God The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

Who is God?

There is one true God. He is eternal, and he has always existed, without beginning or end. He is the creator, redeemer, preserver, and ruler of the universe. God is holy— this means separate in every way from all creation. God is all-powerful and all-knowing, and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future. God is transcendent over his world; he doesn’t need it and is beyond our understanding. God is immanent in his world, meaning he exists everywhere within the world.

Lot’s of heavy stuff! You may need to read that last paragraph a few times and think about each sentence one by one.

What is the Trinity?

The Bible teaches that God relates to us as a Trinity, three persons in one being:

God the Father

God the Son

God the Holy Spirit

There is only one God, not three. Each of the members of the Trinity are separate from one another, but still a single being.

This part of God’s nature is a mystery. We can’t fully understand how it all fits together. If we could understand God completely, he wouldn’t be God! (check out Mark 1:10-11)

The Father

God relates to us as a perfect Father. He is compassionate and loving toward humanity, and this is why he sent his Son into the world to die for our sins. He guides us and provides for our every need. Through faith in his Son, we enter his kingdom and his family.

The Son

Jesus has always existed as the Son of God. 2,000 years ago he became a man. He was 100% human and 100% God. He perfectly revealed the character of God the Father. He was tempted to sin, but he never sinned. As a human savior, he is able to sympathize with our temptations (check out Hebrews 4:15). As a divine savior, his death on the cross was enough to pay for the sins of the world.

The Holy Spirit

Like the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit created the universe. He inspired people to write the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit is a gift from the Father to all believers, received by faith in Jesus. He is at work in the world, helping unbelievers understand their sin (separation from God) so that they might trust Jesus through faith. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows spiritual gifts to believers. His presence in Christians is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, discipleship, fellowship, and ministry.

Lots of Big Words…

Why does any of this matter?

At some point, everyone stops and thinks about the questions that matter most: Who am I? Where did everything come from? What’s my purpose? What will it take for me to be happy?

Understanding God isn’t just an intellectual issue— it’s personal.  We all have a need to connect with God because he’s the one who made us and loves us. He loves us just as we are, and he loves us too much to leave us there.

We are here to help you connect with God. Talk to a leader if there’s anything we can do to help you grow in your faith.

Going Deeper…Read Ephesians 1:3-14 and reflect on how Paul’s uses all three persons of the Trinity.