The Relational God: Father, Son, and Spirit in Perfect Unity

We’re continuing our study of the Trinity and its four building blocks. The first three are:

1. There is one true, living God. God is One.
2. This one God eternally exists in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
3. These three persons are completely equal in attributes, each possessing the same divine nature. They are each God.

Now let’s tackle building block number four: While each person is fully and completely God, the three persons are distinct from one another and eternally exist in relationship with each other.

That’s a mouthful, I get it. But here’s what I’m saying: there are three separate persons. Not three parts of one person, but three distinct persons within the Godhead. The Father is God, but is not the Son or the Holy Spirit. The Son is God, but is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, but is not the Father or the Son.

We know that the Son is not the Father, because Jesus prayed to the Father:

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you… (John 17:1)

The Holy Spirit is not the Father, nor is he the Son. Jesus said this:

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:26)

Jesus is telling his disciples that the 1) Father will send the 2) Holy Spirit, who will teach and help them remember everything 3) Jesus taught them. The three persons are obviously distinct from one another.

The Apostle Paul wrote this verse that mentions all three together as distinct persons:

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:14)

So the Trinity consists of three distinct persons. But the three persons don’t simply exist as distinct beings; they exist in relationship with one another. This is huge for our understanding of God. He has existed for eternity within a relationship, and in that relationship, the three persons operate with one purpose but different roles in accomplishing that purpose.

Here’s another verse from Paul, and again he names all three, now showing their unity:

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6)

God the Father, having adopted us as sons and daughters, has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, bearing witness to us that we are God’s very own children. All three persons are in harmony and cooperation, working in our hearts to assure us that we can cry out to God, “Abba! Father!”

The Apostle Peter does the same thing in his first letter:

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. (1 Peter 1:1-2)

He mentions all three persons apparently acting in perfect unity and with a common purpose. God the Father foreknows us, God the Holy Spirit sanctifies us, and God the Son cleanses us from sin through his death on the cross.

One more example of all three in perfect relationship, this one from Jude:

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. (Jude 20-21)

Jude shows all three persons of the Trinity helping us grow in our faith. We pray in the Holy Spirit as directed by the Holy Spirit, engulfed in the Father’s love, with our hope trained on the day we are welcomed home by the Son.

John’s gospel is filled with references to the three persons working in relationship. If you read what Jesus said to his disciples in chapters 14 through 17, you can’t miss it. The Father sends the Son (14:24). Both the Father (14:16) and the Son (15:26) send the Spirit. The Son has to leave so he can send the Spirit (16:7), who continues the work of Jesus the Son. Jesus was clearly teaching his disciples that the Trinity acts in unity and common purpose.

If you read all that the New Testament says on the subject, the only conclusion is that there is one God who has always existed in three distinct persons who are in perfect relationship with one another.

There is one divine nature, being, essence. And three divine persons. In other words, there is one what and three whos. And the three whos are in perfect harmony, working with a common purpose.

Simple, right?

Well, no. It isn’t simple. True, but not easy to understand fully.

Around AD 500, someone wrote one of the essential creeds in the Christian Church, the Athanasian Creed, which attempted to formulate the doctrine of the Trinity. Here’s a portion of the creed:

We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit…So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord; And yet they are not three Lords but one Lord.

So, basically, what I’ve written here. And not any easier to understand. We’ve been struggling to explain this truth for 2000 years, because it’s a truth that the human mind can’t grasp. We’re not capable of understanding it. The Trinity cannot be understood; it is only accepted by faith in God and his Word. He’s revealed this truth about himself in the Bible. By faith, we embrace what he’s told us.

Once we embrace it, we have only one response: bow and worship such an incredible God.