What did Jesus say about the Trinity?

In this address, Jesus evidently contemplated this present time — the interval between His going to the Father and His coming again to receive us unto Himself. It is not the assembly, or the Church, as it is called, which He reveals; for the time was not come for the mystery of the assembly, which is His body, to be brought out. This was reserved, as we know, for a later period. (Eph. 3:5.) But in this address we do find great principles of truth enunciated, which we may call special doctrines of Christianity. And it is remarkable that the Lord seems to have anticipated the fact, that one of the prominent contentions during His absence would be concerning the glory and divinity of His person. He not only therefore expressed His desire, that, during His being at the right hand of God, we should look to Him in faith concerning trouble, but He teaches us also that the true divinity and glory of His person could be known only in the way of faith. This is extremely important to observe. When therefore Philip said, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" Here the Lord expressly teaches His essential Godhead as one with the Father. No doubt distinct as to personality, as He elsewhere shows, when He says, "My Father is greater than I." (v. 28.) But the point insisted on is, that He is one in essence and eternal Godhead with the Father. The Father dwelling in Him, and doing the works, and He so manifesting the Father that He could say, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Every one knows what a vital and frequent subject of controversy the personal glory of Jesus has been during His absence; and the striking point to my mind here is, that His person is a revelation, not to be proved by argumentative reasoning, but to be received in faith, according to God's own statement concerning Him. Hence Jesus says again on this point, "Believe! Believe!" "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? … Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me." (vv. 10, 11.) The personal glory therefore of the Son as one in essential Godhead with the Father, and dwelling among men in flesh, a perfect man, speaking only the words the Father gave Him to speak, and doing works, in perfect obedience, by the Father dwelling in Him, is a matter only for faith, and not for human reasoning, much less for carnal speculation. How gracious then the tender pity and consideration of our loving Lord thus to arm us against the seductions of Satan, and cunning craftiness of men, and to furnish us effectually with the mighty weapon comprehended in that sweet word, "Believe!" "Believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me." And truly the expression of our hearts in the contemplation of Him is — "In Thee most perfectly expressed The Father's self doth shine; Fulness of Godhead too — the Blest — Eternally Divine. The higher mysteries of Thy fame The creature's grasp transcend: The Father only Thy blest name Of Son can comprehend. Worthy, O Lamb of God, art Thou That every knee to Thee should bow."

The disciples could not fail to realise that He was the Son of the Father. Our Lord spoke much of the Father. “I and My Father are One” (John 10:30), He affirmed, He was ever in communion with the Father. The Father was not the Son. The Son was not the Father. Yet, with the Spirit, they are ONE God, one in purpose, counsel, will, knowledge, movement. It is no wonder that one of the disciples, writing for the rest, could say, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Could love assure its objects of more? His love would impart to them the certainty of His own deepest joy, His Father's love as sure as His own; and so He closes His communication with it. "My Father Who hath given to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to seize out of the hand of My Father. I and the Father are one." Here we rise into that height of holy love and infinite power of which none could speak but the Son; and He speaks of the secrets of Godhead with the intimate familiarity proper to the Only-begotten Who is in the Father's bosom. He needed none to testify of man, for He knew what was in man, being Himself God; and He knew what was in God for the self-same reason. Heaven or earth made no difference, time or eternity. Not a creature is unapparent before Him, but all things are naked and laid bare in His eyes with Whom we have to do. And He declares that the Father Who had made the gift resists all that can threaten harm, and as He has given to Christ, so He is greater than all, and none can seize out of His hand. Indeed, the Son and the Father are one, not one Person (which ἐσμεν with every other Scripture bearing on it, refutes), but one thing, ἓν, one Divine nature or essence (as other Scriptures equally prove). The lowliest of men, the Shepherd of the sheep, He is the Son of the Father, true God and eternal life. And He and the Father are not more truly one in Divine essence than in the fellowship of Divine love for the sheep.

Let us weigh well the 30th verse. "I and the Father are one." It is "I" and the (not my) Father, not the Eternal Son and the Father, not the Word and the Father, but "I"—the One who stood before them—and the Father are one; not one in Person, but, as the neuter is used, one in essence, and primarily here, from the context, one in power and care of the sheep.

Who could separate here His divine and His human natures? How could He use the word "I" if there was not absolutely in Him an indivisible and abiding union of both natures in one Person—" God and man, one Christ?"

2nd. The Lord's words in Matthew speak of the Father as distinct from the Son, thus telling us of plurality of Persons in the Godhead, a truth indicated in the Old Testament (Gen. 19:24; Isaiah 48:16), and fully revealed in the New, wherein we are taught of their number and relative position to each other; viz., the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (Matt. 28:19). The Son is, and must as Son be, distinct from the Father, as the Lord told the Jews (John 8:16-18), and subsequently stated to His disciples, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and go to the Father" (16:28). His departure to the Father ought to have been a cause of rejoicing to them, for "My Father," He said, "is greater than I" (14:28). Yet it is also true that He and the Father are one (10:30).

In His last words with His disciples, before His suffering, as we have them in John, our Lord again speaks in the clearest way of Himself, of His Father, and of the Holy Spirit. Who that reads, for instance, in the 14th chapter of John of the coming of the Comforter and of the indwelling of the Father and of the Son, can doubt that our Lord gives us again a view of the trinity of divine Persons? These are but instances. The very fibre of the Gospel narrative is made up of truth as to the three blessed persons of the Godhead. We are at present, however, speaking merely of the fact of the Trinity, and confine ourselves to this.

Persons in the Godhead. — The Father's voice was heard in response to the request of His Son. Different Persons in the Godhead there are. In the Gospels that is made plain. At the Lord's baptism the three were distinguished. Here we have the Father and the Son. The multitude on this occasion were witnesses of the Father and the Son being distinct Persons. The voice of the former was heard. The latter interpreted its bearing. Public attestation, therefore, was given to the Son. He spoke. All could hear what He said. An answer came at once from heaven. The Father was taking note of that which was passing on this little globe, insignificant in size compared with those vaster heavenly bodies moving around us in space. The Father was near at hand. He answered at once. One God there is. There cannot be two supreme Beings. This was the mission of Judaism to maintain (Deut. 6:4). Three Persons there are in the Godhead, perfectly distinct from one another. This is part of the Christian man's creed to confess. And these are called in Scripture the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (Matt. 28:19).

When this Visitor from heaven was baptized by John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit descended and abode upon Him (John 1:32), and a voice from heaven said, "This is My beloved Son" (Matt. 3:17). Thus God is revealed to be Father, Son and Holy Spirit — relationships which were not revealed and therefore not understood before. Our Lord, however, constantly speaks of "the Father" and addressed Him as "My Father." He speaks of Him as One who has already been declared as the Father (see Matt. 11:25-26; Mark 13:32; Luke 9:26; John 4:23; 5:20, and many other places).

“ If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more, but ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him. Judas saith unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me. These things have I spoken unto you, being present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father, for My Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe ” (John 14:15-29).

Now, in agency God always acts communicatively by the Spirit. It is the way of the Spirit's glory, in which He is known as God, and in which God is glorified. Therefore I do not doubt, nay, we are told so, that the Spirit spoke in Jesus; that is, God spake in the Man by the Spirit. But it was the Godhead of the Son that dwelt personally in Jesus, or He would not have spoken the Father's words by the Spirit as a Man. If we do not see these things (always darkly, through our weakness and imbecility) we separate what cannot be separated, the Trinity. That Jesus was the Son of God, that the Father dwelt in Him did the works, and that Jesus spake by the Spirit without measure, are alike necessary truth; and one part would not be true without the other, cannot be separated, and one proves all, rightly understood (compare, too, chapter 3:13).