The Gospel of the Trinity
Trinity Sunday| John 3:1-17| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| May 26, 2024
That God exists is self-evident. There are two natural reasons that we know God exists: the creation and the conscience. The creation declares that God exists. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” writes David in Psalm 19. If you see a building, you know that there was a builder. And so, when you see creation, you know that there is a Creator. Only great pride and arrogance can deny this. This is why St. Paul writes in Romans chapter one, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19-20) And the study of science should only strengthen one’s conviction that God exists.
Second, our conscience bears witness to us that God exists by convicting us and accusing us when we do wrong. Only a fool says in his heart that there is no God (Psalm 14:1). Rather, the conscience of everyone bears witness that we have a creator and a judge, as St. Paul writes in Romans 2, “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.” (Romans 2:14-15)
Everyone knows that there is a God, whether he acknowledges it or not, unless he has so seared his conscience that his heart cannot acknowledge what is self-evident to all. Yet, no one can know the true God except through the revelation of the Holy Spirit. No one can know that God is one, yet He is three persons, unless this truth is revealed through Holy Scripture. And Holy Scripture does reveal the Holy Trinity. Scripture does not articulate the doctrine of the Trinity in concise, dogmatic words as we hear in our creeds. Rather, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is taught throughout Scripture. God is one (Deuteronomy 6:4). Yet, there are distinct persons within the Godhead. This is taught from the very first pages of the Bible.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters and God said…” (Genesis 1:1, 2-3a) Holy Scripture teaches that God is three in one by teaching that there is one God, yet also presenting distinct persons, who though they are distinct from God, are God. The Spirit of God hovering over the waters is distinct from God. Yet, no one can doubt that He is God. “God said.” This doesn’t simply mean that God spoke. This demonstrates that God created with the Word. St. John begins his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (John 1:1-3) So in the very first verses of Genesis, God is introduced as three persons, yet one God. And this is the doctrine taught in all of Scripture. The Psalmist proclaims, “By the Word of the LORD the heavens were made and by the Spirit (רוּחַ) of His mouth all their hosts.” (Psalm 33:6) By the Word, that is, the Son of God the heavens were made, and by the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, all their hosts. God creates and sustains the universe through and in the Son and the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul writes in Romans 11, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (11:36)
The Son of God, that is, the Word is presented to us throughout the Old Testament as the Angel of the LORD. The Angel of the LORD, as His name makes clear, is a distinct person sent from God. He is God’s Messenger. That is what angel means, messenger. Yet, when the Angel of the LORD appeared to Abraham (Genesis 22), Moses (Exodus 3:2-6), and Manoah and his wife, the parents of Samson (Judges 13), the texts call the Angel of the LORD, God. The Angel of the LORD is the LORD. HE is distinct from the LORD and yet, He is one with the LORD. And our text from John 3 does the same thing. Nicodemus tells Jesus, “We know that you are a teacher come from God.” So, Jesus is distinct from God the Father. Yet, Jesus later asserts in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.”
Nothing reveals the nature of the Holy Trinity as purely as the Gospel, because the Gospel is the greatest work of the Holy Trinity. God is love. God loved the world in this way, that He sent His only begotten Son. Who is this only begotten Son? He is the Son of Man, who has descended from heaven, who still is in heaven by virtue of His divine nature. He has become the Son of man, and not only a man, but He took on the very form of our curse, and like the cursed bronze serpent in the wilderness, which bore the image of the snakes, which were biting the people and causing their death, the Son of Man was lifted up on a tree, so that whoever believes in Him may not perish but have eternal life. The Son is distinct from the Father. The Father sends the Son; the Son does not send the Father. The Son became man and suffered and died for our sins. The Father did not become man nor did He suffer and die. Yet, they are one God.
Jesus says that unless one is born of water and the Spirit, He cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Who is this Spirit? Jesus makes clear that He is distinct from God. Yet, it is also clear that the Spirit is God, as St. John writes in chapter one, “But to all who did receive Him, who believed on 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) Those who are born of the Spirit are born of God. The Spirit is God.
The Gospel cannot be told without confessing the nature of the Trinity, that is, that God is one in three. The Father sends the Son to take on our human flesh and suffer for our sins in our place. He raises His Son from the dead and accepts the sacrifice offered by His Son and justifies us for His sake. The Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit, who is God, to cause sinners to be born again, so that they may believe in Jesus and be saved.
Yet, this teaching cannot be found in nature by looking at creation nor by following your conscience. The creation can tell you that you have a creator, and your conscience can tell you that you have a judge, but neither can tell you that God is three in one, who loves you and sends His Son to redeem you and His Holy Spirit to sanctify you. This can only be revealed by the Holy Spirit through the proclamation of the Gospel. This is why Nicodemus is so flabbergasted when Jesus tells him that one must be born again to be saved. He thinks in a human way, so that he is blind to the things of God, as St. Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 2, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 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.” (vss. 12-14) Nicodemus was the teacher of Israel and he did not understand these things. This is not a teaching comprehended by human reason. It is taught by the Spirit of God.
“That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of Spirit is spirit,” Jesus says. St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” (vs. 50), and again in Romans 8, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (vs 8) You cannot gain the kingdom of God by your own strength, merits, or works. You cannot believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or come to Him by your own reason. You cannot comprehend the Gospel or the Trinity by your human wisdom. Unless you are born again by the Spirit, you cannot be saved. All who are born of the flesh are children of wrath and doomed to hell, unless God saves them by grace (Ephesians 2).
When Jesus says that unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God, He is saying that unless one is baptized, He cannot be saved. He is speaking of Baptism. Baptism is water joined to the Word of Christ. The Holy Spirit comes to us through Jesus’ Word. St. Peter promises that we receive the Holy Spirit in Baptism in Acts 2:38. When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him as a dove. The Holy Spirit comes to all who are baptized through water and the word.
Now, many will protest, “But God can save a person without Baptism! A person can be born again by the Spirit without Baptism!” And technically, this is true. God can send His Holy Spirit without the water to cause a person to be born again and be saved. Baptism does not limit God’s capabilities. But the fact remains, that unless you are born again by the Spirit, you cannot be saved, and Jesus promises you rebirth by the Holy Spirit in Baptism. If Jesus opens a door for you, do not reject Him and say that you can get through the window just fine. Rejecting Baptism is rejecting Jesus and the Holy Spirit, He offers in it.
“The wind blows where it wishes, you hear its sound, but do not know where it comes from or where it goes, so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” This means that the Holy Spirit creates faith where and when it pleases God. We cannot blame God for our unbelief or the unbelief of others. The fact that some are baptized, yet reject the faith is not the fault of Baptism or the Spirit, just as the fact that some reject the preaching of the Gospel is not the Gospel’s or God’s fault.
We must humble ourselves concerning our human capabilities to know and please God. We must not be arrogant and judge the doctrine of the Trinity or whether water Baptism can grant rebirth. Rather, we should meekly receive the Spirit as Scripture says He is given in Baptism and in the preaching of the Gospel, and thank God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that He has revealed Himself to us in the Gospel. Our sinful flesh, which drives us to sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealously, fits of anger, envy, and drunkenness, is the same sinful flesh that resists the Holy Spirit and makes you think you are too smart to believe the Gospel. So, we must daily crucify our sinful flesh by repenting of our sins, pride, and arrogance, and as newborn infants of God, receive the Word of God as our spiritual milk. In Baptism, the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has been placed on us. This means that we are born from above. We know the Holy Trinity. And to know the Holy Trinity is to have life eternal. Amen.
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14) Amen.