In the preceding paragraph we twice used the word hypostases. This word requires further explanation. The singular form of the word is hypostasis. It is anglicized from the Greek. It is composed of two Greek words: hupo, a preposition that means under, and stasis, a word that means supports or stands forth. Hence, this word refers to a support under, a support beneath, that is, something underneath that supports. The Greek word hupostasis is used in 9:4 and 11:17. This word means the groundwork on which some superstructure is founded; hence, foundation, ground; thence, as in 9:4 and 11:17, confidence. If we have the proper groundwork or support underneath, we then can have confidence.
Some dictionaries associate the word hypostasis with the three Persons of the Trinity. This meaning of the word, given in certain dictionaries, is an interpretation. The word hypostasis does not mean person. But theologians have used it to refer to the three Persons of the Godhead, to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Actually, the Father, Son, and Spirit are three hypostases, that is, supporting substances of the Godhead. In other words, the Godhead is composed of the supporting substances of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This means that if these three hypostases were taken away, the Godhead would lose its substance.
Certain ancient teachers of the Bible used the word hypostases to refer to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Other theologians spoke of the three hypostases as denoting the three Persons of the Godhead. This use of the word person has led some into the error of tritheism, the doctrine that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three Gods. As we have pointed out a number of times, W. H. Griffith Thomas has said that we should not press the word person too far, lest we have the doctrine of tritheism. Thus, it is not entirely safe to use the word person in this way. Nevertheless, we may need to use it temporarily. For instance, we use it in one of our hymns (Hymns #608): “What mystery, the Father, Son, and Spirit, in Person three, in substance all are one.” But even if we use this term temporarily, we wish to make it emphatically clear that we have only one God, the unique God. Nevertheless, God is triune: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The term hypostases is an attempt to convey the truth of the three-one God.
Second Corinthians 13:14 is a strong proof that the trinity of the Godhead is not for the doctrinal understanding of systematic theology, but for the dispensing of God Himself in His trinity into His chosen and redeemed people. In the Bible the Trinity is never revealed merely as a doctrine. It is always revealed or mentioned in regard to the relationship of God with His creatures, especially with men created by Him, and even more with His chosen and redeemed people. The first divine title used in His divine revelation concerning His creation, Elohim in Hebrew, is plural in number (Gen. 1:1). This implies that He, as the Creator of the heavens and the earth for man, is triune. Concerning the creation of man in His own image, after His own likeness, He used the plural pronouns, “us” and “our,” referring to His trinity (Gen. 1:26) and implying that He would be one with man and express Himself through man in His trinity. Later, in Genesis 3:22 and 11:7 and Isaiah 6:8, He referred to Himself again and again as “us” concerning His relationship with man and His chosen people.
In order to redeem fallen man, that He might still have the position to be one with man, He became incarnated (John 1:1, 14) in the Son and through the Spirit (Luke 1:31-35) to be a man, and lived a human life on earth, also in the Son (Luke 2:49) and by the Spirit (Luke 4:1; Matt. 12:28). At the beginning of His ministry on earth, the Father anointed the Son with the Spirit (Matt. 3:16-17; Luke 4:18) for reaching men and bringing them back to Him. Just before He was crucified in the flesh and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), He unveiled His mysterious trinity to His disciples in plain words (John 14—17) stating that the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son (14:9-11), that the Spirit is the transfiguration of the Son (14:16-20), that the Three, coexisting and coinhering simultaneously, are abiding with the believers for their enjoyment (14:23; 16:7-10; 17:21-23), and that all the Father has is the Son’s, and all the Son possesses is received by the Spirit to be revealed to the believers (16:13-15). Such a Trinity is altogether related to the dispensing of the processed God into His believers (14:17, 20; 15:4-5), that they may be one in and with the Triune God (17:21-23).