Can You Explain the Trinity?

The following clearly and briefly explains the Trinity … three gods or one?

By EveryStudent.com

You and I live in a three-dimensional world. All physical objects have a certain height, width, and depth. One person can look like someone else, or behave like someone else, or even sound like someone else. But a person cannot actually be the same as another person. They are distinct individuals.

God, however, lives without the limitations of a three-dimensional universe. He is spirit. And he is infinitely more complex than we are.

That is why Jesus the Son can be different from the Father. And, yet the same.

The Bible clearly speaks of: God the Son, God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit. But emphasizes that there is only ONE God.

If we were to use math, it would not be, 1+1+1=3. It would be 1x1x1=1. God is a triune God.

Thus the term: "Tri" meaning three, and "Unity" meaning one, Tri+Unity = Trinity. It is a way of acknowledging what the Bible reveals to us about God, that God is yet three "Persons" who have the same essence of deity.

Some have tried to give human illustrations for the Trinity, such as H₂O being water, ice and steam (all different forms, but all are H₂O). Another illustration would be the sun. From it, we receive light, heat and radiation. Three distinct aspects, but only one sun.

No illustration is going to be perfect.

But from the very beginning, we see God as a Trinity. In the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, God says, "Let us make man in our image … male and female he created them."¹ You see here a mixture of plural and singular pronouns.

When Moses asked God for his name, God replied, "I am" - eternally existing.

Jesus used the same phrase numerous times.
"I am the light of the world…"
"I am the bread of life…"
"I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Abraham is someone mentioned in Genesis, thousands of years before Jesus came to earth. Yet, Jesus said of himself, "Before Abraham was born, I am." The Jews understood fully what Jesus was saying because they picked up stones to kill him for "blasphemy" – claiming to be God.² Jesus has always existed.

This came up time and time again. Jesus was so clear about his unique relationship with the Father. This is why “the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.”³

For all of eternity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have always been in relationship and communication with each other, yet not as three gods … as one God.

“All three Persons in the Trinity have relational names. The First Person in the Trinity is called Father. You cannot be called The Father unless you have a child. And the same goes for the Second Person in the Trinity. You cannot be called The Son unless you have a Father. The Third Person in the Trinity is called both The Spirit of The Father (Matt 10:20) and the Spirit of The Son (Gal 4:4-6).”⁴

This answers the question:

If Jesus is God, who was he praying to?

On earth, Jesus continued to talk to the Father, and the Father and Spirit continued to communicate with him.

Though not a complete list, here is some other Scripture that shows God is one, in Trinity:

• "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!"⁵
  
  
• "I am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God."⁶
  
  
• There is no God but one.⁷
  
  
• And after being baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."⁸
  
  
• "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."⁹
  
  
• Jesus said: "I and the Father are one."¹⁰
  
  
• "He who has seen Me has seen the Father."¹¹
  
  
• "He who beholds Me beholds the One who sent Me."¹²
  
  
• If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.¹³
  
  
• "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit."¹⁴
  
  
• And the angel answered and said to her [Mary], "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God."¹⁵
  
  
• [Jesus speaking to His disciples] "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you." … "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him."¹⁶

Please see Why Jesus is God giving evidence for Jesus being God.

Footnotes: (1) Genesis 1:26,27 (2) John 8:56-59 (3) John 5:16-18 (4) Barry Adams, The Kingdom Belongs to Little Children, page 40. (5) Deut. 6:4 (6) Isa. 45:5 (7) 1Cor. 8:4 (8) Matt. 3:16-17 (9) Matt. 28:19 (10) John 10:30 (11) John 14:9 (12) John 12:45 (13) Rom. 8:9 (14) Matt. 1:20 (15) Luke 1:35 (16) John 14:16-17,23

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