The bible never specifically uses the word "triune" and the idea that God is both three and One (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is perplexing. However, the Torah of Moses seems to tell us this is so.

The portion of scripture known as The Shema has been anthemic to Israel's calling to make the One true God known. It begins by saying, "Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord, is One" (Deut. 6:4). Possibly there is already a hint that the Lord, God, the Lord, is both one and three.

That Hebrew word translated "one" (echad אֶחָד) is also used elsewhere to describe another compound unity: "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and joins to his wife, and they become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24).

Going back to the Shema, it continues with a promise, "You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and all of your soul, and all of your strength" (Deut. 6:5). Here we are told that, as one person, we are made of three parts (and they will be united in fully loving God).  We are three in one!

Gen. 1:27 tells us, "God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." Because we are created somehow in His likeness, we can infer a little about God from what we know about ourselves. Since we are triune, He likely is as well.

How could an infinite God, who created an infinite universe and who knows all things, contain Himself in human form? Perhaps we can get some sense of this by asking, “What would a person in our three dimensional world look like when projected into only two dimensions?” They would look like a photograph or a movie, identifiably that person, as complete as is possible in only two dimensions. Of course, this is only an analogy. But similarly, the Word/Lamb/Son of God voluntarily limited Himself to be as completely God as is possible in human form: the man Yeshua. (Phil. 2:6-7). He chose this method of communicating with us, even before He began creating in the first place. (John/Yochanan 1:1-3, 1:14).

Instead of God being outside of time and space, perhaps time and space are inside of Him. God's localizing in Yeshua wouldn't mean He had departed from anywhere. The Father is still everywhere, and we are in Him.

Part of our struggle to understand might also come from imagining that a heavenly spirit projecting Himself into solid flesh is some sort of increase. But by localizing in Yeshua, God was subjecting Himself to all the limitations of this creation. What is truly remarkable is how much can be accomplished in human form, through faith. (Matt. 14:28).

When we insist that God conform to our limited understanding, isn't that just our own naïveté, or even arrogance? After all, the lesser cannot fully comprehend the greater (Isaiah 55:8-9), and well, is anything too difficult for God? (Gen. 18:14, Jer 32:27)

Back to index