The Oneness of God

The Bible reveals God as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible declares that there is only one God. The Bible teaches that God is eternal, all-powerful, all-wise, all-knowing, present everywhere, and sovereign over all things. This is true of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three persons are fully God, eternal, all-powerful, all-wise, all-knowing, and present everywhere.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct persons. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not the Father. Concerning their divinity, they are equal. The divine Father is not greater than the divine Son. The divine Son is not greater than the divine Holy Spirit. The divine Holy Spirit is not greater than the divine Father.

There is, however, a difference in roles.  The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have different roles throughout eternity.  These roles were hidden in God throughout eternity past, but through creation these roles have become manifested to humanity.  These roles are very diverse, so I will be brief in pointing out what I believe is the most important. The Father sends the Son, the Son redeems a people, and the Holy Spirit preserves and sanctifies those people. To sanctify means to purify and make holy. These differences in roles do not result in inequality. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have different roles, but they are equal in divinity. The Son is no less divine than the Father, and the Holy Spirit is no less divine than the Son.

Now how can the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be one God? How can three persons be one God? The problem humanity has is our world is broken and our relationships with other people are broken. We have conflicts, opposition, and disagreements. We are born into a sinful world with sinful people, and sin has destroyed absolute unity between people. There is no such thing as perfect unity between people in this world. People are selfish, greedy, unloving, filled with pride, prejudice, etc. All types of sin in our hearts disrupts a perfect union between two or more people. This lack of absolute oneness causes us to unconsciously look at the Trinity from our human condition. Since two or more people cannot be perfectly one in absolute union, how can the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be one?

This brings up the first point. The oneness of God in Christianity does not mean that God is numerically one. What I mean by numerically one is the common objection to the Trinity is that 1 + 1 + 1 does not equal 1, but 3. This is very true, but the oneness of God as believed by Christians does not mean that God is numerically one. The oneness of God means that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in perfect union and oneness with one another, and that there is no conflict, opposition, disagreements, or any such thing within the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This idea of oneness is what Jesus meant in the following passage in John 17:20-23,

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

We see in this passage the oneness of God, the oneness of believers, and the oneness of God and the Church together. Jesus asked that the Church would become perfectly one, just as the Father and Son are perfectly one. To be perfectly one means to have perfect unity without conflict, opposition, and disagreements, or any such thing. The Church will reach this perfect oneness on the Day of Resurrection and lasting throughout eternity.  This is the meaning of the oneness of God. This is how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God. All believers will one day, in an absolute and perfect sense, be one church and one people and one nation. In the meantime, believers are to strive for oneness, but because we still struggle with sin, this oneness will be broken until this present world passes away and the new world is established.

My second point is this: there is only one God and there is only one humanity. Three persons does not make three gods, any more than 6 billion people makes 6 billion humanities. There is one humanity and one God.

Marriage is the third point I want to make in explaining the oneness of God. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Jesus Christ quotes that verse and clarifies, “So they are no longer two but one flesh” (Matthew 19:6). The Bible teaches the oneness of marriage. A husband and wife are to strive to reflect the oneness of Christ and His Church, as well as the oneness of the Father and the Son. Due to the sin in us all, the oneness of marriage falls short of perfection, but it nonetheless teaches us about the oneness of God and the oneness of Christ and the Church.

The Bible specifically teaches that marriage is the reflection of Christ and the Church. The husband represents Christ, and the wife represents the Church. The wife is to submit to her husband as the Church submits to Christ, and the husband is to love and nourish his wife as Christ loves and nourishes the Church, which is His body. Further elaboration on biblical marriage is beyond the scope of this writing, but you should have an idea of the oneness of God based on the Holy Scriptures’ teaching on the oneness of marriage. The Bible does not specifically use marriage as an analogy of the Trinity, but the same idea of oneness is involved, and thus you can learn about the oneness of God by studying the oneness of marriage.

A husband is an individual, and a wife is an individual, but through the union of marriage a husband and wife become one flesh, while retaining their individuality.  The Father is an individual, the Son is an individual, and the Holy Spirit is an individual, but through all of eternity the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have been one God. The oneness of marriage is a reflection on earth of the oneness of God in heaven.

In conclusion, I made three points to provide an explanation of the oneness of God, often called the Trinity. The first point was to compare the oneness of God with the oneness of believers. The second point was to share the truth of one God and one humanity. The third point was to compare the oneness of God with the oneness of marriage. I will end with the following two passages of Scripture:

(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.”

(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…

In the first passage we see the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Father. The Son was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, and the Father spoke from heaven. In the second passage, baptisms are done in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The name of God is Yahweh. The name of God can be compared to a family name. A family name is the last name of the members. The Smith family. The Shannon family. The Hassan family. The name of God is Yahweh, which means “I am that I am.”

May God grant all who read this a better understanding of the oneness of God in the Bible. Grace be with all whom God has endowed with knowledge of Himself according to the riches of His glory! Amen.