“Show Me Your Glory” by Steve Lawson
Steve wrote earlier “there is one God who exists in three distinct persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each of the three persons of the Godhead is God – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are each fully God.” This remains a mystery to us – though not totally. We will struggle to understand “that the Father in unbegotten, the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.” These are Biblical truths seem to be, but are not, in conflict with the teaching that the Father, Son and Spirit “are three divine persons who are coequal and coeternal.” Steve uses four passages from the New Testament to “each person of the Trinity is His own person in the Godhead...distinct, yet they are one God.”
In the Great Commission, found in Matthew 28:19, Jesus commands people be baptized “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Jesus mentions all three persons of the Trinity, while separating them with ‘and’ for a reason. “They are not one person, but three distinct persons.” At the same time He employs the singular ‘name’ signifying the one God can be known by one name.
At the baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3:13-17, all three persons of the Godhead played significant roles. “As God the Son went down into the water, God the Father spoke from heaven and God the Spirit descended upon Him.” All three members of the Trinity acted in a way that allowed them to function uniquely.
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all” reads the benediction of 2 Corinthians. 13:14. “Here, all three persons of the Godhead are clearly distinct. Again, the word “and” – not “or” – distinguishes the three divine persons.”
Last, Steve states, “John would not have placed the Spirit between the Father and the Son if he had not regarded the Spirit as divine.” He points to Revelation 1:4-5 where John wrote, “Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.”
All three persons of the Trinity remain distinct, yet one. This is God’s design and worthy of knowing better and of giving all their deserved praise. Pastor Gillikin