The Trinity

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily…Colossians 2:9

Paul used this same word, Godhead, in Romans 1:20: Even His eternal power and Godhead… It is a single Greek word, NT2320. The word appears only twice in the New Testament, in Romans 1:20 and Colossians 2:9. It means deity. Which is how the NIV reads, For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. Similar to the ESV and the NASB. However, Godhead in Romans 1:20 is translated as ‘divine nature’ in the NIV, the ESV, and the NASB. It appears both are correct: Godhead defines who God is, divine or deity. God is God. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are mad, even His eternal power and Godhead…Romans 1:20. The word “attributes” is in italics indicating it is inferred by the Greek word for “invisible”.

The word Godhead defines God who is triune in nature. God who is one is three; triune; a trinity. Some, who willingly accept the revelation as God as three in the creation account of Genesis, willfully reject the trinity because of the Shema. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength; Deuteronomy 6:4-5. The Hebrew word is often translated as ‘one.’ It is a word that carries the idea of oneness, as in one-of-a-kind, unified into one. In Genesis, God (Elohim, which is plural) created heaven and earth. The Spirit hovered as God spoke the world into existence. 

Jesus explains God to us. I and My Father are one, John 10:30.  If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our hove with him, John 14:23. Jesus taught us to pray to the Father. Then He said, If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it, John 14:13-14. To Philip Jesus said, He who has seen Me has seen the Father, John 14:9. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit, John 20:22.

For this reason, we believe in and teach the trinity. The Old Testament taught God is triune in the Law, in the Prophets and in the Writings (Psalms, etc.). The New Testament teaches God is three-in-one. By Jesus in the gospels, by Paul in the epistles. There are three distinct persons in our God who is One: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father is not the Son; nor is the Son the Father; neither the Father nor the Son is the Spirit. The Son was born of the virgin becoming flesh. Neither the Father nor the Spirit became flesh. They did not need to; Jesus did! For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, Colossians 2:9