Holy Trinity

Let us observe God as a creator. In the beginning, God the Father consulted God the Son and God the Holy Spirit about humankind. He said: “Let us make humankind in our likeness.”

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”   (Genesis 1:26-27)

Each aspect of God had a role to play in creation. The Son of God was the agent of creation. In the Gospel of John, we read:

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.   (John 1:1-4)

God the Father spoke life through his Son. The Holy Spirit also played a very important role. He carried out his assignment to bring everything into being by his power. In Genesis we read:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.   (Genesis 1:1-2)

God has revealed himself to us through his creation. He did so by exercising his total being in the process. Thus, we cannot just relate to one part of God while ignoring his other attributes.

The Apostle Paul helps us to understand how God moves through the Trinity of his being:

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.   (2 Corinthians 13:13)

In this one blessing by Paul to the church in Corinth, we can see deep insights into God’s nature and character. God, the Father is pure love. He best expresses that love through the grace he gives us through his Son. Jesus reveals the character of the Father. He is the voice of the Father, the Word made flesh. Jesus is the self-giving God. He sacrifices himself so that we might have salvation in his name. We have fellowship and communion with the Father and Son through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit hovers over us just as he hovered over the formless world. He has been given to us to bring us in alignment with God’s will and restore us to fellowship with the Father.

The Holy Spirit is, perhaps, the least understood Person of the Trinity. Jesus said:

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.   (John 16:13-15)

The Spirit guides us. He teaches us what Jesus taught. He helps us interpret the scriptures. He helps us to understand ourselves, He established the form of the Early Church, No human position, authority, or minister in the Church can take the place of the Holy Spirit.

In his last words to his disciples, Jesus spoke of baptizing believers by the fullness of God as expressed in the Holy Trinity. In the Gospel of Matthew, we read:

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”   (Matthew 28:16-20)

Notice in this great commission the working of the Holy Trinity. The Church must teach all believers to obey all that Jesus has taught. Jesus, the voice of God, had taught us the true nature of God the Father and the essence of his commandments. But the power of the Holy Spirit is needed to help us to understand and obey all that Jesus has taught us.