The Most Distinctive Christian Doctrine

The most distinctive belief of the Christian faith has to do with what we believe about the nature of God. It is what is affirmed in catechism question eight which asks, “Are there more Gods than one?”

There is only one true and living God; yet there are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one God, the same in substance and equal in power and glory.

This is the doctrine of the Trinity, a paradoxical doctrine to be sure, but one which we find clearly taught in scripture and summarized for us well here in the catechism. While the truth of the Trinity is admittedly mind-blowing, the premises are not that difficult to grasp, and we do well to be firm on each of them.

First, there is only one true and living God. Christians are monotheists, not polytheists. We worship one God, and one God alone. As 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 states, there are many so-called gods (as well as “lords”), “yet for us there is one God” and orthodox Christians have always insisted on this when discussing the Trinity.

Second, we believe there are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That is, the one true and living God exists in three distinct persons, revealed in Scripture as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is where the doctrine becomes perplexing, and we must admit the mystery of it. Be wary of anyone who tells you they can illustrate it in such a way as to make it all make sense. But what we do understand is that it is in the singular name of these three persons that we are baptized as Christian disciples (Matt 28:19).

Third, these three are on God, the same in substance and equal in power and glory. The three persons of the Godhead do not “make up” the one God, as if each of the persons were only part of the whole. The teaching of the Trinity is that all three persons are the same in “substance,” a word which simply means they each possess the same essence (“Godness,” if you will) just like all human persons possess the same essence of being humans. There is no essential difference in the power or glory of the three persons of the Godhead. Each is fully God. None of the persons possess attributes or powers that the other persons do not also have.

Here, then, is an excellent definition of the Trinity. Christians ought to memorize this definition and meditate on it regularly for it explains the essential nature of the God whom we are devoted to worship.