Understanding the trinity is no small thing. It
took the church almost 400 years (and several
heresies) to be able to come to an agreement
as to what is meant by God - the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit. So this answer may take some
rereadng to fully understand. I would also
encourage you to read and reflect on the bible
passages.


The Jews wanted to stone Jesus because he
‘being a man’, claimed he was God ( John
10:33 ). Jesus doesn’t dispute that he is a
man, and both he and the Jews are talking
about God as a third party. He says he is the
Son of this God, they say that’s blasphemy.
Jesus has just said, ‘I and the Father are
one’ (in John 10:30 ). But he doesn’t say ‘I am
the Father.’


The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the
Father ( John 10:38 ), but they relate to each
other - they are not ‘the same’. John 1:1 says,
‘The Word was with God’ (distinction), ‘ and the
Word was God’. We can’t say, ‘The Son is the
Father’, but we can say ‘the Son and the Father
are One’. They are not one Son, or one Father,
but One God. They relate to each other by the
Holy Spirit.


They relate eternally and perfectly - they are
always relating, and are never separate. The
three ‘persons’ of the Trinity (the ‘threeness’)
are not separate. But they are always Father,
Son and Spirit, because they are always relating
as the Father, the Son and the Spirit. So
although the three persons are not separate,
they are distinct. They are not ‘the same’.
They never act separately - For example, God is
active in creation, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
(For references, see:
Genesis 1:1 , Deuteronomy 32:6 and Malachi
2:10 for the Father;
Colossians 1:15-17 or Psalm 33:6 for the Son
(or the Word);
and Psalm 33:6 or Psalm 104:30 for the Holy
Spirit. )


But they act distinctly . For instance when the
Son becomes a man, in the ‘incarnation’, the
Father sends the Son in the power of the
Spirit. The Son is incarnate, the Father isn’t,
the Spirit isn’t. But we can still say ‘God is
incarnate’.


Plus, we never see/hear/interact with one
separately - you’re relating to them all. When
you have God’s Holy Spirit living in you, he is
the Spirit of the Father and the Son (‘God’ and
‘Christ’ in the words that Romans 8:9 uses), so
the Father and the Son live in you ( John
14:23 ). Jesus Christ, God the Son, is in you
by His Spirit, and God the Father is in you by
His Spirit. The same Spirit, but again, Jesus is
not the Father.


By the way, that was why the Old Testament
prophets could say “The LORD says”: because
God lived in them and spoke through them. It
means we can trust their words, and Jesus’
words - in fact the whole message of the Bible
- as being the word of God, not just of human
beings (see 1 Thessalonians 2:13 ).


culled from www.christianity.net.au/questions/what_is_the_relationship_between_the_father_son_and_holy_spirit