‘Children Everlastingly’ Trinity Sunday, 27 May 2018 Banyule Anglican Church Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 29; Romans 8:12-17
Introduction
Without the Trinity, we ‘will perish everlastingly’. This seems like a shocking statement, but it is exactly what the Athanasian Creed claims, which we will later confess together and which our Anglican Church regards as an authoritative creed. The Creed says ‘Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he [or she] hold the catholic faith; which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he[or she] shall perish everlastingly. And the catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity.’ But is this really true? You might think ‘Sure. The Trinity is important, and it should be on the list of things Christians believe. But to say that without the Trinity we will everlastingly die seems over the top.’ Well, our passage from Romans 8 shows that without the Trinity we willactually die. And by the end of today I hope we will see that the Athanasian Creed actually is true and accurate in its claim.
But first I want us to see why we have this day in our church calendar. Our church calendar year started with Advent in November, and through our different seasons we have followed along with the life and work of Christ. In Advent, we pay attention to Christ’s promised coming and return, in Christmas we celebrate his birth, and during Lent and Easter we reflected on Christ’s suffering and death and rejoiced in his victory over the powers of death. Last Sunday, of course, we celebrated Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Spirit. And today, Trinity Sunday, marks the end of the first half of our church calendar year. And this gives us an opportunity to look back on the events we commemorated, and to see that all of it was actually the work of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Today, we zoom in and pay close attention to our triune God.
A Difficult Doctrine?
Now, the doctrine of the Trinity is usually avoided by Christians. Often Christians think that it is an abstract and confusing doctrine, and because of this it is irrelevant to everyday life. You also may be someone who is all about doing, you do not just like information but application. But the Christian faith is not about lifestyle change. It is about knowing God. It is about knowing the God who made everything that exists, and that has offered us deliverance from the evil of the world. And since God is a Trinity, it is impossible to know him deeply without thinking about his triune nature. So, we cannot avoid thinking about the doctrine of the Trinity.
Well, the doctrine is not actually difficult or mysterious. It is actually very clear. The doctrine of the Trinity states that there is only one God, but that this one God consists of three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These Persons are different to each other, but they are equal in divinity, power, eternity, majesty, and glory, so that there is really only one God. So, one God, who is three Persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, in this doctrine, all words are used in a very limited way. The numbers one and three are not literal. The oneness of God is not a number but means that God is absolutely unique; there is nothing else like him. And the number three is not literal but describes how God is complete perfection and not in need of anything outside himself. With or without the world, God is perfect and complete. But while the doctrine is clear, that there is one God but three Persons, the reality it describes, the reality it points to, is incomprehensible.
Now, we usually like to think that if we cannot fully understand or comprehend something, then it is nonsense. This is because we, influenced by the Enlightenment, think of our knowledge as something that takes dominion over the world. Much like modern science, our knowledge subdues the world and takes it captive to our understanding. But this is a very recent understanding of knowledge, very different to that of the ancient world. St Augustine, whose work on the Trinity is invaluable to us today, spoke of knowledge as ‘the love of the mind’. He saw knowledge as something that can be loved or delighted in for its own sake, rather than having to dominate what it tries to learn. It was only later with the Enlightenment where we became used to the idea that if something cannot be fully explained by our reason, it therefore is irrational. And theologians have always maintained that the Trinity is not something that we can reason to, but is something only God can reveal to us.
So, just because we cannot fully understand the Trinity, that does not mean it is nonsense. In fact, without the Trinity, so much of the Bible will actually become nonsense, as we will see with Romans 8. The doctrine is not a mathematical puzzle, but simply expresses coherently how the Bible speaks about God. The doctrine reminds us that God is not one of us, nor is he like anything else within the world. He is not an object on the same level that we are, only higher. Rather, he is a reality that is completely distinct from this world. In other words, the doctrine of the Trinity keeps us from worshipping an idol.
So What?
Now, I have talked about the actual doctrine of the Trinity, the way we distinguish that there is one God but three Persons. And you might now be thinking, ‘So what? What difference does this make?’ This is a good question, and the answer is that the Trinity does make a big difference. Imagine if God was just one Person, not three. We are then left with trying to make sense of passages like Romans 8. Have a look in your pew sheets. St Paul tells us that we are led by the Spirit, that we are children of God, that we call God ‘Father’, and that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If God is just one Person, then the Spirit must be an impersonal force. But how can the Spirit then bear witness to us that we are God’s children? How can the Spirit make us cry ‘Abba! Father!’? Someone might answer that while God is just one Person, he takes on the different roles of Father, Son and Spirit. But while this answer might explain how the Spirit can bear witness to us, that leaves us with an even greater problem: if God takes on these different roles, how can he be our Father while he is in the role of the Spirit? For Paul is saying that by the witness of the Spirit we call God ‘Father’. If he is just one Person, then God cannot be in the role of the Spirit and in the role of the Father at the same time. But this is exactly what Paul is saying. So, if God is just one Person, then Paul is speaking nonsense.
Further we may ask, how can we be heirs of God and heirs with Christ at the same time? If Christ or God the Son is just one role the single-Person God takes up, then as soon as God changes into the role of the Spirit, we are no longer heirs of Christ. So, we see that getting rid of the Trinity does not make things easier. It actually complicates matters even more. A single-Person God leaves us with a God with bipolar disorder, who switches between different and unpredictable episodes. And this leaves us wondering, where we fit in.
It actually is the doctrine of the Trinity that helps us make more sense of the passage. Remember, there is only one God, but three Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each Person is equal in divinity, majesty, and glory. The Persons are distinguished from each other, but each of them are fully God. With this in mind, Romans 8 makes sense. The Holy Spirit leads us and makes us children of God. The Spirit makes us cry ‘Abba! Father’ to God the Father, and as the Father’s children, we are heirs of him, and heirs of the Son—Christ. God does not switch between roles because God always is Father, Son, and Spirit.
Salvation: A Triune Work
All this shows that our salvation, our deliverance from the evil of the world, is itself a triune work of God. I opened this sermon by mentioning the claim of the Athanasian Creed that without the Trinity we ‘shall perish everlastingly’. And by looking at Romans 8, this should be clear. We saw, that we become children of the Father, along with the Son, and that this is sealed or confirmed by the Holy Spirit, who bears witness to this. Here, salvation is not talked about in terms of forgiveness of sins, but as adoption as children.
The Son and the Holy Spirit enjoyed their divine life with the Father from eternity. And this one God has reached out to us to include us in his eternal joy. This is what it means to be made children, rather than slaves. We are made children of the Father, alongside the Son and the Spirit. And because God the Son came down to us on earth, and because the Spirit also has come down and lifts us up to heaven, we participate in the life of the Trinity. We are children, not slaves.
If God were a single-Person God, then he would not be personally and intimately present with us, but a distant and far ruler. As we saw, this kind of God would have to switch between roles and personalities. But because God is triune, because the Holy Spirit truly is God and not just an impersonal force, he brings us into the blessed fellowship he shares with the Father and the Son. And just as Jesus knew the Father from all eternity, so we now know him too. We share in the life of the Trinity. This is what salvation is. This is what it means to be heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, as St Paul says.
Suffering as Children
Well, St Paul concludes our reading with the promise that if we suffer with Christ, we will also be glorified with him. All of us gathered here might be suffering in different ways. Whether it is struggling because of old age, relational difficulties, or grieving because we have lost dear friends like Crystal and Cathy. We suffer and struggle. But Paul reminds us that we suffer as children of the Father, alongside Christ. Even though Jesus was in perfect fellowship with the Father, he came into our world and was not spared from suffering. In our series on Mark we have seen how people opposed Jesus and we know that he died on the cross. But just like Jesus, so we also in our suffering cannot be separated from the Father. We suffer as children of God, and nothing can change this. Not even death. And since we are united to God in this way, if we suffer, we will also be glorified. When Jesus returns, he will restore the world to peace and harmony, and our human relationships will reflect the life Jesus shares with the Father and the Spirit—immortal life, joy, peace, and harmony.
Conclusion
So, in conclusion, it becomes clear why the Athanasian Creed claims that without the Trinity we ‘shall perish everlastingly’. This does not mean that unless we perfectly understand the Trinity, we will die. No, as we saw, the reality the doctrine describes is incomprehensible. Rather, the reason why we shall perish everlastingly is because without the Trinity, salvation is impossible. Unless God is triune, unless he is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we would still be in the flesh. If the Spirit were not God, he would be unable to make us children of the Father. If God were a single Person, we would be slaves, rather than children. And our salvation would not be sharing in the fulness and joy of the perfect love between Father, Son, and Spirit.
So, on this Trinity Sunday, we rejoice that God has revealed to us his triune nature. That we have become partakers in the love and union between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who is the one and only one true God, from all eternity. We rejoice that we will lost perish everlastingly but that we are children everlastingly. Amen.