Grace and
Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and
Savior sanctify you in the truth; for His word is truth. Amen
Holy Trinity
Sunday (2010)
We Worship the
Triune God
Acts 2:32-33 (ESV)
This Jesus
God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. [33] 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.
The popular hymn, “We All Believe
in One True God” by Tobias Clausnitzer of the 17th century,
begins with the words; “We All Believe in One True God Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost.” However, ask anyone, including some
who call themselves Christians, just who is the One True, Triune God and you will be amazed at their answers.
The world answers that question from a perspective that is totally foreign
to God. Lacking a true understanding of God, they will always answer the
question based on human reason. Martin Luther in his commentary on Jonah wrote,
“Reason never finds the true God, but it
finds the devil. So there is a vast difference between knowing that there is a
God and knowing who or what God is. Nature knows the former—it is inscribed in
everybody’s heart; the latter is taught only by the Holy Spirit.”
Oh, to be sure, the world knows there is a God. Holy Scripture
testifies to a natural knowledge of God and
We Worship the
Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, on every Sabbath, however, the church sets aside one specific Sabbath
Sunday to ensure the commemoration of this foundational doctrine of the Church.
Therefore, today
the church celebrates The Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three
distinct persons in one divine being. In fact, earlier, we made confession of
our Christian faith in the words of the Athanasian Creed, a creed which states
with certainty the relationship and identity of the Holy Trinity; Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. It clearly spells out the distinction of the persons of the
Trinity while ensuring there is no confusion as to their unity, there oneness:
a fact that the majority of humankind fails to recognize.
This glaring failure of the world to recognize the Triune God as the One True
God is a constant source of error and confusion that leads to an eternal
life of condemnation. Whether self-acclaimed Christian or heathen, if one
doesn’t believe in the Triune God;
they are lost. Scripture clearly tells us, “The natural person does not accept the
things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to
understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14 ESV). Without
faith in Jesus Christ, the second person of the godhead and the gift of the
Holy Spirit, the third person of the godhead, one cannot know the Triune God. Outside the apostles, no other theologian was clearer and more
convinced of this fact than Martin Luther. In his Large Catechism, he wrote; “These articles of the Creed, therefore,
divide and distinguish us Christians from all other people on earth. Even if we
were to concede that everyone outside Christianity–whether heathen, Turks,
Jews, or false Christians and hypocrites–believe in and worship only one, true
God, it would still be true that they do not know what his mind toward them is
and cannot expect any love or blessing from Him. Therefore, they abide in
eternal wrath and damnation. For they do not have the Lord Christ, and,
besides, are not illumined and favored by any gifts of the Holy Spirit.”
Luther is doing nothing more than reiterating the words of our Lord
Jesus, for He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me” (John 14:6 ESV). Furthermore, St. Paul declares, “Therefore
I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says
"Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord"
except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3 ESV).
All three of our
readings today point to the Triune God:
In the Old Testament Reading the divine Word of the Father is the holy Wisdom of
Proverbs, who “was beside Him, like a master
workman,” who “was
daily His delight, rejoicing before Him always” (Proverbs 8:30 ESV).
This Word became flesh and suffered death, in order to bestow life by the
preaching of His Gospel “to
the children of man” (Proverbs 8:4 ESV). God revealed Himself
through His Son, Jesus Christ. Moreover, in the Gospel Reading our Lord Jesus
honors the Father, and the Father glorifies Him by raising Him from the dead,
so that all who keep His Word “will
never see death” (John 8:51 ESV). Furthermore, St. Luke in the
Second Reading tells us that although Christ was “crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men,” “God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death” (Acts 2:23, 24
ESV). And He “received
from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:32 ESV), so
it is by and through the Son that God the Father pours out the Holy Spirit upon
His Church; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, one entity, working in
unity to bring the cream of God’s Creation, man, to salvation.
In Luther’s Large Catechism, Luther speaks of false Christians and hypocrites.
Of course, you might ask, “Pastor, what’s the difference? Isn’t a hypocrite a
false Christian?” It would be correct to say that a hypocrite is indeed a false
Christian, however, not one you can recognize. Hypocrites are those who on the
outside look for all purposes to be true, believing Christians: Pious and
righteous, always at worship, always helping their neighbor. However, on the
inside they are empty shells, “whitewashed tombs” (Matt. 23:27), void
of Christ and true faith. Not having Christ, they do not Worship the One True Triune God.
False Christians claiming to have true faith teach and preach false
doctrine. Through the proclamation of flawed theology they lead souls away from
Christ. Furthermore, they criticize the faith of orthodox Christians who firmly
hold to God’s Word that all outside Christ are lost and condemned. Denying the
Trinity, they maintain there is no hell teaching a “universalism” that promises
non-Christians, those who do not confess Jesus as Lord, an eternal life in
heaven. Furthermore, there is no need or use of the Law since Christ. Today, there
should only be the Gospel. Moreover, there is no need of repentance since Christ,
on the cross, took all our sins upon Himself and carried them to the grave.
Teachings such as these and others deny Christ and His atoning death upon
Having made this good confession we are assured that we have faith in the
One True Triune God; Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. Furthermore, we know that we could never have this faith without
the grace of our loving heavenly Father who sent His only begotten Son into the
world to take on our flesh, to suffer and die in our place, paying the penalty
for our sins so we could be reconciled to the Father. Moreover, we know that we
cannot come to this faith on our own but that God in His mercy grants us this
gift through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit who leads us to believe in
the promises of the Gospel. The apostle John leaves no room for
self-aggrandizement when he writes of faith in Jesus, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the
right to become children of God. who were born, not of blood nor of the will of
the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” John 1:12-13 ESV).
Reason may be the influence behind countless millions who describe what it
is they believe of God, but God’s Word clearly tells us it is not the blood of
man nor the will of the flesh nor the will of man that makes the decision to
believe, it is God who makes this decision for us. Therefore, belief in the One True God, the Triune God is only
accomplish by the grace of God through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ; this is
solely His gift, it is never accomplished by our works, lest we boast. (Eph.
2:8-9). Faith in the Triune God is
faith in the One True God. Therefore,
led by this blessed truth, we only
Worship the One True God, the Triune God. Amen.
May the Peace of God which passes all understanding
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.