Easter Thoughts about the Trinity March 29 2007

I was praying for a friend today as I read John's gospel reading in the daily lectionary, from John 10. She is trying to get a handle on the reformed understanding of the Trinity, coming from a Pentecostal Christian tradition. (Even for us Presbyterian seminary trained folks, the Trinity is a tough doctrine to grasp, let alone articulate). Jesus is talking to the doubters and the believers about himself.
²⁷My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand. ³⁰The Father and I are one."

Here's what came to mind as I enter Holy Week:

What God the Father gave Jesus was eternal life in God’s own self, and this is what God has given us who believe in Jesus as Savior-God, who embraced the agony of the cross for our salvation. God became human so God could gather the sheep near in a way God had never done before, so that God could be near to them in a real and physical way. So that God could save them, dying for our sins, once for all. Humans needed to hear God’s voice as a sheep hears the shepherd’s voice, and cares for them. So God became man. And in this man was all that God is, was and ever will be. John 1:1-12 – “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus) and the Word was with God and the Word WAS God…” God became human so we could identify with the passion of God, and suffering of God, and God with ours.

Then God sent the Spirit, after God died for us (In the Trinitarian sense, It was GOD who died for us in Christ), to be with us forever providing an endless source of faith, grace, forgiveness, power, strength, courage, wisdom, hope, knowledge, etc.

The Lord God who lived, died and rose is the Trinitarian God. The three are one. And in all of these acts as well as other mighty acts of God, they are one – in the creation of the world, in the incarnation, in the miracles and ministry on earth, in the death and resurrection, in eternity, at the judgment at the end of the age. Like water, steam and ice - one substance, three forms, various functions. The Trinity existed before time, and was manifested in one form or the other throughout time, and will be there for all time, even at the end of time.

Next week we will sing the old hymn, "Jesus Christ is risen today". Jesus reminds us,
"I and the Father are one." As Jesus rises to give us new life, so we are reminded of God's eternal character, and lasting promise that we who believe shall dwell with God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, on earth and in heaven, now and forever. Amen.

Long live the risen Lord.