Today is Trinity Sunday, the day of the Church Year we focus on the doctrine of the church that attempts to set forth the teachings of Bible about God. Triune, meaning three in one, is the word that describes God’s revelation of Himself to us. Even though Triune and Trinity are not recorded in the Bible, they describe what is said about God. Our God is one God, the only God. Yet He has shown Himself to us as three distinct persons in that one God. While this teaching will remain a mystery to us, something beyond our comprehension, we nevertheless hold it forth as God’s truth and accept it in faith.

Some people have argued that this doctrine was the invention of the early Christian Church, but in fact the multiple persons of God can be seen already in the first verses of the Bible. The creation account speaks of God and the Spirit of God. And a few verses later, God says Let Us create man in Our own image. In the benediction God told Aaron and his sons to use, the one our liturgies normally use at the conclusion of our worship, we hear The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you; The Lord look upon you with favor, and give you His peace. (Numbers 6:22-27). Three references to the Lord in the common blessing used in the Old Testament displays that the children of Israel knew something of the multiple persons of our God. And the threefold Holy! Holy! Holy! reference is found in Isaiah, in his vision of the angels circling the throne:

Isaiah 6:3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

Of course, the New Testament sheds even more light on the nature of our God. God reveals Himself most clearly in the person of Jesus, the one who came to pay the price for all sin so that we could have forgiveness and eternal life. At the Baptism of Jesus, all three persons of the Triune God are present: The Father speaks, the Son is standing there in the water, the Spirit descending in the form of a dove. When He commissioned His disciples, Jesus instructs them to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And throughout the writings of Paul we find the clear testimony that our one God is three persons.

On this Trinity Sunday, reflect on and contemplate and marvel at the mystery of the three persons of the one true God, the Triune God. He is the one who created everything, redeemed His fallen creation from the consequences of sin, and does what is necessary to bring us to faith and keep us in that faith.

In the coming days, I will share more thoughts on the three persons of the our one true God.