What is the Trinity?

What is the Trinity? What is the Trinity? The Trinity, most simply defined, is the doctrinal belief of Christianity that the God of the Bible, Yahweh, is one God in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Discussions on the doctrine of the Trinity are important, but often fall into several methodological problems. The first of these problems is to assert that since we cannot know the doctrine fully it is better left to mystery. While certainly true that we ultimately must rest in some of the mystery of the doctrine, if we were to appeal to doctrine along these lines we could say nothing certainly about God. Rather, we should seek diligently to understand all that we can from Scripture and with the aid of great thinkers past and present to know as well as possible how God has revealed Himself. A second problematic approach is the way of analogy. Numerous analogies have been given to attempt to express the Trinity. Despite attempts to make these useful for Trinitarian explanation, each of them ultimately fails, primarily because it is an attempt to take finite things and/or concepts and apply them to an infinite God. Some of the most popular analogies are listed below. 1. Egg shell, white, yoke Response: The nature of the shell is very little like the yoke. Moreover, it can be separated. Therefore, it is more like tri-theism in that none of the individual parts can be considered wholly God, but merely a part of God. 2. Water solid, liquid, vapor Response: Looks more like modalism, the unorthodox belief that God is one person who can manifest Himself in three different ways (Father, Son, or Spirit), but the persons are not distinct. 3. Other attempts: three-leaf clover (three parts but one clover); tree (roots, trunk, branches); social relationships (1.one man is a son, a father, and a brother at the same time; or 2. a son, a father, and a mother are all members of one family). There are simply no analogies that adequately convey the Trinity, and many of them mislead in significant ways. Since we are unable to provide an analogy that completely expresses the idea of the Trinity, it is best to rest on those things that are clear from the Biblical teaching. A third problematic approach is to root the differences in the persons of the Trinity primarily in the realm of salvation history. As Fred Sanders writes, Without internal acts such as procession behind the external acts that are the missions, the historical manifestations of the incarnate Son and outpoured Spirit would have to carry all the meaning and significance of Trinitarian distinctions. 1 Sanders goes on to say that a theology rooted in external actions is bound to overexploit the 133. 1Fred Sanders, The Triune God, New Studies in Dogmatics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016), 1

external actions, perhaps reading them as three different agents doing three distinct things. 2 Such a statement does not mean that we cannot speak of works as more commonly associate with one of the persons in Scripture, 3 but we need to be careful to affirm that along with the one will of the Triune God, Scripture and historical theology have spoken of the inseparable operations of the three persons of God. That is, inseparable operations affirms that the trinitarian persons act as a single agent in the economy, such that each Trinitarian person is co-agent in each other s action tokens. 4 Such a notion is important in affirming that when God acts, he acts as the Triune God. In contrast to these three methodological approaches, Fred Sanders proposes that Trinitarian theology ought to be rooted in the missions of the Son and the Spirit that reveal the eternal, internal processions. 5 That is, the eternal generation of the begotten Son and the spiration (procession) of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son. We will return to eternal generation and spiration later, but for now it is helpful to mention that theologians speak of these eternal, internal processions as eternal relations of origins. 6 These eternal, internal processions relate to the way that the Triune God has existed eternally in Himself (ad intra). The missions reveal God as He interacts in the economy of salvation history (ad extra). The more typical ways of approaching the doctrine of the Trinity are to look at the passages in Scripture that speak of the Father, Son, and Spirit as God and to focus on the classic, historical statement of the doctrine from the Council of Nicaea (AD 325). Although Sanders suggests beginning Trinitarian understanding with the missions of Son and Spirit, it is nonetheless necessary to provide the evidence that the Son and the Spirit are fully divine. These proofs should be drawn rather directly from Scripture and be as persuasive as possible. 7 Thus, these two tasks will be considered next, though the more natural and, according to Sanders, appropriate approach would be to read through the Scriptures and see how the God of the Old Testament is further revealed through the missions of the Son (the Gospels) and the Spirit (Acts and the Epistles). How Do the Biblical Writers Portray this Trinitarian Relationship? The Biblical writers portray three primary truths. 1. God is One: 2Sanders, The Triune God, 133. 3For example, see the later distinction about equal in essence but distinct in role. 4Adonis Vidu, Trinitarian Inseparable Operation and the Incarnation, Journal of Analytic Theology 4 (May 2016): 106. 5Sanders, The Triune God, 21. 6In saying origins, however, one must be careful not to read into this idea the sense of beginning or creation, for these are eternal relationships that are being explained. 7Sanders, The Triune God, 136. 2

Exod 20:2-3 Deut 6:4 James 2:19 1 Cor 8:4 1 Tim 2:5 2. Deity of each person of the Trinity: The Father is God Do you need verses for this? God=God. The Son is God Phil 2:5-11 with God, becomes man, ascends to God and is given glory John 1 Word was God and is agent of creation John 8:58 before Abraham was, I AM. Col 1 by Him all things were made and in Him all things hold together Heb 1 agent of creation, radiance of God s glory and exact imprint of His nature, who upholds the universe by the word of His power The Holy Spirit is God Matt 28:19 baptized in name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; other examples of the Holy Spirit being placed in a coordinate relationship with the Father and Son (1 Cor 12:4-6; 2 Cor 13:14; Eph 4:4-6; 1 Pet 1:2) Luke 3:22 baptism of Jesus John 3: 8 regeneration by the Spirit John 16:8-11 convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment Acts 5:1-4 Ananias and Saphira lie to the Holy Spirit, who is implied to be God 1 Cor 3:16-17//1 Cor 6:20 God s temple//body is the temple of the Holy Spirit 3. Three-in-oneness of God 1 John 5:7 It reads, For there are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these Three are One. Recognized by nearly all scholars as a late addition. (Possible reference in Cyprian in 258 AD). Plural of God (Elohim) in Old Testament. Also, Gen 1:26 Let us make man in our image. Also, Gen 11:7 Let us go down. Often explained as a plural of majesty, which is possible, but that explanation does not explain why it is often singular or when and why it shifts to plural. Baptismal formula [Mt. 28:19]: Baptize in the name (singular) of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 1 Cor 12:4-6 Spirit, Lord (Jesus), God Gal 4:6 Spirit of the Son, Father Rom 15:16 minister of Christ Jesus, service of Gospel of God, sanctified by Holy 3

Spirit Eph 3:14 bow before Father, strengthened by Spirit that Christ may dwell, filled by fullness of God. John 14-16 (several examples) both sent from Father; Son sends Spirit; Spirit continues Son s ministry; etc. John 10:30//14:9 I and the Father are One ; He who has seen me has seen the Father. Jude 20-21 pray in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ But the question remains as to how the New Testament writers held to these beliefs without being charged with polytheism (belief in many/multiple gods). The first century AD Jewish society in which they lived and ministered was strictly monotheistic, likely reciting the Shema (Deut 6:4-9 Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is One ) twice each day. Richard Bauckham has demonstrated a convincing explanation of this phenomenon in his book God Crucified (reprinted as Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament s Christology of Divine Identity). He argues that the New Testament writers included Jesus in the unique divine identity of Yahweh. He identifies two ways of understanding the unique identity of Yahweh: with respect to His relationship with Israel and with respect to His relationship with all of reality. What about Yahweh s relationship with Israel and with all of reality distinguishes His unique identity? 1. Yahweh revealed His divine name and character to Israel and demanded that He alone be worshiped (Exod 3, 34). 2. Yahweh alone is creator of all things. 3. Yahweh alone is sovereign ruler of all things. 4. Yahweh alone is worthy of worship because He is the creator and sovereign ruler of all things. This exclusive worship is a recognition of and response to His unique divine identity. Bauckham argues that the New Testament writers held to the highest possible Christology (understanding of Christ), an understanding that Jesus, the Son of God, was God. They demonstrated this by including Jesus in the unique divine identity of Yahweh in four primary ways. 1. By attributing to Jesus a name above all names a. Phil 2:5-11 b. Heb 1:4 2. By identifying Him as the agent of creation a. John 1 b. 1 Cor 8:6 c. Col 1 d. Heb 1 e. Rev 3:14 3. By recognizing His sovereignty over all things a. Matt 11:27//Luke 10:22 b. John 3:35 c. John 13:3 4

d. John 16:15 e. Acts 10:36 f. 1 Cor 15:27-28 g. Eph 1:22 h. Phil 3:21 i. Heb 1:2//2:8 4. By according Him worship due only to Yahweh a. Matt 28:17 b. Phil 2:9-11 c. Rev 4:11//5:9 What is interesting to note is that this inclusion of another person in the unique divine identity of Yahweh is evidenced already in the Old Testament. Consider what Bauckham calls personifications or hypostatizations of aspects of God himself, such as his Spirit, his Word and his Wisdom (14). Spirit: Gen 1:2; Psa 33:6 Word: Psa 33:6-9 Wisdom: Jer 10:12//51:15; Psa 104:24; Prov 3:19; Prov 8:22-30 It ought to be no surprise, then, when the New Testament writers pick up these Old Testament inclusions of Word and Wisdom and Spirit in the unique divine identity. Is it any wonder, then, that Jesus is spoken of as the Word (John 1) and the Wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24) who is active with the Father in creation (John 1; Col 1; Heb 1)? The Council of Nicaea The typical way of expressing the orthodox position on the Trinity is to appeal to the Council of Nicaea (AD 325): We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of his Father, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten (γεννηθέντα, genéthenta), not made, being of one substance (ὁμοούσιον, homoousion) with the Father. By whom all things were made, both which be in heaven and in earth. Who for us men and for our salvation came down [from heaven] and was incarnate and was made man. He suffered and the third day he rose again, and ascended into heaven. And he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead. And [we believe] in the Holy Ghost. And whosoever shall say that there was a time when the Son of God was not, or that before he was begotten he was not, or that he was made of things that were not, or that he is of a different substance or essence [from the Father] or that he is a creature, or subject to change or conversion all that so say, the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes them. 5

Summarizing Nicaea: 1. Belief in Father, Son, and Spirit 2. Son is the of the same substance of the Father 3. Son is begotten, not made 4. All things in heaven and on earth were made by Christ 5. There was never a time when the Son was not 6. The Son was never not of the same substance of the Father 7. The Son is not a creature, nor subject to change or conversion Equal in Nature yet Distinct in Role In light of the evidence of Scripture, then, we have good reason to accept that Yahweh is a Triune God. We also have good evidence that shows that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are coeternal and have the same essence or nature. However, though they are equal in essence, several passages seem to suggest that the Father is greater than the Son and the Spirit (e.g. Matt 24:36; Phil 2:6; 1 Cor 15:28; etc.). It is important to recognize that just as the distinction between the Father, Son, and Spirit was not one of essence but of person, so also this distinction is not one of essence but of role. Though the Father and the Son and the Spirit are equal, the Son submits Himself to the Father s will in the incarnation and is obedient (Phil 2:8; Matt 26:39). This distinction of roles can be seen clearly in salvation. 8 Salvation: God the Father sent the Son on account of His great love (John 3:16-17). The Son came down from heaven to do the will of the Father who sent Him (John 6:38). He obeys the Father s will by humbling Himself and submitting to death (Phil 2:8) in order to die for our sins (Heb 10:10). The Father and the Son send the Spirit to bring to completion the work begun by the Father and Son (John 14:16; 16:7). Some Concluding Thoughts On What We Can Say about the Trinity: 1. Yahweh is One. 2. The Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, and the Spirit is fully God. 3. All three existed from eternity. There was not a time when the Son and Spirit were not. 4. The Son is begotten of the Father and the Spirit proceeds from the Father (and the Son). 8Again, keep in mind that creation and its distinctive acts are still seen in light of inseparable operations. Although the Son alone becomes incarnate, it is the active work of the Triune God in bringing about the incarnation. This helps one retain inseparable operations while still being able to speak of various roles in the economy of salvation. See Adonis Vidu, Trinitarian Inseparable Operations and the Incarnation, for an excellent treatment on how the incarnation of the Son only is consistent with trinitarian inseparable operations. 6

5. The Father, Son, and Spirit are equal in nature and essence, but they have different roles in the economy of salvation. 6. We must conclude THAT God is a Trinity, but we must also conclude that we cannot fully explain HOW God is a Trinity. 7