The Holy Trinity—Three in One, and One in Three—is in its essence a mystery beyond human comprehension, even when the comprehension is that of the renewed mind of the believer. In the very nature of things this must be so. How can the creature comprehend the Creator; the finite, the Infinite; the relative, the Absolute.
Whatever understanding he may have must come by revelation, and revelation for us is found alone in the Word of God.
In a matter of this nature we must be careful not to attempt to reason from the human to the Divine; from man and his ways to God.
Nor can we trust our natural powers of mind in grasping divine thoughts for “the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).
It is as the Holy Spirit lays bare to us the real meaning of His mind that we are safe. It is no wonder that many higher critics, men of great intelligence and vast scholarship make grave mistakes that a humble Christian taught by the Spirit of God is saved from.
Further we must ever remember that man’s language is inadequate to fully express Divine ideas. Man’s language is bounded by time and sense, and has deteriorated through sin, but in studying the Scriptures we find the Spirit of God often takes up man’s words, stamps them with a larger, fuller meaning, and instead of deteriorating, as under the influence of man’s sin, they are lifted to a high and sure place under the Divine influence.
Again, there are many words we use, and I believe rightly, that are not actually found in the Holy Scriptures, yet they express the truth conveyed in the Holy Scriptures.
Our title at the head of this paper is one such. Yet there is abundance of teaching in the Holy Scriptures that God reveals Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, not three Gods, but a Triune God, though Scripture teaches that the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, yet one God indivisible.
Then we often speak of Three Persons in the Godhead and the expression Divine Persons is very commonly used. These expressions are not found in Scripture yet the truths they represent are. And yet a word of caution is necessary here.
In human language when we speak of a person, we think of separate entity, separate existence, separate will, different characteristics, thoughts and plans peculiar to each person, not shared with any others. Carry that human thought into the subject before us, and the truth of the Trinity is entirely perverted and lost. Instead of the Trinity—Father, Son and Spirit, ONE God—we should have three Gods, an absolute impossibility, for there can only be one God, unique and incomprehensible.
Realizing how far above our comprehension these things are, some would counsel that we should leave the subject alone. But that would be to slight Scripture. If God has revealed Himself, as is seen in the Scriptures, surely He desires that revelation to be received and prized above aught else. Our highest blessing springs from the revelation God has been pleased to make of Himself. The more we understand of these things, the more is the very foundation of Christianity laid in our souls, the formative power of such truth leading to the true worship of God as nothing else can do. To neglect this is to put a slight upon Scripture, nay upon God Himself, and doom ourselves to a perpetual immaturity in Divine things.
Of course in an article in a monthly magazine it is only possible to put forward a few thoughts. At best we can only touch the fringe of such a vast subject.
God in His absoluteness, in His essential Being is unknown. That great verse—1 Timothy 6:16—says, God “only has immortality [i.e. inherently] dwelling in the light that no man can approach to; whom no man has seen, nor can see.” In the very nature of things this must be so, and less than this could not satisfy the searchings of the renewed mind.
Seeing this verse is true, and always will be true, we may ask. How then does God reveal Himself? For God surely reveals Himself for the satisfaction of His own heart. Zophar, the Naamathite, asked some striking questions. of Job, and he may well ask them afresh of us. “Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection? It is as high as heaven what canst thou do? Deeper than hell, what canst thou know?”
How then does God reveal Himself? The answer is as Father, Son and Holy Spirit—ONE God.
This is hidden in the very first verse of the Bible. “In the beginning God [the word God, is not in the singular, not in the dual, but in the plural, which at the least must mean three, and in the light of Scripture it is undoubtedly three in this case] created [the verb is singular, thus emphasising that God is One] the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1).
Does the Scripture throw light on this? It does. We read in 1 Corinthians 8:6, “To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we by Him.”
But the verse, does not stop there. It goes on to say, “And one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we by Him.” So speaks Hebrews 1:2, “God … has in these last days spoken to us by His Son … by whom also He made the world.” So says Colossians 1:13-16, we have been “translated into the Kingdom of His dear Son … by Him were all things created that are in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible.”
Does the Word of God attribute creation to the Holy Spirit? We read, “By His Spirit He garnished [furnished] the heavens” (Job 26:13). Look up at the heavens on a dark night. Millions of stars stud the heaven in prodigal and unexplored profusion, our little insignificant planet among them. The Father created them. The Son created them. The Holy Spirit created them.
Take another instance of how the action of One of the Persons of the Trinity can be predicated of the Other Two. There is a most remarkable, perhaps the most remarkable, unveiling of the truth of the Holy Trinity found in the Old Testament, “Come ye near to Me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there AM I [the assertion of Deity], and now the Lord God and His Spirit have sent Me” (Isa. 48:16). Here we have three Divine Persons—“the Lord God” “His Spirit,” “Me.”
Is there any light in the New Testament as to Who “the Lord God” is in the New Testament? We read there, “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:14). The hour for the declaration of the Father’s Name had not arrived in Old Testament times. That was contingent on the revelation of His Person by His only begotten Son. “The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18). But here we get it as near as it could be in the Old Testament times. So Scripture asserts that the Father sent the Son. Our passage (Isa. 48:16) says He was sent by the Holy Spirit. The Lord Himself predicated His coming as of His own initiative. “I came forth from the Father” (John 17:28), So we get the Father sending the Son; the Spirit sending the Son; the Son coming.
Take one more instance, this time from the New Testament. John 14:26 tells us that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father in the Name of the Son; chapter 15:26 tells us the Lord Jesus sends the Holy Spirit from the Father; chapter 16:13 says, “When the Spirit is come,” i.e. the Spirit comes of His own initiative. So we have the Father sending the Spirit; the Son sending the Spirit; the Spirit coming. These statements could not be true save as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are ONE God.
Gathering up our thoughts from these and other Scriptures such is the unity of the Godhead that there cannot be one thought in the Father’s mind that is not altogether shared and approved by the Son and the Spirit—not one intention or purpose in the mind of One of the Persons in the Godhead but what is fully shared and endorsed by the other Two Persons in the Godhead, for God is One.
There is nothing like it in the whole range of nature. Perhaps the best example may be that of a well-mated husband and wife. They have much in common, but, however closely they may approximate to each other, and, however much long companionship has led them to a greater nearness and correspondence to each other, yet are there two wills, and one has thoughts the other is not privy to.
But when we look closely into this analogy we find it is no analogy at all, but serves to show that the relations of Divine Persons is absolutely unique and stands by itself.
This community of thought and oneness of action are clearly seen in our Lord’s own words, “Verily, verily; I say to you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for what things soever He does, these also does the Son likewise” (John 5:19). This is a remarkable verse, as indeed its whole context is. It states that what the Son does, is also done by the Father. This puts a wonderful light upon all the words and actions of our Lord as done down here upon this earth. And if we reflect on this, it must be so in the very nature of the Godhead.
The same line of thought is seen in relation to the Spirit, a Divine Person, who never became Incarnate, and therefore there can be no question, but that which is predicated of the Spirit in the verse we are about to quote must be in the nature of the Godhead. We read, “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth, for He shall not speak of Himself [the Greek clearly gives the sense that the Spirit will not speak of His own initiative], but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come.” Here the Spirit is on common ground with our Lord in John 5:19.
The Son does nothing of His own initiative; the Spirit does nothing of His own initiative. The Son does what He sees the Father do. The Spirit speaks the word the Father and the Son give Him to speak.
This is a line of thought that is very profitable to follow up. The space at our disposal only allows of a thought or two on this wonderful, exalted theme. May the Lord lead us into a deeper knowledge of these things and a truer answer to them in our lives.