A Digest on the Trinity - Part 1: Scriptural Foundations

This article is the first in a series called A Digest on the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity, though never propositionally set forth in Scripture, nevertheless finds its raw data in Scripture. This article will explore these data briefly, to provide a basis for discussion in subsequent articles, without going into too much detail. What this article seeks to achieve is to provide a coherent picture of the Scriptures as presenting the one God who is also three.

God in creation

The Genesis account is mysterious in many ways. While it is God who speaks in v 3, there is one called the Spirit of God who hovers over the waters of the deep (v 2). It is unclear from the immediate context if it is a distinct entity. Later, when creating Man, God is shown to be speaking to others when He says, “Let us make Man in our image” (v 26). Yet when we consider God in Genesis 1, the Hebrew word bara in v 27 is used in the singular form, denoting that “God”, though plural, is one.

Letham provides a wondrous insight when he notes how the Creator God creates in a triadic pattern:[1]

- He issues direct fiats – by His powerful creative commands alone, He brings forth the expanse (v 6), the waters (v 9), the stars (v 14), the birds of the air and beasts of the sea (vv 20, 24).

- He works – by His powerful creative activity, He separates light from darkness (v 4), land from water (v 7), places the sun and moon in their place (vv 16-17).

- He uses the activity of the creatures themselves – He commands the earth to produce plants (vv 11-12), the lights to govern the day and night (vv 14-16), the earth to bring forth beasts of the land (v 24).

As Letham notes, the God who creates does not do so in a singular or monolithic way, but exudes diversity in unity.[2]

The Angel of Yahweh

Scattered throughout the Old Testament are narratives about the enigmatic Angel of the LORD, or Yahweh. While not Yahweh, he is still identified as Yahweh, speaking not simply as one sent by Yahweh, but as Yahweh Himself.

Note the burning bush narrative in Exodus 3. The one who appears to Moses is not said to be Yahweh in v 2, but the Angel of Yahweh. Yet in the same passage, it is God Moses is speaking to (v 4), the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (v 6). It is also the Angel of Yahweh who gives the divine covenant name when asked what His name was: I AM WHO I AM (v 14). It is the Angel who is so holy that the ground before Him is holy ground and Moses must remove his sandals.

In Joshua 5, an equally enigmatic figure appears to Joshua just before he is about to take the Promised Land. He calls Himself the Commander of Yahweh’s army, but uses virtually the same words as the Angel does to Moses: “Take the sandals off your feet, for the ground you are standing on is holy ground” (v 15).

Scripture is not clear on who these two mysterious characters are, or whether they are the one in the same. Yet, we note that given the absolute identity of the Angel and the Commander with Yahweh, the Old Testament provides clues of plurality within the one God Yahweh.

Yahweh in Sodom and Gomorrah

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 provides another programmatic episode to understand plurality within Yahweh. In v 14, it is said that Yahweh will destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Yet in v 24, when the dawn breaks, it is Yahweh who rains sulphur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from Yahweh. The word “from” indicates a source, a movement of action from one to the other. It is clear that there is one Yahweh who acts from another Yahweh, which indicates that while they are both called Yahweh, they are not each other. 

Daniel’s Son of Man

Another mysterious encounter is found in Daniel 7, where in his vision, there is the one called the Ancient of Days who sits on the throne of heaven, and one son of man who approaches the Ancient of Days on clouds of heaven, a symbol of deity. This son of man is given dominion over the world and all people bow in divine service to Him, as the King of all the earth. Daniel’s vision once again provides a glimpse into the one called the Ancient of Days, a clearly divine figure, and another called the son of man, the other divine figure.

Allusions to the Spirit of God

Apart from the Angel of Yahweh, the Spirit of God also remains an enigma in the Scriptures. In the Hebrew, “spirit” is ruach, which means “breath” or “wind”. Little is said about His relation to God or His specific role. The first mention is in Genesis 1:2 where the Spirit of God broods over the waters, involved in creation as much as God is. It was the Spirit of God who filled Bezaleel to build the tabernacle (Exo 35:31), Joshua to lead the people into the Promised Land (Num 27:18), rushed upon Samson before he tore up a lion with his bare hands (Jdg 14:6). Elsewhere, God makes mention of His Spirit as being poured out on all flesh in the New Covenant (Joel 2:28).

Strict Jewish monotheism

However, lest the impression be that the Jews were polytheistic, the Scriptures indicate that they were not (at least they were not supposed to be). For all the plurality that the Old Testament indicates, the overarching doctrine is that God is one (Deut 6:4). They can have no other gods in His presence (Exo 20:3); because of His omnipresence, there can be no other gods. Thus, the Jews who worshipped Yahweh knew Him to be the one true and living God; there is only one God.

Revelation of the Son

For all the quiet allusions of plurality against a backdrop of monotheistic singularity, upon the opening of the New Testament, Jesus Christ appears in the gospels with a blaze of miracles and authoritative preaching, the most provocative theme being the fact that He and the Father are one (John 10:30). He says to be the natural Son in the Father and the Father being in Him (John 14:11), revealing that the one God of Israel has a Son. He lays claim to the divine name (“I AM”) not once, not twice, but at least five times (John 6:20; 8:24; 8:28; 8:58; 13:19). He claims to have pre-existed Abraham (John 8:58) and John will later say that He is the Word who was in the beginning with God and is God (John 1:1). Jude will say that it was Jesus who subdued the fallen angels, destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and delivered the Israelites from Egypt, though He would not be physically born millennia after the Exodus (Jude 5-7). By His own admission, the name He calls Himself the most is none other than “the Son of Man”, harkening back to Daniel’s vision.

Paul, while not arguing for His deity, will assume it throughout in his writings, calling Christ “the form of God” (Phil 2:5), the one through whom all things were created (Col 1:16), the one before all things (Col 1:17), “God over all” (Rom 9:5).

Deity and personhood of the Spirit

And while on earth, Christ spoke often about the Spirit, the same one mentioned briefly in the Old Testament. Here, Christ will expound on the Spirit’s mission: to speak of Him and to bring people to Him (John 16:14). Then, on Pentecost, when He descends on the people, it is unequivocally revealed that the one God of Israel who has a Son also has a Spirit.

The New Testament points to the Spirit sharing in the works of God. He is said to have spoken through the prophets (Heb 3:7; 1 Pet 1:10-11) even when it was God who spoke (Heb 1:1). He is called the “breath” of God that makes Man when God breathed life into the dust. Yet He is not simply an impersonal force, but a person, as He addresses Himself in the first person (Acts 13:2). Bavinck notes that personal acts are attributed to Him: searching (1 Cor 2:10-11), judging (Acts 15:28), hearing (John 16:13), speaking (Acts 13:2), willing (1 Cor 12:11), teaching (John 14:26), interceding (Rom 8:27), so on and so forth.[3]

Sharing in common works

Perhaps one of the strongest pieces of evidence that the one called Son and the one called Spirit are together with the one called Father is the fact that they all share in the same works of God. Though it is God (the Father) who creates (Gen 1:1), the Son creates (John 1:3; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2), the Spirit creates (Gen 1:2; Job 33:4; Psa 33:6; 104:30). Though it is God (the Father) who redeems, the Son redeems (Matt 20:28; Eph 1:7; Heb 9:15), the Spirit redeems (John 3:6; Rom 8:23). Likewise, works are done in their common authority: teaching and baptism are done in the singular name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19-20).

It is not enough for the construction of the doctrine to speak simply of their common divine attributes – common attributes can be shared by three gods, which does not necessitate the confession that they are one God. Rather, the fact that they share in the exact same work is indicative that they are the same one causal agent. This revelation as found in Scripture (Father, Son, Spirit do the same works), will be foundational to one pillar in the doctrine of the Trinity (Father, Son, Spirit work inseparably). Once again, we note revelation feeding into doctrine.

The task ahead

Having gathered all of the biblical data, we can now set it out in definitive statements as accurate descriptions of the Scriptural truth:

There is one God who created the heavens and the earth.

This one God who created the heavens and the earth entered a covenant with the nation of Israel.

In the Old Testament, this one God insisted multiple times on His exclusive singularity.

In the Old Testament, this one God who insisted multiple times on His exclusive singularity also acts as though there is plurality within Him.

In the Old Testament, this one God who insisted multiple times on His exclusive singularity is identified with more than one figure.

In the physical presence of Jesus Christ, this one God of Israel is revealed to have a Son.

This Son is said and shown to be equal to God, sharing in His works and nature.

On the day of Pentecost, this one God of Israel who has a Son is revealed to also have a Spirit.

This Spirit is said and shown to be equal to God, sharing in His works and nature.

The data summarised in those few statements give rise to the revelatory conclusion: there is one God who is also three – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The task ahead lies in constructing a systematic doctrine that is both faithful to the data and coherent internally and externally, which begins in the next article on the essence-person distinction.