different form depending upon who He wants to be.
So there really isn’t a good analogy we can use to describe God, and it’s good to remember that even though the Bible uses metaphors and analogies to teach about God’s character, it never uses an analogy to teach about the Trinity.
Analogies the try to describe God will fall short because God is beyond our comprehension. 1 Corinthians 13:12 says, "For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known."
So, while we don’t know God fully now, we can understand what He has revealed about Himself, and that’s what we believe is reflected in our statement of faith.