Why Believing in the Trinity Makes Christmas Possible

Although the word Trinity isn’t found in Scripture, it’s essential for Christians to believe in it, especially at Christmas. Dismissing the Trinity takes away the reason we celebrate the birth of Jesus because, without it, there is no Salvation for humankind.

Isaiah 43:11 explains, “I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from Me there is no Savior.”

Tragically, some Christian churches are rejecting a belief in the Trinity, which is One Godhead with Three Persons consisting of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Some congregations are even attempting to change, rename, and reassign gender to the Trinity, referring to God as the mother, which leads to denying God as Father of the Savior of the world.

Furthermore, Muslims reject Christianity’s doctrine of the Trinity. Latter-Day Saints don’t believe in the traditional concept of the Trinity but rather believe there are three distinct gods united for one purpose. The Jewish community considers the Trinitarian doctrine heretical. Undoubtedly, it’s a hard concept for many to understand, and probably most of us aren’t able to fully comprehend it, but that’s where our faith and belief in God’s Word comes into action.

In John 14:11, Jesus urges, “Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.”

So what is the Trinity, and why does believing in it make Christmas possible?

What Is the Doctrine of the Trinity?

In AD 325, representatives of the early church met at the Council of Nicaea to defend the deity of Jesus in response to the Arian Controversy, being taught at the time by Church heretic Arius. He was teaching what the Jehovah’s Witnesses still teach today, that Jesus was an angel created by God the Father. The Council defined the Trinity as one God manifested in three persons, coequal, consubstantial, and coeternal, meaning the three persons known as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have always been, and will always be, God (coeternal; existing in a form or substance different from any created being such as an angel or human).

In part, the Nicene Creed reads, “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, the only begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth; Who for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; He suffered, and the third day He rose again, ascended into heaven; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”

Where Is the Concept of the Trinity in Scripture?

So if the word Trinity isn’t actually in the Bible, where do we find evidence of it in God’s Word concerning the Godhead, three in one? The answer begins at the very beginning of the Bible.

Genesis 1:26 describes the setting. “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Colossians 1:19 describes further, “For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him.” In John 10:30, Jesus tells us in His own words, “I and the Father are one.”

After saying this, the people started to stone Jesus, who asked them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me?”(John 10:32) 

“'We are not stoning You for any good work,’ they replied, ‘but for blasphemy, because You, a mere man, claim to be God’” (John 10:33).

Claiming to be God is why Jesus was arrested and crucified. He was charged with blasphemy because He would not deny His deity. Also, there is the Holy Spirit, as 2 Corinthians 3:17 describes. “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” As Jesus explains in John 14:26, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

Why Is the Trinity Important to the Birth of Jesus?

Most of us know the biblical story of how Eve was tempted by the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit, then passed it on to Adam to eat (Genesis 3:6). Still, Scripture ascribes the first act of sinning to the man, not the woman.

Romans 5:12 explains, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.”

Man carries the responsibility for original sin, the first sinful act against God. Sin is passed on to all his offspring through his bloodline. No one else could die for us because all fully human individuals are born in sin, except for Jesus because His Father is sinless, perfect God. Because a man passes sin down through his bloodline, a human man could not father a sinless Savior. Still, Jesus could be born through Mary, a virgin, conceived through the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High.

How Does the Trinity Explain Jesus Being Born Sinless?

So how was it possible for Jesus to be born sinless? As the angel Gabriel told Mary in Luke 1:31, “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call Him Jesus.” 

To Mary as a virgin, it seemed impossible as she didn’t know how conception without a human man could be possible, asking, “’How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’”(Luke 1:34).

Yet God had a plan, and Luke 1:35 explains, “The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.’”

1 John 3:5 describes how only a sinless Savior could save us from our sins. “But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins. And in Him is no sin.”

What Does the Trinity Reveal about God?

1 John 4:8 reveals to us that God is love. And love is the reason God gave us Jesus. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Jesus is God’s perfect, sinless Christmas gift to us, His gift to wash away our sins and give us eternal life. God sent Him to accomplish His will on earth. Jesus told us, “For I have come down from heaven not to do My will but to do the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38).

Jesus accomplished God’s will on earth. “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). 

How Did the Trinity Support Jesus Accomplishing God’s Will?

Philippians 2:6-11 describes how Jesus humbly accomplished God’s will on earth, how He glorified Him, and His place in Heaven and on earth.

“Who, 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.

And being found in appearance as a man,
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 acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”

Why Is the Trinity Essential to Christmas?

Believing in the Trinity makes Christmas possible, supporting God’s gift of Salvation to the world. It explains how a heavenly loving Father sent His only, perfect, sinless Son to be with us; who died, was resurrected, and ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19) so that we might receive the gift of eternal life and the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit to live within us. The Trinity made it possible for God to be with us. “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel (which means ‘God with us’)” (Matthew 1:23).

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Lynette Kittle is married with four daughters. She enjoys writing about faith, marriage, parenting, relationships, and life. Her writing has been published by Focus on the Family, Decision, Today’s Christian Woman, kirkcameron.com, Ungrind.org, StartMarriageRight.com, and more. She has a M.A. in Communication from Regent University and serves as associate producer for Soul Check TV.