The Godhead of God: Lessons on the Trinity by Dr. George R. Sledd

The Godhead of God: Lessons on the Trinity

by Dr. George R. Sledd

Introduction

This Bible study explains the importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity in Christianity and its role in salvation, worship and spirituality. It also contains some refutations of common objections to the Trinity.

The foundational truth of the Christian faith is the doctrine of the Trinity. This is what distinguishes Christianity from all other religions.

Atheist Richard Dawkins rejects the doctrine of the Trinity as “sophistry” asking: “Do we have one God in three parts, or three Gods in one?”

Rather, Christians believe in three divine persons who are jointly one divine personal being.“The doctrine of the Trinity does not say there is one God and three Gods, or that God is one Person and three Persons, or that God has one nature and three natures. That would be self-contradictory.”

We believe that the one God eternally exists in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that these three are one God, co-equal and co-eternal, having precisely the same nature and attributes, and worthy of precisely the same worship, confidence, and obedience.

‘God’ is essentially a Trinity of three divine persons in one divine personal being.

The doctrine of the Trinity does not say there is one God and three Gods, or that God is one Person and three Persons, or that God has one nature and three natures. That would be self-contradictory.

But the doctrine of the Trinity says that there is only one God and only one divine nature but that this one God exists in three persons.

That is a great mystery, but it is not a logical self-contradiction.

The word Trinity is not found in the bible but the word Godhead is found three times…

29)  Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.Acts 17:29 (KJV)

20) For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.Romans 1:20 (KJV)

and

9) For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.Colossians 2:9 (KJV)

The name “Godhead {theotes} is defined as simply deity or the “state of being God.”

So we believe that the Father is fully God, the Son of God Jesus Christ is fully God, and the Holy Spirit is fully God.

Jesus Christ is fully God in a sinless human body. So we believe in one God manifest in three persons: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.“If you get the Godhead wrong, you will also be defective in most of the other important doctrines.”

The early Anabaptists held to the doctrine of the Trinity. There is even a Waldensian confession dating from 1120…

Article 1: “We believe and firmly hold all that which is contained in the twelve articles of the symbol, which is called the Apostles Creed. Accounting for heresy whatsoever is disagreeing, and not consonant to the said 12 articles.”

Article 2: “We do believe that there is one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

In an additional creed they stated more articles: “We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son and image of the Father. That in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead, by whom we have knowledge of the Father” and “We believe that the Holy Spirit is our Comforter proceeding from the Father and the Son.”

An ancient Anabaptist catechism presents a dialogue concerning the Trinity:

Minister: “Dost thou believe in the Holy Spirit?”

Answer: “Yes I do believe. For the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and is one Person of the Trinity, and according to the Divinity, is equal to the Father and the Son.”

Minister: “Thou believest God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, thou hast therefore three Gods.”

Answer: “I have not three.”

Minister: “Yea, but thou has named three.”

Answer: “That is by reason of the difference of the Persons, not by reason of the essence of the Divinity. For, although there are three persons, yet, notwithstanding there is but one essence.”

This truth of the Godhead is of vital importance. It is foundational to our understanding of most of the other truths in the Bible.

If you get the Godhead wrong, you will also be defective in most of the other important doctrines.“If you understand the relationship of the Godhead, you will understand how to worship God properly with joy.”

Fred Sanders in his book The Deep Things of God points out: “God is eternally Trinity, because tri-unity belongs to his very nature. Things like creation and redemption are things God does, and he would still be God if he had not done them. But Trinity is who God is, and without being the Trinity, he would not be God. God minus creation would still be God, but God minus Father, Son, and Holy Spirit would not be God.”

Without a proper understanding of the Trinity, you will end up with serious errors about the atonement of Jesus Christ.

You will also have some serious errors in relation to the doctrine of salvation.

I am sure that many Christians think this doctrine has no practical value. I strongly disagree with that.

If you understand the relationship of the Godhead, you will understand how to worship God properly with joy.

So this truth about the Trinity is integral to our Christian faith. You cannot live without this truth.

It was Tertullian, one of the early church fathers who first coined the word “Trinity” in reference to the Godhead.

The Trinity teaches us that God is beyond all human comprehension. If you feel baffled by the Trinity, join the crowd!

The greatest minds of history have stood in amazement before a God so great that he cannot be described by our puny explanations.“Tertullian, one of the early church fathers, first coined the word “Trinity” in reference to the Godhead.”

The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but they are not three gods, but only one God.

This is stated in what is known as the Shema Confession, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.”

The Hebrew word for “one” involves a unity which contains plurality.

For instance. In marriage between a man and woman, “the two become one flesh.”

There is one God who is revealed in three persons. There is in the divine being an indivisible essence. God is one in his essential being.

Yet we add the caveat that this one divine being is manifested by three persons or individual subsistence: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The whole undivided essence of God belongs equally to each of the three persons of the Godhead.

I don’t mean you have three separate God’s. You have one God revealed in three personal distinctions.

The trinity can also be explained as the doctrine of the perichoresis.“Personality does not develop nor exist in isolation, but only in association with other persons.”

“This means that there is a mutual indwelling in the trinity. None of the persons of the trinity can exist or even be conceived of apart from the other two, and each person completely dwells within the other two” (Gregory A. Boyd).

“The undivided essence of the Godhead belongs equally to each of the persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; each possesses all the substance and all the attributes of deity. The plurality of the godhead is, therefore, not a plurality of essence but a plurality of personal distinctions” (Emery Bancroft).

Now truly this is a mystery to our minds. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Father, but each is God individually and yet they are united together in tri-unity.

We believe that the one God eternally exists in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that these three are one God, co-equal and co-eternal, having precisely the same nature and attributes, and worthy of precisely the same worship, confidence, and obedience (Matt. 3:16,17; Matt. 28:19, 20; Mk. 12:29; Jn. 1:14; Acts 5:3, 4; 2 Cor. 13:14).

Personality does not develop nor exist in isolation, but only in association with other persons.

The Bible contains numerous clear statements regarding the unity of God.

Deuteronomy 6:4 tells us that “the Lord is one.” 1 Corinthians 8:4 adds that “there is no God but one.” 1 Timothy 2:5 explicitly says “there is one God.”

All Christians heartily affirm this truth. However, the Bible also contains clear statements regarding diversity within that unity.“The Bible contains numerous clear statements regarding the unity of God.”

For instance, in the very first verse of the Bible we are told that “In the beginning God.”

The Hebrew word for God is Elohim, which is actually a plural form of the title “El.”

In Scripture there are three who are recognized as God:

There Are Distinctions in the Godhead

1. Christ distinguishes the Father from Himself as ‘another’ (Jn 5:32, 37)

2. The Father and the Son are distinguished as the begetter and the begotten (Ps. 2:7; John 1:14; 3:16). The Father and the    Son are distinguished as the sender and the sent. (Jn. 10:36; Gal. 4:4)” (Christian Theology by Emery H. Bancroft)

So we can affirm that “The doctrine of the Trinity affirms that God’s whole and undivided essence belongs equally, eternally, simultaneously, and fully to each of the three distinct Persons of the Godhead.”

The Godhead is revealed in the creation account of Genesis…

26) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.Genesis 1:26-27 (KJV)

The name for God here is ELOHIM. That name is a plural form. One can only note the plural pronouns associated with God:“Let US make man in OUR own image.”

Now this suggests a collaboration of persons in the Godhead. This collaboration is also seen in God commissioning his servant Isaiah to preach and prophecy to Israel:

8) Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.Isaiah 6:8 (KJV)

One of the greatest demonstrations of the Godhead occurs at the baptism of the Lord Jesus (see Matthew 3:16-17).

God the Father speaks from heaven to approve of his Son, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.”

Then you see the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus Christ.

In another place we read of the Lord Jesus Christ who sits down on the right hand of God.

1) If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.Colossians 3:1 (KJV)

12) But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.Hebrews 10:12 (KJV)

22) Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.1 Peter 3:22 (KJV)

1)  The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.Psalm 110:1 (KJV)

There is another scripture that shows us that Jesus Christ is God and that he is also “with God.”

1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2) The same was in the beginning with God.

3) All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.John 1:1-3 (KJV)

Jesus Christ the Son of God is entitled as “The Word.” He is identified as fully God but he is also distinct from the Father.

“The Word was WITH GOD.” Jesus Christ is the Logos, the incarnate Word!

Those who deny the Trinity say that the Word or Logos is not a person but only a thought of God.

Yet this scripture presents some personal actions of the Word. The Word creates. The Word is the life and light of men.“We read in scripture that The Son of God always worked in unison with the Father.”

So, the Word is more than just a thought in God’s mind. Jesus Christ is the living Word. The Word pre-existed with the Father and The Spirit.

The Father also spoke to The Son in Hebrews 1:8, “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.”

The Father God is speaking to The Son of God and acknowledging him as equally God and equally sovereign on the throne.

We read in scripture that The Son of God always worked in unison with the Father.

28) Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

29) And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.John 8:28-29 (KJV)

The Error of Sabellius Modalism

There are some false ideas about the Trinity via the nature of God. Some have historically claimed that ‘the Father’, ‘the Son’ and ‘the Holy Spirit’ are simply one person with three different roles or modes of revelation. This is the heresy of modalism.

Sabellius was a religious theologian during the third century. Sabellius asserted that God chose to reveal or manifest himself in various modes in the past.

God manifested himself as the Son for thirty-three years. Then after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God manifested himself in the mode of the Holy Spirit.

So that God is no longer the Father or the Son, but at this time He is the Holy Spirit.

So God manifests himself in only one mode at a time. So God is successively Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; he is not simultaneously Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The baptism of Jesus reveals this error.

16) And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

17) And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.Matthew 3:16-17 (KJV)

It is clear that the Holy Spirit descends upon The Son of God Jesus Christ. Then you hear the voice from heaven which is the voice of the Father speaking approval of this act of obedience from Jesus.

Jesus is not talking to himself in this instance. It is the Father’s voice that speaks His approval of His Son.

The Error of Tritheism

Another heresy is tri-theism or polytheism (affirming the existence of a plurality of independent finite ‘gods’).

This error states that there are three separate God’s. The Father is a God; The Son is a God, and the Holy Spirit is a God.

The plurality of the Godhead is, not a plurality of essence. We refute this by stating that God is not three and one, but three in one.

“There are not three persons in the Godhead in the same sense that three human beings are persons. In the case of three human beings there is a division of nature, essence, and being; but it is not so with God” (T.P. Simmons).

We don’t believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are “parts” or “pieces” or God. That would imply that Jesus is 1/3rd God, the Father is 1/3rd God, and the Holy Spirit is 1/3rd God.“The Trinity doctrine teaches us that before the foundation of the world, God was having fellowship within his own being.”

Rather, ‘God’ is essentially a Trinity of three divine persons in one divine personal being.

Sometimes the Jehovah’s Witnesses (who pointedly deny the Trinity) ridicule it with this little equation: 1 + 1 + 1 = 3.

In their minds evangelicals worship three Gods, not one. However, the answer is quite simple.

The doctrine of the Trinity is not absurd if that’s what the Bible teaches. Furthermore, there is more than one way to play with equations.

You could also say it this way: 1 x 1 x 1 = 1!

The Trinity doctrine teaches us that before the foundation of the world, God was having fellowship within his own being.

That’s why the Bible tells us that the Father loves the Son (Jn. 17:24).

In some sense we can never understand that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have forever communicated and loved each other.

The Unitarian-Pentecostal Error

There was an early theologian in Rome named Praxeas. He stated that the Heavenly Father became incarnate in Jesus Christ the Son and so it was the Father who suffered on the cross.

This idea came to be known as “patripassionism” (the suffering of the Father).

This is also known as the view of the “oneness Pentecostals.” They reject any idea that there is a Trinity of one God manifest in three persons.

They would say there is only “one person” who is God who is Jesus Christ.

A key verse for trying to prove that Jesus is the Father is Isaiah 9:6: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

So they would say that this is a prophecy of the coming Messiah and so the Messiah or Jesus must be the Heavenly Father.“To be ‘one’ with a person is not the same as being that person.”

The name “Father” here is translated as the progenitor or head of a race or nation of people.

So the word “Father” here is a title not necessarily a name. Jesus Christ is indeed the “everlasting father of the Jewish elect.”

This verse does not say, “God the Father.” It says a child is born and a son is given. This speaks of the humanity as well as the deity of Jesus Christ. It doesn’t say “Unto us Jesus is given.” It says, “Unto us a son is given.”

So Isaiah 9:6 does not teach that Jesus is the “heavenly Father.”

We believe in the truth of the paricaresus which is the mutual indwelling of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in one another.

The Father is in the Son in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in the Father and the Son. Jesus says, “I go to the Father.” How can Jesus be the Father, if he goes to the Father? Furthermore…

“In Scripture, Jesus is portrayed as being truly God, but he is not portrayed as being all there is to be said about God, for God is also portrayed as Father and as the Holy Spirit, distinct from Christ” (Gregory A. Boyd).

So, it is highly improper to say that Jesus Christ is his own Father.

The Isaiah nine scripture is really a prophecy of the coming Messiah. He is a father in the sense of being a protector or Savior of his people.

Those who postulate this error also quote John 10:30: “I and my Father are one.”

Yet even in this scripture Jesus does not say, “I am the Father.” “He uses the neuter {Hen} rather than the masculine {heis} for ‘one,’ thereby suggesting unity of essence rather than a personal identity.”

So, to be “one” with a person is not the same as being that person.

The Error of the Cappadocians

They advocated that God was kind of compound being. So to see God you would see all three persons. So God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in heaven. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit upon earth.

So the Godhead shares the same space as three in one. There is a major problem with such a view.“The Father did not inflict or bruise himself on the cross. Only the Lord Jesus Christ suffered that bruising and grief.”

Jesus suffered and died upon the cross for our sins. Did the heavenly Father die upon the cross? Did the Holy Spirit suffer the cross?

Jesus was buried in the tomb. Would it be proper to say that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were buried in the tomb?

The Cappadocian error would have to lead you to such conclusions. Isaiah fifty-three speaks of how the Father bruised His Son and even inflicted punishment as our divine substitute:

10) Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.Isaiah 53:10 (KJV)

The Father did not inflict or bruise himself on the cross. Only the Lord Jesus Christ suffered that bruising and grief.

The Godhead and Salvation

The Trinity is revealed in our salvation.

1)Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

2) Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.1 Peter 1:1-2 (KJV)

The Father God chooses his people and knows them with a purpose of making them his children.

The Holy Spirit of God separates God’s elect from sin and regenerates those whom the Father has chosen.

The Lord Jesus Christ gives his blood to redeem those whom the Father has chosen and the Spirit regenerates.

Therefore, there is a unity in the purpose of God for the salvation of all who believe.

37)  All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

38) For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

39) And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

40) And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:37-40 (KJV)

Notice how the Father gives his reserved people unto the Son. The Son redeems these people by his blood.

Again, it is important to note that we do not read here where the Father comes down and dies on the cross. It is the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ who dies to redeem us.

The truth of the Trinity is foundational to the atonement of Christ. Without understanding the distinction between the Father and the Son and their respective works of salvation, you will never be able to make sense of the atonement.

“For trinitarianism, however, God can fully and personally experience the hell of the cross as a fully human person because the God who exists on three distinct personal ways does not exhaust himself by becoming incarnate. God can personally be the crucified Jesus because God can personally at the same time be the transcendent Father” (Gregory A. Boyd).“You would never know anything about salvation apart from accepting the truth that there is a Trinity of persons in the Godhead who interact with each other in the great plan of salvation.”

J.I. Packer in his great book Knowing God gave us one of his five foundational principles in knowing God. Here is what he says about the Godhead in our salvation:

“God is triune; there are within the Godhead three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; and the work of salvation is one in which all three act together, the Father purposing redemption, the Son securing it, and the Spirit applying it.”

You would never know anything about salvation apart from accepting the truth that there is a Trinity of persons in the Godhead who interact with each other in the great plan of salvation.

Apart from the Trinity, you could never understand the essential meaning of the atonement.

You must understand that sin incurs a debt that must be paid to God. There is no man who can adequately pay that debt.

Only the Son of God, Jesus Christ can pay that debt to the Father’s justice.

Jesus Christ paid that debt by his own pure, sinless blood. We read in Isaiah (I added the word Father in this example):

10) Yet it pleased the Lord [Father] to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou [The Father] shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

11) He [The Father] shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.Isaiah 53:10-11 (KJV)

I say again, it was not the Father who died on the cross. It was not the Father who was our substitute. It was the Son who bore our sins on the cross and became our substitute.

It was the Father in Heaven who accepted the sacrifice of the Son to save us from sin.

“But in the substitutionary view, atonement is a transaction between God and God; between the Father and the Son through the Spirit. It is an event within God. Salvation starts with God, is achieved by God and is applied by God” (Tim Chester).

So, if God were not a Trinity, who would offer the sacrifice to God?

The Lord Jesus gave us another word about this saving faith. Jesus said:

23) That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.

24) Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.John 5:23-24 (KJV)

“Faith in God, who sent his Son, is here represented as being connected with everlasting life; but there can be no faith in him who sent his Son, without faith also in him who is sent” (Albert Barnes).

So, when you come to Christ in faith you are truly believing God. You are taking God at his word that He will save your soul.

So if you would truly believe in God, you would also come to believe on His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus said a similar thing in John 14:1: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.”

The Godhead and Worship

The doxology expresses our heartfelt worship of the Godhead…

“Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. A-men.”

We worship God when we experience the presence of the Godhead.

23) Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.John 14:23 (KJV)

When we love and obey the Lord, both the Father and the Son dwells with our spirit.

The Godhead and Spiritual Life

The very nature of the Godhead is love…

16) And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.1 John 4:16 (KJV)

That love has been eternally expressed between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit from all eternity.

The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father and both Father and Son love the Holy Spirit.“The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit love us and have pledged to keep us secure. We have the sacred and esteemed privilege of fellowship with the Godhead.”

As I shared earlier, love by its very nature must be expressed. We express our love to the ones we love.

Our spiritual life is simply loving God with all of our hearts and that love motivates us to do His will.

“The most marked characteristic of the Trinitarian relationships is the presence of an eternal and inherent expression of authority and submission” (Bruce A. Ware).

We find our very assurance of grace in the Godhead. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are omniscient and omnipresent.

God knows his people and God is present with all of his children at all times. This is a most comforting thought.

27) That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

28) For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

29) Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.Acts 17:27-29 (KJV)

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit love us and have pledged to keep us secure.

We have the sacred and esteemed privilege of fellowship with the Godhead.

3) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

4) And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.1 John 1:3-4 (KJV)

14) The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.2 Corinthians 13:14 (KJV)

Grace, love, and communion is what we have with the God we know. What a joy and peace it is to have such a fellowship with the Sovereign Creator and King of the universe.

Soli Deo gloria!

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