The one true and living God commands sinners to seek Him as a just God and a Savior based on the merits of the substitutionary obedience and death of Christ. Sinners are responsible to believe God's promise of salvation based on the righteousness of Christ according to God's promise and to the praise of His glory. Sinners are forbidden to believe salvation based on anything else. And God not only promises to save sinners upon this one ground but He also engages every attribute of His character to save sinners who come to Him through Christ.

In this lesson we are going to deal with another aspect of the character of this one God - THE TRI-UNITY OF GOD, or what is known as THE TRINITY. This is one of the most fascinating truths about our one God. The Bible reveals that our God is ONE GOD who subsists in THREE DISTINCT PERSONS. This is not teaching that our God is three gods. We are not polytheistic. We are monotheistic. The Trinity expresses the three PERSONS of the Godhead. Again, we believe in ONE GOD who subsists in THREE DISTINCT PERSONS. They are revealed as GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON, and GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT. Each distinct PERSON of the Godhead is a full partaker of the one undivided essence of Deity. All of the infinite perfections of being are equally attributed to each distinct PERSON of the Trinity. Each is infinite, infallible and unlimited in every attribute of being.

As we saw in the last lesson, the doctrine of the Trinity is not opposed to the oneness of God. The Trinity actually enables us to form right conceptions of the oneness of God. It presents to us three Persons, not three gods, but one God who subsists in three Persons. The oneness of God is found in His nature or essence so that there is but one divine nature or essence who subsists in three distinct Persons. And by virtue of that subsistence, each Person of the Godhead is God.

This is a mystery unparalleled in our experience. Some people try to explain it by using earthly illustrations. For example: (1) an egg is one, yet consists of three parts (a shell, a white, and a yoke); (2) a man is one, yet he can perform three different roles (a husband, a son, and father); (3) H O is one, yet it can exists in three different forms (solid - ice; liquid - water, and gas - steam). None of these comparisons explain the tri-unity of our one God. In fact, they are dishonoring to God. God is not one God in three different parts, nor three different roles, nor three different forms. He is ONE GOD who subsists in THREE DISTINCT PERSONS. GOD IS ONE GOD, THREE DISTINCT PERSONS, not a three-headed god, not one god acting out the part of three, but THREE DISTINCT PERSONS, EACH TRULY GOD IN EVERY WAY!

This is mind-boggling. We may say that it is far above our understanding, and it is. God's greatness is infinite, and we can never fully comprehend it. We must simply accept what the Scriptures reveal about it and learn as much as God has revealed. Someone may say it is foolish for us to try to explain or even study the Trinity. This is blasphemy when we consider Scriptures like John 17:3 - "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent," and Matthew 28:19 - "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." It is true that in its fullest degree we cannot understand and explain the Trinity, but there are things about the Trinity we are responsible to know and explain. What are these things? All that God has revealed about it.

I. THE BIBLE'S TEACHING ON THE TRINITY.

A. The Old Testament - The Old Testament expresses the plurality of the Godhead in its opening words: "In the beginning God" (Genesis 1:1). The Hebrew word translated "God" is Elohim. The plural suffix, "im," presents a singular God who is expressed as a plurality. Elohim is a name usually given in the Bible to the Trinity by which God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit reveal themselves as under the obligation of an oath to perform certain things. This is our covenant God. Elohim covenanted not only with the creation but, as the Godhead, within itself, concerning the creation.

Read John 1:1-3 -

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Read John 1:14 -

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Read Colossians 1:16 -

For by Him (Christ) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether <they be> thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.

In these verses we see creation ascribed to the Lord Jesus Christ, the first and the last, the eternally begotten Son of God, who was sent of the Father to fulfill all the conditions of the everlasting covenant of grace. He was sent to fulfill all righteousness in order that God could just and justify the ungodly. But creation was the act of Elohim. Therefore, Christ is in the Elohim or Godhead.

The creation was not only the work of Elohim, the Godhead, but the object of a covenant within the Godhead guaranteeing its redemption and perpetuation through Christ, God the Son incarnate. We see this connection more clearly in Jeremiah 31:33 -

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God (Elohim), and they shall be my people.

This is a prophecy of the New Covenant which is the fulfillment in time of the everlasting covenant of grace made before time. We see the triune Godhead engaged in the salvation of spiritual Israel, God's elect, based on the righteousness of God the Son incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ. With this grand purpose in mind, Elohim, the triune God, created the world.

There are other Old Testament references to the plurality of the Godhead. In creation God said, "Let US make man in OUR image, according to OUR likeness" (Genesis 1:26). After the fall of man, God said, "Man has become as one of US" (Genesis 3:22). When the Lord was about to destroy the Tower of Babel, He said, "Let US go down, and there confound their language" (Genesis 11:7). When the Lord revealed Himself to Isaiah, He asked the prophet, "Who shall go for US?" (Isaiah 6:8).

A major proof of the Trinity in the Old Testament is the constant mention of a person who is distinct from Jehovah as a person but to whom the titles, attributes, and works of Jehovah are nevertheless ascribed. He is called the angel of God, the angel of Jehovah, Adonai, Jehovah, and Elohim. He claims divine authority and power. He exercises divine privileges, and He accepts divine worship. Besides this, the inspired writers of the New Testament wrote that this angel of the Lord was Christ.

B. The New Testament - Luke reveals that all members of the Trinity were involved in Christ's incarnation. An angel appeared to Mary and said -

The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing (offspring) which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. -- Luke 1:35

The Trinity was also present at Christ's baptism. God the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove, and God the Father said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). The Trinity was also involved in the resurrection of Christ. He was raised by the power of the Father (Romans 6:4; Galatians 1:1; 1 Peter 1:3) and the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11).

Christ Himself claimed to be God and yet He made the distinction between Himself and God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Read the following -

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. -- Matthew 28:19

Believers are to be baptized, not simply in the name of God, but equally in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God has clearly revealed the triunity of PERSONS in the one Godhead.

And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. It is also written in you law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me bears witness of me. Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, You neither know me, nor my Father: if you had known me, you should have known my Father also. -- John 8:16-19

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish neither shall any (man) pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no (man) is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. -- John 10:27-30

The Jews understood that Christ claimed to be God. John 10:31-33 -

The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, 'Many good works have I shown you from my Father; for which of those works do you stone me?' The Jews answered him, saying, 'For a good we stone you not; but for blasphemy; and because that you, being a man, make yourself God.'

The Apostle Paul often spoke of the Trinity in his epistles. In Romans 8:9 he wrote that the Holy Spirit is both "the Spirit of God" and the "the Spirit of Christ." God the Holy Spirit has the same relationship with the Father that He has with the Son.

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]

But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. -- 2 Thessalonians 2:13

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel OF GOD, ... Concerning HIS SON JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. -- Romans 1:1,3-4

This makes it clear that Christ is the Son of God, not by creation or adoption, but by nature. There are many others. Thomas, for example, when he was convinced that Jesus was resurrected from the dead said, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28). Paul speaking of the benefits and privileges God gave to the Jews, and of these benefits "whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. AMEN" (Romans 9:5). He wrote in I Timothy 3:16 -

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

All of these prove that God has clearly revealed Himself as the ONE true and living God who subsists as THREE DISTINCT PERSONS - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are the same in the essence of the nature of Deity, but they are distinct in their Persons. It is important that we understand this. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not one and the same Persons. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father. The Son is not the Spirit and the Spirit is not the Son. They are distinct.

What about Isaiah 9:6, where Christ is called "the everlasting Father"? This verse is speaking of Christ in His mediatorial relationship to God's elect, all whom He would redeem. It is not speaking in terms of the Godhead. It is referring to God the Son incarnate as the spiritualfather of all whom He would redeem in the same way as He is the Head and they are the body, He is the Bridegroom and they are the bride, He is the Redeemer and they are the redeemed, He is the Shepherd and they are the sheep.

What about John 14:9 where Christ told the disciples, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father"? Christ was not saying that He is the Father. He was saying that in Him the Father's glory is made known as the God who justifies the ungodly based on the righteousness of Christ. It is in God the Son incarnate that God the Father is revealed and known as our covenant God and Father (Matthew 11:27). In salvation, this distinction of Persons is revealed as we see each Person of the Godhead performing the duties of His distinct and unique office.

II. THE GOSPEL AND THE TRINITY - We have stated that one main concern of this study of God's attributes has to do with the atonement which Christ made on behalf of God's elect. The reason this is so important is that our view of Christ's atonement reveals our conceptions of God's character. For example, those who hold to a universal atonement, who believe salvation is conditioned on the sinner, do not think much of God's faithfulness, justice, holiness, love, mercy and grace. God's love and Christ's death does not make the entire difference in their salvation. They think more of their faith than they do of God's love and Christ's righteousness. Here, in our study of the Trinity, we are going to see that our view of the atonement reveals our conceptions of all three Persons of the Godhead.

In the salvation of sinners, and by salvation we include our final glorification in heaven, God knows nothing of any partial salvation or mere savability. GOD SAVES SINNERS, AND THIS INCLUDES EVERYTHING FROM REGENERATION UNTO FINAL GLORIFICATION, BODY AND SOUL IN HEAVEN! In the full, free, eternal salvation of sinners, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are revealed as working together in their common purpose to save. Each of the three PERSONS in the Godhead maintains a distinct office and undertakes a work which is credited peculiarly to Him. The first chapter of Paul's letter to the Ephesians gives us an account of the distinct work of each Person of the Godhead in salvation. It shows us how the Father is source and originator of salvation, the Son is the one who procured or purchased salvation, and the Holy Spirit is the one who applies salvation.

A. THE WORK OF THE FATHER IN REDEMPTION - GOD THE FATHER is the source and originator of salvation. He is revealed as representing the majesty, exercising the sovereignty and maintaining the prerogatives of the Godhead.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. -- Ephesians 1:3-6

The Bible reveals that God the Father elected or chose a multitude of guilty, hell-deserving sinners out of Adam's fallen race and conditioned all of their salvation upon His Son, whom He appointed be their mediator and surety. God the Father sent His Son to become incarnate, to come in our name and in our nature, as our substitute, in order to satisfy all the conditions of our salvation by establishing a perfect righteousness for us, the very righteousness of God. This righteousness itself both enabled God the Father to be just when He justifies us and entitles us to the whole inheritance of grace.

"In Christ" shows that all spiritual grace and blessings are conditioned on Christ who has merited for God's elect everything necessary for their eternal well-being. The Father promised all spiritual blessings in view of Christ's incarnation, obedience, death, and resurrection to work out a righteousness whereby the Father could be just and justify the ungodly. God could confer no spiritual blessing upon guilty sinners apart from His law and justice being satisfied. All spiritual blessings are in the hands of Christ our Representative, and He rules and reigns to confer these blessings upon God's elect in each successive generation. We already have all spiritual blessings in the Person of Christ our Representative but not yet in our own persons until we are finally glorified. Some of these blessings we already have in our own persons, and it is sure and certain that we will receive all according to God's promise.

God's election goes much farther than the mere choice of a people out of Adam's fallen race. Election includes our spiritual union with Christ. This means that God the Father gave those whom He chose to Christ. He appointed God the Son to be their Mediator and Representative. He conditioned all of their salvation on God the Son and sent the Son into this world to satisfy all those conditions. Christ (the One) represented the many. Based upon the satisfaction Christ rendered to all the conditions, He (the One) obtained all spiritual blessings in His Person to be communicated to the persons of God's elect in time in each successive generation. When God the Father chose them in Christ He blessed them with all spiritual blessings. These blessings are to be communicated to their persons in time.

This blessed truth includes all of God's elect who are yet in unbelief as well as all of God's elect who have not been born into this world yet. They will be born guilty, defiled, and condemned in their own persons even though Christ has all spiritual blessings that belong to them in His Person. In time, when it pleases the Father, these blessings will be communicated to their persons. In time, when they come to understand these truths, they will bless God because He first blessed them.

This excludes all conditions and qualifications on the part of the sinner. Those who believe in a universal atonement deny the work of the Father in salvation because they make God's choice of sinners based on God foreseeing what the sinner would do in the future. They place conditions on the sinner when God plainly reveals that He placed all of the conditions of salvation on Christ alone. They claim that even though God loved them and Christ died for them that multitudes go to hell anyway. What, then, does God's love and Christ's death really have to do with their salvation? Nothing! They deny God's wisdom in sending His Son to work out a righteousness because multitudes whom God promised to save will not receive the benefits of that righteousness. They make the work of the Father merely an attempt to save sinners, not His sovereign purpose to do so. They deny God's holiness and justice because even though Christ paid their debt and established a righteousness for them, they perish anyway.

God the Father appointed Christ, sent Him, imputed our sins to Him, spared Him not, delivered Him up, bruised Him, raised Him up from the dead, gave Him glory; the Father crowned Him with honor and glory and exalted Christ to His right hand, all as our mediator and surety. Now, we see the true nature of God's holiness. God's holiness demands Christ's righteousness imputed to the sinner for salvation. We also see the true nature of God's love in providing what God's holiness demanded.

B. THE WORK OF THE SON IN REDEMPTION - GOD THE SON is revealed as acting in official subordination to the Father, as sent, as given, as coming to do HIS will. He came as the Father's servant, as being made under the law, as being made sin for us, as wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. He was obedient to the Father even to the death of the cross. He is equal with the Father in every way, but subjected to the Father for the purposes of redemption. We see an example of this in our lives. Our wives are equal partners with us, but are to be subjected to us in the family order.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. -- Ephesians 1:7-12

Redemption presupposes captivity, bondage, and slavery. Here it means to ransom out of a state of wrath and bondage never to return. "In whom"--This redemption resides in Christ as He is the Author and Procurer of it. His obedience, sufferings, and death make up this redemption.

Those who believe in a universal atonement deny the work of the Son in salvation. God tells us plainly that the forgiveness of sins is based on Christ's blood, His righteousness, His satisfaction to justice. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. This is not just any blood, but Christ's blood. Sins are not forgiven based on our tears or confessions, nor on our faith and repentance. It is not based on our performances of any kind. It is not even based on the work of the Holy Spirit in us. This one fact tells us that if Christ's shed His blood for those who finally perish, then His blood alone will not bring forgiveness of sins. Since God excludes everything else but Christ's blood, there could be no forgiveness for any sinner. Those who believe and support such dishonoring doctrines must seek their forgiveness based on their faith and/or repentance. This proves that their so-called forgiveness, their so-called salvation is a refuge of lies.

God the Father purposed in Himself that He would be glorified in the establishment of the new heavens and the new earth under the headship of Christ. Here we see a real distinction of PERSONS, OFFICES, and DUTIES. In redemption, all that is said of the Father is peculiar to Him; all that is said of God the Son is peculiar to Him; and all that is said of the Holy Spirit is peculiar to Him. God the Father and God the Holy Spirit did not become incarnate, obey, suffer, and die on the cross. God the Son, Christ, God the Son incarnate, loved us and gave Himself for us in order to glorify the Father.

"I have glorified you on the earth: I have finished the work which YOU GAVE ME TO DO" (John 17:4). Christ is our Priest who established a perfect righteousness to be imputed to us. Christ is our Prophet who shall make us wise unto salvation. And Christ is our King who rules and reigns in order to insure that we be made actual partakers of all grace here and all glory hereafter. "I" give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. He saves to the uttermost.

C. THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN REDEMPTION - GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT applies this great salvation to each and everyone whom the Father chose and whom the Son redeemed. His work is to apply in us subjectively what Christ God the Father has purposed and promised and what God the Son incarnate has purchased for us objectively. His work is called the "new birth" wherein God's elect who were born naturally of Adam into a state of wrath and condemnation are born again spiritually and brought into a state of grace and justification. The Holy Spirit gives us spiritual life. This is called regeneration. And through the preaching of the Gospel, He brings us to saving faith and true repentance.

In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. -- Ephesians 1:13-14

The Holy Spirit's main work in us is to make us willing to receive freely Christ and His righteousness as the only ground of salvation and to repent of idolatry and dead works. It is the office of the Holy Spirit to bear witness to Christ and to convince each one of God's elect in time of sin, of righteousness and of judgement. He performs this work when sinners are convinced that the only way they can be justified and glorified is through Christ based on His righteousness alone. The great subject of His testimony is Christ crucified and Christ exalted, not Christ as a private person, but Christ as our substitute and representative who satisfied all the conditions of our salvation. None of the work of the Holy Spirit in us forms any part of the ground or cause of our salvation. All of His work in us is the direct fruit and effect of Christ's work for us, His righteousness imputed which is the only ground of salvation.

One of the greatest and most subtle heresies that Satan has spread among false religion is that sinners are justified based on the Holy Spirit's work in them and not exclusively based on Christ's work for them. Some call it justification by an imparted righteousness. This is a denial of the work of the Holy Spirit and, ultimately a denial of the work of the Son. Those who believe in a universal atonement do not believe that the blood, the death, the righteousness of Christ (His work) alone makes the difference between heaven and hell. Therefore, they must look to what the Holy Spirit enables them to do as some part of the ground of salvation. This is a denial of the Gospel, a denial of Christ.

The Scriptures were verbally inspired by God the Holy Spirit. And He never says of Himself that He became incarnate, was made under the law, was made sin for us, nor that He was made a curse for us. It is never said that the Spirit redeemed us by His blood, nor that He obtained eternal redemption, nor that He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. This is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Regeneration, justification, faith, true repentance and every other subjective grace and fruit of the Spirit is all the direct fruit and effect of Christ's work for us. And Christ's work for us is the direct fruit and effect of the Father's purpose to save. God the Father's love is the only cause of our salvation, and His love is attended with infinite, unlimited wisdom and power, whereby He freely provided everything necessary for our salvation. God the Father removes every obstacle that would keep us in a state of wrath, everything legally and everything morally.

CONCLUSION: There is no God like our God -- ONE GOD WHO SUBSISTS AND REVEALS HIMSELF IN THREE DISTINCT PERSONS, each performing these peculiar duties that insure our salvation. The Godhead is glorified in the salvation of sinners based on the righteousness of Christ. God's elect are going to be saved. The glory of God demands it. And every sinner who hears this message is fully warranted and commanded to believe God's promise of salvation based solely upon the imputed righteousness of Christ, without the deeds of the law. Our salvation depends equally on the love and grace of God the Father, on the work of Jesus Christ our Savior, and on the work of the Holy Spirit.

We have referred to the great commission in Matthew 28:19 - "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Every justified sinner, every born-again sinner, every believer is commanded to be baptized in this one name. The Gospel, when preached aright, reveals this one name. It reveals the Father who is the only source and originator of salvation, who chose me freely and conditioned all of my salvation on the Lord Jesus Christ. It reveals the Son upon whom all of my salvation is conditioned, who came fulfilled all those conditions in His obedience unto death to establish a righteousness as my Representative and Surety. It is the work of the Son that demands my salvation and final glory. It reveals the Holy Spirit who sovereignly, powerfully, and irresistibly gives me life and calls me into God's kingdom by causing me to receive freely Christ and His righteousness as the only ground of salvation to the praise and glory of God's grace.