In the Godhead there are three Persons and one Being.
“For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one” (1 John 5: 7).
The word tri-unity comes from two Latin words, tres and unitas, “three” and “unity,” which together give us the doctrine of three-in-one, or the Trinity.
There is no effort made in the Word of God to prove the doctrine of the Trinity. It’s simply stated as a matter of fact. It is commonly received, believed, and taught by Bible believing Christians and churches.
Emery Bancroft states, “Though the Bible teaches the unity of God—that there is one and only one God—it also teaches that in one Godhead there is a distinction of personality which is threefold—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” And, “By the trinity of God is meant that He is one in being and substance, possessed of three personal distinctions, revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
I learned while in college the following, “We believe that there is one God, eternally existing, manifesting Himself in three Persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, coequal in all attributes and power.” Donald Fortner says, “We do not (by the Trinity) mean that there is one God manifest in three personalities. We mean that we worship one God in three divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Divine Trinity is the union of these three Persons in one Godhead, so that all three are one God as to substance, but three Persons as to individuality.” J. I. Packer says, “The basic assertion of the doctrine of the Trinity is that the unity of the one God is complex. The three personal ‘subsistences’ (as they are called) are coequal and coeternal centers of self-awareness, each being ’I’ in relation to two who are ‘you’ and each partaking of the divine essence (the ‘stuff’ of deity, if we may dare to call it that) along with the other two.”
When God works all three Persons of the Godhead work. No work of God is done without all members of the Godhead being involved. The Trinity of God is seen in the three different parts taken in the work of redemption. The Holy Spirit, (Jn. 3: 5, 6). The Father and Son (Jn. 3: 16, 17). When God works it is the Father that initiates the work, the Son that complies, and the Spirit that executes the will of the Godhead. The work of each is inclusive of the work of the others rather than exclusive. “The Father is all the fullness of the Godhead invisible (Jn. 1: 18); the Son is all the fullness of the Godhead manifested (Jn. 1: 14-18); the Spirit is all the fullness of the Godhead acting immediately upon the creature (1 Cor. 2: 9-10).”
The Trinity is seen in connection with the incarnation (Mt. 1: 20-23), with the Lord’s baptism (Mt. 3: 15-17), with the great commission (Mt. 28: 19-20), with the Savior’s promise to send the Holy Spirit (Jn. 14: 16), and with the apostolic benediction (2 Cor. 13: 14).
Only Him
If Jesus should call me to valleys dark
Where there was not a ray of light,
Would I descend the mountain height,
And serve Him there in darkest night?
♢
Would I leave my flower strewn path
To travel the Calvary way?
Forsake my friends and family,
With Jesus Christ as my only stay?
♢
How far, to please Him, would I go,
And fulfill His holy desire?
Would I surrender to Him my all
And do whatever He requires?
♢
Would I leave and never stop to think
What other men might say?
Knowing that He who called me out,
Will walk with me in life’s way?
♢
Would I demand before I would leave
To know just where and how?
Or will I answer Love’s pulling tide
And go to Him right now?
♢
Oh wavering soul, oh faithless heart,
Oh, why not have this thought?-
Why should I be as the changing wind,
But never as I ought?
♢
To linger behind and pine away,
And never go with Him;
Beyond my sight, beyond what I feel,
And there know only Him.
James H. Cagle
