What Is the Trinity?

What Is the Trinity?

 

Sometimes people use three different names when referring to God: God or Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. But these are more than simply different names for one person; they are, in fact, the names of three very distinct persons. But even though God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit have eternally existed as three distinct persons, there is only one God. This is called the doctrine of the Trinity. The idea of three persons and only one God is difficult to understand completely. Even so, it is one of the most important ideas of the Christian faith.

 

The Bible’s View of the Trinity

 

The word “trinity” is never found in the Bible, but the idea represented by the word is affirmed in many places. For instance, in Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” His use of “us” and “our” implies that more than one person was involved in creation. The only other beings that God could possibly be referring to are angels, but we are not made in the image of angels but “in the image of God” (Gen. 1:27), so this verse must imply that there is more than one person in God.

 

When Jesus was baptized, “the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and … a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’ ” (Matt. 3:16–17). At this moment, all three members of the Trinity were performing three distinct activities: God the Father was speaking, God the Son was being baptized, and God the Holy Spirit was resting on the Son.

 

Similarly, when Jesus sent his disciples out to do their work, he commanded them to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). In saying this, Jesus is affirming that all three members of the Trinity are distinct in their personhood (the Father can’t be the Son, for example). Jude 20–21 also affirms the three distinct persons in the Trinity: “Pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

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