The Bible Shows Us God Is Triune
As Christians, it’s crucial to know the central items of our faith. One of these key beliefs is the following:
God is eternally one, and this one God is eternally the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; yet the three, being distinct, are not separate.
This statement about the eternally one God being the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is profound. It’s impossible to cover this subject comprehensively in a single blog post. But since it’s essential for us to have a basic understanding of who God is, we’ll point out some important verses related to this crucial truth.
The Bible reveals that God is one
Let’s take that statement of our faith one phrase at a time, starting with “God is eternally one.”
The Bible is God’s own speaking, so if we want to know God, we must rely on what it tells us about Him. The Bible says that in the universe, only one God exists; there is no other. This revelation is plain in a number of verses throughout the Old and New Testaments. Here are just a few.
Deuteronomy 4:35:
“You were shown these things that you might know that it is Jehovah who is God; there is no other besides Him.”
Isaiah 45:5 and 21:
“I am Jehovah and there is no one else; besides Me there is no God.”
“And there is no other God besides Me.”
1 Corinthians 8:4:
“There is no God but one.”
1 Timothy 2:5:
“For there is one God and one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
These and other verses tell us that God is uniquely one.
God is one yet three
Now let’s look at the next section of the statement: “This one God is eternally the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.”
We’ve seen that God is one. Yet He’s also the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. So is He one or three? The answer is He’s both.
The adjective triune is derived from Latin and is composed of two parts: “tri,” meaning three, and “une,” meaning one. Triune literally means three-one. The eternal God is one, yet at the same time, He’s three—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. God is triune. Although the word triune isn’t in the Bible, the fact that God is triune is revealed in many verses.
For example, in the following verses, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all mentioned. But the fact that the Father, the Son, and Spirit are all mentioned absolutely doesn’t mean there are three Gods. We just read a number of verses in the previous section that declare God is one. Putting those together with the verses below, we see that God is one yet three, three yet one.
Matthew 3:16-17:
“And having been baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him. And behold a voice out of the heavens saying, This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight.”
2 Corinthians 13:14:
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
Matthew 28:19 particularly shows us God is three yet one:
“Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
In this verse, the Lord Jesus told the disciples to baptize people into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Notice that the Lord used name (singular) and not names (plural). The singular name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit reveals that God is triune, or three-one.
How is this possible? We simply can’t explain how God can be three and yet one, yet we can’t deny that this is what the Bible reveals to us concerning God. We’re blessed when we accept the divine revelation as it’s presented. Although we don’t know how this can be, we do know that it is because God’s Word tells us so.
God is three yet one
In John 10:30 and 14:9, Jesus declared:
“I and the Father are one.”
“He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”
The Father and the Son are one, so to see the Son was to see the Father.
Then we see something more in John 14:11, where the Lord Jesus said:
“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.”
In this verse, we see that the Son and the Father even dwell in one another; They are inseparable.
Yet verses like Matthew 3:16-17 show us the three of the Triune God are distinct.
How can all of this be? It’s beyond our ability to grasp with our mind. We must simply accept what the Bible tells us: our God is one; He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; yet the three, being distinct, are not separate.
We can enjoy the Triune God
By now it should be obvious that when it comes to understanding the Triune God, the human mind is limited. We can’t fully comprehend or explain this deep and mysterious matter of God being three yet one.
But we need to realize that the Triune God isn’t merely a subject for a cold analysis. He’s a wonderful, living Person who loves us and whom we love. The moment we believed in Jesus Christ, we were born again and this mysterious Triune God came to live in our spirit. Now He wants us to enjoy and experience Him. He lives in us to be our life and everything to us.
Let’s look again at 2 Corinthians 13:14. This verse especially shows us that the Triune God wants us to enjoy Him:
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
Here the apostle Paul didn’t simply say, “The Lord Jesus Christ, God, and the Holy Spirit be with you all.” He linked grace with the Lord Jesus, love with God, and fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Grace, love, and fellowship are for our experience and enjoyment, and they are of the Triune God Himself.
So while we can’t mentally grasp the mystery of God being triune, surely we can all testify that we’ve experienced the precious grace of Christ, the eternal love of God our Father, and the intimate fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Day by day, we can enjoy the Triune God because He’s with us all the time. What a wonderful Triune God we have!
As we’ve seen in this post, the truth concerning the Triune God is profound. Matthew 28:19 and 2 Corinthians 13:14 have extensive and enlightening notes on this matter in the New Testament Recovery Version. We encourage you to read them to gain a fuller view of the Triune God. If you live in Europe, you can order a free copy here.
