Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah: and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
- Deut. 6:4-5
It's important to note that, in this declaration of God's nature and our responsibility toward God, Moses is not saying to Israel, as the scriptures testify throughout, that there is only one God, and that that one God is Jehovah, or Yahweh. In this particular passage, Moses is not contradicting the polytheism of the surrounding nations and cultures by stating that there is only one God, for Moses didn't use the word "Yachead", in describing God's oneness, which is used for absolute mathematical or numerical singularity, such as in Genesis 22:2 where God says to Abraham, "Take now thy son, thine only (Yachead) son..."
Rather, Moses is conveying something of the innate nature of the one and only true God, and that is that He is a triune being. In describing Yahweh in this passage, Moses used the word "Echad", which is used in OT Hebrew to describe a collective unity, or a plural singularity, such as in Genesis 11: 6 which says, "And Jehovah said, Behold! The people is one (Echad) and they all have one language. And this they begin to do. And now nothing which they have imagined to do will be restrained from them." See also Gen. 2:24 for the usage of the same word to describe two persons becoming one (Echad).
Only the Christian doctrine of the trinity brings conformity and unity to the many passages of scripture over which Jews stumbled, or at least with which they struggled, until Jesus, the Son of God, who is God, who was with God, and who proceeded forth from God (John 1:1, 8:42), revealed to us the triune nature of the Godhead. It is a mystery hidden from the wise and prudent, but revealed to babes (Mat. 11:25), and though the doctrine of the trinity is so amply presented to us throughout the scripture, the minds of some men still stumble (see, for example, Isaiah 48:16, Luke 3:22, John 1 and 17, Col. 1, Acts 7:55-56, Php. 2:5-11, Rev. 5:6-9).
One man, of a bygone era, whose words still help those of child-like faith, once compared God to the sun. The blazing ball of fire that nothing could approach without being instantly consumed (our God is a consuming fire), represents the Father, upon whom no man can look (John 1:18). The light from the sun that lightens the Earth represents Jesus Christ the Son, who is "the light of the world" and the "radiance of God's glory", and the heat from the sun represents the Holy Spirit. Three unique essentials of the sun, from which all life springs, that represent three unique Persons in the one true God, our God who is Echad, who is one, and who is the source of all life.
The mystery of the trinity is profound, but a somewhat obscure passage in the OT gives us a glimpse into this mystery, and also into the past, revealing the nature of the triune God from the Earth's inception. This passage is found in Proverbs 8, where Wisdom is speaking, and as we know, Jesus is Wisdom (Luke 11:49, 1 Cor. 1:24 and 30). This passage shows His Sonship from the dawn of creation, and depicts Him as the Logos, by whom and for whom all things were created.
Proverbs 8
22 The Lord begot me [Ps. 2:7], the beginning of his works
[Rev. 3:14],
the forerunner [Heb. 6:21] of
his deeds of long ago;
23 From of old I was formed,
at the first, before the earth.
24 When there were no deeps I was brought forth [khool,
kheel: A
primitive root; properly to twist or whirl (in a circular or
spiral manner), that is, (specifically) to dance, to writhe in
pain (especially of parturition)],
when there were no fountains or springs of water;
25 Before the mountains were settled into place,
before the hills, I was brought forth [khool];
26 When the earth and the fields were not yet made,
nor the first clods of the world.
27 When he established the heavens, there was I,
when he marked out the vault over the face of the
deep;
28 When he made firm the skies above,
when he fixed fast the springs of the deep;
29 When he set for the sea its limit,
so that the waters should not transgress his
command;
When he fixed the
foundations of earth,
30 then was I beside him as artisan [John 1:1] [Artisan: the translation of the Hebrew word ’āmôn has been controverted since antiquity. There have been three main
opinions: (1) artisan; (2) trustworthy (friend); (3) ward, nursling. The most
likely explanation is that ’āmôn is artisan];
I was his delight day by day,
playing before him all the while,
31 Playing over the whole of his earth,
having my delight with human beings.
32 Now, children, listen to me;
happy are they who keep my ways.
33 Listen to instruction and grow wise,
do not reject it!
34 Happy the one who listens to me,
attending daily at my gates,
keeping watch at my doorposts;
35 For whoever finds me finds life [1 John 1:1],
and wins favor from the Lord;
36 But those who pass me by do violence to
themselves;
all who hate me love death.”
This passage in Proverbs gives us a glimpse into the past that reveals Jesus Christ being brought forth, or begotten of God as God's Son, preexisting His incarnation as Yahweh who revealed his glory to Isaiah, as it says in John 12:41, and who "emptied Himself" of that glory, "taking on the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men" (Phil. 2:5-8).
There are two words in the Greek for "word." One is Rhema, which strictly means "an utterance." The other is Logos, which means expression of thought, or communication of any kind, whether written or spoken communication, whether a thought, dream, an impression, a picture, or vision, etc. Logos is communication or expression. That's why Jesus is the Logos (John 1:1, 14, 1 John 1:1, 2). He is the communication or the expression of God Himself; the "exact representation of His being" (Heb. 1:3 NIV), the "image of the invisible God" whom no man has seen at any time (Col 1:15, John 1;18) yet declared to the patriarchs and prophets of old, who testified that they saw God (Ge. 18:22, 26:24, 32:20, Ex. 24:10, Is. 6:1, Dan. 3:25).
Before the universe existed, the three persons of the trinity existed eternally as one, in a community of persons, loving, living, thinking, communing, completely self-sustaining and self-sufficient. However, the heart of God longed to express Himself and to showcase the glory of The Son to and through man, so God expressed, or pressed out of Himself the Son, at the dawn of creation (Prov. 8:24). Jesus was in the bosom of the Father and "proceeded forth [ex-er'-khom-ahee] and came from God" (John 8:42) and was "with God and was God" (John 1:1, 10, Heb. 1:8). So God, the triune God, Yahweh, spoke the worlds into existence, through His only begotten Son (Heb. 1:2, Col. 1:13-18, 1 Cor. 8:6), by whom, and for whom, the universe was created, including His consummate creation, which was the man made in the image of God. Incidentally, the man made in God's image is also a triune being, as we see in 1 Thes. 5:23, Schofield's notes on the verse being excellent.
That is how Jesus could be "the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end", "everlasting Father", the "I AM" (before Abraham was, I AM), as well as "the first-born of creation." He is also the first-born of many brethren, who are destined to be the full expression of Jesus in the Earth, as Jesus rules the Earth through His body, his co-heirs, filling all and all, making us partakers of the divine nature, filling us with all the fullness of God, so that we will say in truth, as He is, so are we in the Earth. We are to be the full expression of Him who is the full expression of the Father. We are destined to fulfill His command to "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." We are to fulfill the great longing of the heart of God for which we, along with all of creation, exist, and for which Christ suffered and died, and that is to showcase the glory of His Son Jesus, and that, incidentally, as we all become one, a collective unity, even as Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Father are one, as a collective unity (John 15:26, 16:13-17, 17:11, 22, 23).
Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth [ex-er'-khom-ahee] and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
- John 8:42 (KJV)
The trinity is a great mystery, to be sure, but in speaking of His relationship to the Father, Jesus, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the father, and who shared in the Father's glory before the world was (John 1:18, 17:5), made the mystery simple enough for a child to understand. Jesus said, "I proceeded forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father" (John 16:28). Here, He made it all so simple that his disciples declared, "Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech!" (John 16:29 ESV).
There is no one verse of scripture that states outright that there is a trinity, for the scripture is replete with the self-evident revelation of the triune nature of God. Jesus declared Himself to be God, and as recorded in John chapters 14 through 17, He spoke of His relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit in such a way as to present the three persons of the trinity as both distinct, as well as unified in their purposes, endeavors, personalities, and even their wills. They are three and yet one. They are triune, or a unity of three. That is the one true God, our God who is one (Echad).
The Triune Nature of God and the Mystery of Three Series