Fellow-Redeemed,
Please do not moan inwardly when I announce after the sermon, “Now we will confess our saving Christian faith in the words of the Athanasian Creed.” The faithful church fathers have handed down to us a treasure. Martin Luther regarded the Athanasian Creed, which “the Father of orthodoxy” did not write but bears his name, as possibly the grandest production of the church since the time of the apostles.
This universal statement of faith among Christians states clearly what the apostle wrote about in this portion of his letter to the Romans. The Majesty and Wonder of the One True God Who is Three Persons. The Spirit leads us. The Father adopts us. The Son suffered for us.
Notice that all three separate and distinct persons in God’s divine nature are active participants in God’s saving activity. The result of that saving activity, Paul wrote, is that believers are “the sons of God.” “We are God’s children.” Faith in Christ brings the full rights of sons as heirs. This is quite different from being a slave. Faith in Christ brings with it our right as adopted children to call God, “Abba,” in Aramaic, “Father” in English. It is the same address our brother, Jesus used in Gethsemane, “Abba. Father, everything is possible with you.”
How do I know that I am in God’s family and no longer a slave to live according to my sinful nature? The Holy Spirit leads my life of sanctification. The Holy Spirit testifies to my spirit that I am God’s child. Those assurances do not make me God’s child but come after the Spirit has called me to faith by the gospel.
We heard last week on Pentecost that the Holy Spirit does not work apart from God’s Word. The good news that Christ is my Savior is the means the Spirit used to bring about my adoption into God’s church through faith. The Word is truth to sanctify my doubting heart. The Word brings courage to my fearful heart. With the gospel of Christ the Spirit leads as I follow him. The Spirit guides me by God’s commandments.
I have had the privilege of a parallel experience with my adopted children. They call me father. I have led them through life and guided them. I have reassured them, testified to their spirits, that indeed they are my children if ever there was fear or doubt. They are equal co heirs with their brother who is not adopted just as we are with Christ, who is God’s one and only begotten, eternal Son,
How is such a familial relationship with the one true God even possible? It is possible because of the majesty and wonder of the One True God Who is Three Persons. We already have touched on the fact that the Father adopts us.
My wife and I adopted two children, made them our own by our choice without any choice on their parts. God graciously has called this way us to the “adoption as sons.” The Father adopts us freely through the work of the Spirit in the word of Christ. He does so because his Father’s heart goes out to us. He gave us new life since as we heard last week we were nothing but dead, dry bones spiritually.
The majesty and wonder of the one true God we see in his saving activity, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
God sent his Son to be born, and to receive the name Jesus, because he would save us from our sins. That perfect Son now also true man was perfect for us. The Father declared Jesus’ perfect obedience to be credited to us and our disobedience, which damns us if only once, credited to him; by that Great Exchange we and the entire world stand justified, declared not guilty, in God’s sight.
Through faith in that work of Christ, the Holy Spirit makes us heirs of the blessings in Jesus’ work; the forgiveness of all our sins, new spiritual life in Christ, and timeless peace and joy in the heavenly realms. In that familial relationship the Spirit leads us. He testifies to our spirits that we are God’s adopted children. We call God “Abba. Father.” We are heirs of God’s glory so long as we share also in his sufferings.
Jesus work was not only his active obedience. The majesty and wonder of the one true God in three persons is that the Son suffered for us.
Here there is no cause and effect in the sense that I earn glory as Christ did if I suffer as he did. Paul is reminding us that both suffering and glory go with the territory of being God’s children. That was the case with Jesus as he suffered as God and man under our sins but then received glory for his work by his resurrection and ascension. Jesus’ suffering is already ours as the Father accepted Jesus’ Passion as the satisfaction of the wages of my sin. Jesus’ glory is ours as we share in his inheritance from the Father at the Father’s right hand. Our suffering comes from our connection to Christ and our holding on to his Word. If we do not give that up, forsake Christ, turn back to the old condition of slavery, then we also will enjoy that future glory.
Jesus willingly suffered and endured temptation, injustice, physical pain, rejection and even death in order to redeem us from our lost condition. As Jesus’ brothers and sisters we can expect the same treatment from his and our enemies. If a bully does not like your family and beats up on your brother, there is a good chance the bully will take every opportunity to beat you up too.
In the end we will share in our brother’s glory by the victory Jesus won over all the bullies who abused him. My own sinful flesh is a bully. Unbelievers are bullies. Satan is a bully. Jesus glorious victory over them is ours.
I hope you have sensed that while it might be easy to divide the saving activity of the three person of the Trinity in a sermon outline under the theme The Majesty and Wonder of the One True God Who is Three Persons, it is not so easy to do practically. See how the great apostle combines the work of all three to take us from orphans to the children of God to share in Christ’s glory.
When you speak about the work of one of the persons, you are also speaking about the work of the other two. Our redemption and salvation is the Trinity’s saving activity and any one work cannot be parsed out to only one of the persons. Yet, as we will soon confess, the persons are always separate; one is never the other.
I pray the Spirit’s words from the apostle’s pen will help you understand and better appreciation the creed that bears Athanasius’ name. Amen. <SDG>