Sometimes the things we don’t understand, but accept as true, because we feel we must, come back to haunt us later. Life is full of fairy tales and myths and legends. So how can you be sure of things you don’t even understand? Faith, is the answer, of course. Faith in our professors when they teach us about things we have not seen or ideas we can’t quite grasp. We have faith in the things that we believe about God that we cannot establish as true. But as a father and pastor, I want to help those I love combine reason with faith so that they won’t be lead away from the truth.
For most of my life, I’ve struggled to fully understanding the relationship between God, the Father, and Jesus, the Son. We’re told to worship only God, and yet here we are, this very morning, worshipping the Son of God. How can that be right?
And how the three can be one, etc. The Trinity is another thing I accept by faith without totally understanding it. Have you ever wondered why did God not simply create sons and daughters, and maybe even a wife? If you read just the Old Testament, knowing nothing about Jesus, you would not be easily be able to identify a trinity, or father-son relationship. It’s somewhat “hidden” in the Old Testament. Now that’s just my humble observation.
But then, as you read the New Testament, and you learn about the Son of God, who has always existed with God, you begin to think, “ah, now that makes sense”.
Think about this: God spoke in the plural pronoun in Genesis—“let us make man in our own image”. Later, in the same book, He instructed how a man and a woman, single, distinctive people, would become“one” in marriage—-“the two shall become one”. And in another book he said: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” The word “one”, used here, is the same “one”, used when God said that a man and woman would become “one”. One, can mean more than one part that form together a single thing. As I learned this, the idea of the Trinity, especially the eternal Father/Son relationship began to make sense.
The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. How are we to understand this? I’ve heard many metaphor and attempts, but here’s what we know for sure, from the Bible. There was always the Father and the Son—always. There never was a time that God, the Father, existed, without Christ, the Son. And from eternity to eternity, an incredible love has existed between the father and the son that defines all we know about love, purpose and our existence. That “energy”—-or that “dance of love”, is what we refer to as the Holy Spirit. It is a part of the Father and the Son—it emanates from them.
Everywhere you go, you hear it said that ‘God is love’. But most folks don’t seem not to notice that the words ‘God is love’ have no real meaning unless God contains at least two Persons. Love is something that one being has for another being. If God was a single being, then before the world was made, He was not love. Of course, what these people mean when they say that God is love is often something quite different: they really mean ‘Love is God’. They really mean that our feelings of love, however and wherever they arise, and whatever results they produce, are to be treated with great respect. Perhaps they are: but that is something quite different from what Christians mean by the statement ‘God is love’. They believe that the living, dynamic activity of love has been going on in God forever and that love has created everything else. “And that, by the way, is perhaps the most important difference between Christianity and all other religions: that in Christianity God is not a static thing—not even a person—but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost….a kind of dance. The union between the Father and the Son is such a live concrete thing that this union itself is also a Person. I know this is almost inconceivable, but look at it thus. You know that among human beings, when they get together in a family, or a club, or a trade union, people talk about the ‘spirit’ of that family, or club, or trade union. They talk about its ‘spirit’ because the individual members, when they are together, do really develop particular ways of talking and behaving which they would not have if they were apart. It is as if a sort of communal personality came into existence. Of course, it is not a real person: it is only rather like a person. But that is just one of the differences between God and us. What grows out of the joint life of the Father and Son is a real Person, is in fact the Third of the three Persons who are God.” C.S. Lewis
But to understand all that’s essential about the Father and the Son, it’s an essential to remember that Jesus is begotten of God, but not “made” by God. An engineer can make a robot, but he “begets” his own children. The engineer might even love the little robot, but it’s still man-made. You and are were not begotten of God—we were created. Humbling to consider, but He made us—-and yet He made us able to become sons of God (“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.” Galatians 3:26, NIV). Jesus is the “only begotten Son” of God (John 3:16). He is the only one who is like God. We are made by God but only become true children of God, miraculously, by adoption, when we enter into the life of Christ…we then become part of His holy family. Apart from Christ we are no more than lifeless, soulless robots—-even though we were created by a loving God. The promise of sonship, though, is the promise that the little robots will come to life! We become begotten of God by becoming like Him, by entering into His life, His body. We become little Christs—i.e. the very brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ! “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” 1 John 3:1 , NIV
Still, do you believe all of this? Do you really believe that Jesus is the eternal son of God? If it is true, why are there some things that the Father knows that Jesus does not? Why does He humble Himself before God? Thomas Aquinas helped me here. He proved that that paternity, that is, being a father, and filiation, which is being the child of a father, are of course, completely different things. A man cannot at the same time be a father and the son. The idea here is that father’s relation to the son delineates a distinction between those two persons.
In the Trinity the Son is not able to be the Father because the Father is paternal—He is the Father. It shows a distinction between the two, and though they are of the same substance they are separate. The Son, Jesus, is distinguished from the Father through His Sonship alone. The Son has all the perfections from all eternity that the Father has. The two have always existed.
One objection to the idea of the Trinity is the fact that Jesus said that the Father was greater than he (John 14:28). Is not Jesus saying that he is somehow less than the Father? That is what those who object to the Trinity would have you believe. Jesus says this because He lacks the relation of paternity—He is not the Father—He is the Son. There are some things that are wholly unique to the Father. A Son, the child, is supposed to be obedient to the Father or parent. It’s been like that for eternity—at least that’s how it’s supposed to be. To be following in Christ’s example is to be obey our fathers and mothers! It’s one of the ten commandments—-for good reason.
But being a divine child does not mean that Jesus is less than, or somehow inferior, to His Father. If that were the case then the Son would lack perfection, and that would not make Him divine. That line of thinking is what lead to heresies in the early church. Regarding this Aquinas writes, “Thus divine sonship is not less perfect than divine fatherhood, just as in the triangle either angle at the base is not less perfect than the angle at the apex”.
Now, why all of this theology this evening? Because I understand a little better now, about the essential matter of honoring the Son of God—Jesus Christ. And the essential element of accepting Jesus, God’s gift, into my heart for salvation. To deny what Jesus did for me, and to refuse to acceptance His free gift of forgiveness, that I might become a son of God, is to not only ignore what Jesus did, but to fire up the wrath of God. Do you understand that? Jesus said, “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Luke 10:16 , NIV). That’s very bad!
Later, we’re told in the book of Acts: And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”( Acts 4:12, NIV). Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6, NIV)
We must embrace the Son. David prophesied in Psalms, “Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” (Psalms 2:12, NIV). We’d better play nice with the Son of God Almighty!
My sons are not perfect, and I know their imperfections more than anyone else, except God. But my anger, corrupt and imperfect as I am, rises to a boiling point when I think that one of them has been disrespected! How much more so, does God’s wrath remain when we ignore His Son? Jesus said that “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:36, NIV). Yikes!
Ok, but most of us in this room believe and have professed that Jesus is the Son of God, and we have placed our hope of eternal life upon the integrity of the resurrection. So let me encourage you to boldly hold on to these truths—because God is going to answer your prayers, protect you and bless you if you give the Son what is due Him. Figuratively speaking, we need to kiss the Son!
Consider these promises: “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19 , NIV). We have no need to ever worry if we believe in, and are honoring the Son! Think about that when you’re financially challenged, or having trouble with something you really need. His arm is not too short or His resources too limited.
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”. (Romans 8:38-39, NIV) Not even the certainty of our demise and eventual death, nor the IRS, or Donald Trump, or Mr Putin are reason for alarm. We’re His—nothing can separate us!
We don’t need to be afraid to stand before God in heaven and have every sin thrown at us. Why?They’re gone! Paul said, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1, NIV. And again, “ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV. We have no reason to worry even in the life to come—we are precious in His sight—-all because of the Son!
If you have confessed and repented of your sins, and received Jesus Christ into your heart, you’re now a part of the eternal family of God. This is what our Heavenly Father wants and why Jesus came! And hear this: God “will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or a goddess, a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly… His own boundless power and delight and goodness”. We are now His! And you can now agree with Paul, that, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20, NIV
Get ready, this week, for the full measure of His blessing! Decide today, that no matter what the enemy whispers, you are a son or daughter, now! “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4, NIV
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