The idea that God is three persons in one Godhead is called the “Trinity.” This idea is hinted at throughout the Old Testament: For example, in the first sentence of the Bible (“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”), the word for God is a plural form that implies a singularity. For another example, in Daniel 3:25, the fourth man in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego is fairly obviously a pre-incarnate Jesus described as having a form “like the son of God.” In the New Testament, the three persons in the Godhead are clearly laid out as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).

The idea of the Trinity is thus fundamentally correct. But how does this work? Well let’s return to Genesis 1. The second sentence reads, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

The Hebrew word for “Spirit” is rûaḥ, which literally means “wind” but in this context is an idiomatic term used to refer to someone’s breath (sit quietly in a room for a minute or two, breathing steadily in and out, and you will see how the Hebrews connected the idea of wind to breath, once again illustrating how extremely literal they were).

When referencing the breath of God, as in Genesis 1:2 and Genesis 6:3, the Bible is clearly referring to the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity. However, we should pause before jumping to an abstraction like the idea of a “spirit” too quickly. I would propose instead that God is so complex in His divinity that His very Breath is conscious and divine.

Now, the New Testament, written in a Gentile language (Greek) and directed as much towards members of Gentile nations under the control of Rome as toward Jews, is more abstract in its language. The Greek word for breath is “pneuma,” which is almost always translated “spirit.” Indeed, “pneuma” is often not used for literal breath, instead referring to the innate animating force inside of a person. And this makes sense: whatever is alive inside of us keeps us breathing, and when we stop breathing, we die.

This means that the Holy Spirit is indeed the Breath of God but is also metaphorically the animating life force of God. That is why God breathed on the earth before He began creating: He was breathing life into a world that did not yet have life. Note that there is an unbreakable connection between the literal and the abstract here: The Bible does not intend us to say that God has a figurative spirit but not literal breath. They are intertwined.

Similarly, the second member of the Trinity is the Word of God, by which God in His “speaking” created everything in the beginning (Colossians 1:16; Genesis 1 throughout). Hence, the creation account depicts a God who has a divinely conscious Word and Breath using both to form and populate the earth. Something similar is seen in Luke 1:35, where the Holy Spirit comes upon Mary, enabling God to use His power to form the Son of God (Word) in her womb.

Now, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is often referred to by Christians as “eternally begotten” or “born of the Father before all ages” (as in the Nicene Creed), but Psalm 2:7 (referenced in Acts 13:33, Hebrews 1:5, and Hebrews 5:5) very clearly says “You are My Son, Today I have begotten you.” I would put forth that prior to the incarnation, the Word of God was not the Son of God (or at least, not in the same sense as after the incarnation, although hints of His coming sonship are provided in Daniel 3:25, 8:11, 8:25, 9:25, 10:13, 10:21, and 12:1).

Instead, as the Word of God, He was with God before the beginning of the world (John 17:5), and He appears throughout the Old Testament as “the Angel of the Lord” (not an angel of the Lord), where He takes on the appearance of a man to do work on God’s behalf and also functions as God’s “archangel,” i.e., the leader of God’s angelic armies (Matthew 26:53), whose angelic name is Michael. Then, when the Word became flesh (John 1:14), He was at that moment begotten of the Father (God) as the Son of God, the man Jesus of Nazareth, who had the role of Messiah for mankind. Once He was begotten, He became a Son and God became a Father.

[If this seems unorthodox, feel free to submit a form letting me know why. I’m happy to adapt this view based on evidence in Scripture.]

Now, John 1:1 makes a very interesting claim: in the beginning, the Word of God was with God, and the Word was God. Christians tend to focus on the latter half, rightly pointing out that the Word (like the Spirit) is divine in nature and origin, an essential component of who God is. However, John 1:1 also states clearly that the Word was “with” God, thus implying a distinction between them.

The reason why is that God the Father is the God of the Bible. When Jesus instructs His followers to worship God, He doesn’t mean Himself, He means His Father (note that the Lord’s Prayer is directed to the Father – Matthew 6:9, Luke 11:2). We come to the Father through Jesus (John 14:6), who is indeed God in nature (John 20:28), but He is God because He is the divine Word of God the Father. This is why Jesus is said to do nothing on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing (John 5:19), and why He even admits to not being omniscient (Mark 13:32). It is also why Jesus says that the Father is greater than He is (John 14:28).

Similarly, the Holy Spirit is shown to have a subservient relationship to the Father (John 16:13). Thus, all three members of the Trinity are God to us (which is why it is natural and appropriate to worship the Son and the Spirit when we worship the Father), but to the Father, the Son and Spirit are the two divine instruments of His will, each with a unique personhood and personality, who serve the Father in perfect love. This is confirmed in 2 Corinthians 13:14, where, in a reference to the Trinity, Paul refers to the Father as just “God.”

Note that God has given both the Son and the Spirit as helpers to us (the same Greek word “Paraclete” is used for both Jesus in 1 John 2:1 and the Holy Spirit in John 14:26), that we may thrive in the faith.