Introduction
Of all doctrines and theological concepts in the Christian faith, the Holy Trinity is quite possibly the most difficult to fully grasp. The Holy Trinity is the three persons of One God – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The divine and infinite nature of the Trinity makes it impossible to explain in our human, finite language; however, this does not mean we cannot discuss it further and understand it to the best of our ability. Today, we will be discussing specifically how the Trinity’s relationship with each other affects each individual person’s abilities, actions, and responsibilities.
The Father
The Father, as do the Son and the Spirit, has a unique personality and responsibility within the Trinity. The Father is referred to by name frequently throughout the entire Bible, Old Testament and New Testament. There are many misconceptions of the Father which will need to be addressed first and foremost.
The first misconception is that the Father is higher than the other two persons of the Trinity, the Son and the Spirit. Many people think that He is somehow more powerful or more divine than the other two, worthy of more praise and glory (this such heresy about the Trinity is known generally as subordinationism[1]). Different subcategories that fall under the scope of subordinationism present different reasons for why they believe this to be true, one example being a heresy known as Arianism.
Arianism is the belief that God is unknowable, unchangeable, unreachable, and impassible. Thus, a God with that description could never incarnate as a human on earth to be known and seen by all and to have a personal relationship with humanity; therefore, Arianism stakes the claim that Jesus of Nazareth was simply a man that God the Father chose to be His tool for salvation and made Him divine. Since this would mean that Jesus was the created and not the creator, according to this tradition the Son is not worthy of the same worship that the Father is, and to worship Him in such a way would be blasphemy.
Another misbelief is that God the Father does not personally care for or love us. The Father is seen as the hard, old man calling the shots, and we only receive any grace or love because the Son and the Spirit beg Him to. The entire story of the Bible shows otherwise, of course, but this tends to happen because of the way stories are told and verses are interpreted within the Church. For example, one of the reasons this happens is because some people take the verses speaking about how the Son and the Spirit advocate for us as to mean that the Father does not care about us but He helps us anyway just because He cares about them. One of the most famous verses in the Bible states specifically otherwise, of course: “For God so loved the world, He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”[2] God the Father sent the Son to earth because He loves us. He has loved us from the beginning and does everything He does because He still loves us today and forevermore.
The Son
The Son of course is just as unique as the Father. The Son has quite the spotlight in the New Testament, but He is referred to consistently throughout the Old Testament as well. While the Old Testament calls Him the Messiah, we finally get a name for Him come the New Testament: Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is fully God and fully Human, contradictory to the Arianism we discussed previously.
The Son is the incarnation of God. He is the physical person of God taking the form of a human body to represent both Himself and the Trinity to us. Many times in the Gospel, He will say that you can see the Father through Him. The Son is on the same level as the Father and as the Spirit, He simply holds different responsibilities that require different things from Him. This understanding gets tricky, though, as we do not want to mistakenly fall into the heresy of Modalism.[3]
Modalism is the belief that there is no true distinction between the three persons of the Trinity – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It believes that they are merely the same person taking on different roles to accomplish certain purposes. This is incorrect, as we believe these words from the Nicene Creed:
“We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and all that is seen and unseen. We believe in one lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God… We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.”[4]
So, the Son is the sacrificial lamb of God, sent by the Father to come to earth as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, that we might be able to receive the Spirit as a guide for this life until we join God in the next. He loves us and lived a perfect life as an example of how we should live out the teachings that God has given us. He reached down to us to give us a way to find the Father and live in step with God forever. The Son sent the Holy Spirit to us before ascending to heaven, where He prepares for His return at the resurrection.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is a very interesting person of God. I say this because of the way in which the Spirit is spoken of throughout the Bible. One of the names for Him that stands out the most is the “helper.” This being because not only is He our helper, but He is the helper of the other persons of the Trinity as well. As Thomas A. Noble puts it, “[Jesus] continued to sanctify human living by His obedience in the power of the Holy Spirit. The inner secret of His holy life was His loving relationship with His Father in the Spirit.”[5]
The Holy Spirit is frequently called on by the mightiest characters of the Bible, including Jesus Himself. Jesus relies on the Spirit during His life on earth to guide Him and to give Him strength. “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.”[6] This verse from Romans is a statement that the Holy Spirit lives in us, yes, but I would like to focus on the saying that it was the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. This is intriguing in that it implies that different abilities are given to the different persons of God. So, it is interesting to see that the Son and the Father both rely on the Spirit just as much as He relies on Them.
Conclusion
The persons of the Holy Trinity are each unique individuals who are all fully and equally God while remaining distinct from each other, yet They are reliant on each other and on Their dynamic to accomplish the purposes which They have set out ahead of Them. They have all been together from before the beginning of time and all have equal standing. The Father sent the Son to earth to be the salvation for our sins, and the Son sent the Spirit to guide us along the right path after He left. They exist and move in harmony with each other, working together to collectively rule with grace, justice, and love.
Bibliography
Dunning, H. Ray. Grace, Faith, & Holiness. Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press, 1988.
CREED, NICENE. The Nicene Creed. S.P.C.K.: London, n.d.
Noble, T. A. Holy Trinity: Holy People: The Historic Doctrine of Christian Perfecting, 239. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2013.
[1] H. Ray Dunning, Grace, Faith, & Holiness (Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press, 1988)).
[2] John 3:16.
[3] H. Ray Dunning, Grace, Faith, & Holiness (Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press, 1988)).
[4] CREED, NICENE. The Nicene Creed. S.P.C.K.: London, n.d.
[5] T. A. Noble, Holy Trinity: Holy People: The Historic Doctrine of Christian Perfecting (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2013), 239.
[6] Romans 8:11.