The Trinity is one of the most difficult things to wrap your mind around, so how do all Three Persons of the God-Head work together in our salvation?
The Trinity Defined
The Trinity is one of the most difficult things to wrap your mind around, so how do all Three Persons of the God-Head work together in our salvation? It is very difficult for the finite mind to describe the infinite God. How can I even imagine eternity? How hard is it to comprehend that God had no beginning and has no end, and has always existed? How can we see God’s eternality with a linear-type brain? The truth is, we can’t. We can only give finite explanations of the infinite Being Who is God. So how can Three Persons be One?
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Three and One
Are there distinct differences between each Person of the God-Head? What differences are there since they are all One in essence? In some places, the Bible says “God is One” (Deut 5:4), so how can God be One if there are Three Persons in the Trinity? It is impossible to fully explain the Trinity since I am only human. Here is about as close as I can humanly come in trying to explain how God can be Three Persons yet at the same time One God. My wife and I have two children (7 grandchildren). We are four persons but we are still one as far as being one family. We are all four distinct persons but only one family…the Wellman family. We are four, yet we are one. I know that is a pathetic example but that is about as close as I can come to explaining the indefinable Trinity.
The Father’s Role
The word “Trinity” is not actually found in the Bible, but it is insinuated in Scripture. For example, the Father calls or draw us to Christ as Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44). In John 6:27 Jesus says to not work for food which perishes but for the food that brings eternal life “which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” If God is not Three Persons then why would Jesus mention the Father who would “set his seal” on them (and us) and not say that He himself would set his seal upon them?
The Holy Spirit
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The Holy Spirit quickens us to new life just like Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. The Apostle Paul wrote “you were dead in your offenses and sins,” but God didn’t leave us there because “even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:1, 5). The Spirit also sanctifies us and reveals Who Jesus is and why we need Him (1 Cor 6:11; Rom 8, 15:16; John 16-17), but the Spirit also convicts the world (and us) of sin (John 16:8-11). Even more, the Holy Spirit seals you/us, for “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise” (Eph 1:13). Prior to Jesus’ leaving His earthly ministry, He told the disciples that they will receive help from “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17). Finally, the Holy Spirit opens the Bible up to us so we can finally understand it. Without the Spirit, Scripture would be foolishness to us (Rom 8).
The Son of God
And of course Jesus saves, for “there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus states it clearly by saying, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). He is not one of many ways or just another way. He is the one and only way! It may seem narrow-minded in this world, but we should thank God that at least there is a way.
The Trinity in Creation
Scientists have shown that time, force, action, space, and matter are all of the categories that exist in this universe, and believe it or not, we see the Trinity at work by means of these five categories. In Genesis 1:1 it says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” so we see it as “In the beginning (time) God (force) created (action) the heavens (space) and the earth (matter).” The Hebrew word for God in Genesis 1:1 is “Elohim” which is a plural form of God and means us. In Genesis 1:2 it states that “the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters,” meaning the Holy Spirit was also involved in creation and not just the Father and the Son, Who is clearly mentioned as being the Creator (John 1:3; Col 1:16; 1 Cor 8:6).
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In God’s Image
The Bible says that God is One in both the Old Testament (Duet 6:4) and the New Testament (1 Cor 8:4), yet in the creation account, God said “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen 1:26), so the word “us” necessitates the idea that there are more than One, which is why God said “Let us.” In fact, even after the fall of man, God said “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:22). Once more, it’s plural, meaning more than One God. The word “us” in reference to God speaking appears many more times in the Old Testament (Gen 11:7; (Isaiah 6:8).
Conclusion
Just because we cannot wrap our minds around God and the Trinity does not mean we cannot believe it. We might not understand the process of how the Three Person’s in the God-Head work in our salvation, but I just know They do. I don’t really understand how my computer processor works, but that doesn’t keep me from using it. In fact, I’m not really sure how electricity exactly works, but I don’t sit around in the dark. Jesus says you are either for Him or against Him, so if you have not yet trusted in Him, remember, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 6:36).
I pray you believe today, because “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18), and if you reject Christ, that judgment will come either after your death (Heb 9:27) or at the final judgment (Rev 20:12-15). Believe today, and your sins will have already been judged when you see the Lord someday.
Here is some related reading for you: The Trinity: A Bible Study [4]
Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.