S4 E11: Three-in-One

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Season 4 of Spirit-Led Hope covers the Doctrine of God, or theology, from a Spirit-led perspective. In this episode, Glenn continues a discussion of the Trinity. This episode looks at a way to think about the Trinity as Three-in-One without resorting to an analogy of God himself. Glenn also discusses how the indwelling Holy Spirit helps us more fully grasp the reality of the Trinity.

This episode has a transcript. If your podcast player does not support transcripts, please go to the Transcripts section of https://spiritledhope.com/ . These transcripts have been edited for accuracy and are typically of higher quality than those produced automatically by many podcast apps.

Season 4 is part of a long term goal to study systematic theology from a Spirit-led perspective. If you want to know more about systematic theology, or expand your study, Glenn is using the following text as a helpful framework to make sure the main topics are covered:  Foundations of Pentecostal Theology, by Guy P. Duffield and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave.  The book is published by Foursquare Media and Glenn is using the Second Edition published in 2016.          

Transcript

S4 E11 TRANSCRIPT 

THREE-IN-ONE

     

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone and welcome to Spirit-Led Hope. My name is Glenn Erichsen, and in this episode, we are looking at:

     THREE-IN-ONE

This is our third episode on the Trinity, and I encourage you to listen to Episodes 9 and 10 if you have not already done that. You do not need these episodes for this one, but I do think this episode will be more meaningful if you do.

One of the most difficult concepts to understand about the Trinity, is the Three-in-One nature of God. This is where people really struggle and, for some, it can be a barrier keeping them from a relationship with God.

I remember a Jehovah Witness who came to my door, and we were talking about the nature of God. When I asked her about the Trinity she described the Trinity as a God with three physical heads. She thought the Trinity was more like some of the Hindu gods who are depicted that way. It is no wonder that she and I believed differently because our fundamental view of God’s nature was radically different.

Because the concept of the Trinity is hard to understand, we try to come up with analogies to help us. I mentioned in Episode 9 some of the common ones like an egg where we have the white, the yolk, and the shell, making up the whole. But I also mentioned in the same episode that every analogy falls short. In fact, some analogies can be dangerous.

But where does that leave us? Somehow, we still want to understand how we can have one God in three Persons. And that is what we are going to try and do in this episode. I do not want to give you an analogy of God, but I want to us to think about some principles that allow us to accept that God can be Three-in-One…we just do not have the ability to fully understand him.

What I am going to do is make up a very contrived story. This story is pure fantasy and has all sorts of technical shortcomings, but I trust that you can look past that and understand the points I am trying to make.

The approach I am taking is nothing new. In fact, some of you may have heard of a book that was in published in 1884, titled “Flatland:  A Romance of Many Dimensions.” I am using some of the same concepts that were presented in that book. But I am creating my own story to make the points which will help us.

THE ADVENTURES OF BOB AND ALEX

Our very contrived story begins in the Pacific Northwest, where I live, when a local explorer named Bob sets out for a hike in the Cascade mountains. On his hike, Bob discovers a rock with a feature he has never seen before. 

On one portion of the rock is a region that appears to be perfectly flat. Not just “kind of” flat, but perfectly flat. It is flatter than the most perfect pane of glass Bob has ever encountered. He is so fascinated by this rock that Bob sticks it in his pack and hurries home to examine it.

Once home, Bob puts the rock on his workbench and begins to examine it with a magnifying lamp. He is shocked to discover that there are creatures living on the perfectly flat surface. At first Bob thought they were amoebas, but the more Bob watches them, the more they seem to be highly intelligent. Bob realizes he has made an amazing discovery.

On a hunch, Bob places a sensitive microphone near the rock and amplifies the sound into a set of headphones. He is shocked to discover that he can hear the creatures and can understand what they are saying. And that begins a dialog between Bob, and one of the creatures named Alex. 

When Bob begins speaking, Alex cannot understand the source of the voice. And Bob quickly discovers this is because Alex is limited to life on the flat surface. Alex cannot leave the surface and, in fact, cannot look above or below the surface. Alex’s entire existence is spent in a flat two-dimensional world. There is no up and there is no down. Alex can go forwards, backwards, and side to side, but nothing else. He can bump into things, or go around them, but he can never go under or over anything. And this makes it very tricky for Bob to describe himself because Alex has no ability to understand anything outside of his flat world. Three-dimensional thinking is impossible for him.

When Alex wants to see Bob, Bob tries to figure out a way to show himself. And he comes up with an idea. Very carefully, so as not to squish Alex, Bob touches the flat surface with his index finger. 

And this delights Alex. When he sees Bob’s fingertip, he quickly travels around it and finds that it is roughly circular. 

“Ah!” says Alex to Bob, “You and I are very similar after all.” 

But Bob protests and tries to tell Alex that what he sees is just one part of one finger of his hand, and not even close to his whole body.

“What do you mean by hand?” asks Alex. So, Bob explains how he has five fingers on one hand. 

When Alex asks to see more, Bob, again very carefully, touches his thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger to the flat surface. When he is done, Bob’s fingers nearly fill the area, but Alex is delighted because now he knows what Bob means when he says he has five fingers. Alex can travel around five shapes that are nearly circles. And he can tell the difference between them by their shapes and sizes. 

“I get it!” says Alex, “I can see your five fingers!”

But Bob protests again and tells Alex that these five fingers belong to one hand. 

“Impossible!” says Alex. “Your five fingers are as separate as separate can be! How can you say that they belong to one hand?”

Bob tries everything he can think of to show Alex that his five fingers make up one hand. But there is limited space on the surface and there is only so much he can do. He tries wiggling his fingers together in a pattern to show they belong to one hand, but they are still separate, and Alex is not convinced. 

In the end, Bob realizes that because Alex cannot look up or down, Alex will never understand him. But that does not stop their relationship from growing. Bob gains such an affection for Alex that he takes Alex and his world back to the Cascades, where they live a long and fruitful life away from the microscopes and curiosity of the world.

 WHAT DO WE LEARN FROM BOB AND ALEX?

There are many things we can learn from this simple story but let us highlight just a few. From the story, we can see that both Bob and Alex are intelligent. They can communicate and express themselves to each other, but there is a limitation.

Alex is limited to a flat, two-dimensional world. Though he is intelligent, his brain functions in a two-dimensional world and is unable to imagine anything outside of it. Bob, on the other hand, lives in a three-dimensional world and can operate in both Alex’s world and his own.

Because of this, we can see that Bob is greater than Alex. Bob functions in a world that is beyond Alex. Bob can imagine more, do more, create more, and experience more than Alex can even dream about. Does Alex have value? Of course he does. But this does not negate the fact that Bob’s fundamental nature and abilities are far greater than those of Alex.

We also see from the story that Bob is unable to fully describe himself to Alex. This is not from any limitation on the part of Bob. The hindrance is fully on the side of Alex. The only way that Bob could reveal himself at all was to touch the flat surface and enter Alex’s world. Before Bob did that, Bob was nothing more than a mysterious invisible voice.

But even when Bob entered Alex’s world, Alex could not fully grasp the true nature of Bob. Alex could only get a small, limited, snapshot of Bob’s bigger picture. And yet, that snapshot was enough to foster a relationship.

Since this episode is talking about the Trinity, I am sure you have already figured out that I want to draw some comparisons between Bob and Alex and our relationship with God.

The first thing I want to say is that I do not mean to say that God the Father, God the Son, and God Holy Spirit, are like a hand with multiple fingers. The point I am trying to make is that just like Bob is to Alex, God is far greater than we are. In Bob and Alex’s case, Bob lived in a world with a dimension beyond Alex. Because of this, Alex can never grasp the magnitude of Bob.

We have the same issue with God. God is so far beyond us, that we cannot fully understand his true nature. 

By the way, as a point of interest, for anyone who likes science, there is an area of study in physics called String Theory. The main branch of String Theory proposes that the universe is made up of 10 dimensions. Let us say this means that God is 10 dimensions or greater. If Alex can never understand Bob with just one dimension of difference, we would be at an extreme loss if God’s nature included several dimensions we do not have.

 But I am not saying that we can view God from the perspective of extra dimensions. I am not sure that dimensions even apply to God. We do know that God is spirit and that is certainly beyond the physical world we live in. We will talk more about that in just a moment.

One of my favorite points from this story is that Alex was unable to approach Bob. So, what did Bob do? He inserted himself into Alex’s world by touching it. And this is what we see with Jesus. God lowered himself to our level, so that we could see him and relate to him. Because Jesus came as one of us, he allowed us a glimpse into the divine nature of God. 

I want to come back now to this point that God is spirit. We know from Scripture that we are all born separated from God. Our sin nature limits our ability to know God and have relationship with him. This is because our spirit is dead. But when we humble ourselves and place our belief and trust in Jesus, everything changes. Why? Because now we have the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit. Our spirit is made new. It is the Holy Spirit, living within us, who helps us see beyond the barriers that separate us and God. 

Imagine if Bob invented a device that allowed Alex to see beyond his flat land. Alex’s world would become new and alive.  Alex would be a different person. He would be so different, that his fellow flat creatures would think he is crazy unless they could look through the same invention. Their world would never be the same again if they could see through Bob’s eyes. And best of all, Alex and Bob would have an incredible relationship that was not possible before. 

And this is what we have through God’s grace and the Presence of the Holy Spirit. Suddenly, we can see life through God’s eyes. Everything about God is enhanced, and our relationship with him is deepened.

I am going to read the entire second chapter of 1 Corinthians to help explain this point. This is Paul writing:

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power. We do, however, speak a wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age, or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, because if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written,

What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived--God has prepared these things for those who love him.

Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.

But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. For 

who has known the Lord’s mind, that he may instruct him? 

But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:1-16 CSB

This is amazing and wonderful. God meets us in our inability to fathom his greatness. Through a mystery, which God revealed in Jesus, God places his Spirit within us. And now, we can understand his words and actions in a way we never could before. It is as if Bob made that machine for Alex. Through the Holy Spirit, our spiritual eyes are opened, and now we have God’s divine capacity to take us past our human limitations.

Here is an important question…with the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit, can we know God fully? The answer is…no, we cannot. We still, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, see things like a dim reflection. 

But with God’s help, we now see deeper into the spiritual realm and have greater understanding of the mind of Christ. This inspires us be transformed to be more like Jesus through the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is the mind of Christ which brings us peace, and joy, and hope as we live in his purpose and will.

It is also the mind of Christ which makes understanding the Trinity less daunting, because we get to know God better. Our own minds can only go so far in understanding God’s Three-in-One nature. But when we are baptized in the Holy Spirit and have the mind of Christ our spirit helps us understand.

I do not know the mechanism of how the Holy Spirit dwells within us or makes us into a new creation. I do not know how the Holy Spirit does that. But I do know that I experience a oneness with God and my fellow believers while I am still me. And this is a glimpse, I think, into the triunity of God. The Trinity makes sense to me, and brings me comfort, even if my intellect cannot fully understand God’s Three-in-One nature.

CLOSING

In our next episode we are going to look at the omnis!

As always, you can send me comments, suggestions, or questions, by email at glenn@spiritledhope.com, or simply use the Contact Form at spiritledhope.com. That is spiritLEDhope.com. You can also send me a one-way text message by going to the episode show notes and clicking on the link with your smart phone. This is one of the ways you can encourage me.

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As you experience the mind of Christ…

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Until the next episode, take care.

Copyright 2025 Spirit-Led Hope