How do the Persons of the Trinity relate to one another?
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God in three Persons, and the Bible shows them relating to one another in love and in distinct roles. They are not three gods and not three parts of one being: they are one God, and each Person is fully God. Their relationship is not an abstract theory; it is the shape of our salvation, because the Father sends, the Son redeems, and the Spirit applies.
This question arose from studying What is the Trinity? and Can we really understand the Trinity?.
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What the Scripture says
One God in three Persons, with one name
Baptism is into 'the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit': one name, and yet the Father, Son, and Spirit are each named. Paul's benediction commends 'the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,' and Israel's oldest confession declares that 'Yahweh is one.' The Persons are distinct, but the God is one: three Persons sharing one divine being and one name.
Go,and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.
Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one.
yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.
The Father sends; the Son comes; the Spirit brings us in
When the fullness of time came, 'God sent out his Son,' and because we are children, 'God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' Jesus promised that the Father would send the Helper 'in my name,' and that the Spirit of truth 'proceeds from the Father' and testifies about Him. The roles differ because the Persons differ, yet each is fully God at work in our salvation.
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children. And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you.
“When the Counselorhas come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.
I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,—
They know, love, and glorify one another
At the Jordan the Father said, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,' and Jesus prayed that His disciples would see His glory, 'for you loved me before the foundation of the world.' The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand; the Son loves the Father and does what He commands; the Spirit takes what belongs to Christ and declares it to us. The life of God is not lonely; it is a relationship of eternal love.
Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.
The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.
But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father commanded me, even so I do. Arise, let us go from here.
He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine, and will declare it to you.
They work together in our salvation
Paul blesses the church with 'the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,' and Peter describes believers chosen by the foreknowledge of God the Father, sanctified by the Spirit, and sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. Titus says we were saved by mercy through 'the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior,' and Paul adds that we were sealed with 'the Holy Spirit of promise,' the pledge of our inheritance. Every Person is at work in every stage of our salvation.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior;
in whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
Now he who establishes us with you in Christ, and anointed us, is God; who also sealed us, and gave us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts.
Different roles do not mean unequal worth
When Jesus told the disciples, 'the Father is greater than I,' He was not denying His deity; He was speaking of His sending and His incarnate obedience. Paul can say that the head of Christ is God, and yet also that all the fullness of God dwells in Christ bodily. The ordering is the pattern of love: the Son submits to the Father and the Spirit serves both, not because they are less, but because love has a shape. The truest greatness in God is the loving order of three Persons who are one.
You heard how I told you, ‘I go away, and I come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I said ‘I am going to my Father;’ for the Father is greater than I.
But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.
For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,
who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.
As you read, you may wonder…
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Verses to meditate on
Go,and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children. And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”
Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.
in whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
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