Now we have come to the place in the Creed that begins to sum up in whole what it has shown us step-by-step: There is one God, in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Trinity.

Lesson from the Creed

Thus the Father is God,
the Son is God,
the Holy Spirit is God.
Yet there are not three gods;
there is but one God.

Athanasian Creed, Lines 15-16

Explanation from Scripture

Here it is best simply to look to Scripture more or less chronologically, to confirm that it does indeed explicitly teach what the Creed sums up here.

Of course, at this point, because we have seen over previous posts that a) the Father, Son, and Spirit are all described in Scripture as having the divine attributes of being uncreated, eternal, infinite, and almighty; yet b) they are distinct Persons; and c) Scripture affirms that God is one (Deuteronomy 6:4); we should already be sufficiently prejudiced in favor of the Trinity as the Creed confesses.

John 1:1, 14: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬, ‭14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). This takes us back to the Creation of the universe. The Son is God, yet is also distinct; for He is said to be both God and with God. Not two gods; but distinct Persons within the one God.

Genesis 1:26a: Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (NKJV). The one God speaks as a plurality of Persons. It has become fashionable in recent years to state that God was speaking to the “divine council” of heavenly beings. But this is nonsense, as humans are not created in the image of angels, but of God.

Isaiah 9:6: For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (NKJV‬‬). The Son is called Mighty God. When it calls Him Everlasting Father, this doesn’t mean that the Son and the Father are the same Person. Rather, because the world was created through the Son, and He upholds all things by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:2,3 NKJV), the Son is born the Source and Sustainer of life, and so He is as a Father to us. What is more essential to note is that He is Everlasting. The Son is eternal God.

Matthew 1:23: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us” (NKJV‬‬). The Son must be God to be God with us.

Matthew 28:19: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (NKJV‬‬). There is but one name—singular—into which we are baptized, for there is but one God. And yet the one God into whose Name we are baptized is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One God. Three Persons. Our very baptism preaches to us that the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. Yet there are not three gods; there is but one God, as the Creed teaches us to confess. To deny this is to deny our baptism.

John 10:30: I and My Father are one (NKJV‬‬). Christ is asserting both His equality and essential unity with the Father. But what He cannot mean is that the Father and the Son are interchangeable, or the same Person, since He prays to the Father, and speaks of Him as distinct from the Son. Thus, what our Lord is teaching is that the Son and the Father are equally God.

John 20:28: And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” (NKJV‬‬) Thomas called the resurrected Christ both Lord and God. Were the Son not God, He would have corrected Thomas. Thomas’ confession stands as a permanent testimony to the Son’s divinity.

Acts 5:3-4: But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God” (NKJV‬‬). Peter tells Ananias that lying to the Holy Spirit is lying to God. This can only be so if the Spirit is God.

Acts 20:28: Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood (NKJV‬‬). God is Spirit (John 4:24 NKJV), so as God, does not have blood, which belongs to the physical body. But Jesus Christ the Son shed His blood to redeem His Church. It can only be true that God purchased the Church with His own blood if the Son is God.

Romans 9:5: Of whom are the fathers, and of whom concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is God over all, blessed forever, Amen (1599 Geneva Bible). St. Paul expressly calls Christ God over all, blessed forever. The Son is eternal God.

1 Corinthians 2:10-11: But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (NKJV). No one is aware of your secret thoughts but you, unless you reveal them to another person. The Holy Spirit reveals the mind of God to us by illuminating our hearts and minds to receive the Gospel in faith. Just as a man knows what is in his own heart, and others do not unless he tells them; so the Holy Spirit is able to reveal the deep things of God, because He is God.

1 Corinthians 3:16: Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (NKJV‬‬) Believers are the temple of God. How does God dwell in this temple? By His Spirit. Thus, the Holy Spirit is God. Just as Christ could not be God with us (Matthew 1:23) if the Son were not God; God could not dwell in us by His Spirit were the Spirit not God.

1 Corinthians 6:19: Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (NKJV‬‬) The Holy Spirit is God, as we saw from 3:16. And here the Spirit is from God—so He is a distinct Person. Just as we saw from John 1 that the Son was with God and was God in eternity; so the Holy Spirit is God and is from God. Not another god, but a distinct Person in the Godhead. John is helpful here, too. In John 15:26, Christ says He sends the Spirit from the Father. Thus, to say the Spirit is from God is to say He is sent by the Son, from the Father. He is the Spirit of the Father (Matthew 10:20) and the Spirit of the Son (Galatians 4:6).

1 Corinthians 8:4: Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one (NKJV‬‬). We have so far seen St. Paul declare that both the Son and the Spirit are God. And here he says, there is no other God but one. Again, the Creed’s confession is confirmed: the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. Yet there are not three gods; there is but one God.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22: Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (‭NKJV‬‬). Here Paul is speaking of God the Father, who has established us in Christ and sealed us with the Holy Spirit. So we see the three Persons of the Trinity working together to secure our salvation. Now, if salvation belongs to the LORD (Psalm 3:8); and the Son and the Spirit save us together with the Father; then it necessarily follows that the Son and the Spirit are likewise LORD and God. For were they not, they could not effect our salvation.

2 Corinthians 3:17: Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (NKJV‬‬). Christ gives us liberty—liberating us from Satan, from the guilt and power of sin, from the fear of death, from the manmade precepts of the legalists—by giving us His own Holy Spirit, who illuminates us and guides us into all truth. Again, Son and Spirit effectually save believers, so they must be God, since salvation is of the LORD alone (Psalm 3:8).

Colossians 1:15-17: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist (NKJV‬‬). This passage speaks of the Son. When it says He is the firstborn over all creation, this does not mean He is a created being, for it then says all things were created by, through, and for Him. Firstborn speaks of His title as the heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2), which is fitting because they are all from Him. This is further clarified when it says: He is before all things. This is true both in terms of preeminence, because He is Lord and King and heir of all things; and chronology, because He is eternal. Genesis 1:1 of course says: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. If the Son is the agent of creation, He is God.

Colossians 2:9: For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (NKJV‬‬). Again, this is speaking of Christ, the Son. All the fullness of the Godhead can dwell in Him bodily, only if He is God.

1 Peter 1:2: elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (NKJV). Here we see that the Father foreknows and elects the saints; the Spirit sanctifies them; and the Son sprinkles them with His atoning blood when they obey His Gospel by believing in Him. Again, if salvation be of the LORD (Psalm 3:8); Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are necessarily Lord and God.

To sum up, all of the Scriptures, Old and New Testament alike, demand that we confess that the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. Yet there are not three gods; there is but one God. We don’t confess this just because the Creed tells us to; but because Scriptures command it. The Creed simply reminds us what is in the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints, which we are commanded to contend earnestly for (Jude 3 NKJV). Thus, to deny the Creed is actually to deny the faith once for all delivered.