Trinity: same or separate?
Q: If God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit (ie trinity) - are they the same person or three separate beings which form one person?
neither 'same' nor 'separate'
A: This gets right to the heart of the Christian faith. And it's not easy to understand - God is infinite, and we're finite, so we'll never plumb the depths of everything there is to know about him. But the New Testament does give us a clear answer - John's gospel especially. It's worth making the time to read what John chs. 14-17 have to say.
more »The problem comes with the words 'same' and 'separate' - neither of these is right. Father, Son and Spirit are distinct persons - they are distinct centres of consciousness (loving, willing, acting, knowing). But they coexist together - their unity is so tight that they dwell in one another, and act in harmony with one another. They are both "three persons" and yet "one God".
[To put it another way: 'same' implies they aren't distinct; 'separate' implies they aren't united in that tight way the Bible describes. Neither is true.]
Three important things follow from this:
1) When you read the pages of the New Testament and come to understand more and more of who Christ is, you can be sure that you are also coming to understand who God the Father is (e.g. John 1:18, John 14:9);
2) Christ is the only person who can bring us human beings into relationship with the Father, since he is the only person who is both fully human (as we are) and fully God (as the Father is);
3) If you do have that relationship with the Father, then you have all of God living within you (John 14:23, Romans 5:5) and you live in God (John 17:21) - isn't that amazing!
{adapted|from an answer by JHH}
See also: