What's the best way to explain the Triune God? I understand it's three separate entities in one unity, but just by what I said, am I saying it wrong? I am so blessed to have people come to me at work and ask me to explain it, but I stumble and I want to make sure I'm correct before saying things.
Questions Listed Under Trinity
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We're happy that your coworkers are asking—and that you really want to get this right!
The Bible doesn't use the terms that we use when talking about the Trinity in exactly the same way that we do. We learn from Scripture, however, that there is a certain respect in which God is absolutely, indivisibly one (Deuteronomy 4:35, Deuteronomy 6:4, 1 Corinthians 8:4, etc.), and that this one God is a self-aware ego who can speak and say "I." We also find that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not the same, that each of them is also a self-aware ego that can refer to himself as "I," and that they relate to one another in certain ways (Isaiah 61:1, Mark 1:9-11, etc.). In this respect, therefore, God is not one, but three.
Over the centuries the Church has settled on "essence" as the best term for the way in which God is one, and on "person" as the best term for the way in which God is three. That's why we speak about three distinct persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—but only one divine essence.
We should be clear, however, that in choosing one term for God's one-ness and another for God's three-ness, we really haven't explained anything. Scripture's teaching of the Trinity remains an unsolvable logical paradox.
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One particular phrase in the ancient Athanasian Creed, upheld by Confessional Lutherans, caught my concern. It reads, "Whoever does not guard it whole and inviolable will doubtless perish eternally." John 3:16 clearly states that he that believes in Jesus is saved. However, the creed seems to suggest that everyone also needs to accept the concept of the Trinity. Is the creed correct?
The Athanasian Creed was probably written around 500 A.D. in Southern Gaul (France). The German tribes that had invaded this part of the world were Arians. The Arian heresy had been condemned by the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. and by the Council of Constantinople in 381 (from which we get our Nicene Creed).
The Arians denied that Jesus could be God in the same sense that God the Father is God. They believed that the Son of God was created by God and was less than God. They, therefore, rejected God as he has revealed himself in the Holy Scriptures. They were worshiping a god of their own making.
The Athanasian Creed, in the strongest of terms, rejects these various arrors concerning the person of Christ and the Trinity.
Our Savior himself says, "Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor that Father who sent him" (John 5:22-23). According to these words, those who withhold from the Son the honor that they give to the Father (e.g., that he is true God from all eternity) also deny the Father. They are not true believers.
The creed, however, is not condemning simple Christians whose knowledge and understanding is incomplete. We do not have to be able to explain complex scriptural doctrine in order to be saved. The Athanasian Creed, nevertheless, is condemning those who deny and reject these vital scriptural truths. Those who reject the doctrine of the Trinity and the true deity of Christ are not Christian.
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Who is the "us" and "our" in Genesis 1:26? Does this support our belief in the Triune God? It is in plural form. Could this be a reference to the angels? I'm confused by the plural reference.
Sometimes this statement in the creation account recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness," is explained as God addressing the heavenly court--in other words, the angels. The difficulty is that the angels did not join in with God as he created man, nor is man made in their image.
The explanation you've suggested is much better. This verse reflects the plurality of persons within the one God. It would be going too far to say that Genesis 1:26 "proves" the doctrine of the Trinity. But once you've learned the doctrine of the Trinity from the rest of Scripture, verses like this one make good sense.
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Recently while I was getting my car fixed, someone started talking to me about religion and said the trinity is a man-made thing. What biblical passages can dispel this view? I want to be better prepared the next time I am asked this question.
The word "Trinity" is not found in the Bible. Teachers in the early church coined the word in order to summarize what the Bible teaches about God. The word is used to express who God is and what he is like. It is clear that the authors of the Bible believed that God is one. On the other hand, they also believed that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. We know this because of what they wrote. Matthew 28:19 quotes Jesus: "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." Only one name, but three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Luke 1:35 quotes the angel Gabriel when he announced the coming birth of Mary's Son: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." Three persons carrying out God's great act, each of them divine! In 1 Peter 1:2 the apostle addresses his epistle to God's elect, "who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood." Three persons doing the work of the one God!
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While on the cross Jesus said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" I know and believe that Jesus was true God and true man, but how could Jesus be separated from the Father and Holy Spirit?
You are right when you indicate that this matter is a mystery. In fact, there are two mysteries here—the mystery of the Trinity and the mystery of Jesus as the God/man.
First of all, let's look at the mystery of the Trinity. Scripture reveals that there is one God with three persons. While each of these persons is distinct and takes the lead in a particular area, they are also one and work together. For example, God the Father took the lead in creating the world and in preserving it, but the other members of the Trinity are also involved. Genesis 1 speaks about the Spirit of God "hovering over the waters." Colossians 1 also attributes creation to the Son.
The same is true of our salvation. Jesus took the lead, came down to the earth, was born of a woman (the virgin Mary), and suffered and died in our place. However, the Father is the one who sent the Son, and Jesus spoke about doing the Father's will in carrying out our salvation. The Spirit opens our eyes to the truth of the gospel and works faith in our hearts.
This leads to the other mystery, the fact that Jesus is true God and true man. How can this be? It is impossible to understand. However, for Jesus to be our Savior he needed to be both God and man. He needed to be man so that he would be under the law and that he could die. He needed to be God so that he could keep the law perfectly in our place and also so that his death would count for the entire world.
You may ask yourself, "If God is one, how could one person of the Trinity die without the others dying also? If Jesus is true God, how could he die, for God cannot die?" These are questions we can't answer but simply have to accept in faith. The reason God reveals this to us in his Word is not so that we can fully understand it, but rather so that we can appreciate what Christ has done for us. When he was forsaken on the cross he suffered the pain and punishment of hell in our place. Why God himself would do this for us is beyond our comprehension. The Creator of the universe, the one who holds the world in the palm of his hand, loved us so much he died for us. That, together with these other matters, will remain a mystery to us. But although we can't understand it, we do believe it and rejoice in the hope we have through the crucified and living Christ. -
How can God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit be together as one? When Jesus was baptized, God spoke from above and a dove came and perched on his shoulder. How did he do that?
The Bible tells us that there is one God and that there are three persons.
How this can be we do not know and cannot explain. It is not a matter of mathematics or human logic, but a mystery. Remember that in the creeds we do not say, "We understand." Instead we say, "We believe."
By the same token, we do not know how God did what he did at Jesus' baptism. We only know from Scripture that he did it. This is true of much that God has done and that he does now.
The most important thing for you and me to remember about the Trinity is that God sent his Son to save us, that the Son did that, and that the Holy Spirit uses Word and sacrament to create and preserve faith in us.
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