One in Essence, Three in Person

Renewing Your Mind

Ligonier Ministries

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit really three distinct persons? Today, R.C. Sproul appeals to the language used by the ancient church to carefully explain the biblical doctrine of the Trinity.

For your donation of any amount, receive R.C. Sproul’s video teaching series The Mystery of the Trinity on DVD, together with lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide. We’ll also send you his book What Is the Trinity? https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/4241/donate

Live outside the U.S. and Canada? Get the digital teaching series, study guide, and ebook with your donation of any amount: https://www.renewingyourmind.org/global

Want to hear more teaching from Dr. Sproul? Three days a week, listen to brief moments of theological insight on Ultimately with R.C. Sproul: https://ultimatelypodcast.com/

Meet Today’s Teacher:

R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.

Meet the Host:

Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of media for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, and host of the Ask Ligonier podcast.

Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts

Transcript

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0:00.0	We say the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but we don't say that the Father
0:06.1	is the Son and the Son is the Holy Spirit or that the Holy Spirit is the Father.
0:16.5	It's vital that we get the doctrine of the Trinity right, because if we get it wrong,
0:22.6	we're getting God wrong. And as we've seen already this week, people throughout history
0:27.8	have got the doctrine of God, of Christ, and the Trinity wrong, and they've fallen into heresy.
0:34.5	This is the Wednesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm your host, Nathan W. Bingham.
0:40.9	Today we come to the final message that you'll hear this week from R.C. Sproles series,
0:46.3	The Mystery of the Trinity. But you can own the entire series on DVD,
0:52.0	receive digital access to the messages and study guide in the free Ligonier app,
0:57.2	and receive a copy of his title, What is the Trinity, when you give a donation at renewingermind.org,
1:03.6	before this offer ends at midnight tonight.
1:08.2	When we speak of the Trinity, we often say that God is one in essence and three in person.
1:14.8	But what do we mean by these terms?
1:16.9	Here's Dr. Sprold to explain and to conclude his series, The Mystery of the Trinity.
1:24.7	In our last session in our study of the Trinity, we looked at the difference between
1:29.3	contradictions and mysteries with specific reference to the formula for the Trinity that has
1:37.3	developed in church history. We saw the importance of precision in language that we capture the content of Scripture itself.
1:48.0	And in this final lecture, I want to look at some of the terms that are used historically
1:55.3	to articulate our confession of the Trinity.
2:00.3	Before I do that, let me turn your attention briefly to the
2:03.9	very first chapter of the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament, where we read these words in
2:12.0	verse one, God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets
	...

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