What the Bible Says About the Trinity Part #2

by John Lowe
(Laurens SC, USA)

The amazing fact of the New Testament is the way in which it presents the doctrine of the Trinity without any struggle or controversy. And the teaching of Jesus is Trinitarian throughout. He speaks to the Father and He speaks of the Holy Spirit, and He does so without apology and without explanation.

In John 14:16-17 we read that Jesus said, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as “another Helper,” that He would send to the disciples after He returned to the Father (Jesus requested the Holy Spirit, and the Father gave the Spirit in answer to His request.

When speaking of the Holy Spirit, John used “Helper” to designate the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit indwells the believer and serves him by revealing the will of God; He is our Teacher, Comforter, and Counselor, and it is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to live the Christian life. Jesus also said, “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father…” (John 15:26). He spoke of the Holy Spirit as a distinct person, not a quality or property, but a person with a proper name.

Paul gives a benediction in 2 Corinthians 13:14, which you may all be familiar with. It is a prayer directed to Christ for His grace, to the Father for His love, and to the Holy Spirit for His fellowship. He wrote, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.” Here the deity and equality of each person of the Godhead are taken for granted. God exists as three persons, and each of the three is equal in power and glory, being one in substance.

It is also important to note that in the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20) Jesus instructed His followers to go into the entire world “baptizing them in the name not names of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” This is another indication of the unity and the oneness of the Trinity.

The Father is God.

On many occasions, Jesus prayed to God the Father. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus agonized over His suffering on the cross, which was then just a few hours away, and He prayed, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what thou wilt.”

Lazarus, the friend of Jesus was dead and had been in the tomb for three days when Jesus “lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me” (John 11:41). Christ offered a prayer before He performed the miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. The prayer was one of thanksgiving rather than requesting.

In 1 Corinthians 8:6 Paul declares, “To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things.”

And then in Galatians 1:1, Paul identifies himself as an apostle- "sent… by Jesus Christ and God the Father.”

The Son is God.
John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (John1:1, 14, NIV).

Jesus Christ has always existed and will exist eternally. He is the living Word. Jesus and God the Father, along with the Holy Spirit, have always had an intimate relationship as the triune God.

Jesus is God who took on a human body and nature in order to redeem mankind. Colossians 2:9 says, “For in Him Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” In other words, Paul is saying, “All the attributes and spirit of deity are in Christ. He is one person with two natures, the God-man.” Hebrews 1:3 is one of the strongest statements in the New Testament that declares the deity of Jesus. He is said to be the exact expression of the substance of God. What is substance? It is whatever is necessary to be God. The Son is declared to be the exact expression of that substance.

In John 6:69, it speaks of the holiness of Jesus for it says: “and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Jesus is described as unchangeable in Hebrews, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”
It speaks of His supremacy and power in Matthew 28:18: “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” God has given all authority and power to His Son, and for that reason we can declare the Gospel to the world, as Jesus commanded us to do in the Great Commission.

John 16:30 records the disciples' testimonial, that they know that Jesus is God because He knows all things.

John 1:4 declares, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Spiritual life is in Jesus, and we receive spiritual life through faith in Him.

“Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” (John 8:58) He is eternal.

Jesus promised that He would always be with each of us, so He is omnipresent; He fills all of creation.

God has given Jesus the robe of Judgment. In Matthew 25:31-46, it speaks of the Second Coming, when Christ will come as King and Judge. He will separate the sheep from the goats, the saved from the lost. The saved will receive rewards for their works, but the lost will be judged for their sin because they did not make Christ Savior and Lord.

Jesus is called Creator in Colossians 1:16, “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.”

Three prepositions (the little words “in”, “by”, and “unto”) tell the story in this verse;
In Him: He is the source of creation.
By Him: He was the driving force of creation.
Unto Him: All things were created for His use and glory.

The Holy Spirit is God.

Peter declared in his words to Ananias that the Holy Spirit is God: he said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God” (Acts 5:3-4). Paul also declared it when he said that we can only know God through the Spirit of God who dwells within us. (1 Cor. 2:11). And Jesus implied in the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20); that the Holy Spirit is equal with the Father and the Son as deity.

I hope that our Bible lesson has helped you to understand the Trinity.

It has helped me.

But as I wrote this lesson it was humbling to realize that God the Father knows us, God the Son died for us, and God the Spirit is within us.