One God, in Trinity

If God exists in Trinity, it means that relationships are not a accidental by-product of our existence, or even a designed aspect of creation, but rather an integral part of God’s nature -- meaning that reality itself is personal and relational.  The question of God's motive in creating us (why would a transcendent being need anyone or anything else?) finds answer in the fact that God already exists in relationships characterized by love and perfect unity.  Just as parents may desire to expand the circle of their own love by starting a family, God's choice to create can be understood as an invitation into his (his?) own circle of relationships, and the qualities that characterize it.

(The term perichoresis is sometimes used to describe the eternally interacting nature of the Trinity.  Searching for this on the net turns up some interesting sites.)

Often people don't know what to make of the concept of Trinity, and either accept it dogmatically, or consider it disposable. Neither option is at all helpful, but there is a still worse alternative. Some believe it to be a logical impossibility, and then try to convert 'believing it anyway' into a virtue (via 'mysteries of faith', etc). It is one thing to say that God's nature is not fully comprehensible — that is to be expected. It is quite another thing to say that it's a logical impossibility. If it were, that should disqualify it from belief by anyone. You might as well say God does AND does not exist.

To say that God is a tri-personal being, is not intrinsically contradictory. It is unlike anything in the rest of our experience — we ourselves are mono-personal, and we have no analogies for this. But we have no a priori reason to suppose that God should be particularly similar to creation in the first place. It would be stranger if he was. This is not to argue for the Trinity — there is no argument for this outside of Jesus and the New Testament's testimony to it. This is simply to argue that the concept is not contradictory, even though many people may conceive of it in a contradictory way; by bad analogies for example.

Most attempts to find analogies for the concept of Trinity fail completely, either "confounding the persons or dividing the substance" -- that is, losing track of either the distinctness of the Trinity's persons, or their fundamental unity. Perhaps the best analogy is the three most common states of matter, illustrated as say, water, ice and steam. While each are fundamentally the same chemical compound, they are nonetheless meaningfully distinct. But this analogy is also inadequate: Water can be heated to make steam, and so on. I don't think that there are any good analogies for the Trinity within creation.

Life would certainly be simpler if God were not Triune — it causes no end of confusion. The exact nature of the Trinity was discussed for hundreds of years by the early church theologians, with little more to show for it than a restatement of the verses which I list below, in the language of Greek metaphysics: natures, essences and substances. Amongst Muslims, it is sometimes believed that the Trinity refers to God, Mary and Jesus, and implies a sexual relationship between the first and second, to produce the third — a concept which they sensibly reject. And today, almost every alternative Christian movement takes a denial of the Trinity as its point of departure:  Jehovah's Witnesses, the Church of Latter Day Saints, and so on.

So why does anyone believe it? It best accounts for Jesus self-belief, and the resulting understanding in the New Testament of his nature and significance, as well as that of the Holy Spirit. Let's look at this now.

There are three basic themes to account for. The three 'persons' of the Trinity (to use the standard term), appear in scripture as distinct, divine and unified. Most arguments against the Trinity major on the theme of their distinctness. But that is only part of what Trinity means. What the concept of Trinity does better than any other idea, is it accounts for their distinctness AND divinity AND unity. But let's spell this out in more detail:

This is a brief synopsis of the reasons why Christians have usually understood God to exist as a (the) single, tri-personal being, whose nature is called Triune, or said to exist in Trinity.

The biblical reasoning comes in three parts:

1. Distinct: Three persons, God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are constantly being referred to as if distinct from each other (they are listed one after the other; they interact with each other). This excludes the possibility of unitarianism, in which they are each viewed as different roles fulfilled by the same person, in which any appearance of them talking or interacting is merely for show.

2. Divine: Each are called God in different passages. Moreover, each of the three is attributed qualities which God alone can possess, such as being eternal, omniscient or the creator. Additionally, the Holy Spirit is noted to choose, think, feel, etc. These points together eliminate the possiblities that Jesus was simply a man (or an angel, or any other created being), or that the Holy Spirit is simply a force, or a way of referring to God in action.

3. Unified: At the same time, the Bible plainly maintains that there is only one God, often in the same verse as making either of these first two points. This excludes the possibility that the Bible teaches any kind of polytheism (in which there are multiple gods).

The next few sections list examples of each of these types of reference.

There are three distinct persons called 'God the Father', 'God the Son' (Jesus), and 'The Holy Spirit'. In the following passages they are named, differentiated, and spoken of in personal terms.

• ...how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
  Acts 10:38

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

• 17 He [Jesus] came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
  Ephesians 2:17-18

• 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
  Matthew 28:18-20

• 1 To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:
  1 Peter 1:1-2

• 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.
  Acts 2:32-33

• For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,...
  1 Peter 3:18

Jesus the Son, a person not identical with the Father, is also Spoken of as Divine.  Refer to our page on the Incarnation for more.

• "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  ...  He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him.  ...  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father...
  John 1:1,11,14 

• 6 And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him."...

  8 But about the Son he says: "Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever.
  Hebrews 1:6,8 

• Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?"
  John 14:9 

Likewise, the Holy Spirit, a person not identical with the Father, or the Son, is also spoken of as Divine.

• Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.
  1 Cor 12:3 

• And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
  Luke 12:10 

• 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
  Ephesians 4:30 

• Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?
  Malachi 2:10 

• 29 Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, 30 since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.
  Romans 3:29-30 

• 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men -- the testimony given in its proper time
  1 Timothy 2:5-6 

• You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that -- and shudder.
  James 2:19 

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

For books, try Millard J. Ericksen, The Word Became Flesh (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1991) and God in Three Persons (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1995).