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Each month the Glen Park Gospel Church produce a one page newsletter called the Green Leaf. It's available from the chapel each Sunday. Anything that may be of mild interest will be published here.

Trinity

Explaining the trinity of God is difficult because God is infinite and we are much less; we cannot really comprehend God and these few words do not encompass God. There are analogies such as water having three states: ice, liquid and steam. But God is not sometimes one and then in another form. There is also the picture of the three leaf clover, but God is not part one person and part two others. Neither is God three separate beings, there is only one God as three persons.

It is always best to start with what the Bible tells us.

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one." Deuteronomy 6:4. Yet during creation God speaks in plural: Then God said, "Let us make man in our image..." Genesis 1:26a. So the one true God has some further attributes to be explained.

Let's see who the three persons of God are: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." John 6:27. This verse mentions the Father as the focus of authority while teaching Jesus is the gift of life, our redeemer. "No one has ever seen God; God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known." John 1:18. From this verse we see that the Son is physical and the Father is not, is spirit. Colossians 2:9 likewise expresses the deity of Jesus.

"...if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you." John 16:7b. The Helper, or Comforter, is the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit is separate from that of Jesus. Verse 8 then says that the Holy Spirit is also sent to convict us of our sin. "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" 1 Corinthians 3:16. The Holy Spirit is God indwelling us.

From the above verses, just as we are defined by body, soul and spirit, God the Son, Spirit, and Father govern each of those realms. Matthew 3:16-17 shows the three persons of God interacting together. "And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

God offers eternal life to all who come to the Father, if united to the Son, by the power of the Spirit.

Example source:
The Trinity explained in 5 minutes - Redeemed Zoomer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f4BJgaOStI

Thought for the Month

"The doctrine of the Trinity is like the part of the iceberg that is under the water. It's there, and it needs to be there."

- Alister McGrath. Professor emeritus, Science and Religion, University of Oxford

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