Many find themselves weary from the mental gymnastics of trying to fit an infinite God into the limited framework of human logic. The phrase “three Persons” alongside “one God” often causes confusion—caught between the fear of believing in three gods and the difficulty of imagining God as a shape-shifter. This tension is not a sign of weak faith but the honest desire of a heart longing to know God as He truly is, beyond mere formulas. Instead of treating God like a math problem to solve, it is far more fruitful to see Him as He has revealed Himself.
The freeing truth is this: God is not a puzzle to be solved but a Person to be known. He has made Himself perfectly knowable in His Son. The mystery of “three yet one” finds rest when attention shifts from abstract concepts to the Man, Christ Jesus.
The Two Errors to Avoid: Tritheism and Modalism
To understand the Trinity rightly, it is important to recognize the two common errors that distort the biblical teaching.
On one side is tritheism—the belief that the Father, Son, and Spirit are three separate beings who cooperate like a divine committee. This view often arises from reading only one aspect of Scripture, such as the synoptic Gospels where at Jesus’ baptism the Father’s voice is heard from heaven and the Spirit descends like a dove upon the Son. It appears as three distinct actors, but this perspective misses the eternal, unified reality and ends up with three gods.
On the other side is modalism, which teaches that God is one Person who simply wears different masks at different times: first the “Father,” then the “Son,” then the “Spirit.” This denies the distinct personal relationships within the Godhead, contradicting Scripture where the Son prays to the Father and the Father sends the Spirit. Attempts to separate the Old Testament God as the Father and the New Testament God as the Son break the unity of the Trinity. Jesus is the God of the Old Testament as well.
Both errors distort the truth by either dividing what is indivisible or collapsing what is distinct. So what does Scripture reveal?
The Unbreakable Unity: Co-Existence and Co-Inherence
The biblical reality of the Trinity is captured in two key concepts: co-existence and co-inherence.
Co-existence means the three Persons are distinct and have always existed together. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are eternal Persons in relationship. There was never a time when the Father existed without the Son, or the Son without the Spirit.
Co-inherence means the three are one in perfect, inseparable union. They mutually indwell one another. Jesus said, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10). This is not mere cooperation; it is shared life, essence, and operation.
The Son is the perfect expression of the Father. He is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) and “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3). To know the Father, look at the Son. Every act of compassion, every word of grace, every healing touch from Jesus was the Father loving the world through the Son. The Son moves by the Spirit, so the Father works through the Son by the Spirit. There is no work of God in Scripture done apart from this triune cooperation.
This understanding also guards against dangerous errors, such as the claim that Jesus suffered in hell apart from the Father. To assert this is to imply the Father turned His back on the Son or that Jesus ceased to be God momentarily—an idea that fractures the Trinity. The truth is, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). When Jesus entered death, the triune God remained intact. He went in as the victorious God-man to declare victory, saying, “It is finished.”
Finding Rest in the Simplicity of Christ
How can weary believers find rest amid the mystery? Not by constructing a perfect mental model, but by receiving what God has revealed.
Assurance comes not from mastering theological concepts but from trusting the gospel: “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Believing this message justifies and regenerates. The Spirit testifies to this truth within.
Most practically, believers have been brought into the very fellowship of the triune God. Receiving the Spirit is not receiving a force or separate god, but the reality of Christ Himself. “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6). The Spirit in believers is the Spirit of the Son. Jesus promised, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18). The sending of the Spirit is the coming of the Son.
This means believers know the triune God from the inside out. “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 14:20). This oneness is known not intellectually but by abiding—letting His word dwell richly, letting the Spirit of sonship cry out to the Father. The believer’s spirit is joined to the Lord’s, one spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). This is true fellowship with the triune God.
Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus
When confusion arises, the best response is to stop dissecting the Godhead and fix the eyes on Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. In Him, the abstract becomes personal, the distant becomes near, the unknowable becomes knowable.
He is the image of the invisible God.
In Him dwells all the fullness.
He is the radiance of the Father’s glory.
He is our life.
It is not troubling that finite minds cannot fully grasp eternity. Instead, hearts can rest in the One who wrapped Himself in flesh to reach us. The mystery remains, but the communion is real. Believers are safe in the love of the Father, secured by the work of the Son, and indwelt by the Spirit of both. That is enough. That is true rest.
