Understanding the Trinity

 

I want to make clear right from the outset that I don’t believe this simple blog will answer all the unexplainable questions that theologians and laymen have been pondering for centuries. So get that notion out of your head. The Triune God is supposed to be a mystery and supposed to be unexplainable. We aren’t supposed to be able to grasp all the various aspects of God and His nature, otherwise He wouldn’t be God. There will never be a logical, rational way to understand absolutely everything about God, and we have to come to terms with that reality. That being said, there are truths that the Scriptures give us so that we can have a glimpse into the nature of each of the persons of the Godhead. 

God exists in three equal persons, each with a different role: Father, Son, and Spirit. They are not separate, meaning that we worship three Gods, but they are distinct in their role and function as a part of the single God we worship. Although this analogy is far from perfect, it’s a bit like an apple. An apple has a core, meat, and skin. Each thing has a separate purpose and reason for its existence, but we refer to the whole thing as an apple. That is an oversimplified way of thinking about God and the Trinity. Each exists as part of one God but has a distinct role and purpose. 

Apart from that reality, there isn’t a whole lot else that Scripture teaches us regarding the functionality of how God exists this way. The reality is that we are supposed to simply trust that God is who He says He is, and understand that we can’t, and likely won’t, ever fully understand all the inner workings of the Trinity. But that’s okay! We don’t have to understand all the intricacies of something to believe it is what it is. I don’t know everything about how my truck runs, or all the pieces and parts it takes to function properly. Yet I trust each day that it will start and get me where I’m going. We don’t know everything about who God is and how He works, and we never will. But we can still trust Him and live according to His word with confidence. And that should be enough.