Toward a Clearer Understanding of the Trinity
Toward a Clearer Understanding of the Trinity
What do the Scriptures mean when they tell us that God is both three and one? If Father, Son, and Spirit are divine persons, aren't there three Gods rather than one? Classical New England Unitarians—who stressed the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the neighborhood of Boston (!)—and their ilk have suggested that Christians just can't count: 1 + 1 + 1 equals 3! Anthropologist Pascal Boyer, a naturalist who claims that religion is simply a matter of brain function and survival enhancement, is disdainful of religious believers. He claims that they don't think critically, don't check out evidence, and believe what can't be falsified. He adds that Christians seem particularly gullible and can't think correctly. Boyer specifically mentions the “irrational” doctrine of the Trinity. As it turns out, Boyer himself isn't displaying the appropriate critical thinking and evidence-checking he claims believers are lacking: ironically, he presents a doctrine that no orthodox Christian believes—“that three persons are one person.”5 No, the Christian believes that there are three necessarily inseparable persons (not “one person”) who share one divine nature and substance.
Without trying to reduce God to human formulas and grids, how can we, in faithful humility, better grasp this central Christian doctrine of the Trinity? Perhaps the following considerations can assist us.
First, Scripture reveals both a oneness to God and a threeness. Jesus' first followers were religious Jews, orthodox monotheists. They were firmly committed to God's unique oneness in contrast to the polytheism of the surrounding nations. Twice daily they would recite the Shema (“Hear, O Israel”), declaring God's oneness: “The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deut 6:4; cf. Mark 12:29). An early Christian creed (AD 53) affirms Jesus' sharing in the divine identity as the “one Lord” (1 Cor 8:4–7), while steadfastly declaring that “there is no God but one.” Even the demons hold to an orthodox monotheistic belief (Jas 2:19).
God's threeness is also apparent. In the Great Commission (Matt 28:18–20), Jesus tells His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, “baptizing them in the name [not names] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” At Jesus' baptism, a reenactment of the exodus, Father and Spirit are also present (Matt 3:16–17). Paul's benediction expresses God's threeness: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor 13:14 NIV; cf. 1 Cor 12:4–6). So while God is one, three self-distinctions exist within the Godhead.
Second, God is one in essence or nature but three in person. Three and one aren't in contradiction here; to be in conflict, the same category or relationship must be involved. But threeness pertains to persons; oneness pertains to God's nature or essence. There isn't one divine nature and three divine natures; there aren't three persons and one person in the Godhead.
A nature is what makes a thing (or person) what it is. God has certain characteristics that make Him what He is. He can't not exist and is all-good, for example. And just as the Earth's billions of humans possess a common nature that sets them apart from angels and aardvarks, the triune persons are equally and fully God, sharing in the same nature though at a much deeper, more unified level than humans. Crucial to overcoming the contradiction charge in the doctrine of the Trinity is distinguishing between the only one divine nature and the three persons who possess it. There aren't three Gods, but one.
When Jehovah's Witnesses or Muslims ask Christians, “If Jesus was divine, to whom did he cry, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ (Matt 27:46),” these questioners assume that if Jesus is God, then there can't be any other persons who possess the divine nature. We can reject this without inconsistency and even respond, “If the Father is God, to whom is He speaking when He says to the Son, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever’ or “You, Lord,…laid the foundation of the earth'” (Heb 1:8,10 NASB)?
Third, to distinguish between person and nature, we must keep in mind two ways to use “is”—identity versus predication. Mark Twain is the pen name for Samuel Langhorne Clemens, the 26-cigars-a-day smoker and author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Twain does not have characteristics that Clemens does not have. In other words, when we say, “Samuel Langhorne Clemens is Mark Twain,” we can just as easily reverse the names: “Mark Twain is Samuel Langhorne Clemens.” Each of those statements indicates identity: Mark Twain = Samuel Langhorne Clemens (and vice versa). The names, which refer to the same person, are fully interchangeable and thus identical.
When it comes to the Trinity, to say “Jesus is God” isn't identical to “God is Jesus.” Unlike the Mark Twain example, “Jesus” doesn't exhaust what it means to speak of “God.” Jesus and God are not identical. According to the Bible, Father and Spirit are called divine, just as Jesus is.6 In the statement “Jesus is God,” we use is to describe or predicate, not to identify or equate: Jesus is God in that He shares in the nature that only two other persons share; so there isn't just one person who can properly be called God.
Again, threeness pertains to persons, and oneness pertains to nature or essence. There is only one divine nature, but three persons share in it. For God to be God, He must possess certain qualities or properties—being all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good. Only Father, Son, and Spirit participate in this divine nature and can thus be called “God.” Each of these three persons is also a center of consciousness, responsibility, and activity and is distinct from the other; for example, Jesus isn't the Father; the Father isn't the Spirit. So there's simply no logical contradiction when Christians say, “Three persons, one divine nature.”
Fourth, the members of the Trinity share the same being—not simply the same nature. That is, God is one substance (Lat. substantia) that exists (or subsists) on its own; God is His own self-contained entity. The Triune God isn't a mere assemblage of three divine beings (which would be polytheism—the belief in many gods), who happen to have a common purpose. Think back to the analogy of the three-headed Cerberus. The three centers of consciousness exist or are contained in one organism, a self-contained being. In the case of God, a personal being, we have three persons who similarly exist in one soulish being. God is not three beings but one. Just as one head of Cerberus is not a being, so none of the persons of the Trinity is a being. Just as one of the dog's heads cannot exist apart from being connected in being with the other two (subsistence), likewise none of the persons of the Trinity can exist in being without the other. So this is radically different from polytheism/tritheism, in which we have distinct beings that are capable of existing on their own. The necessary unity of Father, Son, and Spirit is like the angles of a triangle. If we remove one angle, we no longer have a triangle; all three must be in place.
Fifth, the Triune persons are deeply interrelated or mutually indwell one another, sharing a necessary, unbreakable relational oneness. We earlier noted that humans possess a common nature. You and I have the same nature as Socrates and Plato. This nature makes us what we are, human. When it comes to God, we need further clarification. Though I share the same human nature with, say, my students, they are separate and distinct from me; it's possible for me to exist without them or vice versa. The members of the Trinity, however, are inseparably related. One can't exist without the other two. As we've seen, a triangle can't exist if we take away one of its angles since by definition a triangle is tri-angular. Likewise, God by definition is Triune. Unlike Unitarians, we can't have just the Father without Son or Spirit. The triune persons are necessarily and permanently interrelated.
Greek theologians used the term perichoresis (in Latin, circumincessio) to describe the Trinity's necessary interrelationships. Jesus spoke of being “in” the Father and the Father “in” Him to describe their unique relationship (cf. John 10:30,38; 17:21). There's a “mutual abiding” in the Godhead—unlike human relationships, however close they may be. The relationship of Father, Son, and Spirit is not some miscellaneous collection of distinct persons who just happen to share some generic divine essence (“God-ness”) so that they can be classed together.7 Rather, they mutually, inseparably share in the life of one another in a remarkable way—a life without isolation, insulation, secrecy, or fear. They enjoy a penetrating, transparent, mutual knowledge of the other as other, as co-other, and as loved other.8 So while the divine persons each fully possess the same nature (each one can rightly be called “God”), more fundamental is their sharing a common, mutually indwelling unbreakable life together.
Consider the analogy of the mutual interaction of the soul and the body. The Scriptures speak of a deep unity between body and soul: the body interacts continually and deeply with the soul and the soul with the body. If I feel nervous in my soul, my stomach starts churning. If I cut off my arm, my soul must make certain adjustments in light of this loss. So there's a kind of mutual indwelling or interdependence in this body-soul relationship. The soul may temporarily separate from the body at death—the believer's absence from the body means being at home with the Lord (2 Cor 5:6–9). But there's normally a deep, interactive unity between them; they act as one.
Sixth, because the members of the Trinity share the same essence and mutually indwell one another, they also act as one and not in isolation from one another. All that the three divine persons do, they do as one. Whether creating, revealing, or redeeming, the three persons of the Trinity necessarily act as one. For example, when God creates, Father, Son, and Spirit are involved (e.g., Gen 1:1–2; John 1:3). Or when Jesus is raised from the dead, He is said to be raised by the Father (Gal 1:1; cf. Acts 2:24,32) and the Spirit (Rom 1:4), but Jesus declares that He has authority not only to lay down His life but also to take it up again (John 10:18; cf. 2:19: “I will raise it up”). The persons of the Trinity also indwell believers (John 14:16,18,23; Rom 8:9). Even though each person has a distinct center of awareness or consciousness and a distinct will, only one harmonious will is expressed in divine action. Rather than acting as three independent persons (as with Greek and Roman gods), each member of the Godhead is equally present in every divine action.9
In the depth of His being, God is relational. God is relating within Himself, and He is relational toward us. This God is for us. He has created us to love Him and to cling to Him (Deut 10:20; 13:4)—like a husband and wife must cling to each other (Gen 2:24). When God came to this planet, He sat at tables with the marginalized and outcasts of society, showing God's deep interest in them. When the Spirit brings us into God's family, He pours God's love into our hearts (Rom 5:5), giving us the confidence that we're God's adopted children (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:5).
These three divine persons are one in at least five important ways: (1) They share the same being (compare the three-headed being Cerberus). (2) They share in the same divine nature. (3) They mutually indwell one another (perichoresis), being bound together in relationship. (4) They necessarily act in perfect harmony. (5) Only one harmonious will is expressed in their actions. As we look at the story of Scripture, we can gather that, first, only one God exists and, second, three persons can legitimately be called “God.” The Holy Trinity is indeed a mystery but not an incoherent one.