Today is the Feast of the Holy Trinity. So what? What has the Trinity got to do with our salvation? As we shall see, it has a great deal to do with our salvation. It is an important teaching of the Bible.
One of the problems that we sometimes encounter when we talk about the Trinity is that somebody will make the very true observation that neither the word "Trinity" nor the word "Triune" is in the Bible. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of words that Christians use that are not in the Bible. Many of these words are shortcuts that save us time when we talk to each other about the things of God.
For example: In a few minutes we are going to participate in one of the traditions of Trinity Sunday. We are going to read the Athanasian Creed. If we did not have words like "Trinity" and "Triune," we would have to recite that creed every time we wanted to talk about God. Can you imagine two theologians talking to each other, "Which god were you talking about again?" To which the other theologian would reply, "The God where the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three gods, but only one God; the Father is Eternal, the Son is Eternal, the Holy Spirit is Eternal, and yet there are not three eternals, but only one Eternal, and so forth."
After a while, one of the theologians would say something like this, "You know what? We need to have a shorter way to say all of that. By the time I get through identifying my God, I forgot what I was going to say about Him." Eventually, they would come up with the words "triune" and "trinity" just to save time.
Now, I have no idea exactly who came up with the word "trinity" and what the exact circumstances were when someone first used the word, but the word "trinity" does give a name to a teaching that is found in the Bible. So although the words "trinity" and "triune" are not found in the Bible, the teaching that they describe is an important teaching of the Bible.
We can learn something about what it means that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit from today's bible readings, but before we can completely understand today's Gospel, we need to visit a bush - a burning bush to be more precise.
One of the events that we associate with Moses is his encounter with a bush that was on fire, but did not burn up. It turned out that God used this burning bush to call Moses to lead the people out of Egypt. We often tend to forget that Moses did not want to follow God's call. Moses kept offering up excuses and God kept knocking them down. In the middle of this conversation, God told Moses His name. That part of the conversation goes like this: [Exodus 3:13-14] 13 Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" 14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.' " God's name translated into English is "I AM."
Now, in today's Gospel Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." Jesus is not using bad grammar here. Instead, He is saying, "I am the God who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush." This is not the kind of thing you say in a crowd of devout Jews in first century Israel. These are the kind of words that can get you killed. The last verse of the Gospel confirms this as it says, "So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple." These Jews were ready to stone Jesus for claiming to be God.
Jesus does not allow us to say that He is a good man, but not God. If anyone absolutely insists that Jesus is not God, then they must also insist that Jesus is a liar of the worst sort - a liar who claims to be God. If we insist that Jesus is a good man, then we are also saying that Jesus is God. Jesus insists that we must accept Him as God. AND … since He has risen from the dead as He promised, we can believe Him.
While it is proper to believe that Jesus is both God and man, there is more to it than that. Jesus not only claimed to be God, but He also spoke of God as His Father. In today's Gospel He also said, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, 'He is our God.'" So Jesus not only takes the name of God to Himself, but He also teaches that God is His Father. So now we have God the Father and God the Son.
Peter tells us about God the Holy Spirit in today's epistle. This reading comes from Peter's Pentecost sermon. Peter preached, "This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing." Here we see the Father exalting the Son and the Son pouring the Holy Spirit out on His church.
From this we learn that although no person in the Trinity is before or after another, they all have a role in our salvation. The Father sends the Son into the world, the Son redeems the world, and the Holy Spirit gives that redemption to the world through His gift of faith. The three persons of the one God work together in perfect harmony to bring salvation to us.
Without the salvation that the Triune God brings to us, we would all be lost. Each of us sins daily in thought, word, and deed. Instead of loving God above all things, we love ourselves above all things. Instead of honoring God's name with our mouths, we bring shame on it. Instead of eagerly and joyfully hungering for His word, we despise its teaching. Instead of honoring those in authority, we constantly try to find ways around that authority. While we may not draw blood, our unkind words and our hateful thoughts have murdered, never the less. As we confessed earlier in this service, we all deserve punishment here on earth and forever in hell.
Fortunately, we are not without the salvation that the Triune God brings to us. God the Father sent the Son into the world to take on our mortal flesh. God the Son not only took our human flesh to Himself, but He also took up our sin - all of it. The Son of God took our sin to the cross where He and the Father conducted a most terrifying transaction. In a way that we cannot understand, God the Father turned away from our sins in disgust. The result was so horrible that God the Son cried out from the cross, "My God! My God! Why have your forsaken Me?" What a terrible punishment that must have been that caused the Son to cry out in that way. How horrible it was for the Father to inflict such pain on His beloved Son in that way. That is the punishment that our savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God endured for us. By enduring that punishment for us, the Son of God made absolutely certain that we would never have to be punished in that way. God the Father gives us His grace for the sake of God the Son. With His sacrifice, God the Son earned forgiveness, life, and salvation for every man, woman, and child who has ever lived or ever will live.
That wonderful salvation will do us no good, however, if it is not delivered to us. That is the role of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings God's gifts to us. The Holy Spirit works through the Word of God to create and sustain faith in us. He does this as we read, hear, and study God's Word. He also does that through the wet word of Holy Baptism and the body and blood of our Lord that we receive with the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper.
Even people who do not believe have forgiveness set aside for them. It is on lay-away waiting for the day when the Holy Spirit brings their spirits to life and works faith in them. Then they too will experience the love of the Triune God. They too will look forward to the day when they see God face to face in heaven.
Those who reject faith and forgiveness until the day they die will never experience the sweet salvation that the Triune God has for us. That salvation will remain unused. They will not receive the benefits of the great love that God has for them. Instead, they will experience the full, dreadful terror that caused the Son of God to cry out on the cross. They will spend eternity paying for those sins in hell. They will not spend eternity in hell because God does not love them. They will spend eternity in hell because they utterly refused that love. They rejected the only gift that can save them.
We poor sinners who have been blessed with the gift of faith by the Holy Spirit will receive the gifts that only the Triune God can give - the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
We receive those gifts by:
God the Father's grace for:
God the Son's sake through:
God the Holy Spirit's gift of faith.
Amen
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