02.02.01 - Definition of the Trinity: One in Essence; Three in Person
A. Definition of the Trinity: God is One in Essence, Three in Person Holy, Holy, Holy,the Lord, God, the Almighty He who was, and He who is, and He who is coming.
Revelation 4:8. No specific term for the triune nature of God occurs in the Bible. The inspired writers of the New Testament clearly felt that the existence of one God in three distinct persons, the doctrine which we now call "the Trinity", was a relatively straight-forward concept and accessible enough (even with a cursory reading of the scripture) from passages such as the one quoted above.(5) The Apostolic Fathers, the generation that followed the men who actually penned the New Testament, also felt that merely quoting scriptures was an entirely adequate way of discussing the relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Not until the late second and early third centuries did the term "Trinity" itself come into general use as a way of defending (against a variety of heresies which sought to deny various aspects of the unique triune nature of God) what earlier generations of Christians had taken completely for granted based upon their common-sense approach to reading the Bible: that God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are all God, and that at the same time they are – in what we may call a "personal" way – also distinct from each other. God is one. God is also three. And there is no contradiction between these statements. The simplest, best, and most traditional definition of the Trinity is that God is one in essence, and three in person. To put the doctrine in complete terms, the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God; yet at the same time the Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit, the Son is not the Father or the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son.
We can better understand what the Trinity is by first considering what it is not in terms of the definition given above (i. e., "one in essence; three in person"):
1. God is one in essence, but that does not mean that only one person of the Trinity is deity: God is three in person, and all three persons of the Trinity (the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit) are divine. Heresies of the past which have challenged the divinity of members of the Trinity include adoptionism (asserting that Christ is the Son of God only in the sense of adoption), the Ebionite heresy (teaching that Christ had only a human nature empowered by God’s Spirit), and Unitarianism (which asserts the uni-personality of God, denying the deity of Christ and the Holy Spirit). But the Bible teaches that all three members of the Trinity are deity (Isaiah 63:9-14; Matthew 3:16-17; Matthew 28:19; John 14:16-17; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 13:13; Ephesians 4:4-6; 1 Peter 1:1-2; Revelation 1:4-6): a) the Father is God (Matthew 6:9; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 3:14-15):
"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord who is God, "He who is and was and is coming, the Almighty."
Revelation 1:8. b) the Son is God (John 5:18
John 1:1-2. c) the Holy Spirit is God (Genesis 1:2; Psalms 139:7; Acts 5:3-4; 1 Corinthians 12:11; and compare Hebrews 3:7-11 with Psalms 95:7-11 where the LORD is speaking):
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Lord’s Spirit is, there is freedom.
2. God is one in essence, but that does not mean that the Trinity is only one person (merely displaying three modes or aspects of Himself): God is three in person, and all three members of the Trinity (the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit) are distinct persons rather than manifestations of a single, multifaceted person. Heresies of the past which have challenged the distinct personalities of members of the Trinity include modalism (the idea that Christ and the Spirit are mere "modes" of the Father’s personality), and docetism (the notion that Christ only seemed real and was in reality merely a phantom of sorts representing the Father’s plan). But the Bible teaches that all three members of the Trinity are distinct persons: a) the Father is a unique person in His own right (for He is distinct from the Son):
I was looking during my vision of that night, and behold – with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming up, and He approached the Ancient of Days [i. e, the Father] and they brought Him before Him.
Daniel 7:13. b) the Son is a unique person in His own right (for He is distinct from the Father):
Behold, I have arrived – in the scroll of Your book it is written about Me – to do Your will, O My God.
Hebrews 10:7 (Psalms 40:7-8) c) the Holy Spirit is a unique person in His own right (for He acts as a distinct person): And the Spirit helps us in our weakness in a similar way. For we do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us also with anguished supplications which words cannot express.
3. God is three in person, but that does not mean that there is any inferiority or disparity of status, activity or substance between the members of the Trinity (as would inevitably be the case in any human association): God is one in essence and all three members of the Trinity (the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit) are coequal, coeternal and con-substantial partners in one and the same essence. Heresies of the past which have challenged the coequality of members of the Trinity include subordinationism (which alternatively asserts that either Christ or the Spirit are by nature inferior to the Father) and Arianism (which teaches a Christ not entirely equal in divinity to the Father). But the Bible teaches that all three members of the Trinity are coequal partakers of the same essence: a) they all possess a full and equal share of the status of deity (as seen from the equal rank accorded to each in the formula for profession of faith at baptism):
Then Jesus came over and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, so go and make all nations my followers by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and by teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.
Matthew 28:19-20 a b) they all possess a full and equal share of the eternal function of deity (as seen from their joint participation in creation):
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our pattern.
Genesis 1:26. c) they all possess a full and equal share of the substance of deity (as seen from the attribution of goodness to all three members in the apostolic benediction of 2 Corinthians, where grace, the policy of the goodness of God, love, the natural consequence [or emanation] of the goodness of God, and fellowship, the ultimate result of the goodness of God are attributed to the Son, Father and Holy Spirit respectively): May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of (the [Father]) God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
4. God is three in person, but that does not mean that the Trinity is composed of three (or more) different "gods": God is one in essence, and all three members of the Trinity (the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit) are the sole, joint partakers of that same essence rather than three similar beings of similar essence. All so-called Christian sects which elevate saints and angels to the status of divinity essentially belong to this heretical category (after the manner of pagan pantheons, which also possess numerous "deities" of lesser and greater rank). But the Bible teaches that all three members of the Trinity alone share the same unique essence: a) the Father is revealed to be uniquely God:
You were shown these things so as to know that the Lord, He is God, and there is no other besides Him.
Deuteronomy 4:35. b) the Son and the Father are revealed to be uniquely God:
I and the Father are one.(7)
John 10:30. c) the Holy Spirit and the Son and the Father are revealed to be uniquely God:
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another comforter to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, for it neither sees Him, nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He abides with you, and will be in you.