I ask your attention to that tremendous theme, the Holy Trinity, and I am going to quote, as a starting point, the following text:"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 Cor. 13:14). This verse sets before us in a very definite way the unity of the Godhead and yet the three persons in the Holy Trinity. The truth of the Holy Trinity forms one of the great revelations of grace. I do not mean by that we never find the trinity in the Old Testament. We do, but not so definitely as in the New Testament.

The very first verse of our Bible does more than suggest a trinity in the Godhead. It positively affirms it. We read in Gen. 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." It is a well-known fact that the Hebrew word for "God" here is Elohim, and the "im" at the end of a Hebrew noun is the plural form. In Hebrew, as in some other languages, there are three numbers, singular, dual, and plural. The singular, of course, is one; the dual is two, and the plural signifies that the noun refers to three or more. The singular for God is El, or Eloah, the plural Elohim. There is no dual in this instance. So we read here, "In the beginning Elohim (the triune God) created the heaven and the earth." It has often been pointed out by scholars that while the word "God" is in the plural, the word "created" is singular, so this in itself suggests the wonderful mystery of the Trinity acting in unity_three persons in one God, acting together, in the creation of the universe. It is perfectly right to say we believe in God the Father, Creator of the heavens and the earth; it is also correct to say God by His Spirit made the heavens and the earth; and it is also correct to say that the Son was the Creator. "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" (John 1:1-3).

In the book of the prophet Isaiah there are two very prominent scriptures that bring the three persons of the Godhead clearly before us. In chapter 48, verse 16, we hear Messiah speaking. Throughout this section of the book the Spirit of God brings before us the coming and rejection of our Lord Jesus Christ, Israel’s Messiah, and in verse 16 Messiah, speaking through the prophet, says this:"Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I:and now the Lord God, and His Spirit, hath sent Me." We know that these words refer to the Lord Jesus Christ for we read in John 18:20 that He declared, "In secret have I said nothing," and this is the passage to which He referred. So here we are listening to the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, Israel’s Messiah, the eternal holy Son of God who was to be manifested in the flesh. He says, looking on to the Incarnation, "And now the Lord God, and His Spirit [that is, the Holy Spirit], hath sent Me [that is, the Son]." So there you have the Trinity in the Book of Isaiah. It is often said that the Old Testament does not tell us anything about the Trinity of the Godhead, and some of our Jewish friends consider the doctrine of the Trinity as solely a Christian idea. But it is clear that here in Isaiah we have the three persons definitely indicated_ Messiah (the Lord Jesus Christ), God the Father, and the Holy Spirit.

In a later chapter of this same book we have the three persons again definitely indicated. It is the passage that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself read in the synagogue at Nazareth and applied to Himself, saying, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4:21). Now notice how the three persons come before us in this passage:"The Spirit [the Holy Spirit] of the Lord God is upon Me [that is, the Son]; because the Lord [that is, God the Father] hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Isa. 61:1). You will remember that when the Lord Jesus had read that far, He closed the book. When you look at the text in Isaiah, there is a comma following_He had not finished the sentence. Why didn’t He go on to the end of the sentence? Because the time of fulfillment had not come yet for "the day of vengeance of our God"; so our Lord Jesus put this whole present era of grace into that comma. The day of vengeance will not come until the day of preaching the Gospel ends.

Now as we link New Testament passages with these we shall see how completely they fulfill what we have set forth here prophetically in the Old Testament. Matt. 3:16 reads, "And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him; and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Notice what we have here. It is the Trinity:God the Father anointed Jesus (God the Son) with the Holy Spirit (the divine, eternal Spirit of God). And then the Father’s voice is heard saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I have found My delight" (JND).

The Father and Son and Holy Spirit all had their part in the work of the cross. In John 10:17,18 the Lord Jesus said, "I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." We are told that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world and the propitiation for our sin (1 John 4:10,14). We also read that it was "through the eternal Spirit that He offered Himself without spot unto God" (Heb. 9:14). Here again in redemption the entire Trinity is involved.

The same is true in connection with the Incarnation. The Father gave the Son to become Man, the Son in grace stooped to be born of a virgin, and that virgin conceived by the Holy Spirit.

When we come to what Scripture reveals as to His resurrection, we read that He was brought again from the dead by God the Father (Heb. 13:20), and yet there is another sense in which He raised Himself from the dead. He said to His enemies, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). "He spoke of the temple of His body." Elsewhere, referring to the laying down of His life, He said, "No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (John 10:18). Also, we are told in Rom. 8:11, "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."

Father and Son and Holy Spirit thus were all concerned in creation, in the Incarnation, in our Lord’s anointing as He went forth to preach the Word, in His death, and in His resurrection. And then when our Lord Jesus commissioned His disciples to go into all the world, He revealed clearly the truth as to the Trinity and He bade them to minister in that name. "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations [or make disciples of all nations], baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt. 28:18-20). Thus, I am to stand before men as the representative, as the mouthpiece, of the Holy Trinity. I am not to come to men in my own name or the authority of any church, but the distinct command was to go and teach them, baptizing them, and all this was to be done in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

I want you to notice those connectives, "in the name of the Father, AND of the Son, AND of the Holy Ghost." The Word of God is wonderfully perfect. Ordinarily when we hear people attempt to quote this, they say, "in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." It is not that. It is "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Why are those "ands" put in? In order that we may see that while there is only one God, yet that one God exists eternally in three persons_Father and Son and Holy Ghost.

We have these connectives used in the same way in connection with man himself. People sometimes say, "I can’t understand the doctrine of the Trinity." Nobody asked you to understand it. Are you surprised you can’t understand God? Why you can’t even understand yourself! Think of the thousands of books of psychology in which scientists attempt to explain man. Yet not one fully explains our tri-partite nature. But we read in 1 Thess. 5:23, "And the very God of Peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." I know I am one personality and yet I know from this scripture I am tri-partite, and I realize it from my own experience but I can’t explain it. As I go to the Word of God I find the body is the seat of all merely physical appetites of every kind. I know from the Word of God the soul is the seat of my personality and seat of all natural emotions other than physical. It is my connection even with the lower creation. Animals themselves are said to have souls. (Gen. 1:20,21,24,30 JND). The spirit is the highest part of man, that part which gives him God-consciousness, thus distinguishing him from all lower creation. Animals with careful training have been taught to do many great and remarkable things in which they simply imitate man. But they have no sense of God. So then, man is spirit and soul and body. I can’t explain it, but it is true. Just so we can’t explain the Trinity of the Godhead, but God has declared it and I believe what He tells me.

The doctrine of the Trinity is denied by various groups, from different standpoints. As one example, some have insisted from olden days that God is simply a Trinity in manifestation. In the Old Testament, they say, it was the manifestation of God as the Father; when Christ was here it was the manifestation of God as the Son; and now it is the manifestation of God as the Holy Spirit. But that is absolutely contrary to the Word itself. It was the Lord Jesus Christ who came to reveal the Father, and while on earth spoke of coming from "My Father" and going to "My Father." He also spoke of sending the Holy Spirit, and it was the Holy Spirit who witnessed to the glorified, finished work of Christ the Son.

Believers say, "Our Father" and He is called Father by our Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father is a person, God the Son is a definite person distinct from the Father, and yet one with Him in essence. "My Father, and your Father . . . My God, and your God" (John 20:17). He spoke of the glory He had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5). Christ died for sins and we read that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. And on the last night Jesus said He knew He must depart out of this world unto the Father (John 13:1). It is nonsense to say that the Father and the Son are the same person_that He prayed to Himself, that He left Himself when He left the Father, that He went back to Himself. The Holy Spirit is also shown to be a distinct person. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself uses personal pronouns in connection with the Spirit_He, His, Him. He says, "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him:but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you" (John 14:16,17). There again you have the Holy Trinity. And then it is said of the Comforter, in John 16:8, "And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." He is said to take of the things of Christ and show them unto us (John 16:15). The Lord Jesus Christ said the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father:"But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me" (John 15:26). And so throughout we see the three persons of the Holy Trinity concerned in our salvation and sanctification.

FRAGMENT
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky
and sea!
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty,
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!