The Gospel in the Trinity
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION: Welcome/Prayer
Explain the title - “The Gospel in the Trinity”
The Gospel doesn’t bring forth the Trinity, rather the Trinity, the very nature of God gives us Good News… God is Good News… at least to those who worship Him
My aim this morning is to equip you with basic Trinitarian language and knowledge… or at the very least refresh your mind with it
We are going to do our best to keep this simple...
We’ll do a brief over of the Trinity
Then we will look at each of the Persons of the Triune Godhead and see how He is involved with the Gospel.
The Trinity
The Trinity
Our God is Triune
Meaning Three distinct Persons… Father, Son, Spirit… all share the same essence.
In short, 3 Persons - 1 God
All three, the Father, Son, and Spirit share the same characteristics and qualities as they share the same essence, same nature, same will
This morning is not about diving into Scripture to show that… though many of our passages this morning do just that the goal again is to see how each person of the Trinity is involved with the Gospel.
It might help that I define the Gospel for us this morning..
When I say Gospel, I mean the good news of our salvation… of our forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God
Knowledge of the Trinity does help us understand other things as well beyond our salvation experience… some of which I will speak to at the end.
But I specifically want to highlight how in our own personal salvation as well as our corporate salvation, we cannot know it or have it by denying the Trinity.
Charles Spurgeon -
1436A gospel without a Trinity! It is a pyramid built on its apex. A gospel without the Trinity! It is a rope of sand that cannot hold together. A gospel without the Trinity! Then Satan can overturn it. But give me a gospel with the Trinity, and the might of hell cannot prevail against it. No man can any more overthrow it than a bubble could split a rock or a feather break in halves a mountain. Get the thought of the three persons, and you have the marrow of all theology. Only know the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost to be one, and all things will appear clear. This is the golden key to the secrets of nature. This is the silken clue of the labyrinths of mystery. And he who understands this will soon understand as much as mortals ever know.
The Triune nature of God is a hard thing to contemplate and fathom… hence the videos shared during the week
B.B. Warfield once remarked in regard to the complexity of the Trinity with these words...
300 Quotations for Preachers from the Modern Church The Incomprehensible Trinity
There are no analogies to [the Trinity] in nature, not even in the spiritual nature of man, who is made in the image of God. In His Trinitarian mode of being, God is unique; and, as there is nothing in the universe like Him in this respect, so there is nothing which can help us to comprehend Him.
But this is how He has revealed Himself
This is how God has been and will be for all of eternity
God being Triune and each person of the Godhead being eternally and perfectly united in holiness is a key characteristic of God...
And we must understand that while the Godhead consists of 3 very distinct persons… Father, Son, and the Spirit… again… they all share the same characteristics
The holiness of the Father… is the same holiness of the Son… and the same holiness of the those two is the same holiness of the Spirit… that, if you’re a believer of Christ, is inside of you...
The Triune nature of God is a core tenet… a key distinct of our faith
In other words, the doctrine of the Trinity as revealed in Scripture is a fundamental and basic truth of our faith
Without it, you have no Christian faith… you have no truth
When people say the god of Islam, Allah, is the same god of the Bible, they are speaking ignorantly for a variety of reasons but most obviously because of the doctrine of the Trinity… Allah is not Triune…
The Quran in Surah 4.172 says the following… READ Surah 4.172
Again, when we remove the Trinity, we remove the Gospel...
There is no good news apart from the trinity… there is no salvation to be found about from the Trinity...
Consider the problem that is before us for the need for our salvation...
How does a holy God… who cannot allow sin in His presence reconcile His creation to Himself? A creation which is inherently sinful?
God who is perfectly just… while perfectly merciful and loving… cannot satisfy His Holiness in this matter if there is not a perfect substitute, a perfect sacrifice, a perfect mediator to stand in our place to suffer the wrath, the judgment of God…
Sin entered into creation through man… and through man it must be paid… yet man is incapable of doing so… only God can… so God must become man… but if God is only one person then that would not work… not according to the revealed will of God that was determined before all of creation…
And to that will… to the roles of each person of the Trinity we now go...
The Gospel in the Father
The Gospel in the Father
The Father is the Origin of Salvation, He sends the Son (John 3:16-18, 2 Cor 5:18-19, John 17.3)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
The Father testifies and approves of His Son - Mt 3:16-17
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
The Father validated the life of Jesus by raising Him from the dead Acts 5:30-31
The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
The Father gives the Son authority to judge and to give life - John 5:26-27, John 17:2
For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
The Father gives the Son the sheep that are to be saved - John 10:29
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
The Father gives the Holy Spirit - Luke 11:13, 2 Cor 5:5, 1 Jn 4:13
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
The Gospel in the Son
The Gospel in the Son
The Son’s Incarnation - Lk 1:35
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
The Son reveals the Father to us - John 1:18, John 14.6, Col 1:15, Heb 1.3
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
The Son does the work of redemption and adoption- Gal 4:4-6, 1 John 4:10, Eph 1:3-14
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
The Gospel in the Holy Spirit
The Gospel in the Holy Spirit
The Son asks the Father to send the Spirit (to dwell forever) John 14:16-17 & The Son sends the Spirit - John 15:26, John 16:7
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
The Spirit gives us power to witnesses of the Gospel - Acts 1:8, 1 Thess 1:5
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.
The Spirit seals us for our salvation for eternity - Eph 1:13-14
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
The Trinity in Our Lives
The Trinity in Our Lives
Our faith and our practice are not two separate things… our practice is the expression of our faith, of our we believe, and what we know of God and His will...
So, how does this Triune Truth play out in our lives… as Gospel witnesses?
First, effective evangelism uses Trinitarian language
If successful evangelism is understood as the clear proclamation of the Gospel...
Then to do that, one must mention the Father, Son, and the Spirit...
We are reconciled to the Father, because He sent His Son to redeem us, and both the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit to dwell within us so we may live holy lives as He is holy and that we may be sealed for eternity as His sons, inheritors destined to share in the inheritance of Christ.
Our prayers likewise become Trinitarian… become more personal
If I always referred to Laura… as “my wife”… how personal is that?
Why would I do the same with God?
Also, our prayers, especially public prayers, are also teaching opportunities… we learn how to pray from hearing others pray.
How do we pray then? To the Father, Jesus, or the Spirit?
Our worship is deepened as we become more personal with the knowledge of the nature of God and how each person of the Trinity functions in our lives...
The role of the Father, the role of the Son, and the role of the Spirit… in our day to day is different from one another...
It also demonstrates for us the unity that God calls us to have as believers… read John 17… and notice how Jesus prays for the unity of those of whom His Father has given Him for the Father’s glory… but also note that the unity is around the Word of God… hence the importance for doctrine and the need for obedience to His Word…
And remember… to speak of the Word of God is to speak of the Son of God… to deny or pick apart what you like or don’t like about Scripture is to do the same with the person of Jesus Christ…
You do that… you can profess His name all you want… but you will not enter into the Kingdom
Finally, when we baptize disciples they are baptized in the name of the Triune God, in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit… how can you be baptized into something that you do not believe nor understand how the various persons of the Godhead impact your salvation…
After all you were baptized by the Holy Spirit which is made possible by the blood of the Son as ordained by the Father.
It is not that this understanding saves you, but since this knowledge of our salvation has been revealed for our instruction and His glory, to deny it or to be ungrateful of it, is unbecoming of a person born again by the Spirit.
Even communion… this act we’re going to right now… when we partake of the Lord’s Supper we profess a Trinitarian truth....
We profess Jesus to the Son of God, who took on flesh, lived among us as the God-Man… who shed blood on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, ushering us into the New Covenant…
Who also was raised and then weeks later ascended to the right-hand of the Father where He is right now… interceding for our behalf and in doing so was able to send the Spirit to dwell within us, to secure us for eternity, to convict us of our sins, to give us new hearts, to make us anew, so that we may come to this table regularly… to be reminded of this truth...
In order that we may endure and be faithful to His commands… until the day Jesus Christ returns in the flesh, as ordained by the Father, with the Father’s full glory… to judge the righteous and the wicked...
All of that and more is represented by us coming up here to eat of the bread and drink of the vine.