” We worship one God in Trinity. For there is one person of the Father another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and the Holy Ghost is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.” (Excerpt from the Creed of Athanasius)
In the Gospel of John, John records Jesus’ disclosure of the mystery of the Trinity: three persons, one God with the Son doing the will of the Father and the Holy Spirit doing the will of the Father and the Son.
They are the “us” in Genesis 1:26, when God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness—“. Jesus was the Word. (In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God —All things came into being by him and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being (John 1:1,3). Jesus spoke everything into existence according to the will of the Father, then God the Father breathed the breath of life (the Holy Spirit) into the man’s nostrils and man became a living being (Genesis 2:7).
God the Father sent Jesus into the world to do the Father’s will. Jesus said, “I can do nothing on my own initiative—because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me” (John 5:30) and “For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father himself who sent me has given me commandment, what to say and what to speak” (John 1:49).
God the Son came down to earth and made himself a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8:4,5) to identify himself with us. He was 100% God and 100% man and 100% sinless. He offered himself up for us as a perfect sacrifice just as the Levite priests offered up a perfect Pascal Lamb as a sacrifice, whose blood would cover the sins of the Israelites. But this was only a temporary sin covering and a “type” that looked forward to Jesus, the true Pascal Lamb whose blood would cover our sins once for all. The priests had to offer the sacrifice annually because the animal blood was only a substitute for our Redeemer’s blood. Jesus Christ was the perfect lamb of God who took our sins upon himself at the cross of Calvary and made atonement for us once for all. It need not be repeated. It is a finished work that restored a right relationship for us with God. We no longer have to go through a priest to speak to God, we now can pray directly to him.
The third person of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son as well as from the Father. ‘Jesus therefore said to them (the disciples) again, “peace be with you; as the Father has sent me, I also send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:21, 22).
The Holy Spirit is our Comforter, our Teacher, our Advocate. It is he who opens our spiritual eyes and our spiritual ears to hear God’s truth, giving us understanding and knowledge of who God is and what he desires of us. Without the work of the Holy Spirit there would be no gospel, no faith, no Church, no Christianity.
This is the God whom Christians worship: Triune Jehovah. Three Persons, one God.
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