Is the Trinity a Biblical truth? *
Yes it is! You’re right the word Trinity never appears in the New or Old Testament of the Bible. However, as generations of Christians have read the Bible, starting with the early church fathers, they have seen that these Scriptures reveal Jesus to be fully God. They have also seen in these Scriptures the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
This realisation, starting with the early church fathers led to the doctrine of the Trinity. God is one divine essence but three persons.
Here it is in Article 1 of 39 Articles of Anglican Church
And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Sure, I can hear you say. That’s one of the historic statements of faith about the Trinity. But why is the word trinity used.
The Trinity is shorthand way of capturing that the Father, Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit are all divine persons and that there is perfect unity in the Godhead.
But is it in the Bible? Yes it is. But before we go there let’s consider what’s at stake.
What’s at stake?
The word Trinity captures in shorthand the unity of the Godhead and the three divine persons: Father, Son and Spirit. Though the word trinity is not in the Bible it is a Biblical understanding of God’s nature.
The significance of this cannot be overstated. If the divinity of Jesus is dismissed or downplayed, it may happen slowly, but eventually the confidence of a complete and total salvation through Jesus alone will be lost. For if Jesus was not God, how could he restore our relationship to the triune God?
Where’s the Biblical Evidence?
One way you can see this in the Bible (the Scriptures) is to see how often the Bible has the Father, Son and Holy Spirit being referenced together in a few sentences or even in the same sentence, working together as three persons.
Below, I’ve shared many of these passages. You’ll see again and again that the New Testament has all three persons of the Trinity working together as distinct persons.*
Trinitarian Passages New Testament
| Bible Reference | Passage | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Matthew 28:18-20 | All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 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, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” | Commissioning, Direct formulaic references to the Trinity |
| Matthew 3:13-17Mark 1:9-11Luke 4:21-23John 1:32-34 | In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. 10 As soon as he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.” Mark 1:9-11 | Baptism of Jesus, Reference to the Trinity. Here the heavens are opened to give us a glimpse of the inner life of the Triune God. |
| John’s Gospel – Chapters 14 to 16 | “When the Counsellor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 You also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. John 15:26-27 | Indwelling Spirit entails the indwelling of Christ (John 14:17) and the Father (14:23) |
| 2 Corinthians 13:13-14 | The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. | Indirect reference to the Trinity, Father referred to as God |
| Romans 8:11 | If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. | |
| Romans 15:16 | …because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the gospel of God. God’s purpose is that the Gentiles may be an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. | Father referred to as God |
| Romans 15:30 | Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in prayers to God on my behalf. | Father referred to as God. |
| 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 | Now it is God who strengthens us together with you in Christ, and who has anointed us. 22 He has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment. | Father referred to as God. |
| 2 Corinthians 3:3 | You show that you are Christ’s letter, delivered by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God—not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. | |
| Ephesians 2:18 | For through him (Christ) we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. | |
| Ephesians 3:14 | For this reason I kneel before the Father 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. 16 I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. | |
| Galatians 4:6 | And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” | |
| Hebrews 9:14 | how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. | Father referred to as God. |
In the book of Revelation
The book of Revelation, the last book of our modern Bibles, also reveals the Trinity. In fact it’s hard to make sense of the book of Revelation without the Trinity as a basic framework.
What we see in the book of Revelation is that the Persons of the Trinity are fully distinct and yet it becomes almost impossible to distinguish between them. Father is God, the Son is Jesus Christ.
See the table below for an amazing parallel.
| Revelation 1:8 Lord God who speaks | 1:17-18 The Son speaks |
|---|---|
| I am the Alpha and the Omega* says the Lord God. | I am the first and the last |
| Who is, and who was, and who is to come, The Almighty | I am the Living one, I was dead, and behold I am alive forever.
I hold the keys of Death and Hades |
| *Alpha, Omega– the first and last letter in Greek alphabet. |
Here’s three more sections of many that reveal the Trinity.
The vision of the Son
The vision is given by the Spirit in 1:10-16. The vision is given by the Spirit (1:10), it is about the Son, one like a son of man, but he is described like Yahweh, the Father from the book of Daniel (chapter 7).
On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11 which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”
12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
What follows then are the words of Jesus, the Son, which match Revelation 1:8 as the table above shows.
The words to the churches
Or, consider the first three chapters of the book of Revelation as a whole. In each revelation to the churches it is Jesus who speaks and yet each speech ends with, let him hear ‘what the Spirit says to the churches.’
The rule of God
In Revelation chapter 4 & 5. Power, glory and honour given to Lord God and to the Lamb (the Son). Both are fully given this honour. If there is no shared unity this would make no sense and chapters 4 and 5 would be in radical contradiction of each other. But they are not.
The Father, Son and Spirit are presented as being at work together, as one, the in salvation and revelation across the book of Revelation.
Unstated assumption of the Trinity
Theologian Gerald Bray notes there are also many passages in which the work of Father, Son and Spirit are unstated but must be taken into account if we are to understand the full meaning of the text.
But this is not all the evidence
What I haven’t covered are all the references to the divinity of each of the persons separately. But if you’d like to explore Jesus’ divinity see the two blog posts below, especially the one responding to Bart Ehrman. I think the evidence is outstanding that Jesus is fully God in the Christian Scriptures, the Bible.
The Trinity matters
As above, what is at stake is whether or not through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, people are entering into an eternal relationship with the true and living God. For if the Trinity is not accurate and Jesus is less than God, then his death does not bring people into a relationship with the Father. And same goes with the Holy Spirit.
However, I’m persuaded from years of exploring many passages of the Bible that the Trinity is indeed in the Bible and explains the wonderful and mysterious nature of the Godhead.
*A huge thank you to theologian Gerald Bray who helpfully brought these passages together in his book - The Doctrine of God. Most of this blog post springs from one of the chapters in the book. Any errors are of course, mine.
Revised February 2024