Getting Job-ed
“… and a voice from the cloud said: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him!… I and the Father are one… I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth…” Matthew 17:5 CSB, John 10:30 CSB, John 14:16-17 CSB
No doubt a very mysterious aspect of God is the Trinity. Now the word Trinity doesn’t occur in the Bible, but the three-in-one concept of God is seen throughout the Bible. Genesis 1, the opening of the Bible, discusses this God that creates everything, and yet He is this Spirit that hovers over the waters of the earth (Genesis 1:2) but yet also is composed of this community God as He says to Himself, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness…” Genesis 1:26 CSB. Deuteronomy 6:4 CSB says, “Listen, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” So, we see that from the beginning of the Bible, there’s this concept of separate Oneness of God.
The Father and Son
The idea of God being our ‘Father’ was not a foreign concept in the Old Testament. But when Jesus arrives, He introduces us to this concept of this Father and Son relationship as being a part of this God that we’ve been exploring from Genesis. John 1:1-3 we see that Jesus was in the beginning with God and was God. We see that the Son pleases the Father (Matthew 17:5) and that the Father and Son are One (John 10:30). We see that if we do not honor the Son, we don’t honor the Father (John 5:23) and that Jesus is the only way to see the Father (John 14:6). So, we can see that Jesus and the Father are two distinct parts, but of One God.
*Side note, Jesus calls us to address YAHWEH as Father, “Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven…” Matthew 6:9 CSB. Like, that is huge! YAHWEH, this infinitely powerful and wise Being, we get to address Him as ‘Dad’ as it says in the literal Greek! That is awesome.
Spirit: God with us
We now come to the most mysterious part of the Trinity: the Spirit. There are many names given to this personhood of the Trinity, such as Holy Spirit, Spirit, Holy Ghost, Counselor, Comforter. Jesus says in John 16:7-8 CSB:
“Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness and judgment…”
How could Jesus actually mean that that it is better that He leaves us? I mean, I’d rather take Jesus sitting right in front of me, right? Jesus knows that even if He was sitting right in front of us that that presence is limited. We need God with us at all times: at our jobs, in the bathroom, taking walks, talking with our friends, going on dates, going to the grocery store, etc. We need God with us every second to talk to, to comfort us, to show us God, and to keep us from sin. That is the Spirit: God with us. For more reading on the Spirit of God, read Francis Chan’s Forgotten God– it’s a great read!
The Trinity
To wrap up our study on Who is God, seeing the Trinity of God is extremely important. There’s a distinct and separate Oneness to this God as Father, Son, and Spirit. This is not a contradictory statement either. To make it simple: I like pizza, and there are different slices to the same pizza! Or think of the United States: different states, one country. The Trinity makes up the YAHWEH and Ego Eimi that we have explored in the other parts. This was a pretty introductory study into the Trinity, but I feel like this was a good high-level overview of what the Trinity means for us.
Wrap up: Who is God?
This is the conclusion of our study of who God is. With starting this ministry, I wanted to make sure we started from the top with some of the most fundamental teachings of the Bible and the Christian faith. This was not a complete expository on all verses pertaining to God’s character, but an introduction into the characteristics of God. We need to be rock solid on knowing who God is because our future truly does depend on Him!
-Austin
