I was chatting with a friend the other day on how we pray because he mentioned he was reading a book “Knowledge of the Holy” by A. W. Tozer. The first page of the book arrested him with the sentence: “What comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us”.
So, we got to talking about prayer – how do we perceive God? How does that affect the way we pray? I recognized in my prayers, that I tended to start by addressing God the Father, but proceeded to drift into addressing Jesus, and throwing in a sprinkling of the Holy Spirit there too.
I was quite thoroughly confused in my view of God – which is probably a similar situation to many of us. How do we hold the concept of the Trinity in our head?
God’s oneness
The Old Testament is absolutely emphatic on the oneness of God. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4, commonly known as the Shema, states “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one”. This phrase was repeated daily by the Jews, especially during the time of Jesus.
Keep in mind that the Ten Commandments begins with “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me [or besides me]” (Exodus chapter 20, verse 2–3). All throughout Israel’s history, they have been told that they are to have only one God, and that they were punished and exiled because they didn’t!
Thus, we can understand why the Pharisees wanted to stone Jesus when he proclaimed in John chapter 8, verse 58 – “Before Abraham was, I AM” (Emphasis mine). Jesus was claiming divinity when the Pharisees held that there was only one God! Therefore, to the Pharisees, Jesus was blaspheming.
We have established that there is only one God. We have also established that Jesus claimed to be God – so Jesus was either, to use the words of C. S. Lewis, crazy, evil, or what he claimed. (Refer to Hebrews chapter 1, John chapter 1, verse 1-11 and Philippians chapter 2, verse 5-11 for more on Jesus’ divinity)
Now what about the Holy Spirit? In Acts chapter 5, verse 3-4, Peter equates Ananias’ lying to the Holy Spirit as lying to God. Furthermore, we see the Holy Spirit expressing attributes that only God could, such as receiving honour and glory that were due to God (something that Herod got killed for in Acts chapter 12).
So, we need to reconcile the fact that we have 3 entities or persons who are all claiming to be God and are right in doing so.
3 Gods or 1 God?
Firstly, we need to address the ideas of Tritheism or modalism. The Bible does not allow us to be Tritheistic, because it is emphatic in its assertion that there is only one God. Tritheism is the idea that there are three equal, independent, autonomous beings, each of whom is divine. Tritheism would discount the omnipotence of God, as power would need to be shared between 3 individuals.
On the other hand, modalism posits that there is only one God who has manifested himself in various forms throughout history. Where Tritheism emphasizes the threeness of God, Modalism emphasizes the oneness of God. A common example of this is the water in ice, liquid, and vapour analogy. There are some critical flaws with modalism.
● The baptism of Jesus (where the Father speaks to the Son and the Holy Spirit lands on the Son) would be irreconcilable with modalism because we see 3 different persons displayed.
● Similarly, the great commission where Jesus commands us to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would make no sense. Why not just baptize in the name of one person?
● Another critical flaw would be that God would not be able to pour out all his wrath and punishment onto Jesus (as a separate entity) on the cross so that justice could be met. Someone had to die for sin, and it was necessary for that person to be God (so that he could take on all sin) and necessary for that to be a separate person to be the object of wrath and judgement
● If God were just a single being, there would be no way for him to be perfect and loving prior to creation. Love requires someone or something to receive love. If God was alone before creation, he couldn’t have been loving. Similarly with his other attributes.
It is the last point that I really want to emphasise here. The Trinity, the engine behind the actions of God, because it allows each of them (The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) to be loving, to be holy and righteous, to be truthful, with complete perfection from before creation.
The presence of multiple persons allows love to beget more love, allows righteousness to beget more righteousness, and we are invited to partake in the overflowing of these attributes which brings us life. The Trinity is like a flywheel, or an engine, that is in a positive feedback loop – and we are invited to partake in their relationship!
Jesus’s sacrifice permits us to enter this living, thriving dynamic which brings us life and restoration into creation, which is salvation.