Our Triune God

When reading 2 Corinthians 13:14, one may think that Christ is the only source of grace, God is the only source of love, and the Holy Spirit is the only source of fellowship, but nothing could be further from the truth.

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit work together for our salvation. Grace, love, and fellowship come not from only one but the Three Members of the Godhead. Yet, each One has specific functions in the history of salvation. Paul is aware of that and emphasizes this teaching in his letters. For instance, the plan of salvation is told with an incredible economy of words in Galatians 4:4–6, with the respective participation of the Three Members of the Godhead. God the Father sent Jesus, which suggests that the Father is the Source of that plan (Gal. 4:4). The Son was born of a woman (Gal. 4:4), which is a reference to the Incarnation and points to the fulfillment of an ancient promise (Gen. 3:15). The Son redeemed us and brought us back to the correct relationship with the Father, whom Satan had lied about (Gen. 3:5). And the Holy Spirit legitimizes our identity as children of God (Gal. 4:6).

There are several other references to the Trinity in the Pauline letters. The three act together, enabling the church for mission (1 Cor. 12:4–6), giving us spiritual strength (Eph. 3:14–19), and promoting a profound unity among church members, one that replicates the unity that marks the very relationship of the members of the Godhead (Eph. 4:4–6). In Paul’s understanding, not only is God triune, but also the three Persons of the Godhead work together for our salvation (Eph. 1:3, 13, 14). In Ephesians, Paul goes so far as to mention that we must be filled with the fullness of the Father (Eph. 3:19), the Son (Eph. 4:13), and the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18).

In bringing the correspondence with the Corinthians to a close (2 Cor. 13:14), Paul could not finish with a better ending—a promise that the three Dignitaries of the universe, the heavenly Trio, would be with us now and in the age to come.

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Additional Reading: Selected Quotes from Ellen G. White

The Father cannot be described by the things of earth. The Father is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and is invisible to mortal sight.The Son is all the fullness of the Godhead manifested. The Word of God declares Him to be “the express image of His person.” “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Here is shown the personality of the Father.
The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He ascended to heaven, is the Spirit in all the fullness of the Godhead, making manifest the power of divine grace to all who receive and believe in Christ as a personal Saviour. There are three living persons of the heavenly trio; in the name of these three great powers—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—those who receive Christ by living faith are baptized, and these powers will co-operate with the obedient subjects of heaven in their efforts to live the new life in Christ.
Christ is the pre-existent, self-existent Son of God. . . . In speaking of his pre-existence, Christ carries the mind back through dateless ages. He assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God. He to whose voice the Jews were then listening had been with God as one brought up with Him. . . .
Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived. “He that hath the Son hath life.” The divinity of Christ is the believer’s assurance of eternal life. . . .
The Holy Spirit is a person, for He beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. When this witness is borne, it carries with it its own evidence. At such times we believe and are sure that we are the children of God. . . .
The Holy Spirit has a personality, else He could not bear witness to our spirits and with our spirits that we are the children of God. He must also be a divine person, else He could not search out the secrets which lie hidden in the mind of God. “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” . . .
We are to co-operate with the three highest powers in heaven,—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,—and these powers will work through us, making us workers together with God.—Evangelism, pp. 614–617.