Thursday Theology: What is the trinity?

Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him.

Welcome to Theology Thursday!

Today’s question:
What do we mean when we say “the trinity?” Isn’t there just one God? What about Jesus and the Holy Spirit?

Pastor Brady’s thoughts:
The trinity is one of those concepts that gets mentioned a lot in church and faith-related books but not always explained. You’ll hear pastors mention “the trinity,” or that our faith is based on “trinitarian theology,” or pray to the “triune God.” Some churches even have “trinity” in their name (Trinity Lutheran Church in Bloomington, for example).

In short, “the trinity” is the phrase we use when we’re talking about all three aspects of God’s personhood: God the father, God the son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit.

Even the term “personhood” is a little confusing; what we mean by personhood or “the person” of God is not that he is a human (except for when Jesus came to earth and “took on flesh”), but that he is a distinct being with many overlapping human characteristics, including and especially love. God’s love is not just the first of many defining attributes, but is the very core of his essence. God is love. More on that next week.

While the term “trinity” is not in the Bible, the concept is prevalent throughout our scripture and is critical to our understanding of the character, purpose, and activity of God. Indeed, it is critical to the entire construction of the Christian faith.

We get our understanding of the trinity from a variety of Biblical authors, who confirm both that there is only one God (Isaiah 44:6; 45:18; 46:9; John 5:44; 1 Corinthians 8:4; James 2:19), and that three persons are called God in the scriptural writings: the Father (1 Peter 1:2), Jesus (John 20:28, Hebrews 1:8), and the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-4).

We can accurately consider Jesus and the Holy Spirit alongside God the Father as co-equal members of the trinity because each of the three possess the attributes of deity, according to scripture: they are each all-present, all-knowing, all-powerful, and were not created; they exist eternally.

Each of the three were involved in creating the universe (Jesus before his incarnation as a human, of course), and numerous Biblical authors consider the three together as one.

For example, the passage we call the Great Commission:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:18-19)

And Paul’s conclusion to his second letter to the Corinthians:

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2nd Corinthians 13:14)

So when we talk about the trinity, we’re talking about the combined reality of each person of God: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Each has a unique and particular purpose, but all share one character.

You may remember these lyrics from songs of our faith…

The Godhead, three in one
Father, Spirit, Son

And

Holy, holy, holy!
Merciful and mighty
God in three persons
Blessed Trinity!

Getting this right matters a great deal. When we fail to properly include and elevate each member of the Godhead in our theology, our worship, and our discipleship, we distort who God is, what he did, and what he’s doing. We must have a proper and firm grasp on God’s being and activity in nature (creation), grace (redemption), and glory (reward) or we’ll miss the mark on just about everything else.

The trinity isn’t just chips and dip, it’s the whole enchilada! Huge battles in church history have been waged based on the doctrine of the trinity (check out the Arian controversy of the fourth century), and it still remains a point of contention for some Christians and scholars.

Thus, it’s important to note what the trinity does not mean: it does not mean one God with three faces, not three Gods, not a divine being + a holy human + an impersonal force, and not a hierarchy consisting of one big God with a son and spirit as sidekicks.

The gospel itself is trinitarian; the salvation the gospel promises portrays the Father as orchestrating, Christ Jesus as redeeming, and the Spirit as renewing - all in a unified work by distinct persons in a single Godhead.

This is the reason I’ve kicked off our Theology Thursdays newsletters with a series on the trinity. It’s not just one article of faith among many, but it is the core Christian doctrine from which all others are derived and understood.

God is God, so is Jesus, and so is the Holy Spirit. God in three distinct yet equal persons. The trinity.

Related Resources:
Article - What is the Doctrine of the Trinity?
Sermon - The Doctrine of the Trinity
Book - The Trinity: An Introduction

Next week: We’ll continue this series on the trinity with a deeper look at God the Father

To know Him and to make Him known!
- Pastor Brady

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