God as Trinity and our Humanity B

The Trinitarian God

‘No sooner do I conceive of the one than I am illumined by the splendour of the three’.[1]

Looking into the heart of God through the earthly life of Jesus reveals God’s unity in ‘triunity’, and ‘triunity’ in unity. God at his very heart is relational. Let me explain.

This is seen in the very language the Bible uses for the relationship between the different persons of the Trinity. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19, 2 Cor 13:14). In the language of the Trinity we see already a family relationship between Father and Son. A father is only known as a father through the relationship he has with his child. The relations between the persons in the Trinity belong to who the persons actually are.[2] For example, the Father is the Father only in relation to the Son. The Son gains his identity as Son only through his relationship to the Father (eg Matthew 11:27, John 8:19). The Spirit is not an ‘independent impersonal energy force’ but a personal being – the ‘Spirit of the Lord’ (Acts 15:9), the Spirit of love (Rom 15:30) and truth (1 John 4:6, 5:6) - who shows his love to the Father and the Son through glorifying them and through giving believers access to the Father in Christ through him (eg John 15:26, 16:13).

The foundation of this relational oneness in God is his being. The being of God is not an impersonal substance but shows us the internal relationship of God himself. It is a relationship showing us that God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). The nature of his divine being is revealed as eternal togetherness. His real being is in fact a sharing in being between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is relational within his very being. As Knox writes, the subject matter of theology is ‘not God, but God in his relationship, for the essence of God is in eternal relationship’.[3] The Trinity ‘has his being in loving communion’.[4] In his very being God chooses to be for others. This God is not the egocentric ‘I AM’ but the ‘I AM’ who is defined by his otherness.[5] This is the personal being of God within himself that seeks out others – including us! - in love.

There is also ‘otherness’ within the trinitarian God. There are three distinct persons within the one personal being of God. The Bible shows us that the Trinity is ‘an eternal communion of three persons in undivided union’.[6] The three persons that are one God are eternally relating to each other in love.

For example, between the Father and the Son there lies a unique relationship (Matt 11:27, John 1:18, 17:25-26). This relationship ‘is described as one of mutual love, mutual self-giving, mutual testifying, mutual glorifying’.[7] Clearly the Son submits to the Father’s ‘fatherhood’. Jesus only tells the world ‘what I have heard from him [the Father] (John 8:26). Jesus is sent to Earth by the Father (John 8:42, 12:49). Jesus’ authority to ‘lay down his life’ and ‘raise it again’ is a charge received from the Father (John 10:18). The Son honours his Father (John 8:49). The Father loves the Son (John 15:9). The Son abides in his Father’s love (John 15:10). As mentioned above, the Spirit is also a personal being who shows his love to the Father and the Son through glorifying them and through giving believers access to the Father in Christ through him (eg John 15:26, 16:13).

This is the language of clear affection and love between distinct persons in the Trinity. Here there is a God of relation. Within Him is a family relationship of Trinitarian giving, with the honouring, loving and willing submission of the Son in love to the Father and the Father’s corresponding pleasure in his Son (Matt 3:17), with the Spirit as the bond of love between them.

The being and the distinctiveness of God complement each other as we see God is love. The being of God has no being other than in relationship. This will be vital in informing our ideas of personhood and community.


[1] Gregory of Nazianzus in Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity in Scripture, History, Theology and Worship (Phillipsburgh, New Jersey: P & R Publishing, 2004), 463.
[2] Letham, The Holy Trinity, 461.
[3] David Broughton Knox, D Broughton Knox Selected Works Volume 1: The Doctrine of God (edited by Tony Payne; Sydney NSW: Matthias Media, 2000), 154.
[4] James B. Torrance, Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace (The Didsbury Lectures 1994; Carlisle, England: Paternoster Press, 1996), 26.
[5] T. F. Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God, 135
[6] Letham, The Holy Trinity, 462.
[7] J.B. Torrance, Worship, 119.