How the Trinity Transforms Reading Scripture

On the road to Emmaus, the risen Jesus shows the two disciples, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets,” that the content of Scripture all points to him (Luke 24:25–27). All the law, the sacrifices, and the types point to Jesus.

Jesus had told the Jews in Jerusalem, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). We often assume that Scripture’s bearing witness to Jesus is restricted to content. This makes sense, but perhaps more is going on that can transform the way we read the Bible.

It is the way Scripture is given as revelation that points to Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, the only begotten. Let’s engage the doctrine of the Trinity to see how the eternal generation of the Son parallels the giving of Scripture. Once we grasp this, it will transform the way we read the Bible as the living Word of God (Heb. 4:12).

Scripture Is the Word of God in the Spirit

John 1:1 famously teaches, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John deliberately opens his Gospel with echoes of the Genesis 1 creation account. “In the beginning, God. . . . And God said . . .” (vv. 1, 3). When we compare these texts, it becomes clear that the Son is referred to as the Word of God because he is spoken eternally by the Father.

The Father speaks, and the Son is the Word spoken. But what about the Holy Spirit? The Spirit is there in Genesis 1, “hovering over the face of the waters” (v. 2). The Spirit’s involvement in creation is spelled out for us in Job 33:4 and Psalm 33:6. Both verses speak of the Spirit as the breath of God by which creation came into being. In other passages, like Ezekiel 37, John 3, and even John 20, the Spirit is compared to or referred to as the breath or wind.

When we piece all this together, we have vivid, biblical imagery that helps us understand the triune God. The Father is the Speaker, the Son is the Word spoken, and the Holy Spirit is the breath on which the Word is spoken. Many of the church fathers, men like Irenaeus of Lyon (ca. 130–202), Gregory of Nyssa (ca. 335–95), and John of Damascus (ca. 675–749), pick up on this imagery, but they all sound a note of caution not to push the characterization of the persons of the Trinity too far because of potential dangers.

We’ve seen that Scripture itself allows us to speak of the Trinity in this way, but it is only hinted at here and there. Like the church fathers, we need to follow Scripture with care.

The Son is eternally generated by the Father; he comes from the Father in a way that is like the family relationship, but there is no moment before the generation of the Son began, since this generation is without beginning or end. Hebrews 1:3 teaches that it is like the radiance of the sun and the sun itself. The Son is the radiance of the Father’s glory.

Scripture Is God-Breathed

How does all this relate to the way Scripture bears witness to Christ? The apostle Paul answers our question clearly: “All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16, NIV). The word…