Big Words of the Bible - The Trinity

TJ Addington‘s Weekday Devos Podcast

The word trinity is not found in Scripture. But the concept clearly is. Jesus talked about His Father and predicted the coming of the Holy Spirit after his leaving. He said that He and the Father are one and that the Holy Spirit would guide the disciples into all truth. In the great commission, the three members of the Godhead are mentioned together: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Even in the creation episode of Genesis chapter one there is reference to God and the Spirit of God. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2). When God created man, He says, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,” using a plural for himself (Genesis 1:26).

Jesus himself is credited in Colossians for creating everything that was created. “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:15-20).

We are told that the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our full inheritance of salvation in Ephesians 1:14, and the one who guides us into all truth, John 14 - 17. In His prayer for us in John 17, Jesus prays to the Father to protect His people, asking that they be one in him as Jesus and the Father are one: “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:25-26).

The trinity is made up of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One in substance, one God in three persons, each with individual responsibility. The Son created all that is. The Father sent the Son to redeem mankind in the incarnation and the Spirit dwells with each of us who have made Jesus Lord of our lives. The Son will return to judge the living and the dead at the second resurrection and we will live forever with God for eternity. As finite human beings, that is hard to understand but that is what Scripture teaches.

As the Nicene creed reads, “I believe in one God, the Father almighty…I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages…I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.” One God in three persons. The Trinity, all of whom are involved in our salvation.

Father, there are so many things about you that I find hard to understand. I thank you for the Father who is over all, and the Son who became like me in order to redeem me and the Holy Spirit who daily leads me in your ways. I praise and adore you today. Amen.