The Trinity of God
Scripture
John 10:27-33
Key Verse
“...and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a
dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love;
with you I am well pleased." Luke 3:22
Study
The doctrine
of the trinity is one of the most important doctrines of
Christianity. It was established early on as discussion over the
deity of Christ and the deity of the Holy Spirit abounded. It was
decided that the Father, Son, and Spirit were all equally God and
anyone who claimed otherwise was a heretic.
Despite being
a cornerstone to our Christian faith, the trinity is something that
is hard for us to grasp. How can God be three persons, or how could
He have three forms?
The Jews
struggled with this concept because they saw teaching of the trinity
to be heretical and polytheism - the worship of more than one god.
Deuteronomy 6:4 has been strongly ingrained into their minds. “The
Lord our God is one…”
Biblical
basis
The doctrine
of the trinity is not actually taught in scripture, which makes this
all the more difficult to accept. But for the writers of the New
Testament, it wasn’t an issue that they felt they had to deal with.
There was no argument because there is so much circumstantial
evidence. Our key verse shows all three persons of the Godhead in
the same place at the same time. The Holy Spirit descends upon
Christ while the Father speaks from heaven.
The Father
and Son
The fact that
Christ is God was central to the reason Jesus was crucified. His
claim in John 10:30 was cause for the Jews to pick up stones to
stone him. Although it was considered blasphemy, Jesus claim to be
God was never misunderstood by even the unbelieving Jews.
Creation
As we read the
account of creation, it appears to just be GOD doing all the work.
However, all three persons of the Godhead were present and active in
creation. John 1:3 tells us that all things came into being through
Him (the Word – that is Christ). Genesis 1:2 shows the spirit
hovering over the waters.
Although it
should not be considered conclusive evidence, the name for God used
in creation, Elohim, is a plural word in Hebrew. Likewise,
in Genesis 1:26 God says “Let us create man in our
image.”
The big
picture
Our God is so
big and incomprehensible that despite our best attempts we can only
begin to grasp who He is. In our human minds 1+1+1 does not equal
1. However infinity + infinity + infinity = infinity. We worship
an infinite God that is greater than we can grasp.
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