Jesus is God, Jesus and the Father are one, and God is Triune

I was surprised to hear recently that there are Bible-based groups who are not Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses that do not believe in the Triune God, or the Trinity. Being one of the most fundamental parts of the Christian faith, I thought it necessary to review certain verses in both the Old and New Testament that reveal God in His Trinity, and are the reason we have believed in the Triune God for so many centuries.

In defending their beliefs, these ones seem to favor certain verses above others, emphasizing the verses showing the oneness of God and downplaying, or at times outright ignoring verses that show God is three. But we don’t ignore verses in the Bible. We especially don’t ignore them when dealing with a matter as weighty as this.

The Bible not only reveals God is triune, but it also reveals why God is triune. Yes, there is a reason for this. When you miss this matter, you miss out on quite a bit of what God has prepared for us, particularly as New Testament believers. I will get into this toward the end of this writing.

I will start with verses and comment on them as necessary. This is by no means an exhaustive list. It is merely a list of verses I feel get the job done. There are plenty of other verses revealing both sides of this coin. I do not negate those verses, just as those verses do not negate these.

Jesus is God

But of the Son, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

Hebrews 1:8

The Son of God, in this verse, is revealed as God. The Son of God is Jesus. I believe this is clear.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider being equal with God a treasure to be grasped.

Philippians 2:6

For Christ Jesus to “exist in the form of God,” He would first need to be God. There are other translations of this verse that emphasize this even more clearly, using verbiage such as “being God.” This is confirmed by the subsequent description of Him as “being equal with God.” Who is equal with God? Surely, it is none but God Himself.

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you have been made full in Him, who is the Head of all rule and authority.

Colossians 2:9-10

In Him, that is, in Jesus, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. This can be said of no other being in the universe. When you get Jesus, you get the fullness of the Godhead, or all that the Godhead is.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us…

John 1:1, 14

Everyone should be familiar with these verses, and their proper translation, I might add. Jesus is God from eternity past, who became flesh and tabernacled, or dwelt, among us. That is the intended communication from the author—please do not let yourself be fooled by those who would translate this as referring to some other god. There are plenty of Greek studies on the matter, if you would like more clarification.

Jesus and the Father are One

I, even I, am Jehovah; And there is no Savior besides Me.

Isaiah 43:11

Because today a Savior has been born to you in David’s city, who is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:11

And she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.

Matthew 1:21

These verses together show that there is only one Savior, and He is both Jehovah and Christ the Lord. If they are not one and the same, then we must conclude that these two are two different Saviors.

And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.

Exodus 3:14

The Jews then said to Him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Truly, truly I say to you, Before Abraham came into being, I am. So they picked up stones to throw at Him…

John 8:58-59a

Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

John 8:24

From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe that I am.

John 13:19

The Jews answered Him, We are not stoning You for a good work, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a man, are making Yourself God.

John 10:33

These two verses show that both Jehovah in Exodus and Jesus in speaking to the Pharisees stated that they are the I am. We know the Pharisees understood that Jesus claimed to be the I am of ancient times because of their reaction to the claim: they immediately went to stone Him.

Thus says Jehovah the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts, I am the First and I am the Last, and apart from Me there is no God.

Isaiah 44:6

And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead; and He placed His right hand on me, saying, Do not fear; I am the First and the Last and the living One; and I became dead, and behold, I am living forever and ever; and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

Revelation 1:17-18

And to the messenger of the church in Smyrna write: These things says the First and the Last, who became dead and lived again.

Revelation 2:8

Jehovah called Himself the First and the Last, and Jesus in Revelation called Himself the same. Are these two different Gods calling Themselves the First and the Last, or are they one and the same? Surely these are not two, but the same Person, since two cannot be the First and the Last.

God is Triune

Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 28:19

Here the Lord speaks clearly of the three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. But when He speaks here of the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the name is in the singular number in the original text. This means that though the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three, yet the name is one. It is really mysterious—one name for three persons. This, of course, is what is meant by the expression three-in-one, or triune.

Witness Lee, Concerning the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit

This verse puts the three of the Trinity on equal footing, being three, yet having one name. If any of the three are not God, when then do we baptize people into their name? Why not baptize into the name of the Father only? Or of the Son? Why did the Lord include all three, here? We can all agree, it is mysterious, and difficult to comprehend. Nevertheless, it is what the Bible reveals.

Why God is Triune

Many go back and forth arguing how God is or is not Triune. What really needs to be asked is why God is Triune. Why does it even matter? Thankfully, the Bible does reveal this.

In short, God is Triune so that he can carry out His economy, His plan (Ephesians 3:9-11). God dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16), and man has no way to be in God’s presence in His raw form. In order to bridge that gap, God the Son, who is the Word, the expression and image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), put on human flesh and dwelt among men. In this form, He made redemption for us, and fulfilled all of His righteous requirements that man could not match, due to his fallen condition. He then, in His resurrection, became a life-giving Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45), economically adding all of His work and accomplishments as a man into the Spirit (John 7:39, Exodus 30:22-25). It is by this Spirit that we are regenerated when we believe into Christ (1 Peter 1:3, John 3:6), and by this Spirit that we are able to walk with God and live in His presence (Galatians 5:16, 2 Corinthians 13:14, 2 Timothy 4:22). It is also by this Spirit that we are transformed into the same image as Christ (2 Corinthians 3:17-18), by drinking of Him (1 Corinthians 12:13) and exercising to always be one with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17, Ephesians 4:30), and join Him in calling others to come forward to God in Christ (Revelation 22:17).

God in His Trinity is not so easy to understand, and it’s not necessarily up to us to understand. The bottom line is, God is Triune in order that we, fallen and corrupt human beings, might have a chance to experience Him.