How would you answer the question, “So, the Holy Spirit is God, but so is the Father and so is Jesus—and yet there’s one God? How does the Trinity make sense?”
Here’s the answer we’ll explore:
“The idea that God is a Trinity is unique, but it makes sense. The Bible teaches that the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are God. Yet the Bible is also clear that there’s one God. The Trinity is the idea of three different persons (or minds) in one Being who is God. The Trinity helps us see how God has always been loving.”
Let’s walk through this answer . . .
“The idea that God is a Trinity is unique, but it makes sense . . .”
The Trinity confuses a lot of people—non-Christians and some Christians as well. So, if you’ve ever struggled with the idea that God is a Trinity, you’re not alone. It’s one of the most unique and mysterious aspects of Christianity. How can God be three-in-one: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit?
Some people who reject the Trinity say that it doesn’t make sense because they think it means Christians believe in three separate gods that are somehow one God. If that were truly what the Bible taught about the Trinity, then it would be a contradiction—three gods can’t also be one God. But we’ll see that this isn’t what the Bible teaches about the Trinity.
Although the Trinity is unlike anything else we experience in the world, we’ll see that it’s not a contradiction. In fact, we will discover that it actually makes a lot of sense and even helps explain one important quality of God: that God has always been loving, even before he made any creatures to love.
“If you’ve ever struggled with the idea that God is a Trinity, you’re not alone.”
“. . . The Bible teaches that the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are God . . .”
Even though the word “Trinity” isn’t found in the Bible, the concept definitely is. The word “Trinity” is a way Christians describe two important truths that the Bible teaches: (1) the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit are distinct from each other and are fully God; and (2) there is only one God. Let’s first look at the Bible’s teaching that each of the three is God. Then we’ll look at what the Bible says about there being only one God—and clarify how all of this fits together.
First, the Bible is clear that the Father is God. That’s why the apostle Paul says, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father” (1 Corinthians 1:3). He also says it was “God the Father” who raised Jesus from the dead (Galatians 1:1). Even Jesus himself often spoke of “God the Father” (see John 6:27).
Second, the Bible says that Jesus—the Son—is also God. Even though he came to earth as a human, the Bible shows that he is fully God. For example, John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then in John 1:14, it says that this “Word” became human—clearly referring to Jesus. After Jesus rose from the dead, Thomas called him “my Lord and my God” (John 20:28), and Jesus accepted this worship. Jesus also used one of God’s names (“I Am”—see Exodus 3:14) and said he existed long before Abraham (John 8:58). The very next verse says the Jewish leaders picked up stones to kill him (John 8:59) because they knew he was claiming to be God. Paul sums it up in Colossians 2:9 when he says that in Jesus “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”
“Paul sums it up in Colossians 2:9 when he says that in Jesus ‘the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.'”
Third, the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is God, too. In Acts 5:3–4, Peter tells Ananias that he lied to the Holy Spirit—and then says that means he lied to God. This shows the Spirit isn’t just a force like electricity. He is a personal Being who can be lied to—and he is God. Jesus also told his followers to baptize people “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). By putting the Holy Spirit alongside the Father and the Son, Jesus shows that the Holy Spirit is equal to them—fully God.
Finally, the Bible is clear that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not the same—these aren’t just different names that all refer to the same person. For example, when Jesus prayed to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane before he was arrested and crucified, he was not talking to himself. He said, “Not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42), showing that he wanted to be obedient to the will of the Father. Also, at Jesus’ baptism, all three (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) were present at the same time: the Father spoke from heaven, the Spirit descended like a dove, and Jesus was baptized in the water (Matthew 3:16–17). Again, this shows they aren’t just names that refer to the same person—they’re distinct.
So that’s the first part of what gives us the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each fully God—and they are distinct from each other. Next, we’ll look at the second part: how the Bible also teaches that there is only one God—not three.
“. . . Yet the Bible is also clear that there’s one God . . .”
Even though the Bible teaches that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all fully God and distinct from one another, it also makes another major point: there is only one God. This is taught all throughout the Bible—in both the Old and New Testaments.
In the Old Testament, one of the most famous verses in Jewish belief says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). For thousands of years, this verse—known as the Shema (pronounced “shuh-MAW”)—has been central to Jewish faith. “Shema” is the first Hebrew word in the verse and means “hear.” Jews recite the Shema in morning and evening prayers, during services, on holidays, and even when someone is dying. The Shema is a powerful reminder that there is only one God. Unlike the surrounding nations that worshipped many gods, God taught Israel from the beginning that he alone is God.
The New Testament repeats this truth in many places. For example, James 2:19a says, “You believe that God is one; you do well.” And in 1 Timothy 2:5, Paul writes that “there is one God.” 
So even though the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct from one another and are each called God, the Bible never teaches that there are three gods. From beginning to end, it’s clear: there is only one God. That’s why Christians believe in the Trinity—one God who exists as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Next, we’ll explain what that means and why it isn’t a contradiction.
“From beginning to end, it’s clear: there is only one God.”
“. . .The Trinity is the idea of three different persons (or minds) in one Being who is God . . .”
So far, we’ve seen that “God is a Trinity” means there is one God who exists as three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But what does “person” mean? A person is a conscious mind—someone who thinks, feels, makes choices, and relates to others. A tree or a rock isn’t a person because it doesn’t have a conscious mind. But humans are persons because each of us has a mind that can think, feel, and relate.
God is one Being, but within that Being are three distinct persons—three minds. You are one being with one mind. But God is one Being who has three minds: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each person of the Trinity thinks, feels, and relates—both to us and to each other. That’s why Jesus could pray to the Father (Matthew 26:39). He wasn’t talking to himself—he was talking to another mind.
There’s no perfect analogy for the Trinity—which isn’t surprising, since God is unique. Still, some comparisons can help us get closer to understanding. For example, imagine a three-headed human, where each head has its own mind. It’s still one human (one being), but with three distinct minds connected to that human being—each with his own thoughts, name, and ability to speak with the others.
This isn’t a perfect comparison (God doesn’t have a physical body, and his nature is divine, not human), but it helps us picture how one Being can include three persons (or minds). The Trinity is a unique truth about a God who is beyond anything else in creation—but it’s not nonsense. The concept of “God is one Being with three minds” at least makes sense.
“The Trinity is a unique truth about a God who is beyond anything else in creation—but it’s not nonsense.”
“. . . The Trinity helps us see how God has always been loving.”
Although Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and others often say that the Trinity doesn’t make sense, it actually makes more sense than the idea of God having only one mind. If God were just one person with one mind, how could he always be loving? He couldn’t give or receive love until he created other beings like angels or humans.
But the Bible teaches that love isn’t just something God does—it’s something he is. First John 4:8 says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” This means love is part of God’s nature. It’s not just an action he chooses—it’s who he is at the deepest level. But if love is that central to who God is, then he must have always been giving and receiving love—even before creating anything.
That’s exactly what the Trinity explains. If God is three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—then love has always existed within God. The three persons of the Trinity have been loving each other from eternity past. So the Trinity helps us make sense of how God can be loving by nature—not just after creation, but forever.
