Question:

My question concerns the Trinity. According to this teaching, the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. They are co-eternal and co-equal. Yet in Deuteronomy 6:4 it says the Lord our God is one God. Please explain this if you can. Sometimes I get it and sometimes it confuses me like crazy!

Answer:

What you are asking about is a very important truth about God that is expressed in the Bible, but is sometimes difficult to understand. It’s the idea that there is one God, but He is one God in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

How can one God be three Persons? First of all, you don’t have three gods. There is one God, and apart from Him there is no other (Isaiah 45:5) and He is just one God (Deut. 6:4). But there is a “three-in-oneness” to God that is also taught in Scripture. Theologians use the concept of Trinity in order to help describe the “fullness of the Godhead.” There is a unity and a diversity to God. In other words, there is only one God, but within that unity are three eternal and co-equal Persons—all sharing the same essence and substance, but each having a distinct existence.

This is not illogical, but it is a “dense” idea. It takes serious thought to deal with it. But it’s an idea worth thinking about! The reason is that each Person is engaged in your life. Think about it this way:

* God the Father had it in His heart to provide a way for you to be forgiven of your sin. God the Father authored the plan of salvation.
* Jesus the Son, while fully God, submitted to the Father’s plan. As the sacrifice for man’s sin, Jesus Christ accomplished the plan of salvation.
* The Holy Spirit, just as much God as the other two Persons, is at work in your life because you’ve chose to follow God. The Holy Spirit applies the plan of salvation in your life.

So you see how important this truth about God is. For more Scripture and some thoughts about the Trinity, here is a link to our Web site. This will plug you into one of the episodes of our television show, “Christianity 101.” Our guest for this particular program was Dr. Fred Sanders, who has spent a lifetime studying the Trinity. We would encourage you to look up the Bible passages and see for yourself how much the three-in-one God ha done for you! We think it will be helpful:

http://christianity101online.com/ResourcePages/Episode_4.html