INJ
Romans 11:33-36 | “Rejoicing in the Confession of the Trinity”
Trinity Sunday | 15 June 2014
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Dear Saints,
There is an old quip, attributed to different wits, something like this, “In the beginning God created man, and ever since man has been returning the favor.” There is some truth to this. We are tempted to fashion God after ourselves, to have a god to suit us.
This came up in ladies Bible Study yesterday morning, and it is worthwhile to meditate on. We are tempted to match God up with our greatest problem. So the ancient Jews, being oppressed by the Romans and wanting political freedom, expected the Messiah to come and establish this kingdom on earth. Ba’al taught people that their problem was weakness, and he offered them power. The other ancient gods did the same, they promised protection to a threatened people, abundance to people living on the edge of the wilderness.
And we are no different today. We identify the problem, and then God is crafted into the solution. We are tired and unsuccessful, so Joel Osteen and a thousand others tells us about a god who will make our dreams come true, who will make every day a Friday and give us our best life now. But Osteen is easy, this is more subtle. I think much of the preaching in the church assumes that our biggest problem is that our lives don’t have meaning, so a god is preached who gives our lives meaning, who makes us part of something bigger than ourselves. Or our problem is alienation, and now it is preached that we are in a personal relationship with god.
These ideas are not taught in the Scriptures. In fact, opposite ideas are there. Instead of promising us success, the Lord Jesus promises us trouble. “In this world you will have trouble,” He says, “But be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” “Take up your cross and follow Me.” “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Instead of talking about giving meaning to our lives, the Scriptures talk of humility and service. “So likewise you,” Jesus teaches, “when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do,’” (Luke 17:10).
Now I want to be a bit careful here, because these questions of meaning and purpose in life do rub right up against the Biblical ideas of hope and vocation. We should have a clear sense of our vocation in this life, who our neighbor is and how God would have us serve them. And we should have hope, a certainty that the Lord has our lives in His hands, that He loves us, protects us, forgives us, and has a place for us in the life to come. But see the difference? When we are looking for “meaning” and “purpose” we are thinking about ourselves, looking inward. Vocation lifts our eyes to our neighbor, and hope lifts our eyes to the cross, to Jesus and His promises.
Any number of times people has asked me this question, normally struggling with depression or despair, “Pastor, it seems like I have no meaning or purpose in life. Why am I here?” And the answer I give is this: “You are here to be forgiven by Jesus.”
“Relationship” is another one: if our biggest problem is loneliness or a sense of alienation, then the solution is a “personal relationship with God.” This, too, is never talked about in the Scriptures, but it’s opposite. The Scriptures talk of us being united to Christ, being one with Him, He the head, we the body, He the vine, we the branch, He the Groom, we the Bride. Christ is in us and we are in Christ. So while the language of relationship puts us under the law with questions, with thinking about ourselves, the Bible’s way of talking about the church and Christ does away with questions.
You can ask, “How’s your relationship with God? How is your walk with Jesus?” See how those questions come back on ourselves? But what about these questions, “How’s your unity with Christ? How’s your baptism? How was the absolution?” The questions don’t make sense. And this is because bapism and the absolution and the death and resurrection of Jesus are there to bring our questions to an end. “Does God love me?” We consider the cross of Jesus, and we know, without a doubt, that the answer is “yes.” “Am I saved? Will I go to heaven?” We consider our baptism and the promises of God, and the answer is “yes.” Doubt is driven up against the Lord’s means of grace, and there is crushed.
Anyhow, all of this is to show the danger of crafting a Gospel and building a theology to suit our needs, a confession that begins with ourselves. And Trinity Sunday stands against this.
When we stand and confess the creed, the doctrine of the Trinity, we are not describing God or understanding God, but confessing Him. We are saying, “This is what God has taught us about Himself, what He has revealed about Himself to us in the Scriptures.” There is one God. The Father is God. The Son, Jesus Christ, is God. The Holy Spirit is God. And the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct persons. God is eternally three in one. Do we understand or comprehend this? No. Do we believe it and confess it? Yes. And more, we rejoice in it.
For this doctrine of the blessed Trinity is not some sort of theological abstraction, but is at the very core of the Gospel. For example, if God was only one person in eternity, how could He be love? Love needs another; loving yourself is not really love because love requires sacrifice, humility, service, conversation, and so forth. If God is love, there must be more than one person in the Godhead. It is a glorious mystery to reflex on the eternal and timeless love that exists between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, before the world was.
And this is even more astonishing when we consider the death of Jesus. If God was one person, if there is only god and creation, then the only place he could send his wrath and anger for sin would be on creation. There is no other place for it. But because God is three persons, God can now suffer His own wrath, which is exactly what happens on the cross. The Father sends the Son to bear the sin of humanity, the death of the universe, and God’s own wrath, for us. This is something else that we cannot comprehend, how the everlasting and eternal love of God shows itself to us in the cross of Jesus.
There we see what our real problem is: our sin. Or even better, our real problem is God Himself, His holiness which becomes wrath because of our sin. And there, on the cross, we see who God is: love for us. God suffers and bleeds and dies for us. God Himself is the solution to our problem; He is our Savior, our Redeemer, our Creator, our Justifier, our Sanctifier. He is love, and His love is your hope and life.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your heart and mind through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
Hope Lutheran Church | Aurora, CO
Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
