The Mystery of the Trinity

The Trinity is probably the ultimate mystery in the Bible. Our God who is one God, but three persons. Many have suggested analogies like water, steam, ice, and others. But none of them can express the nature of the Trinity adequately. This concept has been a stumbling block for many cults and religions, most notably Jehovah’s Witnesses, other cults, Islam, and Judaism.

Years ago in my jail ministry, a young Arab Muslim from Jordan sat in on my class. He knew the Bible, greatly admired Jesus (as many Muslims do) and was an active participant in the class. When I pressed him about whether he was really more Christian than Muslim, he confessed his major hangup: how could Jesus, a man, be God?

Our Limited Understanding

We are not meant to understand everything. There is mystery throughout the Scriptures, and that is how God wants it.

Isaiah 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

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.

God has revealed to us what we need to know, and in the end, we take his Word on faith, which leads to obedience.

The Trinity in Genesis

There are, however, some things we can understand about the trinitarian nature of God.

We see the Trinity expressed at the very beginning of the Scriptures.
God created. Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The Spirit hovered. Gen 1:2 The Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

The Son spoke. Gen. 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. The role of Jesus in speaking everything into existence is from John 1:1-3: 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 apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. Later in chapter one John says, “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us”, equating Jesus the man with the God who spoke creation into existence.

So we see the three persons of the Trinity present at the very beginning. Later in Genesis 1:26 we read, Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness… In Genesis 3:22, after the fall, “…the man has become like one of Us, in knowing good and evil…” God speaks of Himself in the plural.

Jewish Interpretations

Jewish tradition considers two possible interpretations of “Let Us”:
God is using the “royal we”, such as kings and queens speaking of themselves in third person plural. This doesn’t seem likely, since God doesn’t do this anywhere else in Scripture.

God is consulting with his heavenly council, the angelic beings around Him. This doesn’t quite fit either, since only God can create something out of nothing.

Christians consider this verse as reflecting the Trinity, since we know from John 1 that Jesus, God the Son, the Word, created everything, and we already see the Spirit present in Genesis 1:2.

Looking further ahead in the Old Testament we see from Isaiah 9:6 that the Messiah will be called, among other names, Mighty God and Eternal Father.

The Trinity in the New Testament

John 10 records an interesting exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus says in verse 29, “I and the Father are one”. In verse 33, they said to Jesus, “you, being a man, make yourself God”. The religious leadership of the Jews understood perfectly that Jesus was claiming to be God.

In John 14:9, Jesus says to Philip, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
Hebrews 1 says of the Son of God, Jesus, “He is the radiance of His (God’s) glory and the exact representation of His nature.”

Jesus made it clear to all of his disciples and followers that he was God, the expression of the Father as a man on earth.

Concerning the Holy Spirit, Jesus says in John 16:14-15, “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” The Father has sent the Son, and the Son sends the Spirit, each of them possessing all of God’s attributes.

Summing it up

What we see through these and many other Scriptures, is the relationship of the three persons of the Trinity with each other. Genesis 1:26, quoted above, says “Let Us make man in Our image…”. And later, in Genesis 2:18, God declares, “It is not good for man to be alone…”. These two verses explain the “why” of the Trinity.

The “image of God” includes the quality of relationship. The Trinity is, in essence, God in relationship with Himself. And he created us to be in relationship with Him, and with each other. It is not good for us to be alone. We need God, in all of his fullness expressed in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we need each other. Our God in three persons expresses this truth completely and perfectly.