The Trinity:
Unity without Uniformity
by
Cadet Dawn Marie Paulson
Augustine said,
“Try to explain it [the Trinity], and you’ll lose your mind;
but try to deny it, and you’ll lose your soul” (Erickson
342). Over time, many have sought to understand and try to
explain the Trinity. How the three parts (tri-) can be one
(-unity) without being separate and without being the
same, has boggled many good minds. People have compared it to
a peanut M&M, to an apple (core, flesh, skin), to the roles a
person may have as father, husband, and son—or the ever-famous
water, ice, steam analogy. Though each of these seeks to
somehow help people understand the Trinitarian nature of the
Godhead, each one falls short in some way or another. The
third doctrine of The Salvation Army deals with one of the
essential beliefs of the Christian faith, stating, “We believe
that there are three persons in the Godhead—the Father, the
Son and the Holy Ghost, undivided in essence and co-equal in
power and glory” (The Salvation Army Handbook of Doctrine
XV). This belief both confirms the plurality and the
oneness of the Godhead. Thus, the tri-unity of the
Godhead affirms the unity of the three persons without
assuming or concluding uniformity.
Throughout
Scripture, there is no explicit mention of the Trinity—it is
not a word that exists within the Bible, but rather, is a
concept derived from Scripture as God reveals Himself to man.
From Genesis to Revelation, the three persons of the Godhead
can be seen. For instance, Genesis one contains the account of
the creation of the world, and in it, readers can see each
person of the Godhead at work. God spoke— and it was
so. Generally one of the first functions or roles people think
of when they think of God is Him as Creator. Genesis 1:1
reads, “In the beginning,” which is the same verbiage
as John 1:1, which reads, “In the beginning was the Word
[Jesus] and the Word was with God and the Word was God”
(The Nelson Study Bible NKJV). Furthermore, Paul, in
his letter to the Colossians writes that Jesus is “the
firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were
created that are in heaven and that are on earth…all things
were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all
things, and in Him all things consist” (Col. 1:16-17). So
though God the Father is predominantly thought of as Creator,
it is obvious from Scripture that Christ was intimately
involved in creation with the Father. As the creation account
continues in Genesis one, it is revealed how the Spirit was at
work: “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of
the waters” (Gen. 1:2b). As the story of the Old Testament
unraveled, God was revealing Himself little by little to the
Israelites, beginning with the creation account. His
self-revelation culminated in the incarnation of Jesus, which
ultimately brought revelation of the plurality of the Godhead,
three persons in one (Olyott 27).
Looking further
into the creation account, the plurality of God and the
oneness of God can be understood in the phrase “God created”
found in verse one of Genesis one. The Hebrew word used for
God is Elohim, which is the plural form of God (which,
in its singular form would simply be El). This form of
God is referred to as the ‘plural of majesty’ or the ‘plural
of intensity,’ and can be translated to mean the ‘fullness of
deity’ or ‘God—very God’ (Radmacher 4). This understanding is
important to the discussion of the Trinity because the
plurality of God is inherent even within the name God uses to
refer to Himself. However, this plurality is not to be
understood as God being more than one, such as the ordinary
plural god(s). Rather, the oneness is intrinsic in the
plurality of Elohim. This is evidenced in multiple
Scripture passages, such as Genesis 1:27, which reads, “Let
us make man in our image (italics mine), and in
Genesis 3:22 when God says, “Behold, the man has become
like one of Us, to know good and evil,” and again, in
Genesis 11:7, “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their
language.” In each of these instances, God speaks of
Himself in the plural, but the Hebrew verbiage is singular,
thus speaking to the unity of the Godhead. Jesus also makes
reference to the unity of the Godhead, as He commissions the
disciples—“Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:18-20). The Greek word used for
name is in its singular form, thus pointing to the unity of
the Trinity. There are many other similar instances of this
recorded in Scripture, but referring back again to the
creation account, the very next word—Elohim created—is
in the singular form. So, the ‘plural of majesty’—the
‘fullness of deity’—singularly created together—Father,
Son, and Spirit. Therefore, the unity of the Trinity can be
traced back to God’s own name and His activity recorded in the
first verse of the Bible.
The Trinity—or
tri-unity—of the Godhead asserts that the God who is
three persons is one God, as has been previously established.
Beyond the inherent nature of this concept in the use of
Elohim, are God’s own claims to oneness within Scripture.
In Deuteronomy 6:4, it is written, “Hear O Israel the Lord our God is One…”
Here is recorded what is now known as the Shema and is
still recited by devout Jews to this day. Not only does this
verse affirm that God is the One and only God, but it also
affirms that He is one. This verse testifies that “God
is one in His essential being or constitutional nature”
(Olyott 22). This verse further implies that the essence,
being, or substance (often used interchangeably) are one
(Olyott 23). This is the unity referred to in the third
doctrine of The Salvation Army and in the concept of the
Trinity. Furthermore, the whole of Scripture assumes
that there is only one true God, through explicit statements
such as the Shema, as well as implicitly, through laws
against idolatry, for example (Vander Pol 30). God makes it
very clear that there are to be no other gods—that His
followers must be monotheistic—as evidenced in the first of
the Ten Commandments that He gives the Israelites (Ex. 20:3).
The oneness of God thus affirms Christianity as a monotheistic
religion, an opposing view to those who lack understanding of
the unity of the Trinity, and therefore conclude that
Christianity is tri-theistic or polytheistic. God’s
self-revelation in Scripture supports monotheism and the
belief that He is one, stated both explicitly and implicitly
throughout the Biblical text. Therefore, it can be concluded
that the concept of the Trinity must be comprehended within
this understanding, such that the unity of God is not
forsaken.
A
further component of the aforementioned discussion on the
unity of God’s essence or being, must also be connected to a
discussion on the divinity of God. Because the three persons
of the Trinity are unified, it implies that each person must
then be fully divine. They are all God; they are one; they are
divine. This belief is essential to Christian doctrine.
Therefore, because of this unity of essence, and because of
the fact that each is divinely God, it can be concluded then,
that they are each equal to the others. Thus, a discussion on
the unity of the Godhead must be closely linked with an
understanding of the equality within the Godhead. For example,
Jesus is not subordinate to the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit
subordinate to Jesus, but rather, their relationship is such
that they each function in their roles in harmony with one
another. This diversity in role and function leads to a deeper
understanding that the unity of God does not mean that there
is uniformity in the Godhead.
In a discussion
on the unity of the Trinity, one cannot assume or conclude
uniformity, but, conversely, one must comprehend that there is
diversity within the Godhead. There is one God, yet there
exists a plurality of persons within the Godhead, as has been
previously discussed (Olyott 24). The Oneness of God does not
negate the three-ness of God. Within this oneness then,
there are still three distinct persons—God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Their unity is found in their
aforementioned identical essence and equality in divinity,
meanwhile their diversity is grounded in their roles and
functions, as well as their relationship to one another. So as
to confirm that the unity is without uniformity, it is
beneficial to look briefly at the variety of roles and
functions that each person of the Godhead has. God the Father
is the Creator of the world and all that is in it, as well as
being the Overseer and Orchestrator of creation. He is the
Sustainer and care-taker of His creation. He is also the
Governor over creation and is the ultimate Judge who will
judge the world at the end of the age. All of these are part
of His role and function as God the Father. Scripture reveals
Jesus as also being intimately involved in the creation
process and in the preservation of the world, being the One
through whom all was made and through whom everything holds
together. Jesus came to earth as a man so that He could be
mankind’s Redeemer and Savior. Therefore, He is the Mediator
between God and man, thus creating the bridge by which humans
can cross to spend eternity with God, and without whom,
mankind would have no way to God. While on earth, He was an
example and a teacher. Because of the incarnation, He is often
thought of as the relational one with mankind, since it is
through Him that mankind has a relationship with the Father,
and as such, He is called Friend. Although He has since
ascended to be with the Father in heaven, He is still an
intercessor for mankind. And prior to His ascension to heaven,
He promised that the Holy Spirit would come and dwell in
believers. The Holy Spirit, then, is the counselor and
comforter, and is the indwelling of God within those who are
saved. The Holy Spirit also convicts the hearts of followers
of Christ, and is able to cleanse and purify human hearts. The
role and function of each person in the Godhead is vital—so
even though the unity of the Godhead is critical to one’s
understanding of God, it is equally critical to understand
that it is not unity with uniformity. On the contrary, the
unity still exists despite the variety and diversity of the
roles that each person of the Godhead has.
The doctrine of
the Trinity is essential to Christian belief. In understanding
this doctrine, one must begin to grasp the tri-unity of the
Godhead—that there are three persons that make up
one God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—unified in
essence and being, yet without uniformity in role and
function. Scripture is rampant with examples of God’s own
testimony to Himself as One and Himself as three—in perfect
harmony to form the One.
Works Cited
Erickson,
Millard J. God in Three Persons: A Contemporary
Interpretation of the Trinity. Grand Rapids: Baker Books,
1995. Print.
The Nelson Study Bible.
Earl D. Radmacher, gen.ed.
Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers,
1997. Print.
Olyott, Stuart. The Three are One.
Darlington (ENG): Evangelical Press, 1979. Print.
The Salvation Army Handbook of Doctrine.
London: Salvation Books, 2010. Print.
Thoennes, Erik. The Doctrine of the Trinity. Class
lecture notes, 2003. Print.
Toon, Peter. Our Triune God: A Biblical Portrayal of the
Trinity. Wheaton: Victor Books, 1996. Print.
Torrance, Thomas F. The Christian Doctrine of God, One
Being Three Persons. Edinburgh: T&T Clark Ltd, 1996. Print.
Vander Pol, Allen. God in Three Persons: Biblical Testimony
to the Trinity. Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing Company, 2001.
Print.
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