If I were to ask you to prove to me that one plus one equals two, how would you do it? Maybe you would grab, say, an apple. You would tell me, “This is one apple.” Then you would grab another apple and put it next to the first and inform me, “There are now two apples. Therefore, one plus one equals two.” Simple, right?
But what if you didn’t have any apples? Could you prove to me that one plus one equals two if all you had was a pencil and a piece of paper? I don’t mean show—I mean prove mathematically that this basic principle is true. To do that, we would first both need to understand what “one” is—and what “addition” means—and what “equal” means. Two famous mathematicians set out to do exactly that. Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead wrote Principia Mathematica in the early 1900s. It is a huge three-volume work that spans hundreds of pages, all to prove that one plus one equals two.
You and I don’t need to read their books—we just know one plus one equals two because it’s obvious to us—we can see it with practical demonstration. But proving it is not as easy as it sounds, because reality is built on simple building blocks and proving simple things, it turns out, is a lot harder than we thought.
three in one?
The belief in a God that is one, but is also somehow three, is fundamental to nearly all Christian traditions. In fact, it is one of the beliefs that defines whether a belief system can claim to be Christian. But it’s a complicated, obscure, mysterious and strange idea. How can one be three? How can three be one? I wonder if we find it difficult because we treat God like an equation to solve. So, if we can’t understand three-in-one mathematically when it comes to God, how are we to understand the fact that God seems to be present in three different ways?
There are many different metaphors people use to describe the three Beings that seem to comprise the one Christian God. A three-leaf clover is the most famous, but even that is inadequate.
pictures of the Father
What image would God use to reveal to people about Himself? There are many ways God presents Himself to His people in the Scriptures. Through a burning bush. Through a still, small voice. By a pillar of fire. But there is one main picture that is painted more clearly than the others. Fascinatingly, He uses a tent.
After Moses frees the Hebrew people from Egypt in the events of the Exodus, God wants to meet with them. So, He tells them to make a tent of meeting in the middle of the camp. Exodus 25:8 tells us, “Have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.” Inside the tent is a golden box and inside that are the Ten Commandments. Resting on the box, on the Mercy Seat, sat the “Shekinah Glory”—the light of God’s presence. But there’s a problem. God can’t meet with them directly because He is holy and they have a condition the Bible says we all have: an evil heart. So, a curtain is placed between them and from the other side a high priest meets with God, standing with a large oil lamp to light up his side.
So, the first picture God gives His people is of a light, but one hidden away. A man serves in that holy place and an oil lamp lights up the place. Around the lamp, God instructs various pieces of furniture and symbols to be placed that teach His people why they can’t encounter Him directly. A tent separates them. Light shines before the curtain, while God’s presence rests behind it on the mercy seat. Between the two stands a priest, performing the rituals—including the sacrifice of a lamb—that make the Hebrew people clean and not corrupt.
The reason I’m mentioning these motifs, and particularly those three elements, is because they are repeated through the Bible and help inform our picture of God.
pictures of Jesus
There are many metaphors for Jesus in the Bible. A shepherd. A son. A lion. How does He describe Himself? By pointing to the Father.
Jesus says it most plainly in John 14. His disciples are trying to understand Jesus and are asking Him questions about His plans. Jesus answers, “If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him (John 14:7).” Jesus is saying that when we see Him—His character, His actions, His motivations, His plans—then we see God the Father. He explains further, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?” (John 14:9,10). Jesus isn’t just saying He is like the Father—which He is—but that in another way, they are the same being, one in each other. If we want to know what God is like, we can look to Jesus.
What does that have to do with the picture of the tent? It turns out Jesus is described in Scripture as our high priest—as the one who stands in the tent. Hebrews 4:14 calls Him our great high priest and says because of Him, “We may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Not only is He the priest offering the sacrifice, but He is also the sacrifice itself, the Lamb of God (John 1:36).
Jesus is God made man so He can be our high priest and dwell among us. When John says, “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” (John 1:14), that word dwell literally means camped—a reminder of God in the tent with His people. Jesus also says, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), a reminder of that light in the tent.
pictures of the Spirit
In that tent in the desert, the light of God was behind a curtain, while in the room where the priest stood, an oil lamp shone. It lit the work of the priest as he ministered before God. In the Bible, oil was used to anoint the priests, kings and prophets. Jesus made the link clear in Luke 4: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me” (Luke 4:18). That oil represented the Spirit of God—a third picture of God, unique and distinct from the Father and the Son, but no less important.
Jesus says in John 14:16,17, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.” An advocate has been given to us, to be in us, to shine the light on Jesus, who points us to the Father.
the big picture
To be clear, these three pictures aren’t just different aspects of one God because the Bible shows them as distinct—for example, the Spirit sent from the Father and Jesus praying to the Father in John 17. Yet they are one at the same time. The mystery of God can only be revealed through the pictures He has given. And the picture the Bible overwhelmingly presents is of a God who is three and one. Perhaps a better question isn’t how, but why? I think it’s clear that God has revealed Himself to show us He is a God who cares for us and wants to save us from the ills inside and around us. That’s a picture I like!
