Three In One

Deuteronomy 6:4, Matthew 28:19

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Have you ever heard of the word Triune or Trinity before? If so, you’ve maybe connected it to the Christian church. You maybe know that it’s a way that the Christian church uses to describe God as triune, or that he is the Trinity.

What does that word or what do those words even mean? I’ve often described it in this way to little kids. I’ve told them to picture a tricycle, and I asked them how many wheels are on a tricycle? And they say, well, three. And then I ask them, well, do you know what a unicycle is? And maybe some of them do, maybe some of them don’t. Then I asked them how many wheels are on a unicycle. And they will say one if they know what a unicycle is.

I make the point that if you take the first part of each of those words tricycle and unicycle, you really kind of get that word triune, right? And so it shows us what that word means. It means 3 in 1. We think about the word Trinity. It means a unity of three. And that’s a good term that we use to describe God.

Fun fact though, did you know that the word triune and the word Trinity are not found anywhere in the Bible? Maybe wonder where did they come from and why do we even use them? Well, they were words that were made up centuries ago by early Christians. They’re good words for us to use, even though they’re not found in the Bible, because they describe what the Bible teaches about God. In Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four. It says this

Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God. The Lord is one! (Deuteronomy 6:4)

There is one God. There isn’t a multitude of gods, but only one God. Then we think about Jesus own words in Matthew chapter 28 as he instructs his disciples.

Therefore go and gather disciples from all nations by baptizing them in[c] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (Matthew 28:19)

It seems a bit odd, doesn’t it, that Jesus instructs his disciples to baptize not just in the name of the Father, but of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. He really gives the Son and the Spirit equal footing, equal honor with God the Father. And there are many other places in Scripture that testified to the fact that the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God as well.

And so that term has been used in the Christian church to describe the God of the Bible, that he is a Trinity, or that he is Triune, three persons and one divine essence.

Now, that doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense for us as human beings. It’s something that we can’t fully comprehend or understand that God is three in one. For our human brains we want to say, well, which is it? Either he’s three or he’s one. He can’t be both. Right? And this is certainly a mystery, but it’s a mystery that we accept because God declares it in his Holy Word. And it’s a mystery that’s essential for us as Christians too.

We might wonder, can’t I just believe in a Creator God that there’s one Creator God such as the Muslims? We think about Jesus own words that he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Think about how we need to know who Jesus is, and we need to know and believe that Jesus is the Son of God, because only the Son of God, only his payment on a cross for us, could actually atone for our sins.

We also need to believe in God, the Holy Spirit, because he’s the one that brings us faith to believe in Jesus Christ. And so this is a precious teaching of Scripture. Not an easy one, certainly, but we believe firmly that God is Triune or the Trinity. We know that he is the God of our eternal salvation. Praise God, the Triune God of the Bible, for revealing himself to us, and that he is the only God of forgiveness and eternal life. Amen.