The Holy Trinity

Glory be to God the Father

Glory be to God the Son

Glory be to God the Spirit

Great Jehovah, Three in One:

Glory, glory

While eternal ages run!

The doctrine of the divine Trinity is a Fundamental Christian belief and Christian distinctive. The doctrine of the divine trinity is often regarded as the touchstone of Christian orthodoxy. All false religions, cults and heresies are a denial of the Trinity in some way or other.

The final authority for Christian faith and practice is the Word of God, the Bible. It may then surprise you to know that the word ‘Trinity’ is not actually used in the Bible to describe the Deity revealed there. Yet paradoxically, the word ‘Trinity’ could not be more biblical. Christian theologians coined the word as a way of describing the Tri-une nature of the One Who is revealed in the pages of Scripture. The Bible teaches that God is one and God is three. The Shorter Catechism reads:-

Are there more Gods than one?

There is but one only, the living and true God.

How many persons are in the Godhead?

There are three persons in the God-head, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

The Unity of God

The unity of God is a basic axiom of Scripture. If the Old Testament has a ‘creed’ it is Deuteronomy 6:4 which affirms: ‘Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. The Faith of the Bible is strictly – even intolerantly – monotheistic. God alone can declare ‘I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like Me’ (Isaiah 46:9). It is the strict monotheism of the Old Testament which is the rationale behind the first and foremost of the ten commandments where God states: ‘I am the LORD your God … You shall have no other gods before Me’ (Exodus 20:1,3). Jeremiah 10:10 declares ‘The LORD is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King.’ Hence both the seriousness and the folly of idolatry, that is, giving allegiance to anyone or anything other than the one, true God.

The Tri-unity of God

Whilst the Bible is very strict in its monotheism, it also reveals a distinction of Persons within the One true God – a Tri-unity. This is evident from the very first page of Scripture. The Bible begins ‘In the beginning God …’ (Genesis 1:1). The word for ‘God’ here is the plural word ‘Elohim.’ We then get a glimpse of this plurality when we read on and see that ‘the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters’ (Genesis 1:2) and also read that ‘God said …’ (Genesis 1:1 et. al.). The latter refers to God’s Word. John 1:1-18 – with its echoes of Genesis 1:1 – describes this Word of God as none other than the eternal Son of God Who, in the fullness of time became Man in the Lord Jesus Christ. We thus glimpse both the unity and the trinity of God – His tri-unity/diversity in unity – on the very first page of Scripture. The account of creation in Genesis 1 reaches its climax with the creation of man. The plurality within God’s unity is seen in that epochal event when we read that God said ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’ (Genesis 1:26). The first chapter of the Bible tallies with the first chapter of the last book of the Bible, for Revelation 1:4,5 contains the opening greeting: ‘Grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come, and from the seven spirits Who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.’

The New Testament

It is in the New Testament, however, that the Trinitarian nature of the one true God comes into sharper focus. We see this notably in the baptism of the Lord Jesus by John the Baptist in the river Jordan – an event related by all three synoptic Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke. Taking Matthew’s account as our example, we see that:-

‘Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptised by him’ (Matthew 3:13) – a reference to God the Son, the second person of the Trinity.
‘When Jesus was baptised … the heavens were opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting on Him’ (Matthew 3:16) – a reference to God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, and:-
‘lo a voice from heaven, saying ‘This is My beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased’’ (Matthew 3:17 – a reference to God the Father, the first person of the Trinity.

The divine Trinity is thus seen at the outset of Jesus ministry, as it is also seen at its end, when Jesus gave His final ‘Great Commission’ to His disciples so: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name (singular) of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ (Matthew 28:19).

Triune Salvation

We have seen that the Bible reveals the divine Trinity in action at the creation of the universe, as related in Genesis 1: The universe was created through the action of both God’s Word – the Lord Jesus Christ – ‘all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made’ (John 1:2) – and God’s Spirit moving over the face of the waters.

The Bible also reveals that all three members of the Trinity cooperate in the sinner’s salvation – the new creation. Each divine Person has His distinct role in the divine economy in achieving the sinner’s eternal blessedness. 1 Peter 1:2, for instance, reads that Christians are ‘chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood. Then Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 says to the believers in Thessalonica that ‘God chose you from the beginning to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.’ Christian salvation is thus a tri-une salvation. If we are saved it is because we have been chosen for salvation by God the Father in eternity past. He then sent His Son to procure our salvation through the shedding of His precious blood on Calvary’s cross. The Holy Spirit of God then applies this work of redemption to our hearts, convicting us of our sin and enabling us to trust in the crucified Christ, and so be reconciled to God the Father.

Christian salvation therefore is a result of the working of God the Holy Trinity. And Christian experience continues to be tri-une. Prayer is one of the Christian’s highest earthly privileges. Whilst all three members of the Trinity may be invoked in prayer, as all three are persons, normally prayer is a matter of coming to God the Father, through God the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit – ‘through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father’ (Ephesians 2:18).

Every Christian grace and blessing therefore is a result of the operation of God the Holy Trinity. The Christian Faith is Trinitarian in doctrine, practice and experience. Hence, since the first century, it is fitting that public Christian worship has invariably been concluded by quoting the famous benediction of 2 Corinthians 13:12: ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.’

The Christian Faith then – as revealed in Scripture, and defined in the subordinate standards of the Christian church – is distinctly, distinctively, distinguishingly and definitely Trinitarian. It is against this touchstone that all counterfeit faiths may be weighed in the balance and found wanting. True Christianity is Trinitarian in its doctrine, salvation, experience and praise:-

Almighty God to Thee

Be endless honours done

The undivided Three

And the mysterious One

Where reason fails, with all her powers

There faith prevails, and love adores.