is to say the persona, or mask, was a representation. Taking the Latin word in that

significance the three persons of the Godhead are three representations of the Godhead.

This same Latin word is used in modern psychology for `the aspect of the personality that

is presented to the outside world'. The persons of the "Trinity" are aspects of the

Godhead that are presented to the outside world. In other words the `persons' of the

Godhead are aspects of the One God by which He has chosen to present Himself and to

make Himself known.

This leads on to a further misunderstanding concerning the Father. It is generally

assumed that the Father is God in His totality: that while the Father is God, the Son and

the Holy Spirit, while equally God, are representations of the Father. But God is infinite:

when the full conception of God as Father has been exhausted, there must still be much

of God beyond. To put it another way, if God, in all His fullness is no more than Father,

then He is a Being with limits, He is not infinite. The Father is an aspect of the

personality of God, and it is a gracious condescension on His part to be known as

If God is God, infinite, infinitely greater than man, man can never get to know God by

searching, by his own effort. Zophar rightly said to Job (11: 7) "Canst thou by searching

find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?" It follows then that all

attempts to define the nature of God are doomed to failure: they cannot be `unto

perfection'. Man can only get to know God, as God is prepared to reveal Himself, and in

and on the terms He Himself lays down. The terms which He in His infinite wisdom has

laid down for us are those of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Why has He specifically

limited His self-revelation to these three aspect? Why should He not also reveal Himself

as "God our Mother"? A sermon was once preached on Isa. 49: 15 to show that this is

the case: but Isaiah does not say "God is Mother"; he takes maternal love to illustrate

the fact that the Love of God is far greater than that of even a nursing mother. We are

told that God is `like a shepherd', and so on. God knows human capacities far, far better

than we do: He knows what, and how many `aspects of His personality' we can best deal

with, with our very limited capacity for understanding, and has chosen these three aspects

as the ones best suited to be the means whereby He makes Himself known to us.

Moreover the Bible is very largely a Hebrew book, meant primarily for the Hebrew

mind. The Hebrew mind had little or no capacity for philosophical concepts, and there

are few if any such concepts in the Bible: it is all in picture language. Wisdom is

depicted in the book of Proverbs as a woman; God's love as exceeding that of a nursing

mother; His care for His People as the care of a shepherd for his own sheep. God has

`pictured' Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As we study these aspects of Himself,

which He has given to us, we get to know Him more and more, in the way He intends

that we should. Even so, this is beyond the full comprehension of the human mind--or

there would be no necessity for a study such as this! Nor would there be any difficulty

for us in understanding the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The concept of God as `Father' is a condescension on the part of the Almighty. He is

infinitely more than Father: if we could fully comprehend all that God as Father means,