Brief Reminder on the Law of Noncontradiction
Is the doctrine of the Trinity a contradiction? How can God be both one and three? Likewise, is the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ a contradiction? How can Jesus be both God and man?
These alleged contradictions are easily resolved when one actually defines the law of noncontradiction properly. The law of noncontradiction is often stated as the following:
X cannot be both Y and not Y.
If this were indeed the law of noncontradiction, then critics would be right to assert that essential Christian doctrines such as the Trinity and the hypostatic union are contradictions. God could not be both one and not one (three). Jesus Christ could not be both God and not God (man).
However, the above definition is not the law of noncontradiction properly defined; the law properly defined is as follows:
X cannot be both Y and not Y in the same sense or at the same time.
It is true that God is both one and three at the same time, but God is not both one and three in the same sense. It would be a contradiction to say something like God is both one in essence and three in essence, or to say that God is both three in person and one in person. But the doctrine of the Trinity properly stated is that God is both one in essence and three in person.
Likewise, it is true that Jesus Christ is both God and not God (man) at the same time, but Jesus Christ is not both God and man in the same sense. We do not confess that He has one nature that is both truly God and truly man but rather that He has two natures: a divine nature and a human nature.
Familiarize yourself with this basic law of logic so that you may recognize when it is misstated and/or misapplied.