Unity of the Trinity

Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. John 17:11b

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity has been used by the church to resolve the controversy over the various manifestations of God to humanity. From birth the human being becomes aware of God the Father, who lives in heaven and to whom we channel our prayers trusting that He is mighty to save, a great God who answers those that diligently seek Him. God the Son came down from heaven and lived physically with humanity, during a period of human history, as prophesied by the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14) and from the message the angel told Joseph, Jesus’ step father that, “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us. (Matthew 1:23). After Jesus’ physical exit from the earth, God the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and Son and now dwells in the heart of believers, as our advocate, counsellor, guide and teacher (John 14:16,24;  16:7-10, 13).

The doctrine, presents these three divine Persons in one undivided God.  The challenge humanity has had with the Trinity is its attempt to use human standards and knowledge to understand and explain the Trinity. However, the facts, which are clearly articulated in our Article of Religion, which as Christians we should believe, are as follows:

Article I (excerpts)

“There is only one living and true God, who is eternal and without body, indivisible and invulnerable. He is of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness. He is the maker and preserver of all things both visible and invisible… Within the unity of the Godhead there are three persons who are of one substance, power, and eternity — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit…”

The Holy Scriptures clearly testify to the oneness of God while at the same time identifying three divine personalities that constitute this One God. Speaking through Moses in Deuteronomy 6:4 God said to the Israelites, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” and this position was confirmed by Jesus Christ in Mark 12:29 when answering the Scribe that wanted to know the greatest commandment. In Isaiah 45: 5 God also told the prophet, “I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me.” There are various other Scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments that testify to the oneness of God.

In the creation story, God showed the multiple personalities of the Godhead when He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” (Gen. 1: 26); Also in Isaiah 6:8 “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?’” and in Matthew 28:19 Jesus says “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”.

A lesson that humankind has failed to learn from the Trinity is unity or oneness achieved through love and humility.  Unity is a nature that should come out of us effortlessly as married couples, households, nations, and the body of Christ (church) but unfortunately our experience is far away since the fall of man. Apostle Paul, under the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, in Galatians 5 and Romans 8 wrote that living according to the flesh (the nature of the fallen man), setting our minds and gratifying the desires of the flesh has produced in us enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness and other evils, which are keeping us far away from God’s purpose for our creation and making unity unachievable in our homes, our nation and even within the church of God.

Dearly beloved, as we celebrate the Holy Trinity today, let us reflect and align ourselves with the prayer of Jesus Christ in John 17:11b for the church to be one as the Trinity is one, for individual couples to be one and for unity in our nation. We should take that decision to yield ourselves completely to the Holy Spirit, living and walking by It, that we may bear the fruit of the Spirit, which is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23b).