An explanation of the Holy Trinity that doesn’t make your head hurt
The Christian concept of the Trinity can be tough to grapple with at first look. How can three divine entities be considered one God? And it doesn’t help when Christians give analogies that fail to explain it adequately.
That’s why I avoid analogies and try to explain it straightforwardly. There may not be any natural analogies to explain God. After all, he is a supernatural transcendent being.
I also never try to convince people of the truth or even the plausibility of the Trinity when explaining it. I just try to show them there’s no logical contradiction in the concept — that Christians don’t believe something stupid.
I’ve successfully explained it in youth groups and prison ministries. They are often more open-minded because they don’t have the intellectual baggage that prevents some people from being objective.
Yet, I’m never sure I’ll finish the explanation before they mentally check out. So, I always start by saying, “One GOD, three PERSONS,” while holding up one finger on my left hand and three fingers on my right. I say it three times.
“One GOD, three PERSONS.
They always see there’s no contradiction in that statement. Verbally emphasizing the word God and persons and using the separated hand gestures helps them see the distinction. It never fails.
Then I go a little further. “You are comprised of one person. God is comprised of three.” They typically get that, too. I always see the aha on their faces. They accept that God’s composition is probably different from theirs and that he is perhaps more endowed than they are.
Then I quit while I’m ahead. I succeeded in showing them that the Christian doctrine isn't incoherent or stupid.
However, here I go a little further to illustrate the idea using the thoughts of Christian philosophers William L. Craig and J.P. Moreland from their book Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview. The concept is critical to Christian theology, especially for fully understanding who Jesus was.
Christians believe God is a trinity of persons — a single God comprised of three distinct persons. In the Bible, the persons are called the Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit.
Amid the Trinity, God has three sets of consciousnesses that make them distinct persons. Each has a distinctive “I/me” perspective. Only the Son (Jesus) can say “I” died on the cross. Only the Holy Spirit can say “I” imparted miracles and gifts to Christians on the Day of Pentecost. Conversely, humans are constituted by only one person with the I/me perspective.
The first person of the Trinity, the Father, is typically associated with the God depicted in the Old Testament, prominent in Judaism. He’s seen as the creator, lawgiver, and superintendent of humanity’s salvation process.
Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, assumed a human nature to save humanity. Though Jesus (the Son) shares equal divine essence with the other persons, he subordinated himself, to the Father (Person #1) in the role he played to complete the work the Trinity wanted to accomplish – save humanity.
During Jesus’s earthly ministry, he often showed humble deference to the first person of the Trinity, the Father. However, Jesus also emphasized their solidarity, saying, “he who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14.9).
Then, there’s a third person of the Trinity called the Holy Spirit. The Scripture passage, 1 Corinthians 2:11, says the Holy Spirit knows the thoughts of God (the Father). It suggests the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God because he is a divine member of the Trinity who shares full accord with the other members.
Yet, the Holy Spirit similarly subjected himself to the other members to fulfill his role in human salvation. During Jesus’s earthly ministry, he promised to send the Holy Spirit to pick up where Jesus left off after his ascension.
The Holy Spirit is now the active agent of the Christian salvation process, which begins with drawing people to God to mend their relationship. The Holy Spirit is also responsible for changing converts’ hearts to reform their character and lives. He gives them the intrinsic motivation and practical abilities to love God and others in their thoughts, words, and actions – which is God’s moral will for humanity.
Admittedly, there’s no mention of the word trinity in the Bible. Yet, it clearly portrays a trinity of divine persons, acting in concert in history.
It affirms there is one God, comprised of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who are distinct in their personhood, equal in essence, complementing one another in their roles in governing the world.
In human marriages, spouses are equal in essence, distinct in their identities and roles in governing their lives together. The best unions have a harmonious alignment of wills and roles even when subordination or deference to one another is sometimes necessary. The Trinity is the eternal quintessence of such a loving and successful relationship.
Ultimately, when Christians are asked, who and what their god is, they can say, “God is the Trinity.” The concept is coherent and distinguishes it from other religions.
