| “THE TRINITY: NOT IN THE BIBLE, BUT BIBLICAL” Matthew 28:16-20; John 14:15-31 Olivet Covenant Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA © Rev. Linda Jaymes, 2/15/2009 |
Given the fact that I began this series on Reformed doctrine by saying that our knowledge of God and thus our doctrines
about Him come from the scriptures, it may sound somewhat strange to hear that the doctrine I’m going to talk about today—
the Trinity—isn’t even in the Bible! But by that I mean that the word Trinity isn’t in the Bible, nor do any of the Biblical writers
actually spell out the concept as we know it today. That took some three hundred years before it was formulated by the
Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. (and which produced the Nicene Creed that we affirmed earlier today.) Nevertheless, there are a
number of biblical texts that make it quite clear that the Trinity is the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in
one Godhead. More specifically, the Doctrine of the Trinity states that God is the Triune God, existing as three persons, but
one being: 1) the Father, who begot Jesus, 2) the Son, the Living Word, who was in the beginning with God and was God; and
3) the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God who acts on God’s behalf here on earth.
Obviously, this is not something we can wrap our minds around very easily. Even trying to understand the relationship
between just the first two persons of the Trinity—is challenging. There is a note in one of my study Bibles stating,
“The existence of the father and Son as one God yet two distinct persons baffles the human mind. It’s a mystery that
cannot be fully explained by logic or reason. Yet because the Bible teaches the unity of God and the deity of Christ, we
must accept the fact than an infinite God cannot be comprehended by finite humans. When we meet Christ face to face, it’
s possible that some such mysteries will be better understood." 1
The Church Fathers who met at Nicaea struggled with the concept as well, until they finally settled on wording that states
that "the one God exists in three Persons and one substance, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." 2 And each of these three
persons of the Trinity is understood to have one, unique and identical essence or nature, not merely similar natures. For
example, in John 14:5 Jesus makes it clear that He is not merely “like” his Father—Jesus says that anyone who has seen Him
has seen the Father. Jesus also says that He and the Father are One. Yet despite the fact that this Trinitarianism, or belief in
the Trinity, is so difficult for the human mind to comprehend, it is one of the most important unifying marks of Oriental and
Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and all the mainstream traditions arising from the Protestant Reformation, such as
Anglicanism, Lutheranism and Presbyterianism. In fact, the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church describes the doctrine
of the Trinity as "the central dogma of Christian theology." 3
If by now our heads are spinning as we try to make sense of this doctrine, maybe we can take comfort in the fact that
even many of the great minds of the early church also struggled to understand it. Unfortunately, some even resorted to
proposing non-Trinitarian positions or heresies such as Modalism (one God revealing Himself in three ways), Monarchianism
(Jesus became Christ at his baptism, and was adopted by the Father after his death) and Arianism, perhaps the most well-
known of these early heresies. It was named for Arius, who proposed that Christ was not God but the very first being created
by God. These early heresies represented the first major doctrinal confrontation in the history of the Church, motivating the
leading thinkers of the church to consider and formulate a truly biblical doctrine of the Godhead. It is because the Church
Fathers formulated the Doctrine of the Trinity that the early Church was able to refute these heretical positions and maintain and
teach a view of God that is supported by scripture.
Almost 1,700 years have passed since the Council of Nicaea, but our Trinitarian doctrine is still important and relevant for
us today because new heresies continue to arise. Since the fourth century the Church has had to speak to other heretical
teachings such as Binitarianism (one deity/two persons), Unitarianism (one deity/one person), the “Oneness” belief held by
certain Pentecostal groups, the view held by the Jehovah’s Witnesses that Jesus is just “a” god, the firstborn among many, and
the Mormon view of the Godhead as three separate beings who are one in purpose rather than essence. It is the Christian
Trinitarian doctrine of God that helps us discern whether or not other ideas or teachings measure up to our doctrinal standards,
which are based on scripture.
Today’s scripture reading from the Gospel of John is a good example of the way in which scripture supports the
Reformed doctrine of the Trinity. In this passage it is evident that Jesus frequently referred to the "Father" as God, yet a person
distinct from himself. In addition, when Jesus promised to send the “Counselor,” the “Spirit of truth” to live in his followers, it
is clear that this "Holy Spirit" is also a being distinct from both God the Father and Jesus himself. In John 14:25-26 Jesus
declares, "All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my
name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." This passage is one of the clearest
descriptions of God in three persons in the New Testament. For that matter, even the Old Testament acknowledges God in two
distinct persons. Long before the Son became incarnate in Jesus, revealing the second person of the Godhead, the Hebrew
Scriptures frequently refer to "the Spirit of God" as something slightly different from God himself. The point to remember is
that by using scripture to interpret scripture, we can see a consistent representation of God as one God in three persons.
Once we have established the triune nature of the Godhead, another very important aspect of the Trinity that is readily
obvious in scripture is the relational character of God. This God of ours who exists in three persons demonstrates in a very real
and powerful way what a relationship of mutuality, love and respect looks like. For example, the incarnate Jesus shows his
love for the Father in terms of obedience and submission to the Father’s will. Jesus also affirms that his mission here on earth
was to bring glory to the Father, a mission He fulfilled in both word and deed.
We can also see that the Holy Spirit’s relationship with both the Father and the Son is one of humble service and respect,
acting not of his own volition but at the behest of God the Father and God the Son. Even when Jesus walked the earth,
performing miracles of all kinds through the power of the Spirit, the Spirit never attempted to draw attention to Himself. On the
contrary, He was content and delighted to point people away from Himself and toward Jesus, helping to draw people to faith in
the Son and lifting their eyes toward the Father in heaven. The Spirit is happy to stay in the background, working behind the
scenes to glorify God until called upon to act. Even as He personally indwells believers, his role is to comfort, encourage,
advise, counsel and remind us of the things that Jesus taught. He is content to be the humble servant of God the Father and
God the Son, here on earth.
All that being said, however, scripture also opens our eyes to the fact that the relationship between the three persons of the
Godhead prior to the creation appears to be one of greater equality. Again, through the study of scripture, we know that
although not incarnate until his conception in Mary’s womb, Jesus was eternally begotten of the Father, and “without Him was
not anything made that was made.” In the same way, prior to the creation, the Spirit of God, also eternally present with God,
was “hovering” nearby and ready to participate in the creation as well. In other words, all three persons of the Trinity had and
have a hand in creation. We do the Trinity and the relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit a disservice if we try to
pigeonhole any of the three persons into a single role. We often refer to Father, Son and Holy Spirit as Creator, Redeemer and
Sustainer, but it would be unfair and untrue to assume that only the Father creates or only Jesus redeems or only the Spirit
sustains. The relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a cooperative one, and all three persons of the Trinity are
engaged in creating, redeeming and sustaining on a continual basis.
So what does all of this mean for us as Christians? What relevancy does the doctrine of the Trinity have for us in our daily
lives? Well, first, as I have already pointed out, it teaches us a great deal about the nature of God in three persons, which then
helps us to discern between heresy and truth. By knowing what scripture says about the nature of our three-in-one God, we
can avoid falling into false doctrines and beliefs that would draw us away from God. Secondly, it shows us that scripture
doesn’t always explain the doctrines of our faith in so many words, thus the need for us to study all of scripture, and
understand why we can rightly formulate a doctrine such as our doctrine of the trinity. By studying the Bible in its entirety, we
can learn and understand how it is that scripture interprets scripture. That’s the only way we can know, this side of heaven,
anyway, the most accurate and complete picture of who God is, what He is like and what He is doing in the world.
Something else that the doctrine of the Trinity does for us is help us realize what a blessing it is to be able to observe and
understand God not only as the Almighty God who is omnipotent and omniscient and transcendent—totally beyond us—but to
realize that we can also know Him personally, intimately, as the tender and gentle Shepherd and Savior-God who is merciful and
forgiving and imminent—right here with us. In other words, even as our Sovereign God, so different from us and distant from
us in so many ways looks down on us from afar, we also know that this same God has shared our human existence. He has
walked this earth, experienced every one of our emotions and has been tempted in every way as we are. He “feels” for us and
loves us so deeply that He went to the Cross to die for our sins. And because He did, He made a way for us to be reconnected
to our Triune God forever. Even now, He is here with us by his Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, who is also God. It is
the knowledge and more than that—the very real experience of the Spirit moving in us and we in Him that confirms the reality
of God and reassures of our salvation, as He teaches us, comforts us, counsels us, guides us and warns us along the road to
heaven where we will meet God face to face.
God has made Himself accessible to us in many ways, and the doctrine of the Trinity attempts to explain or give us good
and trustworthy insight into this triune God. This doctrine helps to “flesh out” for us the nature and workings and purposes of
the one, true God who has created us and desires that we know and love Him, even as He has always known and loved us.
May we come each day to a greater appreciation of this God, and also give Him thanks for those who have gone before us and
have struggled to put into words this and other doctrines that give us a greater understanding of our holy and righteous and yet
loving and forgiving God who reaches out in three persons to reveal Himself to us.
Let us pray.
1. Note on John 14:9-28 in The Quest Study Bible, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1994, 1490.
2. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press, 2005 ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3), article Trinity, doctrine of the
3. Idem.
about Him come from the scriptures, it may sound somewhat strange to hear that the doctrine I’m going to talk about today—
the Trinity—isn’t even in the Bible! But by that I mean that the word Trinity isn’t in the Bible, nor do any of the Biblical writers
actually spell out the concept as we know it today. That took some three hundred years before it was formulated by the
Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. (and which produced the Nicene Creed that we affirmed earlier today.) Nevertheless, there are a
number of biblical texts that make it quite clear that the Trinity is the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in
one Godhead. More specifically, the Doctrine of the Trinity states that God is the Triune God, existing as three persons, but
one being: 1) the Father, who begot Jesus, 2) the Son, the Living Word, who was in the beginning with God and was God; and
3) the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God who acts on God’s behalf here on earth.
Obviously, this is not something we can wrap our minds around very easily. Even trying to understand the relationship
between just the first two persons of the Trinity—is challenging. There is a note in one of my study Bibles stating,
“The existence of the father and Son as one God yet two distinct persons baffles the human mind. It’s a mystery that
cannot be fully explained by logic or reason. Yet because the Bible teaches the unity of God and the deity of Christ, we
must accept the fact than an infinite God cannot be comprehended by finite humans. When we meet Christ face to face, it’
s possible that some such mysteries will be better understood." 1
The Church Fathers who met at Nicaea struggled with the concept as well, until they finally settled on wording that states
that "the one God exists in three Persons and one substance, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." 2 And each of these three
persons of the Trinity is understood to have one, unique and identical essence or nature, not merely similar natures. For
example, in John 14:5 Jesus makes it clear that He is not merely “like” his Father—Jesus says that anyone who has seen Him
has seen the Father. Jesus also says that He and the Father are One. Yet despite the fact that this Trinitarianism, or belief in
the Trinity, is so difficult for the human mind to comprehend, it is one of the most important unifying marks of Oriental and
Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and all the mainstream traditions arising from the Protestant Reformation, such as
Anglicanism, Lutheranism and Presbyterianism. In fact, the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church describes the doctrine
of the Trinity as "the central dogma of Christian theology." 3
If by now our heads are spinning as we try to make sense of this doctrine, maybe we can take comfort in the fact that
even many of the great minds of the early church also struggled to understand it. Unfortunately, some even resorted to
proposing non-Trinitarian positions or heresies such as Modalism (one God revealing Himself in three ways), Monarchianism
(Jesus became Christ at his baptism, and was adopted by the Father after his death) and Arianism, perhaps the most well-
known of these early heresies. It was named for Arius, who proposed that Christ was not God but the very first being created
by God. These early heresies represented the first major doctrinal confrontation in the history of the Church, motivating the
leading thinkers of the church to consider and formulate a truly biblical doctrine of the Godhead. It is because the Church
Fathers formulated the Doctrine of the Trinity that the early Church was able to refute these heretical positions and maintain and
teach a view of God that is supported by scripture.
Almost 1,700 years have passed since the Council of Nicaea, but our Trinitarian doctrine is still important and relevant for
us today because new heresies continue to arise. Since the fourth century the Church has had to speak to other heretical
teachings such as Binitarianism (one deity/two persons), Unitarianism (one deity/one person), the “Oneness” belief held by
certain Pentecostal groups, the view held by the Jehovah’s Witnesses that Jesus is just “a” god, the firstborn among many, and
the Mormon view of the Godhead as three separate beings who are one in purpose rather than essence. It is the Christian
Trinitarian doctrine of God that helps us discern whether or not other ideas or teachings measure up to our doctrinal standards,
which are based on scripture.
Today’s scripture reading from the Gospel of John is a good example of the way in which scripture supports the
Reformed doctrine of the Trinity. In this passage it is evident that Jesus frequently referred to the "Father" as God, yet a person
distinct from himself. In addition, when Jesus promised to send the “Counselor,” the “Spirit of truth” to live in his followers, it
is clear that this "Holy Spirit" is also a being distinct from both God the Father and Jesus himself. In John 14:25-26 Jesus
declares, "All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my
name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." This passage is one of the clearest
descriptions of God in three persons in the New Testament. For that matter, even the Old Testament acknowledges God in two
distinct persons. Long before the Son became incarnate in Jesus, revealing the second person of the Godhead, the Hebrew
Scriptures frequently refer to "the Spirit of God" as something slightly different from God himself. The point to remember is
that by using scripture to interpret scripture, we can see a consistent representation of God as one God in three persons.
Once we have established the triune nature of the Godhead, another very important aspect of the Trinity that is readily
obvious in scripture is the relational character of God. This God of ours who exists in three persons demonstrates in a very real
and powerful way what a relationship of mutuality, love and respect looks like. For example, the incarnate Jesus shows his
love for the Father in terms of obedience and submission to the Father’s will. Jesus also affirms that his mission here on earth
was to bring glory to the Father, a mission He fulfilled in both word and deed.
We can also see that the Holy Spirit’s relationship with both the Father and the Son is one of humble service and respect,
acting not of his own volition but at the behest of God the Father and God the Son. Even when Jesus walked the earth,
performing miracles of all kinds through the power of the Spirit, the Spirit never attempted to draw attention to Himself. On the
contrary, He was content and delighted to point people away from Himself and toward Jesus, helping to draw people to faith in
the Son and lifting their eyes toward the Father in heaven. The Spirit is happy to stay in the background, working behind the
scenes to glorify God until called upon to act. Even as He personally indwells believers, his role is to comfort, encourage,
advise, counsel and remind us of the things that Jesus taught. He is content to be the humble servant of God the Father and
God the Son, here on earth.
All that being said, however, scripture also opens our eyes to the fact that the relationship between the three persons of the
Godhead prior to the creation appears to be one of greater equality. Again, through the study of scripture, we know that
although not incarnate until his conception in Mary’s womb, Jesus was eternally begotten of the Father, and “without Him was
not anything made that was made.” In the same way, prior to the creation, the Spirit of God, also eternally present with God,
was “hovering” nearby and ready to participate in the creation as well. In other words, all three persons of the Trinity had and
have a hand in creation. We do the Trinity and the relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit a disservice if we try to
pigeonhole any of the three persons into a single role. We often refer to Father, Son and Holy Spirit as Creator, Redeemer and
Sustainer, but it would be unfair and untrue to assume that only the Father creates or only Jesus redeems or only the Spirit
sustains. The relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit is a cooperative one, and all three persons of the Trinity are
engaged in creating, redeeming and sustaining on a continual basis.
So what does all of this mean for us as Christians? What relevancy does the doctrine of the Trinity have for us in our daily
lives? Well, first, as I have already pointed out, it teaches us a great deal about the nature of God in three persons, which then
helps us to discern between heresy and truth. By knowing what scripture says about the nature of our three-in-one God, we
can avoid falling into false doctrines and beliefs that would draw us away from God. Secondly, it shows us that scripture
doesn’t always explain the doctrines of our faith in so many words, thus the need for us to study all of scripture, and
understand why we can rightly formulate a doctrine such as our doctrine of the trinity. By studying the Bible in its entirety, we
can learn and understand how it is that scripture interprets scripture. That’s the only way we can know, this side of heaven,
anyway, the most accurate and complete picture of who God is, what He is like and what He is doing in the world.
Something else that the doctrine of the Trinity does for us is help us realize what a blessing it is to be able to observe and
understand God not only as the Almighty God who is omnipotent and omniscient and transcendent—totally beyond us—but to
realize that we can also know Him personally, intimately, as the tender and gentle Shepherd and Savior-God who is merciful and
forgiving and imminent—right here with us. In other words, even as our Sovereign God, so different from us and distant from
us in so many ways looks down on us from afar, we also know that this same God has shared our human existence. He has
walked this earth, experienced every one of our emotions and has been tempted in every way as we are. He “feels” for us and
loves us so deeply that He went to the Cross to die for our sins. And because He did, He made a way for us to be reconnected
to our Triune God forever. Even now, He is here with us by his Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, who is also God. It is
the knowledge and more than that—the very real experience of the Spirit moving in us and we in Him that confirms the reality
of God and reassures of our salvation, as He teaches us, comforts us, counsels us, guides us and warns us along the road to
heaven where we will meet God face to face.
God has made Himself accessible to us in many ways, and the doctrine of the Trinity attempts to explain or give us good
and trustworthy insight into this triune God. This doctrine helps to “flesh out” for us the nature and workings and purposes of
the one, true God who has created us and desires that we know and love Him, even as He has always known and loved us.
May we come each day to a greater appreciation of this God, and also give Him thanks for those who have gone before us and
have struggled to put into words this and other doctrines that give us a greater understanding of our holy and righteous and yet
loving and forgiving God who reaches out in three persons to reveal Himself to us.
Let us pray.
1. Note on John 14:9-28 in The Quest Study Bible, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1994, 1490.
2. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press, 2005 ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3), article Trinity, doctrine of the
3. Idem.
