The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity is one of the most sublime teachings of the Christian faith. That the God we worship is one God, but consisting of three distinct persons, is truly a mystery beyond comprehension. We can’t understand it. We can, really, only confess it, as we do so beautifully and thoroughly in the Athanasian Creed.
There are so many ways to approach this foundational teaching, which really separates Christians from non-Christians. But what I’d like to do today is meditate on the personal name of God which was first given to Moses at the burning bush, and is claimed by Jesus as his own, here in John 8. And that name is “I AM”, or in the Hebrew, “Yahweh.” Wrapped up in this one little word, just four letters in the Hebrew, is a world of meaning, but just a hint at the glory and eternity shared by all three persons of our holy Triune God. And that Jesus is in that mix is great good news for us, his people.
For both the doctrine of the Trinity and in any attempt to fully grasp God’s true nature, it is always good to begin in humility, with a sense of our own limitations. And that’s really for two important reasons:
For one, we are limited as we are the creature, not the creator. We are finite, whereas God is infinite (as we just confessed). And so we can never hope to master or fully comprehend him, no, not even close. One quick glance at any aspect of his creation should put any thought of that sort of thing away. A sense of wonder at the vastness of the universe, or the awe we feel at the sight of a beautiful garden, or a snowy mountain. How great thou art, indeed! Creation declares the glory of God! And boy, does it!
But the other limitation we have when it comes to comprehending these deep truths, is we are horribly and entirely corrupted by sin. And that goes for our reason and intellect as well as our will and morality. Body and soul, brain and spirit, our entire person is fallen, sinful, polluted by sin and perverted from the truth. And so even the law that God has written on our heart becomes fuzzied and is easily rationalized away or hardened over. How can we truly know God, if we can’t even know ourselves? How can we rightly say anything about him that we derive from our own flawed devices?
The Jews certainly got it wrong. They called him a Samaritan. They said he had a demon. They were astounded at his claim to be greater than Abraham, and were ready to stone him for blasphemy!
We can only know what he tells us, what he reveals to us. Just as we can only believe in him by the power of the Spirit, so can we only truly know him by grace, and receive a renewed heart as a gift, a new creation that only God can bestow upon us. We can only have ears to hear if he gives us those ears, that faith, that heart.
So let’s take this name, “Yahweh”. As I said, it’s a ponderous thing that God names himself, “I AM”. Jesus expounds on this a bit in our reading from John today, “Before Abraham was, I AM”. He is teaching us the eternal nature of God as confessed in this holy name. It’s not, “I was” or “I will be” or even “I might be or could be”. It’s simply “I AM”. He always is, was, and ever will be. He is the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega, who was, who is, and who is to come. He is God of God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father. The ground of being, eternally existing and dependent on no other.
But by the same token, we have our being only through him. We are the creature. Finite and dependent. We are the conditional reality, that only have a being because he spoke it, because he wills it. He’s the I am, we are the “I might be. I could be. I can be only if he says so.”
There was another time in John’s Gospel where Jesus claims that personal name of God, “I Am”. Do you recall? On the night of his arrest, the band of soldiers came to take him (from John 18):
Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” 5They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. 6When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. 7So he asked them again, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” 8Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.” 9This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.”
Jesus, who is the God Yahweh made flesh, who has a glory incomprehensible and indescribable from eternity, he submits to arrest, and trial, and of course, crucifixion. So that not one of those given him would be lost.
His name, that little name “Yahweh” is so powerful that even the speaking of it knocks burly soldiers to the ground like dominoes. He demonstrates his power and authority here, knocking them over, if only to show them that he’s the one really running things, and that his arrest is only by his consent and submission. But still his concern is not for himself, but for his people. Not just these 11 disciples, but for all who would call upon his name and be saved. That’s why he is arrested. That’s why he must die.
And this is also how God glorifies his Son, Jesus. By the cross. His greatest glory isn’t his eternity, or his omnipotence or omniscience. His power or majesty or sovereignty. His greatest glory is the humility of his cross, by which we are saved. In Christ’s obedience to his Father, he accomplishes his mission, and faces death so that we, his people will never face death, or taste death.
How can this be? Since even Abraham died. Because Jesus also says in John’s Gospel, “he who believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live. And he who lives and believes in me will never die.” Death isn’t really death when you believe in Christ and keep his word. Death loses its sting, its meaning, it is de-clawed and de-fanged. Our worst and final enemy is as nothing, it is “I am not” when faced with the great “I AM”, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity, a teaching which our God, Yahweh, has revealed to us most clearly in his Son our Lord Jesus Christ. We honor our God as Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. Thanks be to him for the glory Christ reveals in his cross, defeating death for us, and by giving us the faith to believe it by his Spirit, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.
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