Pop Quiz
Q: Which best describes the doctrine of the Trinity?
- He is one God who has three different roles just like a man who is a father, a son, and a husband.
- He is one God who has existed in different forms throughout history, sometimes as the Father, at other times the Son, and now as the Holy Spirit.
- He is one God who exists in three distinct persons, each person fully God.
A. He is one God who exists in three distinct persons, each person fully God.
“The doctrine of the Trinity is not a contradiction but a mystery. A contradiction is something that is against reason, but a mystery is something that is above reason.” – J.I. Packer, What is the Trinity?
I can’t think of a better way to describe the tension between mystery and reason when it comes to the Bible’s teaching on the Trinity than the above quote from the late J.I. Packer above. I see it in Scripture; I understand that God has revealed Himself as one God and yet three persons. I accept He is one in being or essence and three in person. Yet, as a reasonable human being, I desire to find something that would illustrate God’s “three-in-oneness” in a way that I can grasp as a finite human being while helping others do the same.
I am not the first in the history of the Church to do so. It has been a desire of many to communicate tangibly what it means for God to be Triune. Yet, the problem is that we are trying to describe an infinite God with finite objects or illustrations. Below, we will look at some of the most popular ones I heard growing up in church and taught throughout my early years in ministry. However, each illustration below falls short of providing a complete picture of the Trinity and teaches a heresy that the Church has combated against at some point throughout its history!
Common ways of trying to explain the Trinity.
The Trinity is like a man.
One way to explain the Trinity is by illustrating how one man can be a husband, son, and father. He is one person but has three different roles at the same time. The man is his wife’s husband, his parents’ son, and his children’s father all at once. In this case, the Trinity is likened to one God wearing three hats. According to this illustration, the distinctness of God is not as three different persons but roles and is known in the theological world as modalism, along with the H20 example below.
The Trinity is like H20.
Another way we try to help make the doctrine of the Trinity is by using H20. We start with a block of ice and then warm it until the solid becomes a liquid. As the temperature continues to warm, water becomes steam. Thus, H20, the same substance, can exist in three different forms or modes.
Rather than teaching the biblical explanation of the Trinity, the ice, water, and steam object lesson teaches a heresy known as modalism. Modolism teaches that one God has manifested Himself throughout history in different forms. For example, in the Old Testament period as God the Father, the New Testament as God the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Church age. But this idea of God manifesting Himself in three forms throughout history is not what the Bible teaches. Instead, beginning in the opening words of Genesis, we see a singularity and plurality to God’s nature, and it continues throughout Scripture, becoming clearer and clearer as God’s plan of redemption progresses.
The Bible and Modolism
In contrast to modalism, which teaches there is one God who sometimes exists as the Father, at other times the Son, and still, at others, the Holy Spirit, the Bible teaches that all three exist and have and will exist for all eternity as distinct persons. I like Matthew 3:13- 17 as a text that proves that the diversity in the Trinity is not simply a set of roles or modes but a set of three persons. As you read Matthew’s report of Jesus’ baptism, notice how all three members of the Trinity are present and distinct from one another.
Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?”15 But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires” So John agreed to baptize him. 16 After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” (Matthew 3:13-17, NLT)
In these verses, we see the Son coming up out of the water, the Spirit descending like a dove, and God the Father speaking from heaven. While we could cite other passages, this one suffices to show that God’s distinctness is not in His roles but in His persons. There is one God, and this God exists as three distinct people.
The Trinity is like a three-leaf clover.
St. Patrick is often credited with comparing the Trinity with a three-leaf clover; whether he did or not is uncertain. The object lesson usually goes like this: there are three leaves, each representing a member of the Godhead, but one plant is a picture of one God. I have seen and used an egg or apple similarly, yet this grouping of attempts to explain the Trinity also falls short.
Here is why they fall short. Yes, the clover, egg, and apple provide a great picture of how each member of the Trinity makes up one plant, egg, or apple, but they fall short in that each individual piece of said object is not the object itself.
Take the clover for example, if I were to remove a leaf from the clover, the departed leaf is not a three leaf clover but just part of one. When we look at the members of the Godhead, each distinct person or leaf is entirely God. The Father, Son, and Spirit are equally holy, righteous, gracious, omnipotent, omniscient, etc. The same applies to the apple rhine or eggshell; they in and of themselves are not the apple or egg but simply a part of them where each person of the Trinity is fully God.
The clover, egg, and apple do a great job of providing concrete examples of how the Godhead can be three in one but fail to communicate Him as one in three because once any of the parts are removed from an object, it is not the object itself, nor are the remaining two parts (whether leaves, meat and core, or yoke and white) the object to which the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is fully God.
Unfortunately, the three-leaf clover illustration and its associates teach a heresy known as partialism, which teaches that each person of the Trinity is only a part of God (one-third) instead of being fully God. For examples of Scripture teaching that each member of the Trinity is fully God, please refer back to part 2 of this mini-series.
Conclusion
As much as we would like to have a concrete picture of how God is one yet three and three yet one, it is best to accept and teach others, even children, according to the truths God has chosen to reveal about His Triune nature in Scripture.
(1) God is three persons
(2) each person is fully God
(3) there is only one God.
Now, if you’re like me and have used any of the above illustrations to communicate the concept of the Trinity to those you are ministering to, don’t sweat it. God is bigger than our teaching blunders. Simply move forward, presenting this marvelous mystery of the Trinity as given to us in the Bible!
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