As we continue our study through some of the paradoxical teachings of the Bible, we’ll be taking up the Biblical doctrine of the trinity, which teaches that there is one God who exists eternally in three persons- Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Down through the years people have employed a number of analogies to try and explain the mystery of God’s three-in-oneness. Although perhaps apocryphal, the legend goes that Saint Patrick explained this mystery using the three-leafed shamrock. Others have used the three corners of a triangle to make much the same point. I knew an acquaintance in college who tried to explain the trinity using that most time-honored and classic analogy of “Voltron,” the cartoon from the eighties where robot lions would combine into one mega-robot.
These analogies fall short because they imply that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are parts of a whole, and that each part (or person as it were) is not fully and sufficiently God in Himself. These analogies make the false assumption that it is the combination of the three, like three ingredients in a dish, that makes up God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not part of God, but rather each is fully and equally God in their divine essence and power. Yet, somehow, it cannot be said that Christians worship three Gods. God is One. That’s the paradox of the trinity.
Others have tried to explain the trinity by saying that God is like water. Water can exist in three states, solid (ice), liquid, and gaseous (water vapor). But this also falls short as a representation of the triune nature of God. The Bible is clear that God does not merely appear in three different forms, but rather that He (singular) is three (plural). It would represent a serious departure from Biblical truth to think that, just as water might change progressively from ice to liquid to vapor, that the Father might have become the Son, who then became the Holy Spirit. The Bible is clear that God always was and always will be three Persons who exist equally, simultaneously, and eternally.
Words fail us when we come to this subject, but words are exactly what I will try and do this Sunday. Pray for me, and I will pray patience for you. A preacher can make a big pile of words, but it would not make a sufficient ramp for us to clamber up above the foggy limits of our creaturely comprehension. As 1 Corinthians 13:12 says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
The fullness of God’s nature within the perfect community of the godhead is something that exists out beyond the finite limits of human intellect, and, as such, it is a thing we can apprehend but never fully comprehend. That is to say we can grasp the essential truth of the trinity, but we cannot understand all the ins and outs of it. We know what we know about the triune nature of God because God Himself has told us so in His Word, but we do not know and cannot know anything beyond what He has revealed to us. It is simply out of reach. This is one of the frustrating aspects that comes from living in relationship with an infinite God. We just can’t contain Him in our minds. There will always be mystery surrounding Him. We can know truly that God is One, and that He exists eternally in three persons, but what we know truly we may not understand fully.