Calvary Lutheran Church

Why Belief in the Trinity Is the True Saving Faith

May the God of peace fill you with all joy in believing. Amen.

Matthew 28:19

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Dear Christian Friends:

“This is the true Christian faith. Whoever does not faithfully and firmly believe this cannot be saved."

So ends the Athanasian Creed that we just patiently read. What did you think when you read these words? Did you think, “This doctrine of the Trinity must really be important, maybe I should go home and read it over again slowly.” Or, did you think, “Is this doctrine of the Trinity really that important, that my eternal salvation depends upon it?”

In our day and age when doctrine tends to be ignored, when emotionalism takes top priority, and when pluralism (the ideal that all religions are equally valid) runs rampant, this statement sounds so harsh, so cruel, so restrictive. Perhaps this creed is just the product of another era when you could be put to death for what you believed or not believed, but certainly not today in our age of tolerance. Would we still say today that “Whoever does not faithfully and firmly believe this cannot be saved?” Let me answer that question for you from Scripture. This morning:

WHY BELIEF IN THE TRINITY IS THE TRUE SAVING FAITH.

If someone owed you money and wrote out a check, but put the wrong name on the check (it could be any name but not yours), it would be worthless. The bank would not recognize it. They would say, “We don’t know who this person on the check is, but it is not you. You are not getting any money.” If having the right name on a check is important to banks, having the right name for God is paramount.

You call God by any other name than his revealed name, and he does not recognize your prayer, your worship, or your faith. Why is that? Because God’s name is who he is, and so God’s glory is in his name. Isaiah wrote for God, “I am the Lord; that is my name? I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols” (Isaiah 45:21). So when a Freemason calls god the “Great Architect of the Universe,” or when a terrorist calls out “Allah is Great,” or a Buddhist calls god “Buddha,” or a Hindu calls god “Vishnu,” or someone addresses god as “the man upstairs,” it is all idolatry. It is crediting someone else with a glory that belongs only to God. And God will not give his glory to another, especially when those others do not even exist.

And that is because there is only one true God. Moses wrote, “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” (Deuteronomy 6:4,5). There is only one God—not two, not three, not a thousand, not 10,000, but one. This is called “monotheism.” “Mono” means “one,” “theism” means God—one God. The reason God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans was to remove him from the many gods of his fathers. The reason God wanted Joshua to completely destroy all the people of the land of Canaan was so that his people would not be tempted to worship their many gods. Polytheism runs rampart in the ancient religions and the folklore of the world today. “Poly” means “many,” “theism” means “god,” so many gods.  

So God does not give his glory to another, nor will he have his name placed alongside that of another. When King Darius of Babylon passed a law that for the next 30 days his subjects were to pray only to him, Daniel said “No.” But it was only for 30 days. After the 30 days Daniel could go back to praying to his God. But Daniel said “No, cannot do it. I will face hungry lions before I pray to another god.” And God rewarded Daniel by shutting the lions’ mouths.

Today, many place gods alongside the one true God, like the god of evolution. Some will say, “Evolution is not a religion, it is a science.” But any belief system that creates life out of non-life has the god of evolution. Today, many place alongside the one true God the god of radical environmentalism. Yes, we should respect the environment; yes, we should stop polluting; yes, we should recycle; but a tree is not god. Mother Nature is not god. That is called pantheism. “Pan” means “all,” “theism” means “god.” So pantheism means everything is god. The person who says I can worship god by walking in the woods instead of walking into a church to hear the Word is really a pantheist. You can look at a tree all day and not know that Jesus died on a tree. And because nature is considered god, it is sacred, it should be worshiped, and it should be left as is—natural. But the God you worship is the God who reveals his true name in his Word, who is a personal, living God, not pantheism; and who is the one and only God, not polytheism. This is what makes the one God of the Trinity the true saving faith.

But also, in the beginning when it came time for God to create man, the Bible reads, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,” (Genesis 1:26). In Isaiah, we read that the angels who worship God in heaven say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty” (Isaiah 6:3). And in the Gospel lesson for today the formula for baptizing was, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19). In other words, these three names are to be used when bringing a person to faith in the one true God, and each of the three names is to be given equal credit, equal status, equal authority in the process. So now we are introduced to the fundamental teaching of the triune God. “Tri” means “three,” “uni” means “one,” so three persons in one God. All three are equal in majesty and power, all three are eternal, all three are God, but there are not three gods only one God. It is a mystery.

Augustine in the 4^th century, perhaps the greatest church father of all time, was once in great distress because he couldn’t comprehend the Trinity. One night he had a dream in which he was walking along the seashore. He saw a little child who had dug a hole in the sand, and was dipping the ocean water into the hole with a shell. “What are you doing?” Augustine asked. “I’m going to empty the water of the ocean into this hole,” was the reply. “You will never be able to do that,” said Augustine. “True,” said the child, “but it is just as foolish for you to try to empty the mysteries of the Triune God into your little mind.” Augustine was never bothered with the mystery of the Triune God again.

So there is a living, distinct person of the Trinity who is called God the Father. Next Sunday is Father’s Day when we will honor our father and grandfather for who they are and what they do for us. But it is God who honors fathers the most by giving them a title that is equal to his own.

What does “father” mean to a Christian? The term implies, first of all, a strong, persistent love. It is a love that doesn’t stop or give up when things get tough. Sort of like in Jesus’ parable of the father of the lost son, who spent his inheritance on wild living, but when he went back to his father in repentance, he was welcomed with open arms. God the Father loves and forgives his repentant children. The term “father” implies solid foundation and a model for right living. Sort of like the military general, Joshua, who said, “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord,” (Joshua 24:15). The term “father” implies sometimes tough love that is willing to inflict discipline and suffering knowing in the long run it will benefit the child. Sort of like God the Father who disciplines his children with trials and testings of their faith, but only to make them stronger. The term “father” implies a source of blessings. A father provides for the physical and especially the spiritual needs of his family, if he is able. Sort of like God the Father who is the ultimate source for all our needs of body and soul.

But the term “father” also implies “offspring.” And indeed, God the Father has offspring, his only-begotten Son. But this does not imply that God the Father gave birth to his Son, or that there was a time when the Son did not exist, or that the Son is someone less than the Father. Just the opposite. The word “Son” implies that what is true about the Father is true about the Son. You children have a father. Your father is human, you are human; your father is mortal, you are mortal. So it is with God the Father’s Son. The Father is God, the Son is God. The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal. This is what makes the Trinity the true saving faith. Because Jesus once said that all should “honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him” (John 5:23). If Jesus does not receive the same honor and glory and majesty as the Father, then the Father does not receive the honor and glory and majesty either. If Jesus is not worshipped as God, then God the Father is not worshipped as God.

If Jesus is not God, then he could not have kept the law perfectly for you. If Jesus is not God, then his death on the cross could not have paid for the sins of the whole world. If Jesus is not God, then he could not have risen from the dead and your faith is futile, you are still in your sins. But because God has a Son, and because that Son is God, then by faith in the Son we are the adopted children of God. This is why belief in the Trinity is the true saving faith.  

So there is also a living, distinct person of the Trinity called God the Son. But finally, there is a living, distinct person of the Trinity called God the Holy Spirit. The word “Spirit” in both the Hebrew and Greek means “wind.” The Holy Spirit is the Holy Wind. That doesn’t mean that the Spirit is merely a force like the force of gravity as Jehovah’s Witnesses would say. No, the Spirit is a personable being as well. Ananias and Sapphira did not lie to the wind in Acts 5, but to a personal being. Wind does not describe his essence, but his mode of operation. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water (that’s baptism) and the Spirit . . . The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3: 5,8)). The Holy Spirit works behind the scene. You cannot always observe his activity, nor can you control it. But the Spirit’s work is to being people to faith through the Word and Sacraments. We can encourage, we can witness, but we cannot bring people to faith. On Pentecost, the Spirit gave the disciples gifts which they used to preach the gospel, and 3,000 were converted in one day—that was the power of the Holy Spirit.

So also, the Spirit brought you to faith through baptism and the Word. Your body right now is the temple, the shrine, the home of the Holy Spirit. His work is called “sanctification” which means to “make holy.” You were made holy when you came to faith and your sins were washed away. And you live holy lives of good works sanctified by the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is not God then none of us should be here today, for the Holy Spirit makes believers and then gathers them into his church. That is why Paul’s blessing to the Corinthians was, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all,” (1 Corinthians 13:14). That is why belief in the Trinity is the true saving faith.

“This is the true Christian Faith. Whoever does not faithfully and firmly believe this cannot be saved.” Too harsh? Too cruel? Too restrictive” Only if the Creed is not true. But if it is true, based on the Scriptures, then this creed is the most beloved statement of faith ever written on the Trinity, because it identifies who the true God is and why he alone is to be worshipped and praised. Amen.

Let us pray:

Almighty God and Father, dwelling in majesty and mystery, filling and renewing all creation by your eternal Spirit, and manifesting your saving grace through our Lord Jesus Christ: in mercy cleanse our hearts and lips that, free from doubt and fear, we may ever worship you, one true immortal God, with your Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.