The Mystery about the Trinity
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
The doctrine about the Trinity of God is a very complex situation to explain because the natural mind of man will never be able to understand how three entities, or three persons, can come together and be one God. For hundreds of years, man has been trying to figure out the connection between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit but despite the best of their ability, they have failed trying to solve the puzzle. Although no one was successful with connecting the dots between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, personally, I still donât think that it is appropriate for man to just settle with calling God a Trinity just because there are three different characters of God in the Bible. God is greatâgreater than we can grasp that of him. Thatâs why we need the Holy Spirit to reveal to us who God really is. In Jeremiah 33:3 (ESV), God said, Call to me and I will show you great and hidden things that you do not know. And in John 16:13 (ESV), Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth. We (Christians) call ourselves serving God, but we really donât know who he isâwell, at least some of us. Church is great, and it was ordained by God that we should attend it to learn about godly things, and we need preachers to teach us things in the Bible that we know nothing about but we have to get to know the Lord for ourselves. God himself even said in Jeremiah 31:34 (ESV), No longer shall each one teach his neighbor to know the Lord, for they shall all know me. So letâs stop depending on others to teach us things about God and start asking God to teach us all things through the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:27, ESV). And fellowshipping with God is also a part of having a personal relationship with him. The existence of God, his power, and his might is so great that finite human minds are unable to fully comprehend them. People can have a true understanding of God, but never a complete or exhaustive one; for example, the Bible speaks of God dwelling in thick and impenetrable darkness (Ps. 97:2, ESV). And the Bible also speaks of God dwelling in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16, ESV). How can God dwell in light and darkness at the same time?
Or how can God dwell (in) light and darkness when the Bible describes him as being everywhere at the same time? (Jer. 23:24, ESV). And if God is everywhere, how can he be sitting on a throne (1 Kings 22:19, ESV), having a face (Exod. 33:11, ESV), or having eyes and ears (Neh. 1:6, ESV), or as having feet (Nah. 1:3, ESV), for example, in Exodus 33:19â23 (ESV) it speaks about God covering the face of Moses with his hands and not allowing Moses to see his face, only his back, as he passes by. These are not descriptions of what God is in himself but of what he is to us.
God Almighty relates to his people as a father and a friend (Matt. 6:9 and Ps. 25:14, ESV). He comes to us in this way to draw us to him in love and trust. God is infinite, and we are finite. God is far above and beyond us, and it is beyond our power to take his measure. No one has physically seen God in his pure, natural, and spiritual existence. But only in his manifestations people have seen God, because the light radiating from his divine presence is overwhelming. Like the prophet Ezekiel who did not dare to try to describe God (Ezek. 1:4â28, ESV). Ezekiel describes only the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God (v. 28).
As human beings, we are unable to comprehend the being and actions of God. And this study will not give you a complete understanding of Godâs existence, but it will give you a better understanding of God than what you already think of him as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Some Christians and/or people in general believe that Jesus Christ is not God because, they say, that they never read in the Bible that Jesus confessed out of his own mouth and said that he is God. People believe that Jesus Christ is only the son of God. They also believe that the Holy Spirit is Godâs helper and/or power. Other Christians believe that Jesus is God and that the Holy Spirit is Godâs power and/or helper. Why is this so?
The Old Testament continually states in several scriptures that there is only One Godâthe self-revealed Creator whom we must obey and worship.
Deuteronomy 6:4 (ESV)
Hear, O is real, the Lord our God (the Lord is one).
Isaiah 44:6 (ESV)
I am the first and I am the last, (besides me there is no God.)
The New Testament agrees with the Old Testament that there is only one God.
Mark 12:29 (ESV)
Jesus answered, the most important is hear O isreal the Lord our God, (the Lord is one.)
Galatians 3:20 (ESV)
Now an intermediary implies more than one, but (God is one).
The New Testament also speaks of three different beings or entitiesâthe Father, the Son, and the Holy Spiritâworking together.
Thessalonians 2:13 (ESV)
But we ought always to give thanks to God for you brothers beloved by the Lord, because (God) chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the (spirit) and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our (Lord Jesus Christ).
1 Peter 1:2 (ESV)
According to the foreknowledge of (God the father) in the sanctification of (the Spirit) for obedience to (Jesus Christ) and for sprinkling with His blood.
Reading the scriptures and trying to combine them to try to understand the wholeness or completeness of God with our natural minds is impossible. So letâs follow the Holy Spirit as he uncovers the mystery about the Trinity.
Deuteronomy 4:15â19 (ESV) says that God has no form. So if I ask you to draw a house, a tree, a car, or a woman, those images would be easy for anyone to draw because we know how these images look; but God has no image. He is a transcendent spirit (John 4:24, ESV), which rules out any idolatrous representation of God in the form of animated objects (Deut. 4:15â18, ESV) and any worship of the created order (Deut. 4:19, ESV); but even though God is spirit, he has the power to transform himself into any object or anything that he wishes. For example, through history in the Bible, Godâs transfiguration is seen in the manifestations, such as the burning bush (Exod. 3:4, ESV), the pillar of clouds (Exod. 14:21, ESV), the man that wrestled against Jacob (Gen. 32:24â30, ESV), the fourth man in the burning furnace (Dan. 3:25, ESV), Jesus Christâs transfiguration on the mountain (Matt. 17:2, ESV), and the talking donkey (Num. 22:28, ESV).
God is everywhere, as he explains in Jeremiah 22:23â24 (ESV). Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? Declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth?â
It is often spoken that in heaven is where God dwells with all his angels around him, but strictly speaking, Godâs infinite and transcendent spirit is such that not even the heavens are unable to contain him (1 Kings 8:27, ESV). God is present in all places; however, we should not think of him as filling space, for he has no physical dimensions. God does not live in and through a body as we do, and he is not subject to the limits of space and time. All created things are limited by time, but for God, there are no present moments into which he is locked as we are. It is as spirit that he is everywhere, although it surpasses the understanding of our human minds, God himself is present everywhere in his majesty and power.
King David said in Psalm 139:7â10 (ESV), âWhere shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? (v. 8). If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there (v. 9). If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea (v. 10) even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.â
First, we understand that God has no form; there is no image in this world or in heaven and hell that we can compare God to. Second, we understand that there is no place in this world or in the universe that we canât go and God is not there. God is everywhere.
Now we have to find out what happened to God, who is one, and who has no image, and who is everywhere.
In Genesis 22:2 (ESV), God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, whom he loved so much. This is history, but this is also an example of what God was about to do in the future. God demonstrated with this event what he was only about to do to save man and redeem us back to himself by the way of sacrificing his only son Jesus Christ. This was Godâs way of revealing his plan to his people (Amos 3:7, ESV).
In John 1:1â14 (ESV), starting with verse 1, it says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The first thing that we have to do now is to identify who is the word.â In verse 14, it says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father. So far, we understand that the (word) is the (only son) from the father. Now we have to figure out who is the only son from the Father because some believe that the prophet Mohammad is the only son from the Father and others believe that Ben-Yahweh is Godâs only begotten son, but according to the Holy Bible, when Jesus Christ was getting baptized by John the Baptist, God spoke from heaven and said that Jesus is his beloved son (Matt. 3:13â17, ESV). We have established that the âwordâ is the âson,â and the son is âJesus Christ.â
So if we were to rewrite John 1:1â3 (ESV), it would read like this: In the beginning was Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ was with God and (Jesus Christ was God) (v. 1). Jesus Christ was in the beginning with God (v.2). All things were made through Jesus Christ, and without him there was not anything made that was made (v.3). We have now established that Jesus Christ, who is the word and the only son from the Father, was also God Almighty in the beginning.
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