A God Who Loves You Completely or The Importance of the Trinity

As Christians we have a unique set of beliefs, not least of which is the nature of our God. We believe in a God that is triune—that is three in one. Our God is the Holy Trinity—three distinct persons in one all powerful God. The three persons of the Trinity—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—are faithfully confessed by the three creeds of our Church, the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. But why?

What difference does the Trinity make? The Bible does not even contain the word Trinity so why does the Christian Church hold so strongly to such a belief? How do issues of the Trinity relate to my life? How does a Triune God help me deal with rebellious children, a crumbling marriage, the loss of a loved one, or illness and disease? These are all good and valid questions and the Trinity makes all the difference for every single one of them.

Here’s the point: God loves us completely and so he comes to us in every way we need him. Look at how the Trinity works: Number one: God the Father is the creator and designer of all life. He loves us so much that he comes to us as the nurturing Father wanting to give us everything. All life, and every blessing in it, has been provided by God the Father. But our rebellion, our sin, our desire to be like God, (that same sinfulness we inherited from Adam and Eve) has ruined everything that was given to us. Sin has broken our world. This is what causes the hurt and struggle in our lives. Disobedient children, crumbling marriages, resentment at work, suffering, illness and death—all of these things are the results of sin. We are now broken, lost in our shattered world headed for our final destination, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

But God loves us completely so, number two, he comes to you and me as God the Son. He came to us as one of us, as Jesus. He is our brother, our peer, the only Son of God the Father, and he redeems us. God the Son willingly gives up his life for you, for me, for all of humanity. The Son saves us from our sins and because of his sacrifice God declares to us, “You are forgiven.” By the work of our savior we are freed from the punishment of hell and given admission into eternal life in heaven. We have been redeemed by the love of God in the sacrifice of the Son.

Eternal life in heaven is an amazing gift but we still have to deal with the results of sin in this life. Thankfully we have a God who loves us completely and so number 3, God comes to us here and now as the Holy Spirit. The forgiveness we gained in Christ is placed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. He delivers the love of God to our hearts and then he dwells there. God loves us so completely that he does not leave us. He lives inside of us to guide and direct us with his love.

And when we gather with other believers who live by this love, we experience the Church. The Holy Spirit is visible here. In church you get Word and Sacraments. The scripture is preached, baptism is administered, and the Lord’s Supper is distributed. These are the places God has promised his grace is present. Through these works of the Holy Spirit we are continually nourished with God’s love.

And now as the Church, a community of people with God in their hearts, the Holy Spirit works through us to sustain our lives and the lives of those around us. We comfort those dealing with loss and grief. We provide care and assistance for those struggling with illness and disease. We reach out in forgiveness to our spouse instead of harboring grievances and pain. We show love and encouragement to our children instead of judgment and wrath. As children and employees we treat all authorities with respect and dignity. We show mercy to those who wrong us as we provide forgiveness instead of anger. And what is the end result? Our lives are better from the service of others, and God makes the lives of others better through us.

The bottom line is we have a God who loves us completely. First he provides life as the caring, creating Father, then he redeems life through the service of the Son and third, he sustains life through the on-going work of the Holy Spirit. Our God comes to us as three distinct persons and yet he is one God—a God who cares for you and for me. We do not have a God who is distant or unconcerned with our lives. We have a God who cares for us deeply and is intimately involved in our lives. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit equally provide for needs in our lives because they are one. We do not worship three Gods that provide different blessings. No, we worship the One True God who reaches out to us in three distinct ways to provide for our whole life-created, redeemed, and sustained. The Trinity is important because it is the confession of the Church—our confession, as it declares the truth about a God who loves us completely. You are cared for in every possible need by one God-the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is this Holy Trinity that provides you with all that you have and all that you will ever need, in this life and beyond. He is One God in Three persons, to love you completely—in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen.

Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: The Power of God’s Word

As I walked into the dimly lit interior room of the museum, I could feel my excitement. My pulse quickened. I could feel my blood surging through my veins. Around the perimeter of the circular room stood five heavy-duty display cases specially designed to protect their contents from the museum patrons and any other potential threat such as dust, moisture, and even certain types of light.

I walked over to the first case, my sense of awe producing a slight fluttering to arise in my chest. I took a quick breath to steady myself as I leaned over and peered into the case. This is why I was here. This was a dream come true. This was a moment I had only dreamed about. As I gazed down into the display case through several layers of pressure and temperature controlled glass I was now face to face with nearly three thousand years of history—tradition, culture, knowledge, art. I was staring at three thousand years of life.

Peering up at me were fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Passages from God’s Word recorded two hundred years before Christ’s birth were in that museum display case. This was a moment that transcended time and space. I was looking at three thousand years of God’s revelation to humanity—God’s revelation to you and to me.

At first glance this sentiment is not necessarily grasped. A few scraps of papyrus (paper made from the interweaving of thinly cut reeds) with some faded handwriting on them hardly screams “This is the very truth of God!” But as I starred at the Hebrew script a line of the text began to make sense. The words before my eyes were these: “Forever, O LORD, your word stands in the heavens.” This is Psalm 119:89 and it was the perfect verse to have on display at this exhibit.

Here are manuscripts of the Old Testament that date to two centuries before Jesus ever preached his promises to the people of Judea. These are the exact same words we still see carefully preserved in our Bibles today. God promises to be faithful to us for all time and this exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota demonstrates how God has fulfilled that promise with the Bible.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the late ‘40s at Qumran (a small settlement at the northern tip of the Dead Sea). Until that time the oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament documents—the documents used to make the Old Testament in our Bibles—only dated back to about eight hundred years AFTER Christ. The manuscripts they found in the caves at Qumran however, bring that date back one thousand years. We now have manuscripts that place every book of the Old Testament (except Esther) two hundred years before the birth of our Lord.

With a thousand years of coping and human interaction separating these two sets of manuscripts, one would suspect these two Old Testament traditions would be drastically different (If you don’t believe me just think about the telephone game) but the Dead Sea Scrolls match up nearly word for word with the documents that make up the Old Testament we are familiar with. That is miraculous. If the words of the Old Testament were merely the propaganda or wisdom of man there is no way the message would have survived intact…but it has! God clearly has his hand in the preservation and translation of the Bible. It truly is his Word and the Dead Sea Scrolls attest to that fact.

The Bible is a way that God has revealed himself to us. It is his clear Word to humanity and as 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” The Bible does more than just give us the Word of God. It also unites us with all of God’s people throughout all of history. The words we read in our Bibles are the same words that Jesus read in the synagogues and preached to his followers. They are the same words that Paul used to show people all over the ancient word that Jesus is the Messiah. They are the same words that St. Augustine used to illustrate faith to his students. The words we read today are the same words that Martin Luther studied to help set the Church back on the right track during the Reformation. And they are the same words our children and grandchildren will read and hear in their churches as the Bible continues to present God’s grace to the world. God’s Word is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow!

O Lord, your words truly do stand firm in heaven FOREVER, and thank you for it. Amen.

The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit will remain at the Science Museum of Minnesota until October 24^th, 2010. If you have the chance to go see this exhibit—to learn about the discovery of the scrolls, their translation, and their importance, I strongly encourage you to do so.

Salvation Ain't Pretty!

Have you ever come across a story from the Bible that you found just repulsive? Have you ever read anything in the Bible that made you cringe? I know I have. There are a number of accounts in the Bible that describe gruesome, frightening, or even disgusting situations. If you need a few examples check out the prophet with dirty underwear in Jeremiah 13:1-11 or the man having a tent peg driven through his temple in Judges 4:14-24.

These are some sickening examples of bizarre stories in the Bible but why would God include such gut-wrenching events in his Word? It is because these accounts show God’s pattern for our salvation—and salvation ain’t pretty. Think about that for a moment. What is our salvation? Our salvation is a payment for all of our sins. That means salvation needs to pay for all the horrifying things people do in our world. Our salvation needs to make up for murder, war, drug addiction, stealing, hate, lust, and all other sins.

With all of the terrible sins in the world our salvation had to be bought at a huge cost (and it was). It cost the life of Jesus. Our salvation was won on the cross. The cross was a Roman method of execution. Death is never pretty and crucifixion is one of the most horrific ways to be put to death. Jesus was whipped, beaten, spit on, and then he was hung on a cross to die of exposure, dehydration, and starvation. But while this is a gruesome scene it accomplishes so much. It accomplishes our salvation—our forgiveness.

When He instituted the Lord’s Supper Jesus says this describing his upcoming sacrifice: “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28). The writer of Hebrews goes on to explain that “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9:22). The price of salvation is the shedding of blood. This is God’s plan and he has shown that throughout the entirety of his Word. The sacrifices of the Old Testament reflect the pattern found in the ultimate sacrifice of Christ. The war and brutal bloodshed of the conquest and period of the judges shows the cost of sacrifice for the salvation of God’s people. And the illustration of Jeremiah wearing a soiled pair of underwear shows God’s relationship to us. Despite our “dirty” sinfulness he chose to pay the price and claim us as his own.

The love of God for you is deep and the price he paid to claim you was great. Our salvation is glorious in that it results in an eternal life spent it heaven surrounded by the love of God, but please remember the lengths God has gone to in order to secure that salvation. He willingly subjected himself to torture and died a grizzly death to win our forgiveness. That is how much he loves us. While salvation has glorious results the way it is accomplished sure isn’t pretty.

Thanks be to God for suffering such an un-pretty punishment for our forgiveness!

Christ Christ Everywhere But Only Jesus Saves

The story of Christ is the cornerstone of our faith: God came to earth. He was born as a man. He performed miracles. He healed the sick. He helped those in need. He was killed—sacrificed—for the benefit of humanity. His death saved us. This is a familiar story to anyone who walks into a church on Sunday. However, this story is usually familiar to those who do not attend church also. This is because the Christ story is not just a central theme to our faith. The Christ story is a central theme of life.

Think about this: how many times have you watched a movie where one character sacrifices their life for the benefit of others? Armageddon, Children of Men, Gran Torino, and the Matrix are just a few examples of this theme. The same pattern can be found in literature. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Lord of the Rings, The Old Man and the Sea, and The Lord of the Flies all have central Christ figures in their plots. These lists do not even begin to number the countless examples of the gospel pattern that can be found in the art of our world. Christ is all around us in the media of our lives. His story is everywhere.

So why is the Christ story all around us? Why is it so prominent in our culture? Many people have tried to answer this question. The famous psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, tried to explain the similarities of plot found in mythology and literature with the idea of a collective unconscious. The basic understanding here is that there is a universal disposition of all mankind to seek self-actualization and the divine. Jung saw this as the heart of all religious belief and as a shared reality for all people. For Jung, the similarities in human art were all a part of our shared desire for perfection.

There are other attempts to explain the Christ story’s prominence in our world as well. Joseph Campbell, a prominent author, posed this theory: the myths (stories) of all cultures and times are merely creative products of the human psyche. He expressed his belief in the 1949 book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. With his book, Campbell gave structure to the underlying myth (or story) of all culture. This underlying myth became known as the “monomyth” or “hero’s journey.” You can probably guess what this “hero’s journey” looked like—that’s right, it looked like the story of Christ. Campbell’s book is used almost like a text book for aspiring writers and Hollywood producers. Campbell’s plot behind the “hero’s journey” is now at the heart of nearly all major motion pictures and novels.

So what is really going on here? Is the Christ story central to mankind because of the work of Joseph Campbell? I say no. I think Campbell stumbled on to a central piece of the human understanding of the world but I do not think it is simply an evolutionary drive for perfection as both Campbell and Jung seem to profess. I believe humanity’s shared understanding of the “hero’s journey” comes from our created nature. I believe all of humanity shares an appreciation for the Christ figure because we naturally need that Christ figure.

Colossians 1: 15-17 states, “¹⁵He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. ¹⁷He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Here God tells us, through the words of Paul, that all things were created by Christ and that it is Christ who holds all things together. Might this be a better explanation for humanity’s connection with the Christ story? I think the evidence speaks for itself when we understand we were created in the image of God (which is Christ according to verse 15) and we realize that all things are connected through this image (verse 17). This means that all of mankind is united by Christ.

Romans 3:23 says “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This means we are all sinful and we all need the redemption found in Christ. Perhaps our universal understanding of the Christ figure is God’s way of revealing that need to us. All of creation truly does cry out in testimony to our savior. The next time you read a book or see a movie that displays the Christ story or a Christ figure I urge you to think about the unity with all humanity you have in the power of Jesus Christ to forgive your sins.