Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 25:4 (Autumn 2011)
Article: An Evangelical Statement on the Trinity
Author: Stanley N. Gundry

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PP 25:4 (Autumn 2011) p. 12

An Evangelical Statement on the Trinity

Stanley N. Gundry

Stan Gundry is Executive Vice President and Editor-in-Chief for the Zondervan Corporation. He has served as a pastor and taught Bible, theology, and church history at Moody Bible Institute and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Stan served as president of the Evangelical Theological Society and on its executive committee as well as serving on the CBE Board, for a time as co-chair. Currently, he is also Adjunct Professor of Historical Theology at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. He has published seven books and many articles.

We confess the one true and living God, Creator of everything and Ruler over the entire creation. He has uniquely revealed himself in the living Word, Jesus Christ, and in the written Word, the Bible, as One Triune God—three coeternal and coequal Persons. Each Person is distinct, yet there is only one essence or Being who is God, not three separate Gods. Each Person of the One Triune God shares equally in honor, glory, worship, power, authority, and rank. The Bible never suggests that any one Person of the Trinity has eternal superiority or authority over the others, or that one is in eternal subordination to another. The Son’s submission and obedience to the Father were voluntary and related specifically to the time during which he humbled himself, took on human nature, and dwelled among us as a servant.

The biblical1 testimony

Isaiah prophesied, and it was fulfilled through Mary, that a virgin would conceive and give birth to a son whose name would be Immanuel, which means “God with us.” This son was also given the name Jesus, meaning “the Lord saves” (Isa 7:14; Matt 1:20-23).

Jesus, the eternal Word, already existed in the beginning. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” This same Word “became flesh” in the person of Jesus and “made his dwelling among us.” In the incarnate Word, humankind saw the “glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father” (John 1:1-14).

Christ Jesus, “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness… . He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue a...

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