I recently decided not to think about God anymore. Why? Because I’ve found it more helpful to think about the Triune God instead.
After all, God IS God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Ask around and you’ll find most people think the Trinity as like a pie cut in three equal pieces: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It makes sense, right? But it’s completely wrong! Instead, the Father is the whole pie, but so are the Son and the Spirit.
Wayne Grudem puts the irreducible Biblical facts of the Trinity like this: God is three persons; each person is fully God; there is one God.[1]
How can this be? No one knows exactly. But the answer probably has something to do with the union of the three persons of the one God. Jesus hints at this in John 17 when he says, even as we are one[2], and, you, Father, are in me, and I in you.”[3] John also quoted Jesus as saying, I and the Father are one, and, Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.[4]
The Trinity defies description by analogy. The pie metaphor is a bad one. And so are these:
- A three-leaf clover.
- The roots, trunk and branches of one tree.
- The solid, liquid, vapor states of water.
All of these fall short for the same reason: the three individual parts are not also simultaneously the entire whole. These don’t work either:
- One person with three roles (like farmer, mayor, and Little League coach).
- One person with three relationship names (like sister, mother, and wife).
- One person with three aspects (like a mind, a will and emotions)
These three fall short because they don’t present three distinct persons. The Bible doesn’t offer an analogy to explain the Trinity. The closest we get are declarations that there are three distinct persons[5] and all three are wholly God.[6]
The three are co-existent, co-equal, co-eternal, co-essential, co-sovereign, co-glorious, and distinct centers of self-awareness.[7] They each simultaneously possess all the full essence of deity–and yet none of the three has existence outside of or apart from the other two. It’s 1 + 1 + 1 = 1.
Therefore everything God does he does as the Triune God.
Yes, this hurts my brain and humbles my heart. But the real God is the Triune God and he calls us to know him as he really is. So I’m sticking to it. Anyone wanna join me?
[1] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Zondervan (1994) p231.
[2] John 10:30-33. The Jews understood his meaning—he was claiming to be God. That’s why they intended to stone him for blasphemy. Also see John 5:18 and Mark 14:61-64.
[3] John 17:11, 22
[4] John 14:9
[5] The three distinct persons can be seen in many passages of Scripture including Matthew 3:16-17; 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 Peter 1:2; Ephesians 3:14-17 and Revelation 1:4-5.
[6] For an example of the Spirit being God, see 2 Corinthians 3:16-18. Also Acts 5:3-4 indicates shows that to lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God.
[7] In other words, they have separate personal identities.
