"Understanding or Confessing?"
Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity. It is Holy Trinity Sunday. That one Sunday each year in which we highlight the mystery of the divine nature – that God is three and God is one. In a few moments we will confess the Athanasian Creed, which as a child, seemed to me to last for an eternity, but now as an adult I cherish more every year.
And I call it a mystery for good reason. The scriptural doctrine of the Holy Trinity
is one the Christian church has been pondering, confessing, and sometimes even
fighting about, since the very beginning.
And while the Old Testament believers certainly confessed the oneness of
God, it cannot be said that the three-ness is something the New Testament
invented. Rather, it is only with the
appearance of Jesus Christ, and the light shed by the New Testament writers,
that we see the distinction of three co-equal persons of the godhead so
clearly.
Think about it. God
the Father, of course, is assumed in the Old Testament. His names and works are replete and
evident. But the Spirit is also there,
even from the very beginning, hovering over the face of the waters, as we read
in Genesis 1. Furthermore, that God
appears and makes himself manifest throughout the ages in the burning bush, in
the pillar of fire, and in the many “angel of the Lord” instances – is at least
a hint that something strange is going on.
No one has ever seen God, and yet, in these instances, it appears that
in a way, people do.
And then the New Testament, especially John’s Gospel, make
it clear that Jesus, the Second Person of this Holy Trinity, is the Living Word
of God present from the very beginning, and that by him all things were
made. That Word, which became manifest
in the incarnation of Christ, that God made flesh – and we have seen his glory.
Now, already, we’ve been unpacking and setting forth just a
sliver of what the Scriptures teach about this grand topic, and perhaps already
it’s raised some questions or tensions in your mind. How can God be three and one at the same
time? What exactly is the relationship
between God the Father and the Son? And
why is this all so important anyway that we spend a whole Sunday on it every
year?
But let me raise for you one of the very real dangers as we
approach this doctrine. And that is
this, the danger of understanding. Or,
better yet, thinking we can, or we might, or we somehow should understand God.
Human reason really is a wonderful gift and blessing, which
God has bestowed upon us and which he would have us use to his glory and the
benefit of our neighbor. But like all
good gifts of God, our sinful nature uses and abuses it. You might even say that human reason,
influenced by the Devil, had a hand in the very first sin. When Eve looked at the fruit, reasoned that
it was good for food and also for wisdom, reasoned that it would make her like
God, knowing good from evil…. She drew the very logical conclusion that it was
worth a try. She reached a satanic
course of action by elevating her own thoughts above the very word of God.
And so do we. Did God
really say? Did God really say he was
one? Does God really say he is
three? Does he really say that Jesus is
the Son of God, and that Jesus and the Father are one? Does the Spirit really receive divine honor
and worship and do divine works? Does
the Bible really put these three on equal footing? How do we understand the nature of the
Divine, the mechanics of the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity?
It's not wrong to ask questions. But we must keep our reason in check. It’s only natural to wonder at the how and
the why. But we must maintain a humility
that recognizes both the finite limitations of our place as creatures, and also
the corruption of our reason due to sin.
Or to put it another way, Scripture informs our reason, not the other
way around.
To think that we can understand and discern the mysteries of
God’s nature is really the height of arrogance.
But it is an arrogance that is not far from the sinful mind of man. How many times have you ever heard someone
say, “Well, I could never worship a god who does thus and so….” Or, “That’s not how my God would act”? We try to subject God to our “if… then… “ syllogisms
as if we are the master logician and the Almighty is confined to a seat in our
classroom. Is there any more foolish way
to put yourself above God, in the place of God, than to think you can take him
apart and put him back together again?
Who’s the creator here, anyway?
And another species of this arrogance is our tendencies
toward works righteousness. To think
that we know better also about our own salvation. To dismiss the work of Christ, the atoning
sacrifice of the cross, and to substitute instead our own meager and miserable
merits. “Thanks, Jesus, you got us
started, but we’ll finish the job ourselves”.
“You gave us a head start, now we have to finish the race. You set the table, but it’s up to us to
please God with our holy living and impressive piety.” What could ever be more wrong?
And so, the repentance here is to lean not on your own
understanding, but to trust God to be God.
Don’t think you can know God on your own, but receive with thanksgiving
that which he reveals to you about himself, Father, Son, and Spirit. Humble your brain. But a bit and bridle on your own thinking,
and be subject to the Word of God in all things. Repent of your own ways, receive and believe
the truth which God bestows.
Or to put it more simply, don’t understand, but confess. Don’t earn it, receive it. Don’t figure it out, believe it.
Confession is simply saying what God has already said. God says you are a sinner, and you confess
your sins. God says he is holy, and we
confess he is holy. God says he is
Father, Son and Spirit, and we say, amen!
Blessed be the Holy Trinity!
This is what the Christian church has done, over the many
years, especially by means of her creeds.
We set forth in these grand summaries, a confession – a same-saying of
what Scripture teaches. These are not
new teachings or invented doctrines.
They are what we have received, and what have been handed down to us by
God through the apostles and the prophets, and have been kept by the faithful
through the ages. They are treasures of
the church, like the gold setting of a precious gem – which sets forth the true
jewel of God’s treasury, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus teaches us the Trinity also, and perhaps especially,
in Matthew 28, by his command to make disciples by baptism and teaching. He sets before us the Triune name of God –
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and commands the church to baptize people into
this Divine name. Notice it’s a singular
name with three referents. It’s really
not good grammar, is it? He should have
said in the names of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Ah, but he knows better. There’s one name. There’s one God. There’s three persons.
Just as Jesus teaches that disciples are made by such a
simple thing as baptism. This also flies
in the face of reason. You mean simple
water and a few words can effect salvation?
They can change me, make me different in any meaningful way? And without me bringing anything to the
table? Why yes, baptism into the name of
the Trinue God is a very means of grace, a washing of rebirth and renewal, a
burial with Christ and a raising from the dead with him also. Such is the power of the divine name of the
Triune God and the promise of God the Son who died for the sins of the world.
And so the church, and the Christian, does not understand. But we do confess. We trust God, not ourselves, to know who he
is, what he has done, what he still does.
We humbly receive and boldly confess the truths of his holy word,
inspired by the Spirit, made flesh in the Son, to the glory of the Father.
Even now let us confess this faith, and the mystery of the
Holy Trinity, in the words of the Athanasian Creed…
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