R. A great question and one appropriate for the month in which we will celebrate Holy Trinity Sunday (May 27).
The understanding of God as Trinity exists from the earliest days of the church and their attempt to figure out who Jesus was as the Son of God. There have been many attempts to explain this understanding of who God is; the earliest attempt made use of Greek metaphysical philosophy. To be honest, I find that language to be very confusing.
I have found most compelling an understanding that goes all the way back to Athanasius of Alexandria, a Bishop of the church from around 300 CE. He believed that the knowledge of who God is comes solely through God’s self-revelation through the Son. What does that self-revelation show us about God?
It is Jesus who speaks of the Father and who promises the coming of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. So, through Jesus we see learn that God is the “one self-revealing and self-naming God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as he who is who he is in that three-fold self-revelation.” The very nature of God is defined in relationship: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Each is fully God, even as each is not the other.
Okay, but that doesn’t really answer the question, does it? While I have found that any attempt to discuss the Holy Trinity in a short format leads to heresy or confusion, I’ll risk it here.
The Gospel of John calls Jesus the Word. This is the Word that was with God in the beginning at creation. It is the Word by which the Father creates. This Word originates from the Father. It is part of the Father, but is not the Father that speaks. How do words form? You need breath. The Holy Spirit is the breath of God by which the Word is spoken. In this way, each comes from God the Father. Each is in relationship with the other, could not exist without the other. However, the Word is not the one speaking. Neither is the breath the Word. To even begin to get a sense of who this is who speaks all things into being, you need to have all three: Speaker, Word, Breath.
This is the Holy Trinity. This is our God. Who exists in relationship even within Godself. Who loves us enough to reveal Godself through God’s Son. Who continues to move and act in the world through the Holy Spirit. Who seeks to be in relationship with us.
This is a wonderful and inexhaustible conversation, hopefully this has helped to get us started. Let me know if you have further questions by contacting me.
God’s Blessings,
Pastor Brian
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