¹⁶ “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever …”

New presence, in light of Jesus’ imminent departure, will enable the disciples to carry on the mission, to carry the good news to all the world. This Upper Room teaching is dense with meaning, promise and encouragement. Now for the first time Jesus tells of the provision that will be given them, something far better than having His physical presence with them.

Of particular interest is that we are beginning to see the intimacy of familial communication in the Trinity. The mystery is displayed, but the depths are unfathomable. Here we have God the Son talking with God the Father. Both are equally God, yet there is no thought of jettisoning the disiples’ monotheistic belief. Yet why would God have a need to talk with Himself, so to speak? At this point, we beg limited, finite understanding of exactly how the idea of the trinity can possibly be true. Faith in Christ, though, compels us to embrace this mystery. There is one God, who exists in three persons, without negating the truth of monotheism. He exists in community within Himself. The Scripture shows us Jesus who presented Himself as God, whom the disciples came to believe was God, and whom the rest of the NT teaches is God.

Church history reveals that the nature of Jesus’ identification as God consumed much theological debate and resulted in great councils to deal with the matter. There were, for example, the Nestorians, who separated out the divine nature of Christ from the human nature of Jesus. The modalists taught that God was one distinct, divine person who appeared in different forms. Adoptionism held the belief that Jesus was an ordinary man, who became God.

The Nicene Council in A.D. 325 settled the matter of belief, though not the reality of the truth. The decision, as reflected in the Nicene Creed, states that “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made … And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father [and the Son]; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.” This creed did not make these things so, but revealed that although the word “trinity” does not occur in the Bible, the Scripture does indeed teach this truth.

Lord, I believe in You, One God in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.