Has anyone ever asked you, “Explain to me the Trinity”? What did you say in response? I’m guessing it wasn’t a quote from the Westminster confession, “In the unity of the Godhead there exist three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father who is of none (neither begotten nor preceding), God the Son (eternally begotten of the Father), and God the Holy Ghost (who eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son).” Why didn’t you respond in this way? Probably because it’s not very useful even though it is entirely accurate. In my opinion one of the best explanations of the Trinity is Jesus’ description in John chapter 14:

The person who has seen me has seen the Father! How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father residing in me performs his miraculous deeds. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me... -- John 14.9b-11a

What Jesus is talking about is circumincession, which is a Latin word meaning “the reciprocal existence in one another of the three persons of the Trinity.” I like this word almost as much as I like Jesus’ description of he being in the Father and the Father being in him. It’s a word picture that, at least to me, makes more sense than the Westminster confession.

Circumincession gets to the crux of understanding the concept, the difference between “nature” and “person”. Nature is what one is while person is who one is. I know that the concept of the Trinity is a startling truth that is impossible for the human mind to grasp, I get that, but it helps me bring the idea into focus when I think of the Trinity as three persons of a single nature. The Lord is indeed one in regard to nature, and three in regard to person, and both Testaments are open to this understanding. Perhaps at another time we’ll look at key passages of the Old Testament and show how they support the concept of Trinity without spelling it out, but for now its enough to understand that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three persons with one nature.

Why is this important? For starters, it is always good to gain understanding of the God we serve. That is a bit broad in scope; where it becomes more intimate is in the recognition that just as Jesus is in the Father and the Father in Jesus, so the entire Trinity is also “in” every believer (John 17.21). While we do not share the same nature as the Godhead, nor are we the fourth or fifth or sixth member of their personhoods, they remain in us in a way that is similar to the way they remain in each other. This too may be a mystery beyond understanding, but if we believe it then it makes believing the Trinity that much simpler.

We talk a lot on this site about building connections with God, I think it’s time we see how God has built connections with us. For we do not serve a distant God who looks only to be worshipped, we worship a God who looks for us to draw near and has already reached out to us. Witness the God who enjoyed evening visits with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3.8), who walks among his fallen people to witness their endeavors (Genesis 11.5), who delivers remarkable news to his followers (Genesis 18.9-10), who immersed himself in the experience of humanity through Jesus, including death and who today dwells in a temple constructed of his children. I do not know the origin of the phrase, but revel its truthfulness: Every religion is man’s attempt to reach God, only Christianity bears testimony to God’s attempt to reach man.