Q. How many persons are there in the Godhead?
A. There are three subsistences in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one God, the same in essence, equal in power and glory.
Commentary
Here the catechism sets before us the central mystery of the Christian faith: the holy Trinity. Within the one divine Being there are three subsistences: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The word subsistences is used in place of the more common persons, following the language of the Confession (2.3), because person can wrongly suggest three separate individuals or three centers of human-like personality. Subsistence more carefully names the three eternal distinctions within the single, undivided essence of God. We do not worship three gods, nor one God wearing three masks in turn, but one God who eternally exists as Father, Son, and Spirit.
The three are one God, the same in essence, equal in power and glory. They are not three parts of God, nor three degrees of divinity, as though the Father were more God than the Son or the Spirit less than both. Each subsistence possesses the whole divine essence; each is fully and equally God. Scripture bears witness to this throughout. The Son declares, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30); to lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie not to man “but to God” (Acts 5:4); and believers are baptized into the one name “of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). The subsistences are distinguished by their eternal relations (the Father unbegotten, the Son eternally begotten, the Spirit proceeding), yet never divided in being.
This doctrine is no speculative riddle to be set aside for practical religion; it is the very foundation of all our communion with God. We are saved by the Father who elects, the Son who redeems, and the Spirit who applies that redemption to the heart, so that to pray, to worship, and to be saved is to be drawn into fellowship with the triune God. Though the Trinity exceeds the grasp of finite reason, it is not against reason, and the humble believer adores what he cannot fully comprehend. Here the soul learns to bow, confessing with the church of every age one God in three subsistences, blessed forever.
Scripture Proofs
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
“I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).
“Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”?’” (John 14:9).
“But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God’” (Acts 5:3–4).
“Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Corinthians 8:6).
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689
2.3: In this divine and infinite Being there are three subsistences, the Father, the Word or Son, and Holy Spirit, of one substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided: the Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son; all infinite, without beginning, therefore but one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties and personal relations; which doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God, and comfortable dependence on Him.