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Glory · The Holy Spirit
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.
https://glorystudy.com/questions/how-do-the-persons-of-the-trinity-relate · Scripture quoted from the World English Bible
John 14:15-31
As you read: Jesus promises the Helper whom the Father will send in His name: watch how all three Persons are named and how they relate to one another.
15If you love me, keep my commandments.
16I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,—
17the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you.
18I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.
19Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also.
20In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
21One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.”
22Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”
23Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.
24He who doesn’t love me doesn’t keep my words. The word which you hear isn’t mine, but the Father’s who sent me.
25I have said these things to you, while still living with you.
26But 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.
27Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, give I to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.
28You 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.
29Now I have told you before it happens so that, when it happens, you may believe.
30I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world comes, and he has nothing in me.
31But 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.
John 17
As you read: The whole prayer is full of the Father's relationship with the Son: glory given and received, and love shared before the world existed.
1Jesus said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you;
2even as you gave him authority over all flesh, he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
3This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
4I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do.
5Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.
6I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word.
7Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you,
8for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
9I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
10All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
11I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.
12While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you have given me I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
13But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.
14I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.
16They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.
17Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.
18As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world.
19For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
20Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word,
21that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.
22The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one;
23I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.
24Father, 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.
25Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me.
26I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Matthew 3:13-17
As you read: The Son is baptized, the Spirit descends like a dove, and the Father speaks from heaven: all three present at once.
13Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.
14But John would have hindered him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?”
15But Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him.
16Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him.
17Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Galatians 4:4-7
As you read: Paul compresses the whole plan into a few lines: the Father sends the Son, and the Spirit cries 'Abba, Father.'
4But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,
5that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children.
6And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”
7So you are no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
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,”Matthew 28:19
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.”2 Corinthians 13:14
“Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one.”Deuteronomy 6:4
“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.”1 Corinthians 8:6
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!””Galatians 4:4-6
“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.”John 14:26
““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.”John 15:26
“I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,—”John 14:16
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.””Matthew 3:17
“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.”John 17:24
“The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.”John 3:35
“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.”John 14:31
“He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine, and will declare it to you.”John 16:14
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.”2 Corinthians 13:14
“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.”1 Peter 1:2
“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;”Titus 3:4-6
“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.”Ephesians 1:13-14
“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.”2 Corinthians 1:21-22
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.”John 14:28
“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.”1 Corinthians 11:3
“For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,”Colossians 2:9
“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.”Philippians 2:6-7