Lord and King, our heavenly God, Father Almighty: Lord, Begotten Son, Christ and Holy Spirit
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 1:3
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
2 Corinthians 13:14
One of the most difficult things to comprehend as a Christian is the concept of the Holy Trinity. The first thing to understand is that God is a Trinity—one God, in three persons. The Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—shares one will, though each plays a different role in the plan for salvation. The Trinity is also uncreated. These are difficult concepts.
As humanity has acquired scientific knowledge, it has become more and more fascinated with answering the question of how everything started. The theory of evolution, the big bang theory and others have been put forth as ways to explain how it all began. No matter how far science is able to go back and state how things evolved, and what happened first, the question that science will never be able to answer is what caused that first thing. Because nothing cannot cause something. There is something that was before the scientific something and that is God, in Trinity—uncreated, eternal, and the foundational force behind everything that was created.
Genesis 1 gives the account of Creation: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) One word to focus on here is the word beginning. The story of salvation has a beginning—creation. And present for the first action was God, which means that He was before the beginning. God the Father is revealed in Genesis 1:1, as the creating force of the Trinity.
“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2) God, the Holy Spirit, is revealed in Genesis 1:2. We pray in one of the liturgical prayers of the Orthodox Church to the Holy Spirit, recognizing Him as “Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, everywhere present and filling all things, the Treasure of Blessings and Giver of Life.” The Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity through whom Godly grace is manifest. The Holy Spirit is co-eternal with the Father and the Son and was in the beginning with them and part of the creation process.
“And God said, “Let there be light; and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3) Each person of the Holy Trinity has multiple names. For instance, the Father is known as God, the Creator, the Almighty, Lord. The Holy Spirit is also known as the Spirit, Comforter, Counselor, Paraclete. And the second person of the Trinity is also known as the Son, the Son of God, the Son of Man, Jesus, Christ, Messiah, Savior, Word and Logos. He is revealed in Genesis 1:3, also co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, also part of the creation process.
One way to think of the Holy Trinity is as one body with three distinct parts that work in harmony. The Father would be like the mind, the creating part. The Son would be the mouth, hence He gives the creating command in Genesis 1:3. And the Spirit would be the hands.
Another account of Creation is found in the opening verses of the Gospel of John:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. (John 1:1-3)
Part of the confusion with this passage is that people don’t know the names for the second person of the Trinity. If we substitute “Christ” in for “Word,” perhaps the meaning becomes clearer: “In the beginning was Christ, and Christ was with God, and Christ was God. Christ was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Christ, and without Christ was not anything made that was made.” There was never a time where there was no Christ. He did not come into being on Christmas. He was incarnate and took on flesh. More on that in an upcoming reflection.
We discussed in a previous reflection, the elements of prayer, which include praise, thanksgiving, confession, intercession and supplication. There are three kinds of hymns, and sometimes all three elements are found in the same hymn, which is the case here. The three kinds of hymns are hymns that praise God, hymns that supplicate God and hymns that teach. A hymn like “Christ is Risen” is an example of a hymn that teaches. It neither praises God or asks for anything. It reminds us that Christ is risen from the dead, by death trampling death, and to those in the tombs He has granted life. The Doxology is a long and complex hymn which touches on all three elements—praise, supplication and teaching. This line falls into the teaching category as it both praises God and sets in order for us the identify and relationship of the Holy Trinity. The two Scripture verses highlighted above also help explain the identity and relationship of the Trinity. The greeting from 2 Corinthians 13:14 is quoted directly in the Divine Liturgy.
Lord, sometimes it is hard to know and understand You. Open my mind through Scripture to understand You better. Thank You for the gift of Your creation, and for making me part of it. Thank You for the gift of salvation, which will lead to the redemption of Creation, and I pray for me as well. And thank You for the gift of grace that flows through the Holy Spirit, the completes what is lacking and fills in the blank spaces for me. Help me to better understand the Mystery of the Holy Trinity, so that I may be prepared one day to experience Your Glory. Amen.
The Holy Trinity is revealed in various ways throughout Scripture. Yet, it is still a challenge to understand the identity and relationship of the Holy Trinity. This is not only one of the cornerstones of our faith, but something we will have to study, ponder and relearn throughout life.
