One God, three persons (part 1)

Evangelical Alliance basis of faith, article 1: We believe in the one true God who lives eternally in three persons—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The Bible is clear that there is one true God and that God is one (Deut. 6:4). Yet Christians refer to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. How can we say that there is one true God and yet speak of three persons being God? In a couple of blogs I want to look at what theologians call the Trinity. This will be the first in a series on the Evangelical Alliance basis of faith.

In this blog I want us to be clear that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are portrayed in the Scriptures as being God.

The Father is God:
At the opening of his letter to the Galatians the Apostle Paul refers to ‘Jesus Christ and God the Father.’ If Jesus is God, as we shall see he is, then there is a person distinct from Jesus who is God the Father. Jesus continually related to his Father and he taught his disciples to pray beginning ‘Our Father who is in heaven’ (Matt. 6:7). There is no debate that the Father is God.

The Son is God:
If the Jehovah Witnesses were to knock at your door they would contest the wording of John 1:1. I would suggest that you look up a detailed Bible commentary if you want to be clear that it should read ‘. . . the Word was with God, and the Word was God’—as is it does in almost all versions of the Bible. Not only does John begin his gospel teaching saying that Jesus is God he also records a great declaration of this fact in the closing chapters—Thomas meets the risen Jesus and declares ‘My Lord and my God’ (20:28).
A couple of years ago we worked through Mark’s Gospel in our morning services. In the opening half of this gospel it is clear that Mark wants us to see that Jesus is God. He shows Jesus doing things that only God can do. For example Jesus calms a storm by speaking to it, prompting his disciples to ask ‘Who is this, even the wind and the waves obey him?’—in the Bible it is only God who can calm a storm like this (see Ps. 89:9).
The New Testament says that Jesus is God, gives him titles that belong to God (e.g. Rock, Redeemer and Saviour) and shows him doing things only God can do (like forgiving a man his sins).

The Holy Spirit is God:
The Holy Spirit is not a power to be used but a person to be related to - the Holy Spirit is referred to as ‘he’ rather than ‘it’. Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as another Counsellor (the word translated ‘another’ means ‘another of the same kind’). He is like Jesus in that he teaches, encourages, helps and strengthens God’s people.
The Holy Spirit is referred to as being eternal (Heb. 9:14), being everywhere (Ps. 139:7-10) and having special knowledge (1 Cor. 2:10-11). These attributes tell us that the Holy Spirit is God.

While the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God this does not mean that the Father is the Son and the Son is the Holy Spirit. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons. So we are left with our question, ‘How can we say that there is one true God and yet speak of three persons being God?’ I will continue thinking about the Trinity in the next blog.