About 3 minutes to read
God, and God as Trinity
Theology Proper
Before there was a world to save, there was God. He was not lonely. He was not waiting. He was full.
God is spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. He did not come from anywhere. He does not grow or shrink or improve. He is not one part of the universe, and the universe is not one part of him. He made it out of nothing and upholds it every second by the word of his power.
His attributes are not pieces bolted together. God is not partly holy and partly loving. Everything in God is God. His love is holy love. His justice is good justice. His mercy never embarrasses his righteousness. How God can be just and still justify the ungodly is exactly the question the cross answers.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:
Deuteronomy 6:4 (KJV)
This one God exists as three persons. Not three gods. Not one person wearing three masks. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and there is one God. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. Each person is fully and equally God, undivided in essence, distinct in person.
The Confession puts the distinction carefully in WCF 2.3. The Father is of none, the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son. None of it is a matter of one person coming after another in time or ranking below another in being.
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.
Westminster Shorter Catechism Q&A 6
This is not a riddle invented by councils. It is what the Bible forces on anyone who reads it whole. Jesus sends his people to baptize in one name that belongs to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Salvation itself is Trinitarian. The Father chooses, the Son redeems, the Spirit applies. If you have been saved, all three persons have been at work on you.
Guard your words here. Every homespun illustration of the Trinity, water and ice and steam, a man who is father and son and husband, ends up teaching an old heresy. It is better to say less and say it carefully.