The Triune God
Heidelberg Catechism • Sermon • Submitted
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Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
Scripture: Titus 3:1-11
Sermon Title: The Triune God
A few weeks back now, we were looking at what faith is and what faith involves. The Catechism spells out that it is necessary for us to believe “everything God promises us in the gospel,” which the Apostles’ Creed summarizes. In the next couple of months we will look into different parts or roles of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit distinctly, but tonight we want to take a general look at the three-in-oneness of God. We will do that by looking at Titus 3:1-11, and our focus is going to be on verses 4 through 8.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, when I say or someone else says “God” in a non-profane way, what images or thoughts come to mind? Maybe the image of a man—with white or brown or olive-toned skin, a face that represents Jesus as he lived on this earth to you. For the children who attended Vacation Bible School, we learned that the book of Revelation reveals God is King—a fitting picture would be of a king ruling from a throne. Maybe it is scene from the outdoors; a memory from when you have been in a peaceful environment surrounded by the glory of God’s creation. That is what comes to mind because you praise the invisible God who has made such wonderful things. Maybe for others it is the image of a dove or a flame that so often gets connected to the Holy Spirit. Possibly it is some combination of all of those.
Seeing that variety, we can understand that to preach or speak on who God is as the Triune God is not an easy task. As you have likely heard or found to be true, the word Trinity is not a word we find in the Scriptures. It is a concept, a view of God that developed over the first few centuries of the church. Believers and theologians desired to come up with an honoring way of describing the complex character of God. They settled on this word, combining the parts “tri” and “unity.” Three persons yet only one God. The Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit are all equal and cooperating, yet they are distinct in roles and actions. All always existing, always present, and serving one another towards a common purpose.
As every theologian has likely comes to terms with at some point, the Trinity is a mystery. For the pastor, that creates trouble—because most of the time, we want to start with a question or an issue and work through to a solution in a sermon. But standing before you, a 26 year-old pastor in my first year of ordained ministry—I do not believe God has given me a better answer than anyone who has gone before me to explain and comprehend how there can be three persons but only one God. That is good.
That is good. There should be some mystery about our God, even from the perspective of a pastor. God has not revealed 100% of himself to any of us. Because he is perfect and infinite and able to do as he pleases—because he is God and we are his creatures, his creation. It is right and fitting that there are some things we should not be able to wrap our minds around. As we meet together tonight, we should understand that we will never fully comprehend something that God has not revealed to our limited minds.
Yet we can learn from what we know. We know there is only one God because of what we find in texts like Deuteronomy 6:4, one of the core texts of the Israelite worshipping community, “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” How they lived and worshipped and believed was completely different from their neighbors who worshipped many gods. Then we also hear of the multiple persons in the creation account where God says, “Let us make man in our image…” We see and hear it when we look at the baptism of Jesus, where a voice came from heaven and a dove descended. We practice and confess it when we draw from the Great Commission, “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Most if not all of us do believe that Scripture reveals the Triune God, even though there is mystery. When we come to the passage before us, we are not finding a way to explain the Trinity but rather Paul was showing his brother in ministry, and showing us how the Trinity shapes us.
The first way that the Trinity shapes us is by appearing to us. That is the first action of God that we find here in verses four and five, “When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” When the character of God was revealed, when he was put on display, he saved us because of his mercy. The Trinity shapes us by intervening on our behalf. God puts himself into the middle of our lives, and he rescues us.
Having just gone through the season of Easter, we understand that most readily in what Jesus accomplished. Yet all three persons of God have made their existence and their presence known at various times. When it comes to saving, it is not only Jesus, but the Father also used his rescuing power for the people of Israel. What Paul was writing about was not only relevant to what happened when Jesus died on the cross around 30AD, but it is who God is throughout all of history. The way the Trinity works in our lives is not by saying, “It’s the Father’s turn to do something, and now the Son, and later the Spirit.” No, they are always working together, and working for us. The lives we live and the events that take place in our world, our society are not just things that you and I are involved in, but believing in the Triune God beckons us to see where he is at work.
Paul does bring to the front here that the purpose of God appearing is to save us. A few moments ago we heard the verse from Deuteronomy, “The Lord is one.” You can imagine then that when Jesus came as the God-man and when he sent his Holy Spirit, and the people knew there was a Father in heaven, the Jewish mindset had to grow. This oneness of God had to get bigger. Theologian Eugene Osterhaven calls this the “surest ‘proof’ of the Trinity,” that Israelites had to enlarge their “conception of God to include Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.” Appearing to us in all three persons, God has shown himself to be beyond our comprehension, and that draws our worship to him.
The second way that the Trinity shapes us is by justifying us. If we can pick up in the middle of verse 5, Paul wrote, “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus…so that having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” When we are asked who saves us, the quick answer that Christians tend to give is Jesus. Because he was the one of three persons who came to earth and was crucified on the cross—he experienced all of that pain and agony, he is the Savior. That is certainly true, but our text and Scripture as a whole also speak that the whole Godhead is involved in our salvation.
God decided on a plan of redemption long ago, and God the Father is the one who walked in the Garden, communicating both punishment and hope to Adam and Eve. The Holy Spirit, as we see here, has been washing and renewing those who come to faith. The event, the suffering that Jesus experienced for us was wholly necessary for us to be saved, but all parts of the Trinity have important and necessary roles as well.
That we can experience the changing work of God’s grace in our lives is testimony that salvation is ongoing. That we can know we are forgiven when we give our lives over to God, we recognize God to be actively giving us his grace. This is the work of salvation that the Holy Spirit is mightily involved in. Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be reborn, and we see Paul teaching the churches that they needed to put on the new self. The only way to truly understand all of this is to know that God in three persons is continually at work to bring all of this to his end.
In Answer 24, we confessed that the Creed is divided into three parts, “God the Father and our creation; God the Son and our deliverance; God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification.” In each of those parts, we might say that member, that person of the Godhead has the principle role, but it is not a solo action. In understanding that all three persons of the Trinity are involved in justifying us, we have a better understanding of God’s fully involved commitment to make us holy.
The Trinity shapes us by appearing to us, it shapes us by justifying, and now we come to our final point. That is the trust that is formed in us by the Triune God will encourage us to be devoted to doing what is good. If we believe in God. If we believe that our creation, our deliverance, and our sanctification—from the time we were conceived all the way to our being washed and made beautiful for Christ, is all wrapped up in the work of this one God, then our purpose in this life will be changed. When we read Scripture and when we are aware of God’s working in our lives, we come to recognize that trusting in him is the most important and most essential thing for our lives.
As we grow and mature as believers, we will come to see all of the work that God is doing is done to his glory. God in his perfection is doing all things to bring praise to himself—because he is the one, true, eternal God. If that is the case, then in knowing him and trusting in him, we will commit our lives to doing the same. If he has done a great work in us to make us righteous, then we ought to be giving our lives fully to him.
Brothers and sisters, the doctrine of the Trinity is incredibly important to our faith. It is not something that we should find boring or irrelevant. This is how we see God’s continuing handiwork throughout all of time. He has never left us or given up on us. Through the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, God has been actively making a way for his people whom he loves to come back to him. It is a privilege for us to be able to serve him and to join in the work he has begun. This is a trustworthy saying—it is worthy of belief and treasuring. The Triune God is worth treasuring—that means we hold on to him, but we also act. We devote ourselves to joining in the fellowship that is shared by the three persons that we will come to better know the mind and will of our Lord and our God. Amen.