The Trinity

^{John 17:21}That they all may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

Picture the trinity as you imagine it; what does God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Spirit of Holiness look like, all three being one. Even though you may not be able to picture it, perhaps this will help.

Try to picture, using your same understanding of the trinity, as you being one with the Father, with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit, in the same way the three are one.That would make four in one. And what about others?

Jesus was not praying for something that could never happen. Jesus did have a clear understanding of what it meant to be one with the Father and the Spirit. His understanding is not anything like what we have been told, what we have been sold.

If we can understand what he meant by us being one with God, it would inform us as to what the trinity is, the Three in One, for oneness is the same for the trinity as it is for us being one with God.

Going back to John 17:21, Jesus’ definition if oneness is the Father in me, and I in thee; he is in the Father and the Father is in him.

^{Colossians 1:27}To whom God would make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Paul writes to the Colossians concerning the mystery, a different mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Here, Paul gives us insight into one half of what oneness means, as far as we being one with God.

^{2 Corinthians 5:17}Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

And here is the second half of the oneness, in our case. Being a new creature, we are in Christ.

This changes the exercise of explaining the Trinity. We were trying to get the Bible to say what we thought it meant. We need to align our theology with the scripture if we are to get anywhere.

This is still a mystery that needs to be demystified, but at least we have a chance at success if we can ask the right questions. What does it mean that we are in Christ, and that he is in us? If we can understand that, then we can understand the trinity.

^{John 14:19}Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. ²⁰At that day ye shall know that I [am] in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Being in Christ has something to do with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Consider this verse from Proverbs.

^{Proverbs 27:22}Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.

In the example of the fool, foolishness permeates every part of the fool. There is no way to separate the fool from his foolishness. When we are one in Christ, there is no way to know where we leave off and where the Spirit begins.

^{James 1:8}A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

Here is an example of someone who is not one with God.

^{Philippians 2:2}Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, [being] of one accord, of one mind.

What does it mean to fulfill his joy? The Greek word for joy is chara, grace, specifically the grace received from the Lord, the divine love given by the Spirit, the law that is written upon your heart. You fulfill that law by having the same love, exporting that grace to one another by the Holy Spirit, being of one accord, of one mind. This is what it means to be one with God.

You do not have two agendas: sometimes operating on your own volition, sometimes yielded to the Holy Spirit. A person with a dual agenda is unstable because you never know which one will be presented in a given situation.

A person who is one with God is dead to self and yielded to God.

This is how the trinity works as well. They are all of one accord, single minded, at one with the other. And that is how we are to come into this oneness with God.

^{Mark 10:6}But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. ⁷For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; ⁸And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.

Here is another example of two distinct people being one, as defined by God. When we picture the Father and the Son being one, does it look anything like a husband and wife being one?

We have been trying to explain something that does not exist, and that is why we have struggled with it. Our synthesis of the concept of the trinity has been baked into our statements of faith almost universally. So many people have so much at stake that it will almost be impossible for them to re-examine their theology, from the ground up.