Interrogating the Trinity: Who is God?
Who is God?
In the previous article, we explored the question, “What is God?” Our answer was, “God is the One self-existing Being.” We noted that for the purpose of these articles, by Being I mean what theologians throughout church history have referred to as Ousia, Essentia or Essence.
Now we come to our second question: “Who is God?” It might be tempting to think this question is pretty much the same as yesterday’s. Admittedly, there is a fair bit of conceptual overlap. When we considered what God is, we came into contact with the who question at several points. And that’s to be expected. After all, we’re talking about the same God!
In this post, I’m shifting from a slightly more philosophical explanation of what God is to a more personal and relational account of who God is. Things will get even more relational in the next post.
In the previous post, we saw how God is initially introduced simply as “God” (Genesis 1:1). Then, in Genesis 2:4, we’re given his name: “the LORD,” or Yahweh, which simply means “He is.” We’re given his name, but it’s about as abstract and conceptual a name as you could possibly imagine.
In the New Testament, the lens zooms even closer to God’s identity. We find out that he has a much more intimate name.
Father
In the New Testament, God is revealed to us, not just as the one who “is,” but as Father. In fact, almost every time you see the word “God” in the New Testament, it refers to God as Father (click here for more on this).
There’s a sense in which the LORD is “Father” in the Old Testament. Consider the following verses:
Is this the way you repay the LORD, you foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?
Deuteronomy 32:6But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.
Isaiah 63:16Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Isaiah 64:8Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our ancestors by being unfaithful to one another?
Malachi 2:10
In these verses, the LORD God is clearly identified as “Father.” But these references are few and far between.
In the New Testament, God’s fatherhood becomes much more prominent. You can’t miss it. It’s on just about every page of the New Testament.
I find God’s Fatherhood most striking when we come to the Lord’s Prayer. Here, Jesus tells his followers:
This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven.”
In Heaven
This God, the one self-existing Being, is as transcendent as they come.
I reckon people have a big craving for transcendence. That’s why people get drunk and high. That’s why people go to professional wrestling matches. That’s why people gamble. That’s why people go to Coldplay concerts. They want transcendence.
Well, God the Father is way more transcendent.
He lives “in heaven.” He is exalted above all in a high and holy place (Isaiah 57:15), and his glory is above the heavens (Psalm 113:4-6). The heavens cannot contain Him (1 Kings 8:27). He alone stretches out the heavens (Job 9:8), he is enthroned above the cherubim (Psalm 99:1), and his dominion is eternal (Daniel 4:34-35). He is as transcendent as they come.
But he’s not some abstract, impersonal, hand-off, watchmaker-style God. He is personal.
Father
He is Father. Heaven may be the most transcendent place you can imagine. But it’s hard to think of a more personal and relational name than “Father.” It’s not the kind of name you just let anyone call you.
One of my children likes to call me “Marty” to troll me. I hate it. Only three people in the world can call me “father” or “dad,” and it’s really special that they get to call me that. I don’t let their friends call me that. I don’t let my friends call me that. It’s an intimate name. It’s about as intimate as it gets.
The God who is as transcendent as it gets is as personal and relational as it gets. He is Father.
Our Father
And he invites us to call him “Our Father.” That’s a big deal. We, lowly, humble, sinful human beings, can address the transcendent Creator of the universe, seated in heaven above the Cherubim, as Father.
Back at College, I remember discussing whether we can call God “Daddy,” especially when the Aramaic word “Abba” is used. I remember looking it up in my Aramaic textbook, Frederick Greenspahn’s An Introduction to Aramaic (2nd edition. Atlanta, Ga: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007). He seemed convinced it means “daddy” (see page 25). I don’t know who is more qualified to talk about that than the guy who writes an Aramaic textbook.
We get to call God “Daddy.” That’s intimate. We are his adopted sons.
J. I. Packer describes this reality as “the highest privilege that the gospel offers”. He goes on to explain:
Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father. In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship—he establishes us as his children and heirs. Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship. To be right with God the judge [that is, justification] is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.
J. I. Packer, Knowing God, 206–207.
Who is God? God is Father.
The One self-existing Being exists as Father.
2. Son
And so is Jesus. And this is the bit where your brain starts to explode!
In the previous post, we noticed that Jesus claims the divine identity as his own (John 8:58).
We also saw that he claims to be “one” with the Father (John 10:30).
Often, the New Testament identifies him as the “Yahweh” of the Old Testament (see this article and Matthew 21:4-5, Mark 11:1-10, Luke 19:28-40, John 1:23, 29, John 12:13-15, 40, John 19:37, Philippians 2:10-11, Hebrews 1:7, 10-12).
And then, there are places where he is identified as “God” (see this article and Matthew 1:23, Mark 2:7, Luke 5:21, John 1:1, John 1:18, John 10:33, John 20:28, Romans 9:5, Philippians 2:5-6, Titus 2:13, 2 Peter 1:1, Hebrews 1:8, 1 John 5:20, Revelation 1:8).
Yesterday, we learned a Greek word for Being: Ousia.
Well, Jesus is of the same Being or Ousia as the Father. At the Council of Nicaea in 325, Christians started talking about Jesus being of the same Ousia as the Father or being Homoousios (Homo = same, Ousios = being) with the Father. He’s of the same Being as the Father. He’s not of a similar Being (that would be the Homoiousian heresy, a rival theology in the fourth century that caused a lot of problems—the i changes “same” to “similar”). No, he is of the same Being as the Father.
So there is one God. But then there are two somethings.
What do we call these two “somethings”? Back in the 250s, Origen proposed using the language of Hypostasis. And there’s good biblical precedent for using this word. In Hebrews 1:3, we read:
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his hypostasis [ὑπόστασις], sustaining all things by his powerful word.
So, the Father has a hypostasis. And the Son represents the Father’s hypostasis. Therefore, perhaps we can also say that the Son is a hypostasis.
This is where the 4th century Fathers decided to go with the language, especially guys like the Cappadocian Fathers (or the Cap-Daddies). They used the language of Ousia to describe the Being/Essence of God, and then they used the language of Hypostasis to distinguish between the Father and the Son.
In Latin, we have two options. We can speak of the Hypostasis (plural: Hypostaseis) as Persona (plural: Personae) or Subsistentia (plural: subsistentiae).
Subsistentia is a good word (it helps distinguish between existence and subsistence—more on that in the next post). But it’s also foreign for contemporary English speakers. The language of Persons is a little less confusing.
In English, we refer to each Hypostasis as a Person.
Confused yet?
Here’s what we’re saying:
The Father is God
The Son is God
The Father and Son are one
How do we distinguish between their unity and diversity?The Father and the Son are one Being (Ousia in Greek, Essentia in Latin).
The Father and the Son are two Persons (Hypostaseis in Greek, Personae or Subsistentiae in Latin)
| English | Greek | Latin |
|---|---|---|
| Being | Ousia (οὐσία) | Essentia |
| Person | Hypostasis (ὑπόστασις) | Person or Subsistentia |
How does this work? How can the two be one and the one be two? Wait for the next post.
But back to our question. Who is God? We now know:
The One self-existing Being exists as Father and Son.
But wait, there’s more!
3. Spirit
In Matthew 28:19, Jesus says:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
This is significant. Commenting on this verse, John Calvin says:
Is this anything else than to declare that the Father, Son, and Spirit are one God? Wherefore, since it must be held certain that there is one God, not more than one, we conclude that the Word and Spirit are of the very essence [that is, Being] of God.
Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Translated by Henry Beveridge. Vol. 1. Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society, 1845. 1.13.16.
Our understanding of what it means for God to be One was flipped upside down when Jesus mentioned that he and the Father are “One.” Now Jesus flips our understanding again. (Flips it…sideways?)
One Name
Only one name is mentioned. The word for “name” here is singular, not plural, which makes sense. As we saw in the previous article, there is only one God, and therefore, there is only one name. There is only one divine Being, Ousia or Essence.
Three Names
But then Jesus upends everything we think we know about existing. As humans, we’re used to every being having one name.
When LeBron, Luka, and Kyrie show up to play basketball, we have three human beings, three persons with three names.
Not so with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We have one divine Being who exists as three persons, with one name and three names.
The Divinity of the Holy Spirit
Many people struggle to wrap their minds around the fact that the Spirit truly is God. In the fourth century, there was a group called the Pneumatomachi or Macedonians who vehemently denied the Spirit’s divinity. They argued that the Holy Spirit was a created being and not of the same divine Being as the Father and the Son.
But, the Spirit really is God. He shares several attributes that belong to God alone. As we learned in the previous post, God is simple. This means that God is not made up of parts, pieces, attributes or elements that can be chopped, swapped and stashed into an Ikea storage box. His Being is his attributes, and his attributes are his Being, meaning all that is in God simply is God. If one of the divine persons possesses an attribute (authority, eternality, omnipresence etc.), all three persons share that attribute.
The Scriptures point to several attributes belonging to the Holy Spirit that can only belong to God, meaning that he must be God.
The Holy Spirit Shares God’s Name. We’ve just seen this one. He shares the one name with the Father and the Son (Matthew 28:19).
The Holy Spirit Shares God’s Authority. In Acts 5:3-4, lying to the Holy Spirit is equated with lying to God.
The Holy Spirit is Eternal. Hebrews 9:14 describes the Holy Spirit as the “Eternal Spirit.” Only God is eternal. Therefore, the Spirit must share this attribute with God.
The Holy Spirit is Omnipresent. In Psalm 139:7, David asks, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” The implied answer is, “David, you can’t flee from the Holy Spirit because he is present everywhere: he’s omnipresent.”
The Holy Spirit is Omniscient. The Spirit knows all things. In Isaiah 40:13, the question is asked: “Who can fathom the Spirit of the LORD or instruct the LORD as his counsellor?” The answer: “Nobody can because the Spirit is the LORD, and the Spirit knows everything: he’s omniscient.” Similarly, in 1 Corinthians 2:10–11, we read:
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
The Spirit searches all things, including God's deep things, and he knows God’s thoughts because the Spirit is God.
The Holy Spirit is Omnipotent. He’s all-powerful. In Luke 1:35, he is even described as “the Power of the Most High.” He is God’s power.
The Holy Spirit is Creator. Since the Spirit is God’s power, it’s hardly surprising to discover that the Spirit is also creator. He’s present at the very beginning (Genesis 1:2), and in Psalm 104:30, David reports that God creates through his Spirit: “When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.” Similarly, in Job 33:4, we are told: “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”
The Holy Spirit Dwells as God in the Temple of our Bodies. Augustine also helps us see that the Holy Spirit is God from the temple imagery of 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:
And that the Holy Spirit is God scripture cries aloud in the person of the apostle, who says, Do you not know that you are God’s temple—and he adds straightaway, and the Spirit of God dwells in you (1 Cor 3:16)? But it is God who dwells in his temple. The Spirit of God does not live in the temple of God as a minister; he makes this quite clear in another text: Do you not know that the temple of the Holy Spirit in you is your bodies? You have him from God, and so you are not your own. For you have been bought with a great price. So glorify God in your body (1 Cor 6:19).
Edmund Hill, trans. Saint Augustine: The Trinity (De Trinitate). Edited by John E. Rotelle, Second Edition, vol. 1/5. The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2017, 278, §7.3.6.
The Spirit is God because, as Scripture affirms, the Spirit dwells in believers as the very presence of God within them, and the temple of God is where God himself resides.
So, the Spirit truly is God.
And he’s a person. Sometimes, people like to think of him as just some kind of impersonal force. But this is not the case. He teaches (John 14:26), guides (Acts 16:6-7), intercedes (Romans 8:26-27), directs (Acts 8:29), can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30), and can be lied to (Acts 5:3-4). These are personal and relational actions, showing that he is personal and relational.
The Holy Spirit is God. And the Holy Spirit is a Person.
So, who is God?
The One self-existing Being exists as Three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Equal
One thing that needs to be said: the three persons are equal in their divinity.
Equality in Scripture
It’s stated explicitly in Philippians 2:6 concerning Jesus,
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.
We don’t have any verses spelling out the Spirit’s equality like this.
But it can be assumed from the fact that they share the same name, the same attributes, the same Being, and they are all God.
Equality in the Athanasian Creed
Likewise, as the Athanasian Creed reminds us, the three share glory, majesty, eternality, uncreatedness, infinitude, power and lordship.
Hence, the Athanasian Creed concludes:
In this Trinity none is before, or after another; none is greater, or less than another. But the whole three Persons are coeternal, and coequal.
They are equal.
The Subordinationist Problem
Since the earliest times—and to the present day—Christians have struggled to understand this. You have several texts that seem to indicate one person being greater than another.
For example,
Jesus gave them this answer: ‘Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
John 5:19You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
John 14:28"But I want you to realise that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God."
1 Corinthians 11:324 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. … 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
1 Corinthians 15:24, 28
You can see why someone might find these verses confusing! This became a massive problem in the fourth century, leading to the Council Of Nicaea in 325. And the Council of Constantinople in 381. And the Council of Ephesus in 431. And the Council of Chalcedon in 451. And that’s just to name a few.
Augustine’s Rule of Thumb
Thankfully, Augustine has a helpful rule of thumb to help us make sense of these verses, what I call the form rule:
And this rule for solving this question in all the sacred scriptures is laid down for us in this one passage of the apostle Paul’s letter, where the distinction is clearly set out. He says: Who being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal to God, yet he emptied himself taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, in condition found as a man (Phil 2:6). So the Son of God is God the Father’s equal by nature, by condition his inferior. In the form of a servant which he took he is the Father’s inferior; in the form of God in which he existed.
Edmund Hill, trans. Saint Augustine: The Trinity (De Trinitate). Edited by John E. Rotelle, Second Edition, vol. 1/5. The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2017, 79, §1.7.14.
Augustine notes from Philippians 2:6-7 that the Son exists both in the form of God and in the form of a servant, that is, Jesus in his humanity. He elaborates that certain nexts need to be understood of Jesus in the form of a servant. All of the above verses are examples of Jesus in his humanity. It’s not true of the Son in his divinity.
For Augustine, there can be no subordination within the Godhead.
God the Father is not greater than God the Son, nor is God the Son greater than God the Father. God the Father is not greater than God the Holy Spirit, nor is God the Holy Spirit greater than God the Father. God the Son is not greater than God the Holy Spirit, nor is God the Holy Spirit greater than God the Son.
The Modern Subordination Problem
These days, there are some theologians try to talk about an eternal functional subordination (EFS) or eternal relations of authority and submission (ERAS). I used to buy into this.
I used to opt for a slightly revised version of this which I called eternal relational subordination. I no longer bother with this for two reasons:
First, I realised that my conception of eternity was inadequate. More on that in my forthcoming article Interrogating the Trinity: When is God?
Second, I found that I kept having to refine and nuance my terminology to ensure that I didn’t undermine the Son’s equality. In the end, my refined definition of subordination was pretty much identical to the classical doctrine of eternal generation (more on that in the next post). So, I just dropped the language completely. I still take it that the relations between Father, Son and Spirit in time and space are a temporal manifestation of their eternal relations, but I don’t feel the need to use the language of subordination to describe the relations between the divine persons in eternity.
Any language that throws the equality of the three persons into confusion is probably not helpful.
So, who is God?
The One self-existing Being exists as Three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, co-equal…
Distinct
And, the three persons are distinct.
In the previous section, we saw the need to maintain the equality of the three persons. This ensures we avoid the heresy of Subordinationism which says allows one divine person to be greater than another in their divinity. Some would even say that this opens the door to Tritheism which says that there are three Gods.
But, if we’re not careful, we may fall into other traps, like modalism.
Modalism
Modalism asserts that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not distinct persons but rather different modes or manifestations of the same divine being. It was championed by a bloke called Sabellius in the mid-3rd century, and is therefore sometimes called Sabellianism. According to Modalism, God is a single person who reveals himself in different ways at different times, appearing alternately as the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, depending on the situation or role.
Whereas Subordinationism risks separating the persons too far, Modalism risks blurring the distinctions too far. Some fear that this may even lead to Unitarianism, which denies the divinity of the Son and Spirit.
| Heresy | Description |
|---|---|
| Tritheism | The belief that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three separate gods, each with a distinct essence, leading to polytheism. |
| Subordinationism | The belief that the Son and the Holy Spirit are subordinate to the Father in essence or authority, diminishing their equality and divinity. |
| Homoiousianism | The belief that the Son is of "like" essence to the Father but not of the same essence, implying that the Son is not fully divine. |
| Modalism | The belief that God is a single person who manifests in different modes (Father, Son, or Holy Spirit) rather than three distinct persons. |
| Unitarianism | The belief that God is a single person (the Father) and rejects the deity of the Son and the Holy Spirit. |
The Problem with Modalism
There are several reasons I find Modalism unconvincing.
First, there are the places where Jesus prays to the Father (e.g., Matthew 11:25-26, 26:39-44, Mark 1:35, Mark 6:46, Mark 14:36, Luke 6:12, 9:16, 9:18, 10:21, 11:2, 22:41-42, John 11:41-42, 12:27-28, 17:1-26). It’d be weird for Jesus to pray to himself.
Second, there are the places where the Spirit leads to the Son, suggesting two persons in action (e.g., Matthew 4:1, Mark 1:12, Luke 4:1).
Third, Jesus talks about the Father, Son, and Spirit sharing the same name (Matthew 28:19), suggesting that he thinks they are distinct from one another.
Fourth, and most convincingly, all three persons show up at Jesus’ baptism. The Son, Jesus, is baptised, the Spirit descends upon him like a dove, and the Father speaks from heaven (see Matthew 3:16-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22, John 1:32-34).
Therefore, we need to affirm the distinctions between the three persons. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Father. The Father is not the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Father. The Son is not the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Son.
So, who is God?
The One self-existing Being exists as Three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, co-equal and distinct.
But how can the One be Three? And how can the Three be One? More on that in the next post.
