Day 8 - God is Three-In-One
Matt 28:19Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…
God – the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. What exactly does that mean?
“Trinity” is a word that has been used for centuries to describe another aspect of the nature of God. “Trinity” is a short form of tri-unity, which basically means three in one. What it describes is one God who is made up of three distinct persons – the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. While they are distinct, they are completely unified and connected in every way. This is the reason we can say they are one. The three make up what we call the Godhead.
Here again, this can be a problem for our minds: how can three be one? We have an impossible time picturing 3 people being one. But we have to remember the perfection of God. Sure, three people could not be entirely unified. Two people could not be entirely unified. Let’s face it, we all have trouble living with ourselves sometimes!
But God is different – He is perfect. So the three can and do work in perfect harmony. This is where Judaism and Islam can have a hard time saying that Christianity is a monotheistic religion (having one God). But as Christians, we affirm that there is one God, and yet three persons.
What’s interesting is that even in the Old Testament (which forms the basis of Jewish thought and faith) we see signs of the trinity. When God went to make man, He said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us” (Gen 1:26 NLT). The first time God is referred to in the Bible (”In the beginning, God…”), the word God is a plural word in the original Hebrew. And this same word is used for “God” over 2,000 more times in the Old Testament.
So even before God created man, when there was no one else, He was in community. There was and is perfect fellowship, perfect cooperation and perfect love. He was and is three in one.
Consider:
What’s the closest you’ve ever been to being in unity with another person?
What does the perfect cooperation of the Godhead tell you about their attitudes?