The Trinity
Colossians 1:15–20 ESV
¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Our church has been walking through a series called We’re Building Everything on Jesus. This value shapes everything we do because Saraland Church is committed to being a Jesus-centered, Spirit-filled church for all people.
The Trinity may feel like weighty subject matter, but it is foundational. Paul reminds us that we speak “in human terms, because of your natural limitations” (Romans 6:19), and Isaiah declares that God’s thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9). We cannot fully grasp the nature of God. That’s why every human analogy falls short. Instead of reducing God to illustrations that break down, we confess what Scripture reveals: one God in three persons.
What We Mean by “Trinity”
The word Trinity is not found in the Bible, but the truth of it is everywhere. Just as a kitchen spice drawer may contain cinnamon, sugar, lemon pepper, and Tony Chachere’s—without a single jar labeled “spice”—so the Scriptures present Father, Son, and Holy Spirit without using the label itself.
Here’s the definition Christians have confessed for centuries:
God eternally exists as three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person is fully God. There is one God. And God is always all three persons at once.
This is the cornerstone of Christian orthodoxy.
Why the Early Church Clarified the Trinity
In AD 325, the Council of Nicaea gathered about 300 church leaders to respond to the false teaching of Arius, who claimed Jesus was created. In answer, the church affirmed what John had already written:
John 1:1 ESV
¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And just a few verses later:
John 1:14 ESV
¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus was not created—He is eternally God.
About fifty years later, the Council of Constantinople (AD 381) gathered to address a group known as the Pneumatomachians (“spirit fighters”), who denied the deity of the Holy Spirit. The church affirmed what the Bible had always shown: Father, Son, and Spirit are co-equal, co-eternal, of the same divine substance.
The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed summarizes it: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty… and in one Lord, Jesus Christ… true God from true God, begotten, not made… and in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified…”
The Trinity was not invented in the 300s—it was confessed because Scripture demanded it.
The New Testament’s Trinitarian Pattern
The New Testament shows Father, Son, and Spirit together again and again:
Matthew 3:16–17 ESV
¹⁶ And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; ¹⁷ and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV
¹⁴ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Ephesians 4:4–6 ESV
⁴ There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Matthew 28:19 ESV
¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
The Old Testament Witness
The Old Testament also reveals the Trinity.
Genesis 1:1 ESV
¹ In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Here, Elohim—the plural form of God—is used. Scripture later affirms that the Father created (Genesis 1:1), the Son created and upholds all things (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16–17; Hebrews 1:2–3), and the Spirit was active in creation (Job 26:13; Psalm 104:30).
Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema, Israel’s daily confession, reads:
Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV
⁴ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
“Shema” means “hear.” “Yahweh” is singular. “Elohim” is plural. “Echad” means one, but often a collective one. Genesis 2:24 says a husband and wife “shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Genesis 11:6 describes humanity at Babel as “one people” (Genesis 11:6). So the Shema confesses: Yahweh our Elohim (plural), Yahweh is echad (one). God is one in essence, yet three in person.
Guardrails Against Heresy
The doctrine of the Trinity is not abstract—it protects the church from false teaching. Two groups in particular still deny the Trinity and regularly knock on doors in our community: Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Mormons teach that the Father was once a man who became a god, that Jesus was born to Him and one of His wives, and that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are separate gods among countless others. They even teach that humans can become gods.
Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that only the Father is God, that Jesus is not divine but actually the archangel Michael, and that the Holy Spirit is not God but merely an impersonal force. This mirrors the ancient heresy of Arianism.
Let’s be clear: neither Mormons nor Jehovah’s Witnesses are Christians. What they teach is so egregiously wrong, it is damnable heresy. They profess a false Christ who cannot save.
How the Trinity Makes Salvation Certain
When we look at the life of Abraham, we see why the Trinity is so important.
In Genesis 12, Abraham and Sarah faced barrenness. Into that impossibility, God the Father spoke a promise: Abraham would become a great nation, and through him all nations would be blessed.
In Genesis 15, years later, Abraham was still waiting. God reassured him, and Scripture says:
Romans 4:3 ESV
³ For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
Abraham asked how he could know for sure. God responded with a covenant. Abraham prepared the sacrifice, but God caused him to fall into a deep sleep. And then it happened: a smoking fire pot and a blazing torch passed between the pieces. Abraham never walked it—God did.
This moment points us directly to the Son. Human flesh cannot secure the covenant.
Romans 8:3 ESV
³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.
The imagery of Genesis 15 is not random. It anticipates the glory revealed in Christ:
Revelation 1:14–15 ESV
¹⁴ The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, ¹⁵ his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.
The blazing torch and fire pot echo this description of Jesus—eyes like fire, feet like bronze, radiant in glory. What Abraham saw in shadow, Revelation unveils in fullness: the covenant was not ultimately between God and Abraham but between the Father and the Son, guaranteeing its certainty.
Then, in Genesis 17, God commanded Abraham:
Genesis 17:1 ESV
¹ When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,
Abraham fell on his face, knowing he could not. God gave circumcision as a sign, foreshadowing the Spirit’s work:
Ephesians 1:13 ESV
¹³ In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
The pattern is clear: the Father promises, the Son secures, and the Spirit seals. And when God in three persons completes His work, the promise is certain.
Romans 4:16 ESV
¹⁶ That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
What depends on human strength is fragile. What rests on the Trinity is guaranteed.
The Confession We Live By
The Father planned our salvation. The Son purchased it. The Spirit preserves it. God eternally exists as three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each person is fully God. There is one God.
This is not abstract theology. It is the glue that holds Christianity together and the foundation of our assurance. The Trinity makes salvation certain.
