Hey friend. I’ve been thinking a lot about the Triune God lately, mostly because I’m knee-deep in Christian theology classes. Last year, one of the assignments from
gave us a degree of creative latitude that I am grateful for. As long as we tried to explain the Trinity and why it matters for Christian life and practice, we could pick any audience we wanted.I chose to write to my junior high daughter, and I wanted to share this approach with you. Maybe you’ll find it refreshing. Or not. (If not, that’s fine). But honestly, I don’t think we, generally speaking, think about the triune nature of God enough at church, in our small groups, or while we’re out walking our dogs and mowing the lawn. To rectify the imbalance, here’s some “Trinity” to contribute to your January ponderings.
Dear Daughter,
This fall I’m taking a class that is teaching me how to think about God and study God’s nature. When we do this, we call it “theology.” The class made me wonder if there are some things I haven’t communicated well to you about who God is. That’s why I went looking for you last week when you were hanging out in the van in the garage, a private place to talk to your friends on the phone. Do you remember I told you I was doing some “research” and asked you if you knew what the Trinity was? You paused searchingly for an answer and concluded that you didn’t.
“Well, what comes to mind for you when you hear the word?” I asked.
“The pyramids…?” you trailed off.
“Okay, next question,” I said. “Who is Jesus?”
“God’s Son,” you fired back. (Great answer, by the way, and true!)
“Is he God,” I asked.
“No.”
“What about the Holy Spirit? Is the Spirit God?”
“No.”
I realized then that I had some explaining to do. You see, and I’m about to tell you a mystery at the center of the Christian faith. It’s a paradox–a seeming contradiction–that Christians have been speaking of for almost two thousand years. We call it the “doctrine of the Trinity,” which means that God is triune–God is three in one. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God, and the three are one. That might sound incredibly confusing, but hang with me if you can.
God’s “oneness” means that “everything that is true of the Father is true of the Son and the Spirit except for their particular relationships.” 1This means that their “works” are “indivisible,” meaning we can’t divide up duties among them and say “only the Father is like this and only Jesus is like that and only the Spirit is like this.”2 But at the same time, in order to acknowledge that there are three persons in the Trinity, it is “appropriate” to say certain things are done by each one of them in accordance with the story the Bible presents.3 For instance, we can say “Jesus is my Savior” or “the Father gave his Son, Jesus, to the world.” I know, it’s still a bit confusing–a mystery, a paradox.
The doctrine of the Trinity comes out of reading the whole Bible, not just one Bible verse. 4To understand who God is, we have to look at all of Scripture, and fit the pieces together as best we can. We have to make sense of passages that show God as three distinct persons alongside passages that show God’s oneness or the complete unity of those persons. That’s how we arrive at our understanding of God’s three-in-oneness.
One scene that shows the different persons of the Trinity is from the Gospel of Mark. This is the moment of Jesus’ baptism in the river: “Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased’” (Mark 1:10-11 NIV). Here we see the different persons relating to one another in different ways. The Father says he loves the Son, the Spirit descends upon the Son like a dove, and Jesus rises up out of the water from his baptism, receiving the love of the Father and the Spirit.
Now, these words of Jesus show the unity between the persons of the Trinity:
“If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him….Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves….And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth….you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you….On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (John 14:7,11, 16-17, 20)
In other words, if we know Jesus, then we know the Father. If the Spirit lives in Christians, well then, it is Jesus who lives in us, too. And, since Jesus is one with the Father, the Father lives in us as well. Each person of the Trinity indwells or is at one with the other persons of the Trinity (not to mention it is God’s desire to indwell us, to be connected with us in a similar–although not the exactly same–way).
At this point you might be thinking, “Why do all this mental gymnastics?! Who cares that God is three in one? Why does it matter?” Well, I want to show you how the doctrine of the Trinity does matter for two reasons:
1) God’s three-in-oneness means that God is love, and
2) the doctrine of the Trinity helps us worship God rightly, according to God’s nature, rather than according to the nature of an imagined god.
How God’s Three-in-Oneness Means God is Love
The Father is God, the Son (Jesus) is God, and the Spirit is God, and they are all connected persons in relationship to one another. “Persons” is not even really the most “perfect” word to describe the Father, Son, and Spirit, but it was the word that Christians generally agreed upon to describe them.5 It was the best they could do to describe the mystery of God’s three-in-oneness. But the Father, Son, and the Spirit are not persons like you and your friends, in that they don’t have different favorite colors or foods. One doesn’t love K-pop while another listens only to the Hamilton soundtrack ad nauseum. One’s not more introverted than the other. They are not persons like that, but they are personal, meaning they are unique in the fact that they have a personal relationship with one another: they are different from one another in the sense of their relationships with one another. The Father has a personal relationship with the Son and Spirit, the Spirit has a personal relationship with the Son and Father, the Son has a personal relationship with the Father and Spirit.
And the fact that God is three-in-one is good news for us because it means God is relational and relates—God’s very essence is loving relationship between the persons of the triune God.6 In fact, my professor says,“The loving, eternal relationships between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit go right to the heart and essence of God.”7 That’s why you hear people say God is love. And it’s this kind of relational, self-giving love that is generated between the persons of the Trinity that is also extended to you and me and every other person. We’re invited into the “dance” of love between them.8 There’s never one person of the Trinity who is mad at us while another loves us. Because the eternal God’s nature is love, God has, does, and always will love us–plain and simple.
How the Doctrine of the Trinity Helps us Worship God Rightly instead of Worshiping a False Version of God
Based on your answers to my “research” last week, I suspect you might have believed that Christians are polytheists (people who worship multiple gods). Perhaps you thought that Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit were just another pantheon of gods like you might find in the Rick Riordan universe, gods who are certainly not “at one” with one another, not in loving communion with one another (but often fickle and plotting against one another to boot!). Although, I would understand why you might think Christians worship multiple gods. After all, you’ve grown up hearing and singing songs of worship and welcome to the Father, Son, and Spirit. But the problem with the idea of Christians being polytheists–and it’s a big one!--is that Christian and Jewish tradition insists that there is only one God.9
Why aren’t Christians fine with saying there is more than one God? Because Jesus wasn’t fine with that. That’s my short answer. The longer answer goes like this: Christianity was built upon Judaism and the Hebrew scriptures, what we call the “Old Testament” in our Bibles. Jesus, a Jew by birth, taught from those Hebrew scriptures. The Apostle Paul–also a Jew by birth–taught from those Scriptures. One of the most important features of the Scriptures is the claim that there is only one God and that Jews should worship only the one true God. In fact, the first of the Ten Commandments says, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exod 20:3). Faithful Jewish people would also daily recite the prayer called the Shema (combination of multiple passages found in Scripture) which begins, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one” (Deut 6:4). One, you see?
Since there can only be one God, Jewish Christians had some explaining to do when they started worshiping Jesus, praying to the Father, and welcoming the Spirit. To worship three gods was total scandal! And it took about three hundred years for the Church to really get clear on how to explain that God is three in one. In the fourth century, they affirmed their belief in each person of the Trinity as God through a statement called the Nicene Creed. They did this because, as I said, they didn’t want to depart from the Jewish conviction that God is one, and also because some other people were making up other explanations for who God was and confusing a lot of people.
When people teach things that are not accurate about God, it’s called a “heresy.” Many of the early “heretics” (people who taught heresies) meant well, but their thinking led them into bigger problems, which Christian leaders wanted to prevent.10 One such heresy was called “adoptionism,” and it conveyed the idea that Jesus was only human (and not God).11 The story of adoptionism says that Jesus was so perfect and sinless in the way he lived that God “promoted” him to “Son status.”12 In other words, Jesus was “adopted” as God’s Son.13 In this heresy, Jesus isn’t divine. The problem here is that if Jesus isn’t God and we worship him just like we worship God, then we are guilty of worshiping two gods, not one. And, like I said, that’s a no-no for Christians. The other problem with this heresy is that it suggests that in order to be God’s “sons” (or daughters), then we, too, would have to be perfectly sinless just like Jesus. If that were true, it’d be pretty depressing, because obviously no one you know, including yours truly, is perfect and sinless.
Another popular heresy about Jesus is attributed to a guy named Arius who lived between the third and fourth centuries. Arius said Jesus was “semidivine,” but created by God, just like you and I are part of God’s creation.14 Jesus was “like” God, but not actually God.15 You’re a smart girl, and you’ve probably already figured out the problem with this heresy: if Jesus is created, then he is not God. Therefore, if we worship Jesus (as Christians do!) we’d be worshiping two gods and not one, and I’ve already explained how that’s a problem.
A third popular heresy is one called “modalism,” which says that, as the one true God operates in the world, he wears “masks” (think: disguises!) of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.16 According to modalism, the “true” God lurks behind these masks, or “modes,” but isn’t actually any of them. If this were true, then it would mean we could never know the true God, and we’d be worshiping a god we don’t know who doesn’t truly reveal himself as he is. This also means that Jesus’s death on the cross was just an act–the appearance of God giving his life for us; but if he really died, then his death tells the truth about God loving us so much that Jesus was willing to lay his life down for us.17 The other problem here is that if “the Son” is just a mask that the true God puts on, then that would mean that the true eternal God died on the cross.18 And an eternal god who dies cannot actually be God. And then where does that leave us? Godless.
Now, it is true that Jesus died on the cross. But Jesus was at once fully human and fully divine–another paradox! When Jesus’ human body died, the Son did not become separated from the Father and the Spirit. He continued to be the eternal Son, even while his body experienced suffering and death, identifying with the worst suffering we humans can experience on this earth and taking upon himself the sin of the world that nailed him to the cross.19
Sweets, I hope some of what I shared with you is clear. Our hope lies in a God who is three in one. God’s oneness means that when we worship Jesus we are still worshiping God, and. when we revere and honor the Holy Spirit, we are revering and honoring God. Therefore, we are not mixed up and confused, worshiping multiple deities. God’s three-in-oneness also means that God’s very nature is one of loving relationship. God is always and will always be seeking to pull you into the loving embrace of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Thanks for reading! I’m a book-obsessed pastor, podcaster, author, and holistic life and leadership coach. For essays and podcasts that come straight to your inbox, subscribe to this Dear Exiles newsletter in the subscription box above. Fun fact: I’m also the author of Dear Boy:, An Epistolary Memoir and the host of the Your Pastor Reads Books podcast.
Beth Felker Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to Thinking and Living Theologically, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2023), 68.
Beth Felker Jones, “Christian Theology 1” (Seminary Class, Northern Seminary, Lisle, IL, Oct 24, 2023). Dr. Jones shared the “principle of unity,” which meant that the works of God are indivisible.
Jones, “Christian Theology 1.” In this class, Dr. Jones shared the rule of “appropriation,” meaning that it is “appropriate to ascribe certain works to one of the three persons as we relate to God in the story of salvation.” She also wrote about the “doctrine of appropriation” on page 70 of Practicing Christian Doctrine, where she says it is “appropriate to talk about the distinct divine persons as they are active in the world.”
Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine, 66.
Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine, 69.
Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine, 64. Dr. Jones says, “God is relationship.”
Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine, 64.
Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine, 64.
Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine, 64. In 325 AD, Christian bishops met in Nicea and affirmed this.
Ben Quash and Michael Ward, eds., Heresies and How to Avoid Them: Why It Matters What Christians Believe (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012), 7.
Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine, 58.
Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine, 58.
Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine, 58.
Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine, 61.
Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine, 61. Arius said Jesus was homoiousios, or “like” God in his essence, but the bishops at Nicea declared Jesus was homoousios, or the “same” essence as the Father (64).
Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine, 59.
Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine, 60
Jones, Practicing Christian Doctrine, 60.
Thomas McCall, Forsaken: The Trinity and the Cross, and Why it Matters (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2012), 44, 46. McCall says that if we say that the Trinity was broken when Jesus died, it is tantamount to saying that “God does not exist.”