Argument for the Trinity #4: The Deity of the Persons – Section 1: The Father and the Spirit

Now we come to the third major definitional truth of the Trinity, and it is this: The Scriptures teach that the Father is God, that the Son is God, and that the Holy Spirit is God. This is a teaching about both the identity of the Persons and the nature of the Persons. In other words, there are passages that identify each person with God, and there are passages that teach about the nature of the Persons and teach that nature to be Deity, that which makes God to be God.

I will begin this topic by discussing how the Father and the Spirit are God. Since I know of no groups that claim to follow the Bible who deny the Father is God, and the ones who deny the Spirit is God do so by either denying He is a Person or by saying He is a separate god entirely, I won’t need much space here for those things. I’ve addressed the personhood of the Spirit already. We will then spend the majority of our time on Jesus. We will do this for two reasons. First, because this is where the real controversy lies on this biblical teaching, but also because this is a subject that is full of dramatic and diverse lines of evidence for its truth. I believe it is true that the Scriptures attest to the deity of Christ in more ways than even the Deity of the Father specifically. The sheer amount of evidence may require two articles just to outline that evidence.

The Deity of the Father and the Spirit

Let’s look at a little Scripture to fairly conclusively show that the Father and the Spirit are identified as God.

The Father

1 Corinthians 8:6

yet to us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we are for him, and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things , and we are through him.

Galatians 1:1

Paul, an apostle not from men nor by men but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead

The Holy Spirit

Acts 5:3-4

3 But Peter said, “Ananias, for what reason has Satan filled your heart, that you lied to the Holy Spirit and kept back for yourself some of the proceeds of the piece of land? 4 When it remained to you, did it not remain yours? And when it was sold, was it at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to people, but to God!”

Hebrews 9:14

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve the living God?

Only God is eternal, and since the Holy Spirit is a Person, the Holy Spirit must be God. Again, the Father’s deity is rather uncontroversial, and the only reason the Spirit’s is is for those who deny He is a Person, and I’ve already argued that point elsewhere.

In the next article, I will explore the various ways that Jesus is said to be God.

• Called “God”
• Has “Yahweh” passages applied to Him
• Exercises God’s authority
• Jesus is Creator
• Jesus does the other works of God
• Jesus is worshiped/honored like God
• The “I am” statements in John
• Jesus has all the attributes of God
• Has divine titles that are explicitly made exclusive to God applied to Him
• Has divine titles that are only applied to God applied to Him

These I will explore in the next three articles.