Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance
God cares that we know who he is, and he longs for us to understand him better. Through his Word he revealed his triune nature, though many avoid in-depth study of this doctrine because it is so deep and mysterious.
But God's revelation of himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit affects how he relates to us, how he made us, and who he is eternally. The doctrine of the Trinity is essential to our understanding of him and of our faith. The focus of this study is to examine the ways in which the three Persons of the Trinity relate to one another, how they relate to us, and what difference this makes to our lives.
To understand just how God is both One and Three is to delve into some of Scripture's most glorious truths and to experience the joy of beholding the wonder of our triune God. This is a practical study for you and your home, church, and ministry.
Top Highlights
“So it is with the Trinity: it is God’s unified nature expressed richly and beautifully in the three equal and full possessions and manifestations of that one nature, with each ‘voice’ contributing variously, yet with complete unity and identity of nature or essence. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not identical Persons, but they are harmonious in accomplishing the one undivided purpose, one undivided goal, one common work, since they each possess fully the one, undivided divine essence. So, unity and difference, identity and distinction—this marks the triune nature of God most centrally.” (source)
“God is one in essence or nature, but God is three in person. There is no logical contradiction here” (source)
“God’s ‘oneness’ and ‘threeness’ are in different respects or senses. He is one in essence, so the essence of God is possessed fully by each member of the Trinity. But he is three in person, so the Father is not the Son or the Holy Spirit, although the Father possesses the identically same nature as does the Son and the Holy Spirit.” (source)
“First, an early Christian by the name of Sabellius proposed that there is only one God, who is the Father, but that the Father decided to manifest himself at one point in human history in the ‘mode’ of the Son, coming into the world as Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” (source)
“Do we know him as he truly is? We will explore, then, what he has to tell us about his triune nature; his eternal existence; his work in his created order; the way he manifests himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and what this means for our lives.” (source)
Product Details
- Title : Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance
- Author: Ware, Bruce A.
- Publisher: Crossway
- Publication Date: 2005
- ISBN: 9781433517945
Dr. Ware is a highly esteemed theologian and author in the evangelical world. He came to Southern Seminary from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where he served as Chairman of the Department of Biblical and Systematic Theology. Prior to this, he taught at Western Conservative Baptist Seminary and Bethel Theological Seminary.
