The Trinity in Scripture
The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most profound and fundamental beliefs that Christians hold, and simultaneously is among the most logically confounding. It may be for this reason, along with a myriad of others, that the Trinity is chronically undertaught, underappreciated, and misunderstood throughout the modern church in the United States. This series is designed to serve as a rudimentary guide to the biblical and historical teachings of the church regarding the Trinity.
First, what is the Trinity? The Trinity is the Biblical understanding that God exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Spirit are not three gods, nor parts of the same God, but three distinct persons, who are fully one and the same God (Swain 50).
Christians believe in the triune nature of God because that is the way God revealed Himself to mankind in His Word (Swain 25). The Trinity, like the Incarnation, is a teaching which cannot be proven without the text of Scripture itself. While the reader will not find the word “Trinity” in Scripture, the fundamental principles of the doctrine of the Trinity are present throughout Scripture, most pronouncedly in the New Testament.
In order to demonstrate that the Bible teaches the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, one must answer three questions: Does the Bible teach that God is one? Does the Bible teach that God the Father, Jesus His Son, and God’s Holy Spirit are all God? And finally, does the Bible claim that God the Father, Son, and Spirit are all also distinct (Cooper 12:30)?
Does the Bible claim that there is one God? The Bible clearly states that God is one. It is this confession which set apart the Hebrew people of the Old Testament from their various neighbors. The one God, the creator of heaven and earth, is alone due worship and praise. This is succinctly expressed in the first part of the Shema, the foundational confession of the Hebrew people: “Hear oh Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4 ESV). Likewise, the prophet Isaiah proclaims: “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god” (Isa. 44:6). In the New Testament, Jesus himself restates and reaffirms the Shema when asked which is the greatest commandment (Mk. 12:29). Other affirmations of God’s oneness can be found in 1 Tim. 2:5, Isa. 43:11, Jam. 2:19, and Zech. 14:9.
Does the Bible claim that Father, Son, and Spirit are all God? There is not much disputing that, in Scripture, the Father is thought of as God. Examples can be found both in the Old Testament (Isa. 63:16) and the New, where they are particularly common (Mk. 14:36, Matt. 6:9, Gal. 6:4). The question that has proved more controversial over the years is whether the Bible claims the Son and Spirit are also God. One of the most explicit passages claiming the divinity of Jesus the Son comes at the beginning of the Gospel of John:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1-4, 14).
John opens his Gospel by teaching about the Word, which in the beginning was both with God and was God. Later in the Chapter, John reveals the identity of the Word: it is the Son of God, Jesus, made incarnate (Smith 33-38). Jesus himself claims equality with God the Father in John 8, when he states, “Before Abraham was, I am” (Jn. 8:58). “I am” is the name God takes for himself during His conversation with Moses in Exodus 3:14. When Jesus makes this statement, it is absolutely clear to the Jews he is speaking to that he is claiming divinity; so much so that many of the onlookers attempted to stone Jesus as punishment for blasphemy (Jn. 8:59) (Smith 52-57). A multitude of other examples exist, including very explicit declarations of Jesus as God in 2 Peter 2:1 and Titus 2:13.
The Spirit of God is found throughout Scripture. From the opening chapter of Genesis, when God’s Spirit floats above the surface of the formless deep (Gen. 1:2), to when the Spirit accompanies the children of Israel throughout the Old Testament (Num. 11:17-25), to when the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4), God’s Spirit is a constant presence and witness to his people (Smith 62). But how does Scripture indicate that the Spirit actually is God? There are a few different ways in which the Scripture reveals the deity of the Spirit to us: first, Scripture attributes qualities to the Spirit which only belong to God. For example, the Spirit is eternal (Heb. 9:14), omnipresent (Ps. 139:7-12), and omniscient (1 Cor. 2:10). Second, the Spirit does work only God does, including creation (Gen. 1), the conception of Jesus (Lk. 1:35), and the resurrection of Jesus (Rom. 9-11) (Cooper 41:20). Finally, and most compellingly, Scripture explicitly identifies the Spirit as one with God, using the title of Lord, which is a name reserved for the one true God:
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17-18).
By the Spirit’s qualities and works, as well as the explicit testimony of Scripture, we can assert that the Holy Spirit is, in the fullest sense, God.
Does the Bible claim that God the Father, Son, and Spirit are all distinct? One of the plainest occasions in which the distinction between the three persons can be seen is in the baptism of Jesus. At Jesus’ baptism, all three persons of the Trinity are present and interacting with each other. When Jesus comes out from the water, the Spirit descends on him “like a dove,” and the voice of the Father declares “this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:16-17). If Father, Son, and Spirit were not distinct persons within the unified Trinity, it would not be possible for them all to be present in the baptism of Jesus and simultaneously be performing separate functions (Cooper 53:16).
Other parts of Scripture that would be rendered nonsensical if the persons of the Trinity are not distinct, are the times that Jesus speaks about and to the Father and Spirit. In Matthew 6:9-13, 26:39, and John 17, Jesus prays to the Father. In John 16:4-11, Jesus tells his disciples that the Spirit can only come to them if he (Jesus) leaves them. In a host of other places, particularly in the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks about the Father as a separate person from himself (Jn. 5:18-29, 7:28-31, 10:24-42). Finally, in the last chapter of Matthew, Christians are commissioned to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). This formulation, which is mirrored in the blessings of the early church (Eph. 1:3-14), clearly maintains the distinction between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
In summary: the Bible teaches that God is one, that God exists simultaneously in three persons—Father, Son, and Spirit—and that the Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct from each other. The doctrine of the Trinity is a profound teaching in which the glory and mystery of God is powerfully revealed. It can also be confusing, and it is sometimes difficult to express this Biblical truth in a manner that coheres with Scripture. The next installment of this series will address the language and categories that the theologians of the church have developed to express, without confusion, the tri-unity of God.
Cooper, Jordan B. “A Biblical Explanation of the Trinity (Intro to Trinitarian Theology)” Just and Sinner Podcast. Podcast Audio. January 20, 2022. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ the-biblical-doctrine-of-the-trinity/id566059976?i=1000548522317.
Smith, Brandon D. The Biblical Trinity: Encountering the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Scripture. Lexham Press, 2023.
Swain, Scott R. The Trinity: An Introduction. Crossway, 2020.