How Many Persons are there in God?

Q: How many persons are there in God?

A: There are three persons in the one true and living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

2 Corinthians 13:11–14 ESV

11 Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13 All the saints greet you. 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

COMPREHENDING VS. UNDERSTANDING

“Because I said so.” Is this a legitimate argument?

Can we comprehend the Trinity?

No: Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

Our narrow thoughts can no more comprehend the Trinity in Unity than a nutshell will hold all the water in the sea.

Thomas Watson

Can we understand the Trinity?

Yes: In the sense that we can summarize what the Bible reveals about God and articulate what we do and do not mean.

UNDERSTANDING GOD AS TRINITY

1. The Bible’s Description

The context of Paul’s trinitarian benediction: the solution to our misunderstanding and broken ways is found in knowing God through the gospel.

2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV

14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Jesus owns his equality with God:

John 8:58 “…Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

Jesus promises the Spirit:

John 14:16–17 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

Jesus’ baptism gives us a picture:

Luke 3:21–22 “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.””

The doctrine of the Trinity is not a human invention but the way the Bible (God’s word) reveals God’s nature.

2. The Church’s Definition

The church summarized the description from Scripture into definitions for two major reasons: (1) to guard against unbiblical ideas, and (2) to summarize big truths into “confessable” statements.

Two main wrong ideas: (1) Tri-theism: to divide God into three gods. (2) Modalism: to unify the three persons in unbiblical ways.

A: There are three persons in the one true and living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

Seven Statements: (Kevin DeYoung)

1. God is one. There’s only one God.

2. The Father is God.

3. The Son is God.

4. The Holy Spirit is God.

5. The Father is not the Son.

6. The Son is not the Spirit.

7. The Spirit is not the Father.

The goal:not a PhD level of articulation, but a basic understanding of the Bible’s teaching about God’s character and nature.

EXPERIENCING GOD AS TRINITY

If we can’t comprehend the Trinity, why does it matter for our faith?

The doctrine of the Trinity is the differentiating doctrine of the Christian faith. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV

14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Embrace the Trinitarian Grace of God

“The main practical reason for learning how to think well about the eternal life of the Trinity is that it is the background for the gospel…(it is) the guarantee that God’s grace is based on his character rather than on anything outside himself.” Fred Sanders

Embrace the Trinitarian Love of God

"The love, therefore, wherewith God loveth, is incomprehensible and immutable. For it was not from the time that we were reconciled unto Him by the blood of His Son that He began to love us; but He did so before the foundation of the world, that we also might be His sons along with His Only-begotten, before as yet we had any existence of our own. Let not the fact, then, of our having been reconciled unto God through the death of His Son be so listened to or so understood, as if the Son reconciled us to Him in this respect, that He now began to love those whom He formerly hated, in the same way as enemy is reconciled to enemy, so that thereafter they become friends, and mutual love takes the place of their mutual hatred; but we were reconciled unto Him who already loved us, but with whom we were at enmity because of our sin." Saint Augustine

Embrace the Trinitarian Fellowship of God

CONCLUSION

Historic Creeds and Confessions Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth

And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary

Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell

The third day he rose again from the dead

He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty

From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead

I believe in the Holy Ghost

I believe in the holy and universal church; the communion of saints

The forgiveness of sins

The resurrection of the body

And the life everlasting. Amen.