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Article I - the trinity

Written by Mark Jones Parry
Date added: 12/2005

Article I - Of Faith in the Holy Trinity

Article I reads as follows:
"There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker, and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."

Now there’s a lot in those sentences. So we’re going to focus on that statement in bold: In the unity of the Godhead there are three persons. In other words,… God is trinity.

It has been said that for many Christians the trinity is like their appendix… It’s there, but they’re not quite sure what it does…they could probably manage without it…and it wouldn’t much concern them to have it removed!

Let me quickly try and show you that the trinity is great news, and you certainly should be concerned if it were removed.

We need to hold together three things:

1) God is one
2) Father, Son and Holy Spirit are fully God
3) Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons

Let’s quickly take those one at a time. And then I want to quickly show you what the trinity is, and what it isn’t, and why its good news!


1) God is one
First of all then: God is one. Isaiah writes:
“For this is what the LORD says —
he who created the heavens,
… "I am the LORD, and there is no other.” Isaiah 45v18

Deuteronomy 6 verse 4 says:
“Hear O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One.”

God is one and there is no other.

Straight forward enough perhaps. But how can it be that in one breathe the Bible says: “The LORD our God, the LORD is One.”, and we’re about to claim that the Bible says there are three persons?

Well, it is helpful to notice that the same word “one” used to say: “The LORD is One” is used for the union of Adam and Eve: “For this reason a man will… be united to his wife… and they shall be one flesh” . The same word – “one”.

So, just as within the unity of marriage there is more than one person, so within the unity of the one God, there is more than one person.
So God is one.


Secondly then:

2) Father, Son and Holy Spirit are fully God

There are a variety of places we could go in the Bible to show this.
That God the Father is God is pretty clear.
Jesus claims divinity for himself in John 8v59: “Before Abraham, I AM…” Identifying himself with Yahweh – the LORD, the Covenant God of Israel.
As for the Holy Spirit… In Acts 5 Peter says: “You have lied to the Holy Spirit… you have not lied to men but to God.”

Father, Son and Holy Spirit are each fully God.

Thirdly,

3) Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons

…In other words, the Father isn’t the Son nor is He the Holy Spirit. And the Son isn’t the Holy Spirit.

I guess that is most easily seen at Jesus’ baptism in Luke 3, where the Holy Spirit descends bodily as a dove on to Jesus, the Son, and the Father speaks from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons. We see it too from their distinctive roles:
In prayer… We pray to the Father, through the Son as mediator, by the Holy Spirit.
In revelation… God the Father reveals himself through the Son – the exact representation of his being. And the Holy Spirit reveals to us the Son.

So, to use the language of the 39 Articles: “in the unity of the one Godhead there are three persons” – each fully God, and each distinct

God is trinity.


What does that mean, and what doesn’t it mean?


a) There are not 3 Gods in 3 persons.

We cannot have God the Holy Spirit over here doing one thing, while independently God the Son is over here doing the opposite. To say that would deny the unity, or one-ness of God. There are not 3 Gods in 3 persons.

Now it is unlikely that any Christian would advocate that position… But we can risk moving in that direction. So some may claim the Spirit can reveal or commend action which goes against the teaching of the Son in scripture.

We are not to over-emphasise the distinctiveness of the three persons. To do so would be to lose the unity of character and will within the trinity.

There are not 3 Gods in 3 persons.


b) There are not three Gods in three persons

But neither are we to swing to the other extreme and over-emphasise unity at the expense of distinctiveness. There is not one God with one person.

We do not have one God who assumes different guises – …today wearing his Father hat…another time wearing the Son hat… later on putting on his Holy Spirit hat.

To over-emphasise the unity of the trinity like that would collapse any relationship between the persons. Which throws up all kinds of difficulties. For instance, Jesus praying to the Father becomes little more than a charade if they are the same person.

So There aren’t three Gods in three persons.
And There is not one God in one person.
We need instead to hold together the tension between there being one God, within whom there are 3 distinct, fully divine persons…


There is one God in three persons.




But what difference does it make?

As we finish, two things:

Firstly, that within God is perfect, eternal, loving relationship.

Augustine was the first to argue that if you don’t have a Trinitarian God, then you don’t have a perfect God!...
A God of only one person cannot have a personal relationship until he created another person. So love cannot be intrinsic to him.

But the Trinitarian God is a God of perfect, eternal, loving relationships.

The one-ness enjoyed by even the most intimate marriage - the common will, the shared purpose, the sense of delight in one another - It is a mere shadow of the one-ness of the trinity.

From before creation, the persons of the Trinity have enjoyed intimate loving relationship, sharing a common mind and will, taking pleasure in serving and glorifying each othe, each person eternally delighting in the others.

You see, at the heart of God is perfect, eternal, loving relationship. Because he is Trinity. That is the character and nature of our God.


But secondly – and it gets better! - by faith, we will partake in those relationships for eternity!

That is the promise given to Christians…

…It is by faith in the Son that we are adopted as sons,
… It is by faith that as sons we can call on God the Father.
…It is by faith that we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

But there is more to it even than that!

So Jesus says in John chapter 14:

“You know [the Spirit] because he lives with you and will be in you…
Because I live, you also will live. On that day, you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”

That is the fullness of the Christian’s relationship with God!

You see, we are not redeemed to be onlookers!
In His grace, it is not enough for God to redeem into his presence for eternity.
Heaven is so much more than God’s people gazing from afar upon the perfect relationship the trinity.

We are not redeemed to be onlookers. Rather by faith we are brought into the life of the trinity!
Just as the persons of the trinity are in one another, so the Bible tells us that we are in the persons of the trinity and they are in us…

We aren’t to be spectators in heaven. By God’s grace, we will partake in the relationships of the trinity for all eternity!
That is heaven!

So there you go. I saved the really good news until last.
Hopefully you are now more attached to the Trinity than you are to your appendix!