Well here we are on Trinity Sunday. Even though in practice we are Trinitarian each week, this is the one Sunday of the church year where there is a specific focus on the Holy Trinity—that there is only One God yet three distinct Persons who are completely and equally divine: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
How can we possibly understand this? Well, we can’t. Since the church’s infancy people have tried to fit the incomprehensible God into mere human reason and logic, with many teachings falling short of how God has revealed himself in Scripture. The early church was confronted with heresies which threatened to draw people into unbelief. Many taught that Jesus was not true God with the Father, but a created being. Others said that over history the one God morphed into different forms—first the Father, then the Son, then the Holy Spirit. Some said that while there was One God as three distinct Persons, they were not equally God but in a hierarchy from greatest to least in divine nature.
Teachings like these still endure today, the belief of groups like the Jehovah’s witnesses and Christadelphians. Although they claim to be a part of the church, groups such as these deny that Jesus is truly divine, Son of the Father from eternity, and assert that the Holy Spirit is not a divine Person but merely a power or force.
Does all this really matter? Well, yes! it’s actually a matter of life and death. We need to have certainty that we are worshipping and confessing the One True God. The early Christians needed to have this same certainty too, which is why the Nicene, Apostles’ and Athanasian Creeds were developed. What did the theologians who formulated those Creeds do? They did not go to their reason and intellect to construct images and teachings of who God is. They went to Scripture. They went to the Bible and gathered a picture of God through his own self-revelation in his word. These creeds are still used in the Church’s worship today. Anyone who confesses them is a Christian, and any Christian can, and should, confess these creeds. The creed we use most regularly at St Paul’s is the Nicene Creed. did you notice the Creed has as much focus on what God does, as who he is.
That is true of today’s readings too. They don’t even attempt to explain the Holy Trinity. What they do explain is how the Triune God—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit—are in close relationship and work together in bringing saving help to the world, and to us, so that we are made right with God—justified by him—through faith.
Justification is technical theological language. It is a legal term. Justification is a type of defence that exempts the defendant from liability because the defendant’s actions were justified, or not wrong. Picture this: you are in a courtroom in the Sir Samuel Way Building, the South Australian Supreme Court. You are tightly packed in with other people in the public gallery. You see the police prosecutor up the front bringing evidence against the defendant, who is sweating and fidgeting in his pockets. The judge before him has a fearsome presence. The defendant is about to be sentenced. After hearing the evidence, the jury deliver their verdict: “We find the defendant not guilty, your honour.” The jury believed that in this case, the defendant’s actions were justified; they did not act wrongfully. They are not guilty. The judge tells the defendant that they are free to go, and you see them exhale a deep, deep sigh of relief.
Now picture this courtroom scene: you are not sitting in the public gallery. You are the defendant. The police prosecutor at the front brings evidence against you—plenty of evidence. The jury recess to consider their verdict. They return not long after, and you know you’re in trouble. The courtroom is hushed. You are damp all over with perspiration and your pulse is thumping. If convicted, you face life imprisonment. The jury representative is motioned to stand and give the jury’s verdict: “We find the defendant guilty, your honour.” A chill goes down your spine and your mind sinks into thoughts of despair. But the judge simply says: “The defendant is free to go. Case dismissed.” The gallery gasp in bewilderment and there is an eruption of astonished chatter. You think you’ve misheard, but as the guard leads you out of the dock the reality of what has just happened sinks in. Even though you are guilty, you have been justified.
This is sometimes used as a picture of what Christian justification—being declared right—and put right—with God looks like. The defendant (that’s us) is guilty before God. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. The prosecution (that’s God’s law) brings a pile of evidence against us. We are guilty as charged. But the judge, God, dismisses the case and we are declared innocent before him.
That would never happen in a real courtroom trial because the justice system exists to make people accountable to the law by punishing and restraining wrongdoing. The problem with the defendant walking free is that there is no payment for what they have done; there would be no restitution made, no accountability, no justice. And that would be a problem for God, too. He is a loving God, of course, but he is also a holy God who must punish sin. How can he show his compassion to people but at the same time maintain justice and uphold his holy standards?
Verse 8 from today’s reading from Romans: “While we were sinners, Christ died for us.” God’s law condemns us—we are guilty. God’s commandments show us over and over our guilt before him—we have not obeyed him in thought, word and deed. We have not loved him or loved our neighbour as ourselves. We have walked by the flesh and not the Spirit. Then Jesus came, not to relax the law, but to bring it to its sharpest focus. He says even the thought of hating someone is committing murder in our heart, even merely looking lustfully at another is committing adultery in our heart. His word is living and active, sharper than any other double-edged sword, penetrating to the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. No-one is hidden from God’s sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we cannot make coverings for ourselves or hide from God. And just to remind God of our guilt, the devil accuses God’s people day and night (Revelation 12:10).
When God looks at our track record he must say we are guilty. But he transfers the sentence of our guilt to be served by someone else: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Because of his great love for all people, God sent Jesus into the world to pay the wages of sin—death—for us. As Jesus stood, being sentenced before Pilate, it was the Father who sentenced Jesus to the die. Though he is innocent, and we are guilty, Jesus is the one who was sentenced to the death penalty in our place. He took God’s punishment on sin for us.
Being justified by faith does not just mean believing a fact—that Jesus exists as the Son of God. Saving faith is trusting in Jesus’ perfect obedience for us, looking to his good works and righteousness for us, clinging to Christ and his Cross as our only hope for righteousness before God, the only sufficient payment for our sin, the only grounds for divine help, forgiveness and salvation. It is only by trusting in Jesus’ good works—his life, suffering, death and resurrection for our right standing before God—that we have this right standing before God.
In today’s reading Paul gives us the wonderful assurance that those who look to Christ and his work of salvation have already been justified by faith. That is only because the Triune God has first gone to work for us: God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit working through God’s living and active word that we have come to faith. God the Father has poured out the Holy Spirit through Jesus his ascended Son, to bring you and I to faith in Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Holy Spirit has given us new birth by water and the word and lifts the scales from our eyes to see our only hope is in Christ crucified. He gives us new hearts to love Christ and cherish his word.
Those who look to themselves for righteousness before God must pay the penalty of their sin themselves. But because the Holy Spirit has led us to pin our hopes on Jesus as the way God has won salvation for sinners, God the Father says we are justified. We are exempted from paying the penalty for our sin, because it has already been paid by Jesus. Having been brought to saving faith by God at work in our heart, we have personal access to God the Father, who gives us his grace for Christ’s sake.
God has given you personal access to the Father. And as you stand with Jesus before your Father in Heaven, Jesus intercedes for you. He advocates for you. His wounds are your advocate; your justifier, speaking a louder word than the condemnation of the law and the accusations of Satan. Through Jesus we have peace, because there is no further sentencing necessary than Jesus’ punctured hands and wounded side. The blood he has poured out has cleansed you by washing away all your sin, so that you can have peace with God.
So having this peace with God means we can rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. This hope is not a mere wish but means a sure and certain confidence, that because of Christ’s saving work for us we shall see him in heavenly glory and share in this glory forever. This hope will not disappoint us because God has already accomplished everything necessary for us to share life with him in heaven forever. Does that seem too good to be true?
We thought the Trinity was hard to understand…how about justification by faith, salvation by grace! Something as Christians we say all the time, and a teaching especially dear to our Lutheran heritage. We might know and confess that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world…yet how often are we are tempted to fall back on the human default way of thinking and behaving: that God is more pleased with us, or less pleased with us because of human performance.
If we reflect deeply and honestly…how often are we tempted to think God is less pleased with us after we’ve sinned than before? Do we begrudge God showing the same favour to a Christian who is lapsing into old patterns of behaviour, or who hasn’t come to church for years, as he does to us who have been here every Sunday and have put on the plate every week and served on every committee? Do we feel that inner warmth of contentedness with our religious performance…and frown upon others in our midst who do not present and perform as we would expect? Do we compare ourselves to a brother or sister who are particularly dedicated and say of them: “They’re a saint!” In all these ways, we are thinking the way of the flesh, not the spirit, that God’s favour depends on our effort, not his grace.
So picture one last courtroom scene. The court is in session. Suddenly, a child enters the courtroom. They run right up to the judge. As the gallery gasps in astonishment, the child whispers something into the judge’s ear. The judge reaches into his pocket, and fumbling around, places some coins in the child’s hand. The child smiles, turns around, skips down the aisle, and exits the room. They had no fear to personally approach the judge boldly and ask for a favour, because the judge was their father.
That is the reality Jesus has won for you. God is Judge over everybody, but he is not everybody’s Father. But God is your Father, and you are his child, for he has poured out the Holy Spirit into your hearts to pin your hopes on Christ alone and cling to Jesus’ Cross for life with him. It is a life that has already begun now and will continue in glory forever. And it is given by your Father in Heaven completely as a free gift, quite apart from any of your work and effort. So you too can always go boldly to the Judge and ask for his favour, because that Judge is your Father, through faith in Jesus, who both live and reign with the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
