What is the Trinity?
Here is an essay I wrote on the Trinity during my Master of Divinity program. Let me know if this helps you in any way!
Introduction
The Trinitarian doctrine is arguably one of the most controversial, yet critical, topics within the Christian faith. Of the multiple reasons it is proven to be controversial is the fact it is a challenging concept to articulate. The Christian faith is comprised of believers who hold two main views: Trinitarian doctrine and Oneness doctrine. The Oneness doctrine holds the view that there is one God who does not manifest himself in distinct persons but is one divine spirit that manifests himself within the Godhead at separate times. Inevitably, this introduces a concept called “Modalism.” Modalism is a concept where God only manifests himself in “modes” between the Father, Son and Spirit — one at a time. In contrast, the Trinitarian doctrine holds the idea that there is one God who manifests himself in three distinct, coequal, and co-eternal persons. All of which manifest in different ways and hold different functions and roles but are all of the same One essence and One divine entity. The three coequal persons, God - the Father, God - the Son, and God - the Holy Spirit are able to function at the same time while simultaneously still being one God.
“The doctrine of the Trinity can thus be seen as an attempt to describe faithfully a God who, while remaining transcendent, also became incarnate in Christ – and, more than that, who now dwells within believers in the Holy Spirit.”
In John’s gospel, there is an intricate unfurling and unveiling of the character, functions, and relationship of the trinity. The premise of this research is to magnify the revelation, distinct unity, and functionality of the trinity within the Gospel of John.
Revealing the Trinity
As it is often articulated when discussing the trinity, the Bible does not explicitly use the term “Trinity.” However, there are numerous moments where John, in his gospel, reveals God’s manifestation in a trinitarian union that carries out certain functions or roles. The term indicates the character and actions of God that reveal his Tri-unity that is critical to the accurate interpretation of Scripture. Initially, John begins by using the same phrase that is used in the book of Genesis. He states in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” What is later stated is that the “Word” is a synonym for Jesus. We know this because in John 1:14, we see that it says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus was with God in the beginning as the world was created through him. What this reveals is that Jesus is able to operate in the same vein as Creator. “But the Word of God is substantial, endowed with an exalted and enduring nature, and is eternal with Himself, and is inseparable from Him, and can never fall away, but shall remain in an everlasting union.” John 1:2-3 goes on to state, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” This reveals to us through scripture that the Word, who is God, created all things. The verse that unifies Jesus within the Godhead is John 1:18 that states, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” Each of these verses point to the reality of Jesus being God. Thomas C. Oden explains,
“The surest way to establish that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God is by a classical fourfold exegetical exercise that shows textually how in Scripture (a) each Person (Father, Son, Spirit) is distinguishably addressed by divine names; (b) each is assumed to have divine attributes; (c) each engages in actions that only God can accomplish; and (d) each is thought worthy of divine worship.”
In John, there are various opportunities to recognize the unique connection and sameness of the Son and the Father, however, it can become a bit challenging to find an explicit acknowledgement of the Holy Spirit as God within the text. In John 3:5, there is an opportunity to identify a characteristic of the Holy Spirit that could only be done by God. John 3:5 states, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Outside of being born of water and the Spirit, there is no cancelation or payment for sins. In order to enter the kingdom, there must be an acceptance of the payment for sins that only can be exonerated by accepting the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit allows for the payment of sins that can only be done by God.
Distinction of Father, Son and Spirit
As stated, the Trinity is one God who manifests himself in three, distinct, coequal and co-eternal persons. Despite their distinctness, they operate as one unit. Firstly, it is recognized that the the Father is God. John 1:18 states, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” God the Father is the unseen God. Secondly, John states in John 1:29, “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” As earlier mention of the Spirit, only God is able to take away sin. Jesus is identified with sin remittance which would equate him as deity. Lastly, John recognizes the Holy Spirit In John 1:32 stating, “And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.” The Spirit is explained as descending from heaven and remaining on Jesus. This indicates that the Spirit of God rested on Jesus as the same essence. “He [Holy Spirit] remained on Him, and did not pass Him by, as He might have done with men not able continuously to bear His glory.” Being fully God and fully flesh, the Spirit coming from heaven and remaining on Jesus would be of God. Again, they are distinct in person, but same in essence. The Spirit is also mentioned by Jesus in John 16:13-15, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” The Spirit also has access through the relationships of that to the Father and to the Son—both of which are God. St. Augustine of Hippo states, “Father, Son and Spirit are not only spoken of in relationship: they are in relationship—the relationships that the Father establishes from eternity between Father, Son, and Spirit are intrinsic to their being.”
Functionality of the Trinity in John’s Gospel
The complexities of the Trinity are further expanded in the fact that each of the persons of the Godhead are in constant motion with each other. Throughout John’s gospel, Jesus is continuously referencing the Father and the Holy Spirit. In his reference of them, it is typically in the context of Jesus fulfilling a past, present or future mission. Each person of the Trinity has a role, and through their role, they work in conjunction to create the grand biblical narrative for restoration and bringing God’s creation back to himself. “…but every operation which extends from God to the Creation, and is named according to our variable conceptions of it, has its origin from the Father, and proceeds through the Son, and is perfected in the Holy Spirit.” In order for the Trinity to operate or function properly, there must be a unity of divine intellect. It would prove to be impossible to operate in unity if the Godhead is distinct in reasoning. There must be a united mind to make for a united Godhead. This assists in explaining the challenges of understanding and comprehending the complexities of the Trinity — one God functioning in three persons. John 6:52-54 states,
“The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
What Jesus articulates here is that his flesh and blood are the answer to attaining eternal life. Those who eat of his flesh and drink his blood would be granted eternal life and would be raised up with Christ on the last day. “The experience of eternal life is a present reality. People can have this life, and have it abundantly, if they know the truth about God revealed in Jesus.” The mission of the Trinity is to bring eternal life to creation, but this is not where Jesus ends. He understands that what he has conveyed to the Jews is not incorrect, but it is incomplete up to this point. Jesus goes on to say in John 6:63-65,
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
What is revealed is that there is a respective role for each of the persons within the Godhead. What is initially referenced is that Jesus communicates the necessity and avenue to attain eternal life through the consumption of his flesh and blood. As he delves deeper into the understanding of this, he notes that the eternal life is only given through the Holy Spirit as the flesh does not hold eternal life in itself. The Spirit is responsible for infusing the flesh with eternal life. Without the Spirit, the flesh would be void of eternal life, which would be of no use in the consumption of it. This does not indicate that the flesh is more important or the Spirit is more important. What it indicates is that the flesh is the transportation system for the eternal life through the Spirit to reach earth. Not only is Jesus and the Holy Spirit active here, but there is also a reference to the Father. Jesus states, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” This is circumstance is not exclusive to the Spirit and Son, but also to the Father. The reasoning for the Son’s mentioning of the Father is that he reveals that the Father must grant access to the Son. In order to gain access to the eternal life, there must be access granted through the Father. What the gospel of John reveals in this moment is that God operates in each person of himself to jointly operate in the role of the other. In reiteration, although they occupy different roles, they are all equal in essence. Because God is one being, when one person of the Trinity is active, they are all active simultaneously, whether directly or indirectly. 8
Another example of the Trinity explained in tandem is in John 7:37-39,
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John makes it clear that Jesus is speaking of the Holy Spirit. There is a role that the Spirit operates in as Jesus explains that the Spirit will be received after he is glorified. There is a joint cause and effect that must take place between both persons. If anyone drinks of Jesus (believes in him), then they will experience an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. The Father is connected here in two ways. Firstly, the Father is responsible for the giving of the Holy Spirit, not Jesus. In order for the Holy Spirit to be given, the Father must give it. Secondly, the Father is responsible for the timing and procession of Jesus’s glorification—specifically the crucifixion. There is a divine order for each of the activities of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that all connect for one goal of one God.
A last moment of trinitarian operation is in John 14:15 where Jesus promises the Holy Spirit. Jesus says,
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
Here is where Jesus speaks of the gifting of the Holy Spirit. The Son is bringing forth revelation of the Spirit. In this Jesus acknowledges that he is to request of the Father to give to them the Spirit of truth. In correlation with the Trinitarian function, Jesus must ask the Father for the Helper, but he also already knows that the Father will give the Spirit. If they were not of the same essence and deity, Jesus would not be able to promise the Holy Spirit upon the Father’s approval. In this case, he would not have known for sure that the Father would approve. In addition, there is a connection of the Spirit and Jesus being one. The text mentions that Jesus says, “…even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” This reveals that although the Helper had not been given, the disciples already knew him. If Jesus is God and the Spirit is not God, then there would be no way for the disciples to already have known the Spirit. Because the Spirit is of the same essence of the Father and Son, they are able to know the Helper and dwell with the Helper because they had been walking with the Son. This explains why Jesus is able to say that the Helper will be in them. As mentioned earlier, the Trinity is unable to function outside of unification of himself. One person of the Trinity does not operate outside of the confines of the other two persons. This is not due to restriction, but it is due to complementation. “…each person fully shares the divine life and attributes of the One True God; and that, while each person may have a primary operation in the divine works of creation and redemption, the others participate in and support these works because they are the works of the One Triune God.” The Father, Son and Spirit do not restrict each other within their roles and functions as this would imply a separation of mindsets, but instead they complement each other in unity as one. Jesus goes on to state in John 14:25-26,
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
These statements further reveal the divine harmony of the Trinity and the confirmation of God’s triune nature. The Spirit, who had not yet been sent, would be later sent by the Father in order to bring forth the words of Jesus to the disciples. Each have a part and role to play in order to fulfill the need in humanity. They are all of one. St. Augustine states, “And this Trinity is one God, alone, good, great, eternal, omnipotent; itself its own unity, deity, greatness, goodness, eternity, omnipotence.”
Conclusion
The Trinity is more than simply a concept or theory of God, but it is fully himself. The Trinity allows for a small window into our understanding of the enormity and eternal God. The numerous revelations and examples of God’s triune nature within the gospel of John reveals only a fragment of the revelation that is unveiled throughout the entirety of the Scriptures. John’s gospel makes it further known that the God of the Bible is one God who manifests himself in three, distinct, coequal and co-eternal persons.
Jesus says in John 17:11 – “…Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.”
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