“Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.’” (Galatians 4:6 NIV)

It is in the majesty and the mystery of God where He is revealed to us as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirt. In theological terms this is described as the Three-in-Oneness of God. There are many analogies that have been used to describe this revelation of God, yet not one of them gives us a true picture of God.  However, for the believer it is stated at our baptism, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19b)

We see this expressed at Jesus’ baptism. “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17) The Spirit is present, the Father speaks, as God in the flesh is baptized.

Later, Jesus would be asked, What is the greatest commandment? He responds by saying, “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” (Mark 12:29-30, quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

There is only one God and He reveals Himself to us as The Father, The Son, Jesus the Christ, and the Holy Spirit. It is important for us to know how all of God relates to us as His own born-again children. It all starts as we come to Him through Jesus, the Son of God, who came to us.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:16-18)

The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. He taught them to pray to the Father, thus the beginning of the Model Prayer, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” (Luke 11:2 KJV) In His dialogue with the woman at the well, Jesus would speak of those who worship God. “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24) Jesus would then tell her plainly that He is the promised Messiah, “The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” (John 4:25-26) Here Jesus is expressing the revelation of God as the Three-in-Oneness of God.

In Jesus’ Farewell Discourse found in John’s Gospel chapters 14-16, Jesus gives us teaching about the Trinity in a way of how all of God relates to believers. He begins with His connection to the Father, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. . . .The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.” (John14:9b,10-11) He continues as He speaks of the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit into the lives of His own. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. (John 14:16-17a) He would then speak of the importance of the Holy Spirit in their lives. “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:26-27) Notice how the Spirit comes as the Father sends Him with the connection to Jesus’ name, which is Jehovah saves. Jesus would tell the disciples that He was going away, which would be at His ascension. Then He would say, “Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:7b) It is both the Father and the Son who would send the Spirit.

Jesus would also teach; the Holy Spirit would continue the education of their new lives lived in relationship to God and following what Jesus taught them. “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” (John 14:12-15) It is in Scripture where the Spirit is at work teaching us. “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21)

When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, God begins His life-changing work in us because now we are not only followers of Jesus, but we have become sons, children of God. It is this work which the Three-in-Oneness of God has made us His own and we can now call to Him from our hearts, “Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:6b)

In the Love of Jesus,

Michael Block