Karen Engle
Understanding the Trinity—one God in three persons (Father, Son, and Spirit)—takes us into deep theological waters, where the simplest math fails us: 1 + 1 + 1 = 1.
Even though the word “Trinity” never appears in any Bible verses, God reveals himself throughout Scripture as one being. While we can’t find answers to every question about the Trinity, we can grow in our love for God by searching Scripture to discover how he reveals himself to us.
- Verses about the Trinity
- Quotes on the Trinity
- More articles that might interest you
- Resources for further study
Verses about the Trinity
The Trinity exists in 3 persons
1. Isaiah 48:16
“Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there.” And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.*
*The Son is speaking but refers to the Father and the Holy Spirit.
2. Matthew 3:16–17
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; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
3. Matthew 28:19
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 Father is God
4. John 6:27
Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.
5. Romans 1:7
To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
6. 1 Peter 1:1–2
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
The Son is God
7. John 1:1 & 14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 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.
8. Romans 9:5
To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
9. Colossians 2:9
For in him [Jesus] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
10. Hebrews 1:8
But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.”
11. 1 John 5:20
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
The Holy Spirit is God
12. Genesis 1:2–3
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
13. Acts 5:3–4
But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”
14. 1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
There is only one God
15. Deuteronomy 6:4
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
16. Isaiah 44:6
Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.”
17. Isaiah 45:5–6
I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.
18. Galatians 3:20
Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
19. 1 Corinthians 8:4
Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”
20. 1 Timothy 2:5
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
21. James 2:19
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
Quotes on the Trinity
Our view on this doctrine affects our views of other doctrines. If the Godhead does not consist of three persons equally divine and yet inseparably one, we must redefine one or more of those persons. Jesus may not be fully God, or if he is, he is a lesser deity than is the Father. The Holy Spirit is in some sense inferior to both the Father and the Son. The doctrine of the atonement is modified as well. Instead of a voluntary self-sacrifice by a member of the Godhead, it is something imposed on a human by God, and thus contains an element of injustice.
—Millard J. Erickson, Making Sense of the Trinity1
There was never a God who was not Father and Son together in the unity of the Spirit, coequal, coeternal in the essence of the divine being.
—Fred Sanders, Perspectives on the Trinity (course)2
The Trinity is the most important doctrine of the Christian faith. It’s our Christian understanding of God. We alone believe in a tripersonal God—that the one God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
—Kevin Giles, Perspectives on the Trinity (course)2
To speak of the one God of the Bible is to speak of the Father, Son, and Spirit—they are each God, but they are not each other.
—Brandon D. Smith, The Biblical Trinity3
The core of Christian thought is that God the Father has saved us by sending the Son and the Holy Spirit, and in doing that He has made known to us that God eternally is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So this is a judgment about the entire meaning of everything in the Bible, the entire plan of salvation as it bears on the question “Who is God?”
—Fred Sanders, Perspectives on the Trinity (course)2
Love is the quality of God’s Trinitarian nature. Trinitarian persons relate to each other in a loving second-person perspective: in a “you” sense, rather than in the “he, she, or it” senses. This intimate sharing is demonstrated in Jesus’ prayer to his Father in John 17. In this prayer Jesus speaks to the Father about a prior and preexistent relationship of shared knowledge and recognition (glory) before the creation of the world (John 17:5). He prays: “Now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I shared with you before the world was created” (John 17:5 ceb). Jesus recalled the Father and Son’s shared memory of a common experience in which the divine persons acknowledged each other’s personhood and significance, which is what glorification is.
—Scott Harrower, God of All Comfort4
As we read the Scriptures, our default setting should be christological; we should constantly be asking, how does it speak about him? We read trinitarianly when we read christologically because that same God is the God who put on flesh and dwelt among us. The key to the unity of Scripture is the mystery of the Trinity in the incarnation of the Son.
—Brandon D. Smith, The Biblical Trinity5
Christians praise one God in three persons, the blessed Trinity. We do so by proclaiming God’s triune name in baptism (Matt. 28:19), by invoking his name in benedictions (2 Cor. 13:14), by binding ourselves to his name when confessing our faith (1 Cor. 8:6; 12:3), and by hymning his name in our songs, joining the chorus of heavenly beings with all the saints in heaven and earth (Rev. 4–5). Christians praise God the Trinity because he is supremely worthy of our praise. The blessed Trinity is supreme in being, beauty, and beatitude.
—Scott Swain, The Trinity: An Introduction6
This article was compiled by Karen Engle and Mary Jahnke.
More articles that might interest you
- The Trinity 101: What Every Christian Should Know
- How to Teach Children about the Trinity (and How Not To)
- 11 Best Books on the Trinity (for All Levels of Study)
Resources for further study
Making Sense of the Trinity: Three Crucial Questions (Three Crucial Questions)
Regular price: $15.99
Mobile Ed: TH361 Perspectives on the Trinity: Eternal Generation and Subordination in Tension (4 hour course)
Regular price: $149.99
God of All Comfort: A Trinitarian Response to the Horrors of This World
Regular price: $21.99
The Biblical Trinity: Encountering the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Scripture
Regular price: $19.99
- Millard J. Erickson, Making Sense of the Trinity, 3 Crucial Questions (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2000), 15.
- Fred Sanders et al., TH361 Perspectives on the Trinity: Eternal Generation and Subordination in Tension, Logos Mobile Education (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017).
- Brandon D. Smith, The Biblical Trinity: Encountering the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Scripture (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2023), 3.
- Scott Harrower, God of All Comfort: A Trinitarian Response to the Horrors of This World (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 13.
- Brandon D. Smith, The Biblical Trinity: Encountering the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Scripture (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2023), 160.
- Scott R. Swain, The Trinity: An Introduction, eds. Graham A. Cole and Oren R. Martin, Short Studies in Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020), 15.
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