Trinity

Order of Christian Initiation for Adults 2025-2026

Class #13 Outline

Trinity

Triune God

CCC 234 The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the "hierarchy of the truths of faith". The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men "and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin".

• Old Testament
  • Gen 1:1-2, Gen 1:26, Gen 18:1-15
  • There are Names for God’s Actions 
    • Word and Spirit> This “Word” receives personal characteristics 
    • The names really indicate God in his revealing / saving action 
  • God as Father in the OT
    • Exodus 4:22 and Deuteronomy 32:6
  • God as Father in the NT
    • Father is used as a personal name, Father of the eternal Son.

God the Son in the NT

• Indirect approach: one who performs actions properly divine is of divine nature
  • Jesus performs properly divine actions>therefore he is divine.
  • Examples: promulgates a new law, forgives sins, heals sinners, allows himself to be worshipped, is unknowable except by the Father, knows God and reveals him to others.
• Explicit Approach on the Son’s divinity

The Title “Lord” 

• Phil 2:9-11, Jesus repeats the “I am” (Mk 14:62; Jn 8:24, 8:28, 8:58, 13:19,18:5) 

Son of God 

• But Jesus does call God his Father, and in a radically unique way 
  • “your father” (Mk 11:25; Mt 5:44–45; 6:8–15, 32; 7:11)  
  • “My father” or its equivalent (Mk 8:38; Mt 11:25–27; 15:13; Lk 2:49; Lk 22:29; 24:49; Jn 8:19; 14:23).

Jesus “Is God” 

• Jn 1:1, 18>The Word is with God (i.e., with the Father), The Word is God (i.e., truly divine), The Word’s functions.  
• Indirect evidence to the Son’s Distinction from the Father 
  • Who is sent by another is distinct from that other> the Father sends the Son.
  • John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me”
• Direct evidence on distinction of Father and Son 
  • Jn 1:1 = with the Father, Hebrews 1:5-6, Jn 17:5, 24

God the Holy Spirit

• Is the Holy Spirit Divine? a Person? 
  • His actions>Groans with us, Rom 8:16, 26 
    • Distributes gifts as he wills, speaks in the churches, gives words to those undergoing persecution, grieved by human sin (1 Cor 12:11 in context) 
• Indirect Evidence for Holy Spirit’s Divinity
  • Crucial Involvement in Messianic Action. 
• The Argument>the power upon which Jesus relies in his mission is divine.
  • The Holy Spirit is the power upon which Jesus relies
  • The Holy Spirit is divine  
• From the beginning, the Holy Spirit is present>Old Testament through the New Testament.
• Messiah bears the Spirit of God and acts in power of Holy Spirit 
• NT: Holy Spirit Active in the Church 
• One Argument>The ultimate cause of forgiveness and sanctification is divine 
  • The Spirit is the ultimate cause of forgiveness and sanctification 
  • Therefore, The Holy Spirit is divine
    • Examples: enables confession of faith in Jesus, accomplishes our adoption, crucial for forgiveness of sins, can be blasphemed against, knows the deep things of God
• “Direct” Approach to Divinity of the Spirit
  • Jn 16:13>Spirit is in relation to Jesus as Jesus is in relation to the Father 
  • Spirit leads into all truth: So he does not receive in portions but w/o measure