In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
We pray these words every day—they’re like second nature to us. But have all three parts of this Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—always existed?
Natalia in Rhode Island called Father Simon Says to ask: Before Jesus was born, were there only the Father and the Holy Spirit?
“No, no. When some people were questioning Him, Jesus said, ‘Before Abraham was born, I AM.’ You see, God never was, he just ‘AMs,’” chuckled Fr. Richard Simon.
So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” – John 8:58
God is timeless—all three persons of God have always existed. “When we say ‘before Jesus was born’, yeah Jesus was born in the flesh in His humanity—we call that the Incarnation. But He has always existed and lived outside of time and space.”
The nature of God is love, which is a simple explanation for the Holy Trinity, said Fr. Simon. He explained further, “God is love. Well who are you going to love if God is all alone? Well He loves us, yeah, but if we were all God had to love that would mean God would be dependent on us for His existence and He wouldn’t be God. No—eternally, timelessly, the first and second persons of the Trinity lived in perfect love and that perfect love is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.”
So there you have it… Christ, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, has always existed. Even before His Incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth, He existed outside of time with God the Father.
Tune in to Father Simon Says weekdays at 1-2pm CT only on Relevant Radio.
