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Part 7 of a series on the identity of Jesus of Nazareth

Jesus is God: fully human, and fully divine. So far we’ve looked at many lines of evidence of Jesus’ divinity — including the witness of Jesus himself; the words of the apostles; the names of God and Messianic prophecies applied to Jesus by the writers of the New Testament; and Old Testament passages that portray a plural Godhead.

In Part 7, the final instalment of this series on Jesus the God-Man, we will consider those passages in the New Testament where the three divine persons of the Godhead are explicitly mentioned together — God the Father; Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

In Matthew 28:19, in the Great Commission, Jesus commands his disciples,

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

In John 14:26, Jesus is comforting his disciples about what will happen after his ascension. He assures them that,

“The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

In John 15:26, Jesus repeats this refrain:

“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me.”

In 2 Corinthians 13:14, the apostle Paul concludes his letter with a trinitarian greeting, writing,

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.”

In Galatians 4:6-7, Paul refers to all three persons of the Godhead in describing God’s adoptive love in salvation. “And because ye are sons,” he writes,

“God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

In Ephesians 4:4-6, Paul again refers to the Father, Son and Spirit —

“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

In 1 Peter 1:1-2, the apostle Peter addresses his letter to the “strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,” referring to them as the “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”

In Revelation 1:4-6, John greets his readers with grace and peace from “him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.”

In each of these passages, the three members of the Trinity are present and obvious — often playing distinct roles. Another passage regularly cited in defence of the Trinity is Matthew 3:16-17, where at Jesus’ baptism we see the Son coming up from the water, the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and a voice from heaven saying,

“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

In fact, there are at least 70 other passages where the Father, the Son and Spirit are named or alluded to as separate persons working together.

It is important to highlight that the New Testament does not portray the Holy Spirit as merely the breath, force, or power of God. Indeed, Acts 10:38, Romans 15:13 and 1 Corinthians 2:4 differentiate between the Holy Spirit and power.

The Holy Spirit is clearly a personal being, evidenced by the masculine pronoun ‘He’ (ekeinos in the Greek), and by the many personal activities that are ascribed to Him. The Holy Spirit is the Counsellor or Comforter (John 14:16); He teaches (John 14:26); He testifies and bears witness (John 15:26 and Romans 8:16); He intercedes (Romans 8:26-27); He speaks (Acts 8:29 and Acts 13:2); He evaluates and approves wise courses of action (Acts 15:28); He forbids certain activities (Acts 16:6-7); He searches all things, even the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10); He knows the thoughts of God (1 Corinthians 2:11); He distributes gifts to believers (1 Corinthians 12:11); and He can be grieved by God’s people (Ephesians 4:30).

We began this series by reasoning that even though the words Trinity and Triune are not found in Scripture, the concept of the Trinity can be found all throughout the Bible. We have seen abundant evidence of this fact. We also considered the claim that the doctrines of Christ’s divine nature and the Trinity were contrived by the council of Nicaea in AD 325. But from what we have seen in Scripture, that council merely confirmed and articulated what the Bible’s authors and the early church had embraced from the earliest of times.

Is Jesus God? Absolutely! Is God Triune? There can be no doubt. These doctrines lie at the very heart of orthodox, biblical Christianity.