The Trinity

Greg Johnson, St. Louis Center for Christian Study

While the doctrine of the Trinity was formally acknowledged in the ancient ecumenical councils of the church, God’s tri-unity is implicit within the pages of the Christian Scriptures. In its most basic sense, the Trinity is an affirmation that God is in one sense One, yet in a different sense Three. Neither of these factors can be held to the exclusion of the other.

I. The Ancient Councils of the Church

The Council of Nicea, called by the emperor Constantine in AD 325, rejected Arianism—the belief that Christ was created and therefore less than eternal God. The church in council declared that Christ has been revealed as homoousios—of the same substance as God the Father. This set off 56 years of conflict in the church, the doctrine not being settled until the First Council of Constantinople in 381, which composed the Nicene Creed as it is now used. These councils concluded that Christians ought to speak of God as one essence (that is, one nature or substance, Greek ousia), but three in person (three hypostases).

Q: But what do Essence & Person mean?

Essence is (to sound redundant) what something essentially is, the ‘stuff’ of which a thing is comprised—think earth, wind, fire, water. Humans are earth. God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit are all the comprised of Deity. That’s their essence. But it’s not just that they’re all Deity. Since there is only one God, the three must be the exact same Deity—the exact same ousia or essence.

The term person (hypostasis) is a murkier concept—it had no clearly defined meaning before it was used by the Christians. The term had been used by some philosophers to mean “realization coming to appearance,” but was likely used in the church councils to mean simply a permanent, personalized manifestation of God.

II. The Trinity within the Bible

1. There is only one God.

This was Israel’s great confession, the shema: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deut 6:4). Some suggest a better translation is “…the LORD alone,” but I’m convinced the Hebrew is getting at God’s singularity—his oneness. The shema isn’t just saying that Yahweh is Israel’s only God. The shema is saying that Yahweh is the only God period. This shouldn’t be a point I have to labor. There’s only one God in the Bible; Judaism and Christianity alike are monotheistic.

2. There are three who are God.

a. The Father is God

This is how Jesus taught us to pray (Mt 6:9). I won’t spend any time proving this.

b. Jesus, the Son incarnate, is God

This is explicitly stated in Scripture. “He is the image of the invisible God… by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col 1:15-17). Given that God is the creator of the heaven and the earth, this is an astounding claim, a claim of deity. In Philippians, we read of, “Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God… made himself nothing… being made in human likeness” (Phil 2:5-7). “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Heb 1:3). Christ himself had claimed this implicitly, saying he had authority to forgive sins against God, claiming to be “I Am,” the God of Moses, and receiving worship (Jn 20:28).

c. The Holy Spirit is God

Consider how Peter equates God and the Holy Spirit while condemning Ananias. “Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God” (Acts 5:3-4). The Holy Spirit and God are interchangeable here.

3. These three are God simultaneously.

A common illustration of the Trinity is that God is like water—sometimes ice, sometimes liquid, sometimes steam. That’s an ancient heresy called Modalism. The biblical picture isn’t that God is sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son and sometimes the Spirit, but always all three. His three modes of existence are simultaneous; all three are God at the same time. Consider Jesus’ baptism, where the Son was baptized, the Father spoke from heaven, and the Spirit descended like a dove (Mt 3:16-17). Or consider the prayers of Jesus. He really was speaking to the Father, not to himself. The Father is not the Son, who is not the Spirit. Each, however, is God. The Modalist heresy is still held by “oneness” or “Jesus-only” Pentecostals today. (They were expelled from the Assemblies of God early in the twentieth century for heresy.)

4. These three are held together in unity.

This I show Jesus taught us to baptize, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). We baptize people in the one name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that being baptism in God’s name. Also think of Paul’s lengthy prayer of praise to God in Ephesians 1. He praises the Father for predestining salvation, the Son for accomplishing salvation through the cross, and the Spirit for applying—sealing—salvation to us (Eph 1:3-14). Or consider the apostolic benediction Paul gives, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor 13:14).

5. There is nonetheless a priority of the Father as First among Equals.

Once we’ve understood that there is only one God, but three who are simultaneously God, and that the Bible holds these three together in unity, only then can we move on to investigate the relationship of the persons with each other. Father, Son and Spirit are equally God, so we cannot speak of the Father being “more” God than the Son, or more worthy of glory. We do notice in Scripture, however, that the Father has a certain priority as first among equals.

In what sense is the Father first among equals? Historically, two answers have been offered, and I accept both.

a. The Father’s Priority of Being: Consider Jesus’ words in John 5:26, “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.” As defined by the Cappadocian fathers in the fourth century (Basil, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory Nazianzus), the Godhead has an order of priority within it from eternity. Though all three persons of the Trinity are equally God and are to be worshiped and glorified equally as God, the Father does have a unique role among the three. As classically defined, the difference lies in the procession of God’s being. God the Father has life (being) in himself, while the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, so that the Son’s being (life) is in some sense derived from—albeit identical to and just as eternal as¾the Father. The Spirit likewise proceeds from the Father through the Son. Thus the Father is the seat of being within the Trinity.

The Cappadocians were not speaking of God’s relationship to humanity here. They were speaking about God’s relationship with himself from eternity. The Father did not just become the Father at the Incarnation—he was eternally Father to the Son. Likewise, the Son was always the Son to the Father, because he had always been in a relationship of begotten-ness to the Father. By saying God’s Spirit proceeds from the Father, we aren’t speaking of the Sprit’s procession to earth, but of the Spirit’s relationship to the Father—a relationship of procession.

b. The Father’s Priority in planning Salvation: Look at John 6:38. Jesus explained, “I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.” The Father sends the Son; the Son does not send the Father. There is a difference of function so far as the plan of salvation is concerned. The Son willingly submits to the Father’s authority for the sake of saving humanity.

This biblical language of the Father’s priority within the Trinity shouldn’t make us nervous. Cultists like the ancient Arians or, more recently, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, often capitalize on biblical language suggesting the Father’s priority, arguing that the Son must not therefore be God. Quoted outside the biblical and theological context of Trinitarian theology, though, such groups are misusing Scripture. The Father is first among absolute equals, not first among unequals.

III. Is this language still useful?

I think so. Given that the Scriptures speak of only one God, but affirm that the Father, Son and Spirit are each God, we have to have some doctrine of the Trinity. And considering that the three are held together in unity within the apostolic benediction, within Paul’s prayer in Ephesians, and within the baptismal formula, we have to speak of the three together as one—the tri- and the –unity together. Further, since the Scripture presents the three relating to each other at the same time, we have to account for all three as simultaneous modes of God’s being—no Modalism. And given the priority of the Father within his saving purpose, and given New Testament language suggesting the Father is first among equals, I think we can say that the Son is “eternally begotten” and that the Spirit “proceeds from the Father through [better than “and”] the Son.” The ancient language of the creeds was developed in an attempt to reflect the distinctions implicit within the Scriptures, and I haven’t found a better way of describing God’s tri-unity.

The Nicene Creed

Council of Constantinople, 381

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen. 

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end. 

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son/through the Son/omitted],
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.