The doctrine of the Trinity is fundamental to the Christian faith. This is crucial to fully understanding what God is like, how He relates to us, and how we should relate to him, but he also raises many difficult questions. How can God be one and three at the same time?Is the Trinity a contradiction? If Jesus is God, why do the Gospels record times when He prayed to God?
Although we cannot fully understand everything about the Godhead (or anything else), it is possible to answer questions like these and come to a solid understanding of what it means to be God three at a time.
What does it mean to be God a Trinity?
The doctrine of the Godhead means that there is a God who exists eternally as three distinct people: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In other words, God is unique in essence and triple in personality. These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are different people, (2) each person is totally God, (3) there is only one God.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are different people. The Bible speaks of the Father as God (Ph. 1. 2), Jesus as God (Tit. 2. 13), and the Holy Spirit as God (Acts 5. 3-4). these three different ways of looking at God, or three different roles that God plays?
The answer should be no, because the Bible also indicates that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are different people; for example, because the Father sent the Son into the world (Jn 3:16), he cannot be the same person as the Same, after the Son’s return to the Father (Jn 16:10), the Father and the Son sent the Holy Ghost into the world (Jn 14:26; Acts 2:33), so the Holy Ghost must be distinguished from the Father and the son.
At Jesus’ baptism, we see the Father speaking from heaven and the Spirit descending from heaven in the form of a dove, while Jesus emerges from the water (M. 1: 10-11). John 1. 1 affirms that Jesus is God and, at the same time time, that he was “with God”, which indicates that Jesus is a separate person from God the Father (cf. Jn. 1. 18). And in John 16: 13-15, we see that, although there is an intimate unity between them all, the Holy Spirit is also distinct from the Father and the Son.
The fact that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are different people means, in other words, that the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father, Jesus is God, but He is pas. ni the Father or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, but it is not the Son or the Father, they are different people, not three different ways of seeing God.
The personality of each member of the Godhead means that each person has a different center of consciousness. Therefore, they personally relate to each other: the Father treats himself as “I”, while treating the Son and the Holy Ghost as “you”. “In the same way, the Son treats himself as “I”, but the Father and the Holy Spirit as “you. “
It is often objected that “if Jesus is God, then he must have prayed while he was on earth. “But the answer to that objection is simply to apply what we have already seen. Although Jesus and the Father are God, they are different So Jesus prayed to God the Father without praying, in fact, it is precisely the continuous dialogue between the Father and the Son (Mt 3:17; 17:5; Jn 5. 19; 11,41-42; 17. 1ss) which best evidence is that they are different people with different centers of consciousness.
Sometimes the personality of the Father and the Son is valued, but the personality of the Holy Spirit is neglected, so that he is more treated as a “Force” as a person. But the Holy Ghost is not something, but Someone (see Jn 14. 26; 16. 7-15; At. 8. 16). The truth that the Holy Ghost is a person, not an impersonal force (such as gravity), is also shown by the fact that He speaks (Heb 3. 7), reason (Ac. 15. 28), thinks and understands (I Co. a. 2. 10-11), desire (I Co. 12. 11), feel (Eph. 4. 30) and offer personal communion (II Co. 13. 14) These are all qualities of a person. In addition to these texts, the others mentioned above clearly show that the personality of the Holy Ghost is different from the personality of the Son and the Father: these are three real people, not three roles that God plays.
Another serious mistake people have made is to think that the Father became the Son, who then became the Holy Spirit. Contrary to this, the passages we have seen suggest that God has always been and will always be three people. time when none of the people of the Deity existed. They’re all eternal.
Although the three members of the Godhead are distinct, this does not mean that one is inferior to the other, on the contrary, they are all identical in attributes such as power, love, mercy, justice, holiness, knowledge, and in all others. divine qualities.
Each person is totally Dios. Si God is three people, does that mean that each person is?Does the Trinity mean that God is divided into three parts?
No, the Trinity does not divide God into three parts, the Bible makes it clear that each of the three people is one hundred percent God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are totally God, for example, it is said of Christ. That in him dwells bodily the fulness of the Divinity?(Cl. 2. 9). We should not think of God as a cake cut into three pieces, each representing a person. This would make each person less than totally God and therefore not really God. Rather, “every person is equal to being integral to God”]. The divine essence is not something divided between the three people, but is totally in the three people without being divided into “parts”.
Thus, the Son is not a third of God’s being, He is the whole being of God; the Father is not a third of God’s being, He is the whole being of God and, in the same way, the Holy Spirit. , as Wayne Grudem writes: “When we speak together of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, are we not talking about a greater being than when we speak only of the Father, or only of the Son, or only of the Holy Ghost?[2].
There is only one Dieu. Si each person in the Godhead is different, and yet totally God, should we conclude that there is more than one God?Of course not, since the scriptures clearly indicate that there is only one God: “For there is no other God, but I, only God and Savior, there is no other than me. Look at me and be saved, you, the whole earth, for I am God and there is no other (Is 45:21-22; see also 44. 6-8; Ex 15. 11; Dt 4. 35; 6,4-5; 32,39; I Sm. 2. 2; I Rs. 8. 60).
Having seen that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are different people, that each is totally God, and that there is only one God, we must conclude that the three people are the same God, that is, there is a God who exists as three different people.
If there is one passage that gathers all this more clearly, it is Matthew 28. 19: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. “First, notice that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost stand out as different people. We baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Second, keep in mind that each person must be divine because they are all placed on the same level. In fact, do you think Jesus would baptize us in the name of a simple creature?Certainly not. Therefore, every person in whose name we must be baptized is necessarily divine. Third, keep in mind that although the three divine people are distinct, we are baptized in their (singular) name, not in their (plural) names. All three people are different, but they’re a name. This can only be the case if they share the same essence.
Notes: 1. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Edies Vida Nova, 1999), p. 189. 2 Ibid, p. 187
By John Piper. © Desiring God Website: desiringGod. org Original: What is the Doctrine of the Trinity?Translation and rereading: André Alosio and Davi Luan of the blog Theology and Life Authorizations: You are allowed and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format, provided that you add the above information and link to this blog, do not change the original content and do not use it for commercial purposes.
In the world, there is only one thing to look for: the knowledge of God (Robert H. Benson).