This is another in a series of excerpts from “What Every Christian Should Know About the Trinity,” published by the MBC’s High Street Press (visit highstreet.press).

We know the Bible as the Word of God. That means God is the source of Scripture, revealing truths we are incapable of knowing without divine help. 

The Bible is special revelation in that it is a record of God’s work before time, in time, and beyond time, with a particular emphasis on creation, sin, redemption, and restoration. As such, Scripture complements God’s general revelation, which all people witness in creation and conscience (Rom. 1:18-32; 2:14-16).

In the Bible, God is revealed as one being in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. While these divine persons carry out distinct roles in creation and salvation, they are unified in purpose. 

The holy, loving, self-giving persons of the Godhead set the standard for how human beings created in God’s image should relate to God and to one another. At the same time, without Scripture, we would not be able to comprehend God as a Trinity.

Our ability to observe the natural world points us to a divine Designer. Yet, nature itself cannot adequately explain how Yahweh is one being in three persons. And mankind’s universal conscience compels us to conclude that there is a divine moral Law Giver. Even so, conscience can’t tell us the reason behind or the remedy for our violations of standards that have been written on our hearts. 

It takes special revelation from this divine Designer and divine moral Law Giver. That’s where the Bible steps into the picture.

This is another in a series of excerpts from “What Every Christian Should Know About the Trinity,” published by the MBC’s High Street Press (visit highstreet.press).

In his book Reordering the Trinity, Rodrick Durst notes that there are 75 Trinitarian references in the New Testament. Many of these passages reveal the collaborative work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in securing our salvation. Space does not permit a full exploration of every reference, but we list several for the purpose of demonstrating how the Trinity is woven into the fabric of the greatest story ever told.

Romans 8:14-17 – “For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs – heirs of God and coheirs with Christ – if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”

Followers of Jesus have received the indwelling Holy Spirit, who also serves as the agent in our adoption as sons and daughters of the Father. As adopted children, we are coheirs with Jesus in His inheritance of all things. This includes glorification, which is received when we are resurrected from the dead and clothed in Christ’s immortality. Paul shares a similar message of the Trinity’s work of adoption in Galatians 4:4-7.