The first question in response to being asked how one gets to a certain location is, “Where are you starting from?” Just so, it is so important to start at the right place as we consider who God is.
How and where we start determines our ending. Therefore, it is appropriate that we start our understanding in who our Triune God is.
Eternal life is knowing God (John 17:3) and knowing Him as who He helps us in our walk with Him.
The word “Triune” comes from two parts.
“Tri” meaning three and “une” meaning one or unity. So God is three persons but still one God. He is our three-in-one God. We will look at a variety of verses that explain what being a Triune God is and how that should affect us.
Now, this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
John 17:3
Matthew 28:19
God has one name but is three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A name stands for who a person is and for all his being. So God is one being with one name and not three names. The Father is the initiator, head, gives life and love, and directs. To be a Father, He has an eternal Son in Jesus, who receives His love, obeys and honors Him, and does His work. The Holy Spirit shows the specialness and core being of God. He encourages, empowers, confirms and reveals. Right away we see the Triune God in relationship with each other and in love and unity.
Baptism is a picture of God incorporating His adopted children into this relationship with the Triune God. We receive the privileges of being treated as His family and being in Christ means we share His status and relationship with the Father and Spirit.
John 17:24
Jesus has glory from the Father, which is the same glory as the Father (17:5). Glory stands for worthiness so Jesus is equal in being with the Father. The Father has loved Jesus before the foundation of the world.
John 1:1-3, 18
Jesus is the eternal Word of God, which expresses who the Father is. He interprets and explains Him. His relationship is in the Father’s bosom, showing their mutual tenderness.
Matt 3:16-17
As Jesus is baptized, the Father affirms His love for Him, Jesus’ identity as His Son, and His status of being well-pleasing. The Spirit is given as a confirmation and encouragement in this. Our life in Christ means that we also share this affirmation and have His Spirit to confirm and encourage us likewise.
Genesis 1:1-3, 26
Why did God create the world and us? It was not out of need but out of the overflow of love the Triune God has for one another. The Father commands creation, the Son as His Word directs it, and the Spirit enacts it. Adam and Eve were made in His image - a man and a woman as distinct persons yet of one being as mankind. They reflected God in this in community, communication, and unity.
The problem is that they disobeyed and brought disunity and fractured relationships with God and each other. But God was not finished and provides salvation as a Triune God at work.
A one-person god could never love, commune, save or create out of an overflow. Before creation a one-person god was all alone and this would be his ideal state.
Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world
John 17:24
1 Peter 1:2
The Father foreknows and calls believers. The Spirit reveals Christ to them so people trust Him and then the Spirit applies Christ’s sacrifice to them and their hearts. The result is grace and peace to the fullest measure.
2 Corinthians 13:14
The Lord Jesus Christ shows us His grace in coming, dying, and rising for us. This is out of the Father’s love and the Spirit binds us to Himself and each other in fellowship.
Luke 10:21-22 and Matthew 11:28-29
Jesus rejoices in the Spirit for the Father’s work. The Father entrusts Jesus with His work and the Father and Son know each other exclusively. But the Son can reveal the Father to those who come to Him. All it takes is to be weary and burdened. No other self-improvement is required.
Ephesians 3:14-19
Here is the work of the Triune God in the life of a believer in helping him go from head knowledge to an experiential knowledge of God. It starts with prayer to the Father to strengthen our inner beings by His Spirit. Christ then can make His home in our hearts through faith. We have been placed permanently in God’s love and now we can better understand the limitless love He has for us and to know Christ’s love in a very real sense. This allows us to become more like Him.
Rev 5:13-14
The final result of knowing our Triune God is to worship Him as all creation does. We have unending delight as God reveals Himself to us and enfolds us into this relationship with Himself.
We arrive at the proper destination of knowing God as we know Him as Triune. The overflow of His love for one another is the cause of us coming into being and also coming into a relationship with Him.
As a challenge, try praying Ephesians 3:14-19 to have God reveal Himself and His love for you. See what He does in response.
How will knowing God as Triune affect our life?
