The Most Holy Trinity

The Most Holy Trinity is the most distinctive Christian doctrine, and it can seem both strange and confusing. To put it most simply, Christians believe that there is one God, and that this one God is three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This has immense implications. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. And yet they are one God. They love one another perfectly and eternally.

This is something we often pass over too quickly, but it matters a great deal. God is not solitary. God is not love because He created us, or because He needed someone to love. God is love eternally. Before anything existed, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit lived in perfect communion. Creation does not make God loving. Creation reveals the love that God already is.

And this love is not kept at a distance from us. God shares His love with us. We see this most plainly in perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible: John 3:16. God so loved the world, so loved us, that He sent His only Son, so that we might not perish but have eternal life.

The Son came to us. He entered into our sufferings, our struggles, and our joys. He came to share God’s love with us, not from far away, but from within our own human life. He took on our nature and gave Himself completely.

This gives us a glimpse of what true love is. True love is not centered on grasping, possessing, or taking. True love gives. Christ did not become man because He lacked anything. He did not come because God needed something from us. He came because God is love, and love gives itself away.

The Triune God is a God of love and peace, and Jesus came to be that love and peace for us in the flesh. He is merciful and gracious, rich in kindness and fidelity. He is always true to His promises, even when we are not.

We see that perfect fidelity most beautifully in the Son’s self-offering to the Father for our sake. Yet even after Christ ascended to the Father, His love did not withdraw from us. He remains with us in the Church He founded, in the sacraments He gave us, and in the Holy Spirit whom He sends.

The Holy Spirit shares in the mission of Christ. Like the Son, He gives Himself to us completely, though in a different way. He comes to dwell within us. He sanctifies us from within. He is the perfect gift of God poured into our hearts.

The Spirit comes to us so that we may share in the perfect love of the Trinity. He enables us to love as God loves. Together with Christ, He raises us up, making us more like God, so that we may share forever in God’s own life and happiness.

For just as God is love, we are made by love and for love.

Glory and praise forever to You, O Most Holy Trinity. You have loved us into existence, redeemed us by Your mercy, and called us to share in Your eternal life.