THE Three Persons of the Trinity
The Three Persons of the Trinity
Brenda L. Reynolds
Grand Canyon University: HTH-505 Systematic Theology
February 23, 2011
The Three Persons of the Trinity
The Trinity consists of God, the Father, Jesus, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit. The Christian faith recognizes there is one God and He is one with His Son, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The purpose of this essay is to describe the interrelationship of the three persons of the Trinity. This will include the concepts of the economic trinity, the essential trinity and the social trinity.
God, the creator of all is known in Hebrew as Elohim, meaning strength or power. He is also known as YHVH translated from Hebrew as Lord. Exodus 3:14 (NIV) states, “God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”.
Jesus is the Son of God, born of a virgin. Luke 1:35 (NIV), “The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God”. Jesus was with God in the beginning and He is God in human flesh. Jesus refers to Himself in John 8:58 as the “I am”.
The Holy Spirit is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent, He is God. The Holy Spirit can speak, comfort, He intercedes to God for us and He can grieve. David cried out to God in Psalms 51:1, “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me”.
Economic trinity is defined as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father is the creator, the provider, He sends, directs and predestines. The Son came in the flesh to do the will of His Father, and to accomplish redemption. The Holy Spirit’s role is to indwell and sanctify the church. All three function to bring salvation. Grenz states because the threeness of the one God is ontological it is also functional and economic (Grenz pg 66). He continues to explain that the Father functions as the ground of the world and of the divine...