Question 6: The Trinity

Question 6: How many persons are there in the Godhead?

Answer: There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

The teaching that the one God exists in three Persons is a great and difficult mystery. It is not the teaching that the one God has three "sides" or "faces", but is not truly three - this is the heresy known as modalism. Nor is it the teaching that Father, Son, and Spirit can be separated into three distinct beings - the heresy of tritheism.  Rather, it teaches that there is one sense in which we say that God is one, and another sense in which we say that God is three.

God is one with respect to his substance, or essence. He is one in being. God is three with respect to his subsistence, or persons. The use of the word "person" indicates distinction but not separation. Father, Son, and Spirit are three modes of being, an "I, you, and him," within God's one undivided essence. Every attribute of God, all "power and glory," belong fully and equally to Father, Son, and Spirit.

Why have such a complex doctrine of God? The simple reason is that this is who God is according to his own revelation of himself. The Trinity is not the result of clever philosophy, but the inevitable conclusion that comes from reading scripture. To cite just a few of many examples, John 1 states, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the God, and the Word was God." The Word refers to Jesus, and "the God" refers to the Father. Thus a personal a distinction is made between Father and Son, but there is no different essence - the Word was God. Similarly, the Spirit of God recognized as personal, but to lie to him is to lie to God (Acts 5:3-4). Baptism is in the one name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). The New Testament makes it plain that there is one God who exists in three persons.

There are many applications of this doctrine, but perhaps the most important is in our worship. We never worship three Gods, or one God without three persons. We do not worship one person at a time, ignoring the other two. We worship one God in three persons. When you worship, are you careful to worship the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

Reference: Explanation of the Shorter Catechism by Thomas Vincent