Since there are theologians who spend their entire careers studying the Trinity, I dare offer the following only as a thought experiment in Johannine theology. It is, however, one that helps me to relate to the One God in Three Persons.
Whoever has seen Jesus, has seen the Father (John 1:18; 14:7).
Whatever Jesus hears from the Father, he reveals to his own (John 15:15); whatever the Spirit hears, he reveals, revealing Jesus (16:13). One cannot have the Son without the Father or the Father without the Son (1 John 2:23). Through the Spirit, we experience the Father and the Son (John 14:23). Old Testament passages about YHWH (e.g., Isa 25:8; 49:10) are applied to both the Father and the lamb (e.g., Rev 7:16-17).
Rather than picturing this as three persons side by side, to whom we relate in succession, I picture this more like three figures, one in front of the other, but transparent so that seeing one reveals to us the other. Although they are distinct persons, in prayer we relate to them together. As we pray in Jesus’s name, we pray through him to the Father. But we cannot truly invoke any member of the Trinity without implicitly relating to them all.
