God is Three Persons

We believe in the existence of one God in three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This triune God, who existed before the universe, created the universe by speaking it into existence. He is self-existent, eternal, unchanging, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, holy, righteous, and loving.

God is Three Persons:

Eph 3:16-17,19
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you… may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Notice it is the Spirit that strengthens our inner being. How? By living within us.

1 John 4:13
We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

But it is Christ that dwells in our hearts. So we are filled with the Spirit but we are filled with Christ. But notice finally that we are filled with the fullness of God (the Father). So we are filled with all three but it is one God who fills us.

Romans 5:5
And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Notice here that we are told that God poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians, we are told that it is Jesus that is in our hearts. This makes Jesus God’s Love. But who is Love?

1 John 4:16
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
   God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

So God is Love, but Jesus is also Love. Jesus is lives in our hearts but the Holy Spirit also lives in our hearts. Once again, we see that all three persons of the Godhead live within us, but it is one God who lives within us.

Jesus is God!

Col 2:9
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,

John 14:9
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

Col 1:15
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

The Holy Spirit is God.

Acts 5:3-4
Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit…What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."

So we know that The Father is God, but we find that Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is God. We recognize that the term “Trinity” is not found in the Bible. But we do see the concept of Trinity throughout the Bible.

Isaiah 48:16
Come near to Me, listen to this:
         From the first I have not spoken in secret,
         From the time it took place, I was there
         And now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit."

Who is “Me”? The Son pre-incarnate (before he was born as a human). What does he say? That he was there at the beginning (“From the first”) and that the Father (“the Lord GOD”) sends him (the Son) and the Holy Spirit (“His Spirit”).

And again…

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

We see the Trinity mentioned this time in the New Testament. But you say, “this sounds like three Gods and not One?”

Matt:28:19
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,

Here we see that there are three persons: “the Father…Son…Holy Spirit” But notice that they have one “name”. We are commissioned to do His work in the name of, not the names of. Singular. One name. Why? Because there is only One name of God. There is only one Godhead, one substance. One God. But this God exists in three persons – Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

There is a difference between the persons of God and the substance, or being, of God. For example, we recognize that we are each different persons. We do not claim to be God, which makes us finite persons (as opposed to infinite). In the same way, we recognize that we are one being, and again, we are finite beings. So we understand one person to each being. However, this makes sense to us since we are finite. But what if we were infinite, like God is infinite? Since we are finite, we can only be one person within one being. But since God is infinite, He is not limited to only one person to His one being, or substance. So the concept of the Trinity is that there are three persons within one being (or substance or Godhead – whichever word you are more comfortable with).

An example taken from the book entitled: Prayer by Rosalind Rinker looks like this:

This excellent illustration helps us to understand the concept of the Trinity. God is the Father, God is the Son and God is the Holy Spirit. However, the Father is not the Son nor the Holy Spirit; the Son is not the Father nor the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is not the Father nor the Son. God is one being or substance, the Godhead, but three persons.

Send mail to david@TheArkNY.org with questions about the church or comments about this site.
Last modified: Feb 25, 2007