In 2009, a striking incident occurred in Shanghai, China at the Lotus Riverside Complex. A newly built 13-story apartment building unexpectedly collapsed, its floors lying horizontally on the ground. The structure hadn’t been crushed; its windows and doors remained intact. Nobody could understand what happened! The reason? A hastily constructed foundation, combined with a rushed timeline and heavy rainfall, led to its collapse. Just as a building can’t stand tall on a compromised foundation, our faith, too, requires a solid groundwork. Our perception of God—the doctrine of God—is fundamental to our identity as believers. To stand firm, we must embrace an accurate understanding of the One upon whom we build our faith.
Unpacking the Triune Nature of God: Insights from Scripture
The doctrine of God is complex, but one of the things we must understand is that God is trinitarian in nature. One of the places we can go in the Word to build this foundation is 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 were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”
The text here in John 1 harkens all the way back to Genesis 1. There’s a mirroring going on that takes us back to creation. Looking back at creation then helps us understand what God is going to do through the gospel in recreation. While there’s a lot we could talk about here, we must wrestle with this specific question when thinking about our purpose of understanding the Trinity: “What does it mean that someone can be with God and, at the same time, actually be God?” We would normally think that you are either with God or you are God since you can’t be with yourself. However, in this passage, we end up seeing that our God is a God in which there is both a “with-ness” and a “being.” The “with-ness” and the “being” are wrapped up together in a beautiful concept called the Trinity.
Living Out the Truth: Implications of a Trinitarian Faith
Out of John 1, and elsewhere in Scripture, we end up seeing that God is one God in three persons. Each one of these persons is distinct from one another, and yet they are united in one being, which is God. Pastor Juan Sanchez in Austin, Texas explains it like this: “God is one, God is three, each is God.” We’ve looked at John 1, but let’s also look back at Genesis 1:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
The word for God in the Hebrew text is “Elohim,” which is a plural word. However, the text does not say, “In the beginning they created…” It says that Gods (plural), HE created. Thus, in the beginning, one God, in three persons, created the heavens and earth.
The Trinity is a hard concept to understand, and a lot of people get in a lot of trouble with this specific aspect of God because they try to analogize it. People say things like, “Well, God is like water! You can have ice, liquid, and gas.” But that really shows a God that is one substance just taking on different forms. This is a heresy! Other people have said, “Well, God is like me! I’m a dad, I’m a husband, and I’m a son.” Unfortunately, this is a similar idea. This analogy addresses different relationships but nothing ontological about the being. The point is, anytime we really begin to analogize around the Trinity, we are going to get into hot water. Dipping our toes into hot water with analogies will have us quickly submerged into heresy if we’re not careful. Therefore, what we need to do is seek clarity on exactly what the Bible presents.
So here is the truth the Bible presents us with: God is Father, God is Son, and God is Spirit. There is one God, but there are three persons that are represented in the Trinity. One example where we see the Trinity on full display is when Jesus was baptized in Matthew 3. Verses 16 and 17 state:
“And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’”
Jesus was in the water, the Spirit descended and rested on Him, and God spoke from heaven. One God, three persons, all at work in unity.
Stand Firm On The Triune God
As we begin to understand and build our faith upon the Trinity, we must understand that this trinitarian view of God immediately puts us out of step with the other world religions. A pantheistic view of God would say that God is everything, and we are all one with God. A materialistic viewpoint states that everything in the universe is simply physical matter. Polytheism states that multiple gods are vying with each other for glory. None of these viewpoints are what the Bible states. The Bible states that God is “otherly.” We see in both Genesis 1 and John 1 that God has created, and He is apart from His creation. As stated, His nature is that of one God in three persons. The word Elohim is plural, yes, but it’s plural “He!” An understanding of the Trinity from Genesis 1 and John 1 both serve to differentiate our faith even from other monotheistic religions. Islam is a monotheistic religion that believes in one god, but Islam would not hold to the truth here that God can be both “God” and “with God” at the same time. Islam does not hold to the Christian trinitarian viewpoint.
The Christian faith is distinct, and to stand firm in our convictions, we must have a solid foundation upon which to stand. As you wrestle with the concept of the Trinity, resist the urge to analogize or seek an explanation for that which is beyond our ability to fully comprehend. Go to the Word, and build your foundation there. Stand upon our God, Elohim, one God in three persons.
– Andrew Hopper (Lead Pastor)
