Three Persons, One God

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD." Deuteronomy 6:4)

I am a unitarian in that I believe in the unity of God. I am a trinitarian in that I believe in the trinity of God. And they're not contrary one to the other.

Now that's what we believe, my brethren: we believe in the three Persons, but one God.

The three Persons are three, but the one God is One. And this we believe. So when I talk about God, I mean the three Persons of the Trinity. You can't separate them - "not dividing the substance," said these old fathers. You can't have God the Father except you have God the Son; you can't have God the Spirit unless you have the Father and the Son" (see John 15:26). So when I'm talking about God, I'm talking about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - not confusing their Persons, for there are three Persons. But everything that is true of the Father is true of the Son and the Holy Spirit. And everything that is true of the Son and the Holy Spirit is true of the Father. Let's get that settled before we go any further.

Lord, I don't completely understand the Trinity, but it is clearly taught in Scripture, and I will accept it because Your Word is truth. How awesome that You can be both three persons and yet one God! Amen

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Truth For the Heart

"Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." (John 14:23)

The doctrine of the Trinity is truth for the heart. The spirit of man alone can enter through the veil and penetrate into that Holy of Holies. "Let me seek Thee in longing," pleaded Anselm, "let me long for Thee in seeking; let me find Thee in love, and love Thee in finding."

Christ did not hesitate to use the plural form when speaking of Himself along with the Father and the Spirit. "We will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Yet again He said, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30). It is most important that we think of God as Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance. Only so may we think rightly of God and in a manner worthy of Him and of our own souls.

The authors of the Athanasian Creed spelled out with great care the relation of the three Persons to each other, filling in the gaps in human thought as far as they were able to while staying within the bounds of the inspirited Word. "In this Trinity," runs the Creed, "nothing is before or after, nothing is greater or less: but all three Persons co-eternal, together and equal."

With my mind I struggle, Lord, but with my heart I rest. I am awed by Your Trinity in unity, and I long to know You not through reason but through love and faith. Amen

~A. W. Tozer~