What is the Trinity?

The One True and Living God

Because you've got to understand something, the claim of Scripture is that God is not just one God among many gods. He is the true and living God, and He claims to be the only God, and that all other gods are false gods.

That's what God says. He's the only God. And so what God says about Himself is important because what I'm pointing you to here is to a relationship with the living God. You need to know that. I don't give you seven steps to success.

I'm not giving you Jeff Durbin's tips to success over addiction. I'm giving you Scripture, and what does the Bible say about coming into a relationship with God? But then the question comes, well, which God are we talking about?

Because there's all kinds of conceptions of God out there. Everyone says the word God, but what do you mean when you use that word? Basically, just to make it as simple as possible, God claims to be the only true and living God.

And as a matter of fact, in Genesis to Revelation, one thing is totally and absolutely clear with the Bible is that there's only one true and living God. God says, as a matter of fact, if you were Jewish and you woke up in the morning and you were living in Jesus' day, you would have woke up and you would have quoted Deuteronomy 6, verse 4.

You would have, Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad. That means, hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. There is only one God. And when somebody came to Jesus, they said, Master, what's the greatest commandment in the law?

Jesus Confirms the Greatest Commandment

Okay, you get to get a chance, there's God in front of you, in the flesh. You get to ask Him a question. What's the greatest commandment in the law? And Jesus says what? Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad.

The hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. Jesus says that is the greatest commandment of all.

To love this one and only God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. Jesus says that's the greatest commandment and every other commandment hangs on that one. So, there's only one God. God says in Isaiah 43, 10, Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

Isaiah 44, 6 says, I am the first and I am the last. Besides me there is no God. And then God asks a rhetorical question in Isaiah 44, 8. Now, is God all-knowing? No, He has to be the God. The all-knowing God, right?

So God says this, the all-knowing God says this in Isaiah 44, 8. He says, Is there a God besides me? He says, Indeed there is no other God, I know not one. He says He doesn't even know of any other gods besides Himself.

There's only one God from Genesis to Revelation. Remember the Bible has 66 different books. This is not simply one book. It's one unified message from God. But it's 66 different books written by about 40 different authors over a period of a couple thousand years.

One unified message and a clear and consistent teaching about who this God is. There's only one God.

Period.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Are All God

But the Bible says very clearly, and there's no argument about this, that the Father is God.

No question.

The Father is God. In Jesus' praise, here's how you pray. Our Father, Lord in Heaven. You know, God is Father. But then the Bible also says very clearly from the Old Testament and the New Testament, books written long before Christ comes to the earth, and those written by the eyewitnesses of Jesus Himself, that Jesus is in fact God.

In John chapter 1, verse 1.

You guys know the verse?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. By the way, the Trinity is in that verse.

I know.

In Archean, halagos means in Greek, in the beginning the Word was already there. Jesus is the Word. And the Word was proston theon. It means He was face to face with the Father. The Word was God. So it says that Jesus was already there in the beginning before anything was.

He was eternal. He was with the Father. And He was everything God was. And God became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus says to the Jews, when they're talking about, you know, who are you? You're not even this many years old.

You've seen Father Abraham. He says, before Abraham was, echo a me.

I am.

Now to a Jew, that's about as direct as you can get. Because it would be one thing for Jesus to say in a culture of, you know, paganism and idolatry, and it's all around in Rome, to say, I'm a God.

You know, whatever.

It's all Zeus and all these different things.

You're sure a God.

But Jesus takes the name of Israel's God. The one and only true God. What does God say to Moses in the burning bush?

What does He say?

I am.

He says, Moses said, what do I say your name is? Because before that time, remember that all the Jews knew God. His name was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That was what they knew Him as. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

He's the one and only true God. So Moses says, what do I tell the Israelites?

What do I say? Who sent me?

And He says, I am that I am. You tell them, I am has sent you.

I am.

So Jesus is before the Jews. And He said, you're not even this many years old. You've seen Abraham. He says, before Abraham sprang into existence, I am. And they picked up stones to kill him. And then later in John 10, He says, I and my father are one.

And they pick up stones to kill him again. Because it's blasphemy to make yourself equal with God because there's only one God. And to say that you are one with the Father is to say that you are, in fact, God.

So they pick up stones to kill him. And he says in John 10, he says, many good works have I shown you from the Father. For which of these do you stone me? And they said, for your good works we stone thee not, but for blasphemy.

And that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

He's God.

And Jesus appears after the resurrection to Thomas. Thomas is like, I ain't going to believe unless I touch Him on the side. I put my hand on the fingerprint that is in His wrist. And Jesus appears in the upper room.

What does Thomas say to Him?

He says, my Lord and my God. And he worships Jesus. Jesus is called God throughout the entire New Testament. And about 600 years before Jesus even came to the earth, Isaiah 9, verse 6, is a prophecy given that the Messiah who's coming, 600 years before He came, this book, this is penned, the Messiah that's coming, the Son who's born and given to us, He is going to be called Wonderful Counselor, these are names of God in the Old Testament, the Father of Eternity, only God is eternal, and He's going to be called, very specifically, it says, El Gibor, the Mighty God.

So it says, in Isaiah 9, 6, hundreds of years before Jesus comes,.

That who's coming?

God.

God's coming. But then the Bible also teaches something else. The Holy Spirit is God. Jesus says in John, chapter 14, He says what? He's going to send the Holy Spirit.

He will be in you.

He will teach you. He will do all these things. In the book of Acts, you see the Holy Spirit talking to people, telling Paul where to go. There's this interaction there. Jesus says that He and the Father are going to send the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will be in you.

He'll guide you in all truth and all these different things. There's this He, He, He. The Holy Spirit is not a force, like electricity. The Holy Spirit is a person.

He's God.

Acts, chapter 5, when Ananias and Sapphira are lying about the money that they're withholding back, Peter says, You didn't lie. When you lied to the Holy Spirit, you didn't lie to men. You lied to God.

And in Genesis, chapter 1, what does it say? It says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And then it says, The Spirit of God was moving across the face of the waters. You see the Holy Spirit in the beginning of the Bible, right?

The Trinity as One Being and Three Persons

So here's what you've got. Ready? Foundational things.

Get this.

The Bible says, banner over the whole Bible, monotheism. There is only one true and living God. Only one being of God. But the Bible says the Father is God. The Bible says the Son is God. The Bible says the Holy Spirit is God.

And yet, Jesus is not the Father. He's not the Father. Jesus prays to the Father. He talks to the Father. The Father talks back from heaven to him. You see, in John 1, it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

He was with God. There's a relationship between the Father and the Son. Jesus is not the Father. He has an eternal relationship with the Father. The Holy Spirit is not the Father and the Son. There are three persons who share the one being of God.

And our little finite minds go, I don't get it.

Right?

And I hope so.

I hope that God is much bigger than our conceptions of him. I hope that his creature has got to be much bigger than our capability to actually say, I gotcha.

Right?

Here's what you need to know. The Bible says one very clear thing about who God is. And it's consistent from Genesis to Revelation. Like I said, 66 books, 40 different authors, over a couple thousand years of writing.

And a consistent message about who God is. No contradictions, no confusing the persons. All those different things. Very consistent. And what God commands us to do is not necessarily fully comprehend him.

But to really submit to him when he says who he is. We don't have the right or the privilege to say, I don't get it, so I'll create a God in my image. And that's what men typically do. And so, basic foundations.

Ready?

Only one God. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. The three persons are distinct. And yet share the same substance. So if you were to ask the question, like for instance, I'm Jeff Durbin.

I'm one human being. I have the being of a human. I have one being to myself. But I'm Jeff Durbin, one person. Jeff with one being. God has one being of God. Shared by three co-equal, co-eternal persons.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There's a basic rundown of what the Bible says about the Trinity. Now, for our normal conceptions of God, that's difficult. Because, you see, if you look at man-made religion, if you look at all the gods that men have created with their minds and their hands, they look a lot like us.

They have the same failures as us. They look a lot like us. They produce like us. You know, when men create gods, they create gods that look a lot like them.

Right?

But the God of the Bible is distinct from all the gods of creation. He's incomprehensible. In the sense we can't fully grasp him, but we can definitely apprehend what he says about himself. So you get the difference.

There's the incomprehensibility of God. As a finite creature, you go, Ah, I don't get you, God, how you exist like that. But then there's the apprehension where God says,.

This is who I am. And we say,.

Yes, God.

I get it.