Is Jesus God – Part III According to the Bible, God is one, but God is also three. He is the Trinity. There is one and only one God, but this one God is also three persons. Of course, this idea that God can be one in one sense and three in another sense is deeply mysterious. We are finite human creatures and will never be able to ever come close to knowing God fully since he is not just a bigger version of us, but an infinitely greater and different reality than us. We cannot try to understand Him with the human mind. When we say that God is three “persons”, we do not mean that they are three personalities, three minds, three gods, three names, or three pieces, or three updates. This language of “persons” is a way of recognising that the Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct without being divided. Each of the three persons has a unique, individual, and eternal existence in relationship to the other two. The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons — the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. Thus, there are three aspects: (1) the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who are distinct Persons; (2) each Person is fully God; (3) there is only one God. The Bible tells clearly that there is only one God. In Deuteronomy 6:4 we read: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Jesus confirms this in the New Testament, in Mark 12:28-29. When asked which commandment is the most important of all, Jesus answered, “The most important is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” To further substantiate this, let us examine the scriptures. Philippians 1:2 states, “2 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13 speaks of Jesus as God: “Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Finally, in Acts 5:3-4, the Holy Spirit is referred to as God: “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? 4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men but unto God.” 1. The Trinity is not a belief in three gods. There is only one God, and we must never stray from this. 2. This one God exists as three Persons. 3. The three Persons are not each part of God but are each fully God and equally God. Within God’s one undivided being, there is an “unfolding” into three interpersonal relationships such that there are three Persons. The distinctions within the Godhead are not distinctions of his essence, and neither are they something added onto his essence, but they are the unfolding of God’s one, undivided being into three interpersonal relationships such that there are three real Persons. 4. God is not one person who took three consecutive roles. That is the heresy of modalism. The Father did not become the Son and then the Holy Spirit. Instead, there have always been and always will be three distinct persons in the Godhead. 5. The Trinity is not a contradiction because God is not three in the same way that he is one. God is one, in essence, three in Person. So, Christians believe in one God: glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Dr Ashwin Drummond Laddertoheaven.co.in