The We the Faith People series that I started this Lenten Season has been exciting. On Day 21 of Lent, in the Mid of the Lenten Season, this blog on Trinity is at a critical cross road of the Christian Faith. We understood Our Purpose, We understood God the creator, We realized Sin and the fall which caused it, We recognized the need for a redeemer who has to die and has to be Human & Divine, Our response has the steps of Grace – Faith, Justification , Repentance, Salvation & Sanctification. In all of this We saw the God abounding in Love, the Gracious God’s Son- our only savior & the God indwelling in us. We see three Persons of God, yet scripture emphatically states God is One. How do you understand this Triune nature of God?
God exists as the ‘Ultimate Reality’ who transcends all His creations (transcendent), and at the same time, He is within us (Immanent) as ‘Immanuel.’ The Tamil word Kadavul (கடவுள்) beautifully explains this nature of God: Kada (கட)—the state of transcending (Transcendent) and Ul (உள்) —being present within (Immanent). We can know God only through His self-revelation. The biblical revelation about God is progressive (progressive), reaching its fullness in Jesus Christ.
Let us understand His triune nature as being “over all,” “with all,” and “in all.” The Trinity describes the truth that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God (Matthew 28:19-20). They are always together in a loving relationship (John 14:16-17). Each one is fully God with the same attributes. They fulfill the same will with one mind and are equally worthy of worship (2 Corinthians 13:14). The past, present, and future aspects of salvation involve all three persons of God (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:30-36; Ephesians 1:3-10; Colossians 1:15-20; Hebrews 1:1-4)
In understanding this truth of the Trinity, several questions may arise in us. Let us discuss some of the important ones below.
Is the Father older than Jesus and the Holy Spirit?
The Father, Son, and Spirit are equally eternal and glorious. No person of the Trinity possesses more attributes than the others. The Father did not exist before the Son. The Son was always the Son even before the Father sent Him to be born as a human child (John 1:1,14). Furthermore, the Father and the Son did not exist before the Spirit. Each is equally and always God, but there is an order within the Trinity. The Father sends the Son to do His will (1 John 4:14), and the Father and the Son send the Spirit (John 15:26). The Son joyfully submits to the Father’s authority. The Spirit has the same joy in submitting to the Father and the Son. The three persons of the Trinity have one will and always work together in perfect harmony.
Why is it important to know that God exists as three persons?
The Trinity fills us with wonder and awe regarding God. No human mind could have imagined something so complex and true. As humans, we struggle to understand the width and breadth of God’s all-encompassing nature. (Isaiah 55:8-9). Jesus is fully God and a distinct person from God. Only one who is God, and yet a person distinct from God, could bear the full wrath of God for our sins. Jesus Christ, the Son, accomplished exactly that. Following our redemption, the Holy Spirit is the Comforter who lives within us to help us live a life of faith avoiding sin. The Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit to continue the work of redemption and sanctification. Just as in creation, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have different roles in redemption. To ignore that God is a triune God is to believe less than the truth and incorrectly about Him. When we have a wrong picture of God, our worship will not be true, and our lives will not glorify Him as He deserves.
Though the truth about God, especially the Trinity, confounds our minds, God’s presence and power settle our hearts. How does God’s mystery and wonder point you beyond yourself? We seek and worship a trustworthy, majestic, three-in-one God who anchors our souls.
How can God be three persons and yet one?
While there is much about God that our limited human minds cannot fully understand, the Scripture states very clearly that God exists as three persons and yet is one God. God is infinite (infinite). He alone can be three persons in one Being (He alone can be three persons in one Being). He is not divided into parts. According to Deuteronomy 6:4, God is one. Each person within the Trinity possesses the full nature of God. Each person within the Trinity is all that God is.
There is no one like our God; how great is our Lord! He is majestic. Yes, “taste and see that the Lord is good”. It is important to experience the nature of the triune God; otherwise, we cannot understand this fundamental truth about God spoken of in the Scriptures. Paul writes in Ephesians 4:6: “There is one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in you all”.
“Over all”—the one above all who controls the entire universe (God the Father),
“With all”—the one who is with us as Immanuel, the Lord Jesus (God the Son),
and “In all”—the one who dwells in us as the Holy Spirit (God the Holy Spirit)
If you are a believer, will you marvel at all God has done to save you? If you have not yielded to God, in all His infinite wisdom and wonder, will you do so today?
Some of my other posts on Trinity