Curtis
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Does the Bible teach the Trinity?
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” What do the plural verb (“let us”) and the plural pronoun (“our”) mean?
Genesis 3:22 (“Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil”), Genesis 11:7(“Come, let us go down and there confuse their language”),
Isaiah 6:8 (“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”).
Psalm 45:6–7, the psalmist says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. . . . You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.
To the person called “God,” the author says that “God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness” (v. 7). So two separate persons are called “God”(Heb. ’Elōhîm). In the New Testament, the author of Hebrews quotes this passage and applies it to Christ: “Your throne, O God,is forever and ever” (Heb. 1:8). Similarly, in Psalm 110:1, David says, “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’ ” Jesus rightly understands that David is referring to two separate persons as “Lord” (Matt.22:41–46), but who is David’s “Lord” if not God himself? And who could be saying to God, “Sit at my right hand” except someone else who is also fully God?
The New Testament teaching on the Trinity seems clear that David was aware of a plurality of persons in one God. Jesus, of course, understood this, but when he asked the Pharisees for an explanation of this passage, “no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions”
Isaiah 63:10 says that God’s people“rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit,” suggesting both that theHoly Spirit is distinct from God himself (it is “his Holy Spirit”),
In Hosea 1:7, the Lord says of the house of Judah, “I will save them by the LORD their God,” again suggesting that more than one person can be called “Lord” (Heb.Yahweh) and “God” (’Elōhîm).
Isaiah 48:16 “Now the Lord GOD has sent me and his Spirit,” if spoken by Jesus the Son of God, refersto all three persons of the Trinity.
When Jesus was baptized, “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’ ” (Matt.3:16–17). Here at one moment, we have three members of the Trinity performing three distinct activities. God the Father is speaking from heaven, God the Son is being baptized and is then spoken to from heaven by God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit is descending from heaven to rest upon and empower Jesus for his ministry.
At the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, he tells the disciples that they should go “and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). The very names “Father” and “Son,” drawn as they are from the family, the most familiar of human institutions, indicate very strongly the distinct personhood of both the Father and the Son. When the “HolySpirit”
1 Corinthians 12:4–6: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.”
Similarly, the last verse of 2Corinthians is Trinitarian in its expression: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the HolySpirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14). We see the three persons mentioned separately in Ephesians 4:4–6 as well: “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
All three persons of the Trinity are mentioned together in the opening sentence of 1 Peter: “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood” (1 Peter 1:2). And in Jude 20–21, we read: “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”
John 1:1–2 tells us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” The fact that the Word (who is seen to be Christ in vv. 9–18) is “with” God shows distinction from God the Father. In John 17:24, Jesus speaks to God the Father about “my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world,” thus showing the distinction of persons, sharing of glory, and a relationship of love between the Father and the Son before the world was created. We are told that Jesus continues as our High Priest and Advocate before God the Father: “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Christ is the one who “is able to save to the utmost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). Yet in order to intercede for us before God the Father, it is necessary that Christ be a person distinct from the Father.
Jesus said, “But the Helper, theHoly Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you”(John 14:26). The Holy Spirit also prays or “intercedes” for us(Rom. 8:27), indicating a distinction between the Holy Spirit and God the Father to whom the intercession is made.
Jesus said, “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7). Some have questioned whether the Holy Spirit is indeed a distinct person rather than just the “power” or “force” of God at work in the world. But the New Testament evidence is quite clear and strong.6 First are the several verses mentioned earlier where the Holy Spirit is put in a coordinated relationship with the Father and the Son (Matt. 28:19; 1Cor. 12:4–6; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 4:4–6; 1 Peter 1:2): since the father and Son are both persons, the coordinate expression strongly intimates that the Holy Spirit is a person also.
Other personal activities are attributed to the Holy Spirit, such as teaching (John 14:26), bearing witness(John 15:26; Rom. 8:16), interceding or praying on behalf of others(Rom. 8:26–27), searching the depths of God (1 Cor. 2:10), knowing the thoughts of God (1 Cor. 2:11), willing to distribute some gifts to some and other gifts to others (1 Cor. 12:11), forbidding or not allowing certain activities (Acts 16:6–7), speaking (Acts 8:29;13:2; and many times in both Old and New Testaments),
Finally, if the Holy Spirit is understood simply to be the power of God rather than a distinct person, then a number of passages would simply not make sense, because in them the Holy Spirit and his power or the power of God are both mentioned. For example, Luke 4:14, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee,” would have to mean, “Jesus returned in the power of the power of God to Galilee.” In Acts10:38, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power,” would mean, “God anointed Jesus with the power of God and with power”
the fact that all three persons are distinct, the abundant testimony of Scripture is that each person is fully God as well. First, God the Father is clearly God. This is evident from the first verse of the Bible, where God created the heaven and the earth. It is evident through the Old and New Testaments, where God the Father is clearly viewed as sovereign Lord over all and where Jesus prays to his Father in heaven.
In “The Person of Christ,” we can see several explicit passages at this point. John 1:1–4 clearly affirms the full deity of Christ: 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. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Here Christ is referred to as “the Word,” and John says both that he was “with God” and that he“was God.” The Greek text echoes the opening words of Genesis 1:1(“In the beginning”) and reminds us that John is talking about something that was true before the world was made. God the Son was always fully God.
John 20:28 in its context is also strong proof for the deity of Christ. Thomas had doubted the reports of the other disciples that they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, and he said he would not believe unless he could see the nail prints in Jesus’ hands and place his hand in his wounded side (John20:25). Then Jesus appeared to the disciples when Thomas was with them. He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands, and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe” (John 20:27). In response to this, we read, “Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ ” (John 20:28). Here Thomas calls Jesus “my God.” The narrative shows that both John in writing his gospel and Jesus himself approve of what Thomas has said and encourage everyone who hears about Thomas to believe the same things that Thomas did. Jesus immediately responds to Thomas, “Have believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). As far as John is concerned, this is the dramatic high point of the gospel, for he immediately tells the reader—in the very next verse—that this was the reason he wrote it:
Other passages speaking of Jesus as fully divine include Hebrews 1:3, where the author says that Christ is the “exact imprint” (Gk. charaktēr, “exact duplicate”) of the nature or being (Gk. hypostasis) of God—meaning that God the Son exactly duplicates the being or nature of God the Father in every way: whatever attributes or power God the Father has, God the Son has them as well. The author goes on to refer to the Son as “God” inverse 8 (“But of the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever’ ”), and he attributes the creation of the heavens toChrist when he says of him, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands”(Heb. 1:10, quoting Ps. 102:25). Titus 2:13 refers to “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,” and 2 Peter 1:1 speaks of “the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.”13 Romans 9:5, speaking of the Jewish people, says, “To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.”14 In the Old Testament, Isaiah 9:6 predicts, For to us a child is born, to us, a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God.”
the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah in Isaiah 40:3, “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God,” quoted by John the Baptist in preparation for the coming of Christ in Matthew 3:3.
the Holy Spirit is also fully God. Once we understand God the Father and God the Son to be fully God, then the Trinitarian expressions in verses like Matthew 28:19(“baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”) assume significance for the doctrine of the HolySpirit because they show that the Holy Spirit is classified on an equal level with the Father and the Son. This can be seen if we recognize how unthinkable it would have been for Jesus to say something like, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the archangel Michael”—this would give to a created being a status entirely inappropriate even to an archangel. Believers throughout all ages can only be baptized into the name (and thus into a taking on of the character) of God himself.
In Acts 5:3–4, Peter asks Ananias,“Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit . . .?You have not lied to man but to God.” According to Peter’s words,to lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” God’s temple is the place where God himself dwells, which Paul explains by the fact that “God’s Spirit” dwells in it, thus apparently equating God’s Spirit with God himself. David asks in Psalm 139:7–8, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there!” This passage attributes the divine characteristic of omnipresence to the Holy Spirit, something that is not true of any of God’s creatures. It seems that David is equating God’s Spirit with God’s presence. To go from God’s Spirit is to go from his presence, but if there is nowhere that David can flee from God’s Spirit, then he knows that wherever he goes he will have to say, “You are there.” Paul attributes the divine characteristic of omniscience to the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 2:10–11: “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God [Gk. literally ‘the things of God’] except the Spirit of God.”
God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’ ” (John 3:5–7). But the work of giving new spiritual life to people when they become Christians is something that only God can do (cf. 1 John 3:9, “born of God”). This passage therefore gives another indication that the Holy Spirit is fully God.
Scriptures from the Bible:
Commentary from Wayne Gruden:
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” What do the plural verb (“let us”) and the plural pronoun (“our”) mean?
Genesis 3:22 (“Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil”), Genesis 11:7(“Come, let us go down and there confuse their language”),
Isaiah 6:8 (“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”).
Psalm 45:6–7, the psalmist says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. . . . You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.
To the person called “God,” the author says that “God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness” (v. 7). So two separate persons are called “God”(Heb. ’Elōhîm). In the New Testament, the author of Hebrews quotes this passage and applies it to Christ: “Your throne, O God,is forever and ever” (Heb. 1:8). Similarly, in Psalm 110:1, David says, “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’ ” Jesus rightly understands that David is referring to two separate persons as “Lord” (Matt.22:41–46), but who is David’s “Lord” if not God himself? And who could be saying to God, “Sit at my right hand” except someone else who is also fully God?
The New Testament teaching on the Trinity seems clear that David was aware of a plurality of persons in one God. Jesus, of course, understood this, but when he asked the Pharisees for an explanation of this passage, “no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions”
Isaiah 63:10 says that God’s people“rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit,” suggesting both that theHoly Spirit is distinct from God himself (it is “his Holy Spirit”),
In Hosea 1:7, the Lord says of the house of Judah, “I will save them by the LORD their God,” again suggesting that more than one person can be called “Lord” (Heb.Yahweh) and “God” (’Elōhîm).
Isaiah 48:16 “Now the Lord GOD has sent me and his Spirit,” if spoken by Jesus the Son of God, refersto all three persons of the Trinity.
When Jesus was baptized, “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’ ” (Matt.3:16–17). Here at one moment, we have three members of the Trinity performing three distinct activities. God the Father is speaking from heaven, God the Son is being baptized and is then spoken to from heaven by God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit is descending from heaven to rest upon and empower Jesus for his ministry.
At the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, he tells the disciples that they should go “and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). The very names “Father” and “Son,” drawn as they are from the family, the most familiar of human institutions, indicate very strongly the distinct personhood of both the Father and the Son. When the “HolySpirit”
1 Corinthians 12:4–6: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.”
Similarly, the last verse of 2Corinthians is Trinitarian in its expression: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the HolySpirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14). We see the three persons mentioned separately in Ephesians 4:4–6 as well: “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
All three persons of the Trinity are mentioned together in the opening sentence of 1 Peter: “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood” (1 Peter 1:2). And in Jude 20–21, we read: “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”
John 1:1–2 tells us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” The fact that the Word (who is seen to be Christ in vv. 9–18) is “with” God shows distinction from God the Father. In John 17:24, Jesus speaks to God the Father about “my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world,” thus showing the distinction of persons, sharing of glory, and a relationship of love between the Father and the Son before the world was created. We are told that Jesus continues as our High Priest and Advocate before God the Father: “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Christ is the one who “is able to save to the utmost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). Yet in order to intercede for us before God the Father, it is necessary that Christ be a person distinct from the Father.
Jesus said, “But the Helper, theHoly Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you”(John 14:26). The Holy Spirit also prays or “intercedes” for us(Rom. 8:27), indicating a distinction between the Holy Spirit and God the Father to whom the intercession is made.
Jesus said, “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7). Some have questioned whether the Holy Spirit is indeed a distinct person rather than just the “power” or “force” of God at work in the world. But the New Testament evidence is quite clear and strong.6 First are the several verses mentioned earlier where the Holy Spirit is put in a coordinated relationship with the Father and the Son (Matt. 28:19; 1Cor. 12:4–6; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 4:4–6; 1 Peter 1:2): since the father and Son are both persons, the coordinate expression strongly intimates that the Holy Spirit is a person also.
Other personal activities are attributed to the Holy Spirit, such as teaching (John 14:26), bearing witness(John 15:26; Rom. 8:16), interceding or praying on behalf of others(Rom. 8:26–27), searching the depths of God (1 Cor. 2:10), knowing the thoughts of God (1 Cor. 2:11), willing to distribute some gifts to some and other gifts to others (1 Cor. 12:11), forbidding or not allowing certain activities (Acts 16:6–7), speaking (Acts 8:29;13:2; and many times in both Old and New Testaments),
Finally, if the Holy Spirit is understood simply to be the power of God rather than a distinct person, then a number of passages would simply not make sense, because in them the Holy Spirit and his power or the power of God are both mentioned. For example, Luke 4:14, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee,” would have to mean, “Jesus returned in the power of the power of God to Galilee.” In Acts10:38, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power,” would mean, “God anointed Jesus with the power of God and with power”
the fact that all three persons are distinct, the abundant testimony of Scripture is that each person is fully God as well. First, God the Father is clearly God. This is evident from the first verse of the Bible, where God created the heaven and the earth. It is evident through the Old and New Testaments, where God the Father is clearly viewed as sovereign Lord over all and where Jesus prays to his Father in heaven.
In “The Person of Christ,” we can see several explicit passages at this point. John 1:1–4 clearly affirms the full deity of Christ: 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. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
Here Christ is referred to as “the Word,” and John says both that he was “with God” and that he“was God.” The Greek text echoes the opening words of Genesis 1:1(“In the beginning”) and reminds us that John is talking about something that was true before the world was made. God the Son was always fully God.
John 20:28 in its context is also strong proof for the deity of Christ. Thomas had doubted the reports of the other disciples that they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, and he said he would not believe unless he could see the nail prints in Jesus’ hands and place his hand in his wounded side (John20:25). Then Jesus appeared to the disciples when Thomas was with them. He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands, and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe” (John 20:27). In response to this, we read, “Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ ” (John 20:28). Here Thomas calls Jesus “my God.” The narrative shows that both John in writing his gospel and Jesus himself approve of what Thomas has said and encourage everyone who hears about Thomas to believe the same things that Thomas did. Jesus immediately responds to Thomas, “Have believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). As far as John is concerned, this is the dramatic high point of the gospel, for he immediately tells the reader—in the very next verse—that this was the reason he wrote it:
Other passages speaking of Jesus as fully divine include Hebrews 1:3, where the author says that Christ is the “exact imprint” (Gk. charaktēr, “exact duplicate”) of the nature or being (Gk. hypostasis) of God—meaning that God the Son exactly duplicates the being or nature of God the Father in every way: whatever attributes or power God the Father has, God the Son has them as well. The author goes on to refer to the Son as “God” inverse 8 (“But of the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever’ ”), and he attributes the creation of the heavens toChrist when he says of him, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands”(Heb. 1:10, quoting Ps. 102:25). Titus 2:13 refers to “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,” and 2 Peter 1:1 speaks of “the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.”13 Romans 9:5, speaking of the Jewish people, says, “To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.”14 In the Old Testament, Isaiah 9:6 predicts, For to us a child is born, to us, a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God.”
the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah in Isaiah 40:3, “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God,” quoted by John the Baptist in preparation for the coming of Christ in Matthew 3:3.
the Holy Spirit is also fully God. Once we understand God the Father and God the Son to be fully God, then the Trinitarian expressions in verses like Matthew 28:19(“baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”) assume significance for the doctrine of the HolySpirit because they show that the Holy Spirit is classified on an equal level with the Father and the Son. This can be seen if we recognize how unthinkable it would have been for Jesus to say something like, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the archangel Michael”—this would give to a created being a status entirely inappropriate even to an archangel. Believers throughout all ages can only be baptized into the name (and thus into a taking on of the character) of God himself.
In Acts 5:3–4, Peter asks Ananias,“Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit . . .?You have not lied to man but to God.” According to Peter’s words,to lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” God’s temple is the place where God himself dwells, which Paul explains by the fact that “God’s Spirit” dwells in it, thus apparently equating God’s Spirit with God himself. David asks in Psalm 139:7–8, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there!” This passage attributes the divine characteristic of omnipresence to the Holy Spirit, something that is not true of any of God’s creatures. It seems that David is equating God’s Spirit with God’s presence. To go from God’s Spirit is to go from his presence, but if there is nowhere that David can flee from God’s Spirit, then he knows that wherever he goes he will have to say, “You are there.” Paul attributes the divine characteristic of omniscience to the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 2:10–11: “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God [Gk. literally ‘the things of God’] except the Spirit of God.”
God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’ ” (John 3:5–7). But the work of giving new spiritual life to people when they become Christians is something that only God can do (cf. 1 John 3:9, “born of God”). This passage therefore gives another indication that the Holy Spirit is fully God.
Scriptures from the Bible:
Commentary from Wayne Gruden:
