The Holy Trinity
(B)
May 30, 2021
Text: John 3:1-17
“Therefore,
whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the Trinity.”[1] How must we think? The Athanasian Creed places very rich
theological language on our lips and in our minds, and hopefully in our hearts,
as we speak about the Trinity. And this
is good. An article of faith as sublime
and mysterious as the Triune God should be clothed in the very highest and most
precise language. But it can and should
also be boiled down quite simply, in such a way that our young children can
understand. There is one God. He is the only true God. And this one God is three Persons, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Each Person is His
own, and not the other. The Father is
not the Son. The Son is not the Holy
Spirit, etc. But they are one God. Three in One.
One in Three. And beyond that, we
can’t really understand it. And we
shouldn’t use things like eggs or apples to explain it, because those
illustrations will quickly lead us into heresy, and for that, see the popular Lutheran
Satire video, “St. Patrick’s Bad Analogies.” The issue is, when you think you’ve stumbled
on a way to comprehend how God can be One, but also Three, you’ve gone off the
road. This is an incomprehensible
mystery. The Athanasian Creed does not
aim to explain the Trinity in such a way that you can grasp all
the intricacies of the what and the how.
It simply confesses, in very precise terms, the biblical truth as
God has revealed Himself to us. It sets
God before our eyes as the object of our faith and adoration.
So
whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the Trinity. This bothers a lot of people, because they
think it means you have to have an advanced intellectual handle on Trinitarian
theology in order to be saved, as though God is going to administer an academic
test before He lets you into heaven. But
that is not what the Creed says, and frankly, it is your own self-devised hang
up. What the Creed is actually saying is
that this is the God who alone saves.
This is the God in whom we believe and whom we worship, the One who is
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And there
is no other God. If you confess a
different god than this One, you cannot be saved. Look, we confess that even infants can have
faith in this God and so be saved, so we aren’t talking about an intellectual
exercise. We’re talking about having and
believing in the right God, the only God, the one true God. In other words, the Creed is an extended
commentary on the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods.” It isn’t politically correct to say, but it
is nevertheless true: Any god who isn’t Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is not
God!
“But
it is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe the
incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, it is the right faith that we believe and confess that our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at the same time both God and man.” A lot of people are bothered about this for
the same reason they are bothered about the Trinity. But again, the answer is the same. This isn’t an intellectual exercise or a
theological examination administered before entry into Paradise. It can be said quite simply for the sake of
our young children. Jesus is the Son of
God from all eternity. But He became a
man in Mary’s womb, and was born from her, so that He could grow up and die for
our sins, and then be raised as a man, with a human body, so that on the Last
Day He can raise us from the dead in our bodies. And what the Creed is saying is that this
is the Jesus who alone saves. This is
the Jesus in whom we believe and whom we worship, the One who is the eternal Son
of the Father, true God, but also true man, born in time of the Virgin Mary,
who was crucified, dead and buried, and is now risen from the dead. There is no other Savior. If you confess a different savior than this
One, you cannot be saved.
And
of course, in both cases, we understand, and the Church has always understood,
that some people will have a deeper command of these statements than
others. Some will know the Athanasian
Creed by heart (yes, believe it or not, there are some here this morning, though
to my shame, I am not one of them, who know the Creed word for word). There are others who cannot yet, or maybe
ever, grasp the high language of this Confession. Certainly the youngest of our children
cannot. Okay. That does not mean they are not confessors of
this faith, this God, this Jesus. Because this is the faith, this
is the Name, this is the God and the Savior into which they, and you,
are baptized. They are born
into it. And then they grow into
it. Just as a babe in arms, or even a
baby in the womb, knows, believes, and trusts in Mom, without any ability to
intellectually comprehend her or confess her; so the Christian who is baptized
into Christ, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
knows, believes, and trusts in Him. And
just as that baby grows to know Mom deeper, and in relationship to her, and
begins to form the word “Mom,” and then to know all kinds of things about her;
so the Christian grows from birth in Baptism to know God deeper, and in
relationship to Him, and begins to know and say things about Him that are
revealed in His Word. This is just a
summary of what Jesus says right before His ascension into heaven: “Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that
I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20; ESV). Baptize and teach. Teach and baptize. The two always go together. Birth and growth. Faith seeking understanding. Baptized into our Triune God and growing in
relationship to Him. Baptized into the
faith of the Creed and growing in understanding of it. And it should be said, because of your finite
and fallen mortal mind, you will never understand it as you should, until
you see with your own eyes the God whom you here confess.
This
is the God, the only One, who loved the world in such a manner that He
sent His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish,
but have eternal life (John 3:16). This
is the Savior, the only One, the eternal Son of the Father, who came in
the flesh, not to condemn the world, but in order that the world be saved
through Him (v. 17). This is the
Spirit, the only One, sent from the Father, through the Son, who blows
where He wishes, and though you do not see Him, you hear His sound
through His Word (v. 8). It is this
Spirit who hovers over the waters to take what is formless and void and give it
shape and fill it (Gen. 1:2). That is to
say, you, as you are born of water and the Spirit, for unless one is
born anew, of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God (John
3:3, 5).
Now,
like Nicodemus, you hear the Creed, and you say, “How can these things be?”
(v. 9). It is always the temptation to
be the teacher of Israel in such a way that you set yourself up as judge over
God’s doctrine. The only answer for that
is to listen to Jesus and get over yourself. Or the biblical word is, repent.
The
Creed is not given to be an exercise in how you’re more orthodox than the holy
fathers of the Church who composed it.
It is given to you as a gift.
The God in whom you believe, the Jesus who saves you… this confession
teaches you about Him and gives you words to say about Him, words that are
drawn directly from God’s own revelation of Himself in Holy Scripture. You should always fear to set yourself up as
judge over the ancient and well attested teachers of the Church. It can be done, and it is sometimes necessary. The Reformation, for example, comes to
mind. But it should not be done as a
cavalier matter of opinion or taste. You
should never simply say, “I don’t like that Creed, or hymn, or liturgical
element, or tradition, or Church Father.”
A little humility goes a long way, and the burden of proof is on
you. Don’t become a teacher too
quickly. Be taught. Be formed.
This Creed does that for you as it preaches the one true God. The Spirit is blowing. Don’t shut the window.
“This
is the catholic faith,” and I know that word bothers you, but that ought to be
the least of your worries. Surely you
know by now that word does not mean “Roman Catholic.” It is a Greek word that means “according to
the whole,” as in “according to the whole doctrine believed by the whole
Christian Church, at all times, and everywhere.” That is what the Creed confesses, and in that
sense, this is a very Lutheran word.
Don’t let Rome keep everything good to itself.
The
more serious objection is to the bit about deeds at the end, but this shouldn’t
bother you, either, because it simply says what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 25
about the sheep and the goats, and the answer to the objection is the same in
both cases: Only those who have this God as their God, who are justified
by grace alone, through faith alone, in this Christ whom we confess alone, have
good works. Because their entire
righteousness is Christ. Christ’s
righteousness counts as theirs, and in Christ, and by His Spirit, they begin to
do righteous things. Tainted with sin,
to be sure, but then those works are covered by the sin-atoning blood of
Christ, cleansed by Christ, sanctified in Christ. And they are not saved by those works,
but they do those works because they are saved, and they enter into life
because of Christ.
But
those who do not have this God as their God, who seek righteousness apart
from Christ, may do the very same works, but those works are only sin, because
they are not covered by the sin-atoning blood of Christ, they are not cleansed
by Christ, they are not sanctified in Christ, and they are not done by His
Spirit. And all these have to present
before God on the Day of Judgment is their works. And those works are only sin. They are only evil. Thus they enter into eternal fire. It is a great tragedy, because Christ died
for them. The Father sent His Son for
them. The Spirit preached for them. This one true God was also for them. But they would not have Him.
But
you have Him. And He is for you. And He has revealed Himself to you. And He has given you faith in Himself. And so we have these words to confess
Him. And rather than object to them, we
ought to give thanks for them, and speak them joyfully, in praise and adoration. There is one God, the Triune God, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. There is one Lord
Jesus Christ, true God from all eternity, the very Son of the Father, true man
born in time, the Son of Mary. He died
for you. He is risen for you. And He lives for you. You are baptized into this God, and this
Savior. The Spirit blows through in His
Word, placing words of confession on your tongue. Let us open now our lips and speak His praise. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] Quotes from the Athanasian Creed
are from Lutheran Service Book (St. Louis: Concordia, 2006) pp. 319-20.
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