John 1:1-3: The Glorious Trinity

Intro

The Doctrine of the Trinity.

There is One God who eternally exists in three Divine Persons: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Trinity is one of those doctrines that most Christians don’t quite understand.

It might even be fair to say it somewhat scares us.

We can’t exactly comprehend how it works…How God can be One God and yet three persons.

And it seems that if you just say one wrong word, you might accidentally end up a heretic.

And so most Christians, unfortunately, see the Trinity as an essential doctrine you have to believe, but one that shouldn’t be touched.

And so we leave it in the corner covered with dust and assume that while the Trinity is important, it is functionally irrelevant for our everyday the Christian life.

I hope to fix that today.

The Doctrine of the Trinity is absolutely glorious.

Indeed, it is the doctrine more than any other, that makes us Christian in the first place.

Its not irrelevant, but it makes all the difference in the world for who God is, who we are, and what it means to be saved in Jesus Christ.

The 1689 London Baptist Confession says This truth of the Trinity is the foundation of all of our fellowship with God and of our comforting dependence on Him (2:3).

Have you ever though of the Trinity like that?

The foundation for our fellowship with God and a doctrine that comforts us in our dependence on Him?

That’s a far cry from the stuffy, irrelevant, incomprehensible view most people have about the Trinity today.

So...

What does the doctrine of the Trinity tell us about who God is, who we are, and what it means to be saved in Jesus Christ?

Why did God reveal it? And What difference did He want it to make in our life?

We are going to have three points:

Number One: Jesus Christ is Eternal God

Number Two: God is Trinity

And Number Three: God is Love.

By the end of this sermon I hope that you see...

God is love because God is Trinity. And Because God is love, He saves us from our all of our sins through faith in Jesus Christ.

Let’s start with point number 1...

I. Jesus Christ is Eternal God

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Jesus is God!

He is the GodMan! The Eternal Son of God who took on human flesh and the One True Mediator who alone can save us from our sins.

This is one of the most important verses in the entire Bible, for understanding who Christ is and what He accomplished in His sinless life, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection.

In fact it is not too bold to say that all of Christian theology, all of our faith rises and falls on this verse.

And what it says is very simple. Jesus is God.

He is the incarnate Word. Truly and fully God and truly and fully man.

This is the difference between Christians and non-Christians.

People might say Jesus was a good man. A wise teacher. Maybe even a myth.

But only Christians worship Him as eternal God.

And what an amazing statement. Jesus Christ eternal God? He was a man!

Even John who wrote this verse says in 1 John 1 We have seen Him. Looked upon Him. Touched Him with our hands (1 John 1:1).

How is Jesus God?

John tells us. John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

The Eternal Son of God took on human flesh to save us from our sins.

If this is true, this changes everything.

If Jesus Christ really was God, then everything He said was true.

He alone paid for our sins.

He alone is the way to worship God the Father

He alone gives eternal life and there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

If Jesus was God, then that means you must believe in Him. Trust in Him. Follow Him. Live all of your life for Him.

Turning your back on Him means turning your back on God, and if you turn your back on God you will die in your sins and face everlasting judgment.

So what does John say about the glory of the Eternal Son of God?

In the beginning was the Word.

Now I don’t want to burden this sermon with too much Greek, but we need to do some so you can see just how profound what John is saying actually is.

In the beginning automatically should make you think of Genesis 1:1. The creation of the world. The creation of all things.

And John says In the beginning when everything was created, was the Word.

That word was is the imperfect tense of the Greek verb Eimi, which means to be or exist.

And the imperfect tense is used to describe a continuing action in the past.

In other words, in the beginning, when everything was made that was made, the Word of God, Jesus Christ, was. He was already continually existing.

He was not created and He never came to be. He already was.

If John had wanted to say that the Word was created in the beginning, he could have used the greek word ginomai, when he says that all things were made, were created through Him in verse 3.

So when John uses was, as in to be or exist, he is saying in no uncertain terms, Jesus Christ is eternal.

He existed before anything that was made, was made.

And this is made explicitly clear in verse 3.

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

This verse proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus Christ is eternal God and not a created being who is lower than God because all things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.

What that means is that all things, absolutely everything that you could take and put in the category of “made” was made through Christ.

John even makes it emphatic. Without Him not one thing was made that was made.

And that includes Christ Himself.

If Christ were made, if He were a created being or even the first, highest, and premier created being like the ancient Christian Heresy Arianism taught, that means Jesus would have had to create himself before He ever existed in the first place.

All things were made through Him.

But that’s impossible. You can’t create yourself if you don’t already exist to begin with.

That means that not even the God the Father created Jesus, because all things, everything God made, was made through Him.

Therefore...Christ was not made.

He is eternal. And because God alone is eternal, that means Christ must be eternal God worthy of all praise and worship.

John goes on.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

When John says that the Word was with God, its not just saying that the Word existed with God in eternity past.

The Greek is much richer than that.

The word with is the word pros where the Greek word prosopon, or face, comes from.

So the word with here is “with” as in: two people walking alongside each other. An interpersonal relationship between two persons.

Maybe the best way you could translate this verse to get the full idea would be to say the Word was face-to-face with God.

The Word was in deep, personal, eternal communion and close fellowship with God.

What that tells us is that the Word who existed with God in eternity past, was not an impersonal force, but an actual person distinct from God but in close personal relationship with Him.

Well does that mean there’s two God.

No. Look what John says one step further.

And the word was with God, and the Word was God.

Not only was the Word face-to-face with God in deep, personal fellowship with Him.

The Word was God.

So the Word was with God, distinct from God from God in His person, but at the same time identical with Him.

He was not a separate Being from God making Him a “lesser God” because God alone is Most High and totally unique; there’s none like Him.

We must say that the Word of God is God’s very self. The very essence of God.

He is not just God’s co-eternal Fellow with Him, He is eternal God Himself.

John emphasizes this in verse 2.

He was in the beginning with God.

He basically repeats verse 1 to pound the hammer and highlight two things.

That 1. The Word is co-eternal with God

And 2. That the Word was face-to-face with God in close, personal relationship with Him.

The radiance of the glory of God and the full manifestation of the glory of all that God is.

So don’t miss the big idea what John is saying.

Jesus is eternal God. He was not created. He was not just a man. He was God mad flesh.

In every way He is high and lifted up, equal with God the Father, and worthy of all our worship.

John starts His Gospel this way so that you and I would read every word with awe and wonder that this God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the very one we rebelled and sinned against would dwell with us, take on human flesh, and lay down His life for our sin.

But this is where I want to go off the beaten path, because another thing this verse shows us is that God is Trinity.

He is One God eternally existing as three Divine Persons: the Father, the Son who John calls here the Word, and the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine of the Trinity is how we understand how the Word was with God and was God.

And in studying the Trinity we will see the glory of who God truly is.

Point number 2...

II. God is Trinity

The Trinity is a mysterious doctrine, but essential.

Deuteronomy 29:29 says The secret things belong to the Lord our God.

God is infinite and beyond our understanding to fully comprehend.

In fact, even our language to try and describe the Trinity no matter how theologically precise always seems to fall short of who God really is.

When we say the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit love one another is God One or more than One?

Keep that in mind as I try to teach this wonderful doctrine and try to understand everything I say as it relates to the whole.

Otherwise you might end up making me a heretic.

So the Trinity is beyond our full comprehension and understanding, and in that sense the Trinity is a mystery.

It is something that was once hidden, something we would have never found on our own, and a doctrine that had to be revealed.

I actually think the doctrine of the Trinity is one of the proofs of Christianity because if you were making up a God and a religion, the Trinity isn’t even something we could have ever imagined, much less established as a central doctrine to our faith.

And make no mistake, it is essential.

The Athanasian Creed which defines the Trinity from the fifth or sixth century AD (MacArthur, Biblical Doctrine, 189) says:

Whosoever will be saved: before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith [not as in Roman Catholics, but in the universal orthodox faith of the church]: Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled: without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the Persons: nor dividing the Substance [Essence] (Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, 66).

The Trinity is essential for salvation.

It even touches the very heart of the gospel itself because the Father sends the Son to be a Mediator for our sin.

The Son dies on the cross to make peace with God through the shedding of His blood.

And the Spirit applies this salvation to all who believe and gives them eternal life.

So without the Trinity, without all three persons of the Godhead, man cannot be saved.

Why? Isn’t that a bridge to far. Is it really as essential to believe in the Trinity to be saved? As essential as salvation by Grace alone, through Faith alone in Christ alone?

Yes. Because the Trinity, fundamentally distinguishes Christianity from all other faiths. Its what makes Christian’s Christian.

Jehovah’s Witnesses can believe Jesus died. Mormons that He rose again.

Muslims and Jews that God is One.

But only Christians worship God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

One God eternally existing in three divine persons.

If we do not believe in this God, we are not Christian and we will not be saved.

Jesus said True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).

And Hebrews 11:6 that Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

How do we draw near to God and worship Him in truth if we don’t even know who He is?

Who we worship defines everything we believe. Its the difference between worshiping the One True God and worshiping an idol.

So, if we are truly going to be Christian we must understand the doctrine Trinity even if we can’t fully comprehend it because without it, how will we draw near to God and worship Him in Spirit and in truth?

To help us do that, we need to hold three truths together in our minds.

These three statements summarize the doctrine of the Trinity.

One: There is Only One True God.

Two: The One True God Exists Eternally as Three Divine Persons.

And Three: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are Coequally and Coeternally God.

First...

1. There is Only One True God

This is probably the easiest to explain. We get this.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

There is only one God. And He alone is worthy of all our love, devotion, worship, and praise.

Number 2...

2. The One True God Eternally Exists in Three Divine Persons

Here’s where it gets complicated.

God is One Divine Being, One Essence, eternally existing as One God.

And this One infinite, self-existing Being we call God exists eternally as three divine persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

As a side note, please to not refer to the Holy Spirit as an it? He is eternally a person. He is a He.

The nice way to say it is To call Him an it fundamentally misunderstands the Trinity. The mean way is that it makes you a heretic.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God, but the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Father, and so on and so on.

They are distinct persons within the One True Godhead, the word we use to talk about the Trinity as a whole.

Again the Athanasian Creed For there is one Person of the Father: another of the Son: and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is all one: the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal....So the Father is God: the Son is God: and the Holy Spirit is God. And yet there are not three Gods: but one God.

What makes this so complicated is that our finite understanding cannot comprehend of One Being existing all at once as three divine persons person.

In our finite experience, being and personhood one-to-one.

Every person is one singular, finite being.

But God is infinite in His Being, and therefore can exist as three divine persons who love and relate to one another within Himself, and yet be One God.

So when you talk about the Trinity you have to understand, person and being are two separate things.

God is One Being eternally existing, or better subsisting, in three persons.

Do you see why we call the Trinity a mystery?

Perhaps the most concise verse to show the three persons of the Trinity distinct from one another is Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3:16-17.

Matthew 3:16-17 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

You have the Father, Son, and Spirit, all present at one time.

But we must be careful to remember, that God eternally existing as three persons does not divide His essence.

Does not make Him more than one being.

Each person of the Trinity is equally and fully God and that’s the 3rd biblical truth.

3. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are All Fully Coequally and Coeternally God

The 3 persons of the Trinity do not make up three “parts” of God.

As in God is made up of a third of the Father, third of the Son, third of the Holy Spirit.

That would mean each person of the Trinity is not fully God within Himself.

What we believe is that each person of the Trinity is completely and fully God.

That each person possess all the attributes of God and the whole fullness of God’s Being in Himself.

One Person of the Trinity is not any more God than another.

The Father is God. The Son is God. And the Spirit is God. And yet, there is One God.

The three persons are distinguished, they are distinct persons.

And yet, they are not confused or blended within the Godhead.

But, at the same time, they are not divided. They together are One God and all equally and fully God in all of his divine perfection, glory, and majesty.

Again, the Athanasian Creed.

And in this Trinity none is before, or after another; none is greater, or less than another. But the whole three Persons are coeternal, and coequal. So that in all things, as aforesaid: the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be worshiped (MacArthur, Biblical Doctrine, 208).

We see this most clearly in the Bible in the Great Commission.

Jesus says Matthew 28:18-20 All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name [SINGULAR] of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

One Name, three persons.

There is One God who eternally exists in three divine persons, coequally and coeternally God.

These three truths define the doctrine of the Trinity and guard us against all kinds of heresies that misunderstand and deny the Trinity which is so central to our faith.

Because remember, every faith and every path to salvation is defined by who you worship, and what distinguishes us as Christians is that we worship the One True God who has revealed Himself as Trinity: Father Son and Holy Spirit.

These guard us against Tritheism or Polytheism that says there is not One God but Three.

That the Father Son and Holy Spirit are three distinct beings, not persons.

It guards us against Modalism that says there is One God who merely manifests himself in different forms or modes as if the three persons are different masks God wears.

The He is not eternally Father, Son, and Holy Spirit but He is whoever He needs to be in that moment.

It guards us against partialism which says that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three parts that make up God functionally denying they are all fully God in themselves and worthy of all worship, honor, and praise.

And it guards us against any idea that Christ was created, adopted, or that He and the Spirit are somehow subordinate to God the Father in any way; lesser gods who are not equal to God in all His glorious being and attributes.

All of these deny the orthodox Christian Faith and will lead people to perish everlastingly.

So if you want to draw near to God and worship Him rightly, there are three truths you need to hold together and believe without which you will not be saved because without the Trinity there is no gospel to save you.

One: There is One True God.

Two: The One True God eternally exists in Three Divine persons.

And Three: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all fully coequally and coeternally God.

Practically, what this means is that there is only one true religion.

One True Faith.

One path to Salvation.

And that is the worship of the One Triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

All other roads, all other gods, lead straight to Hell.

So believe in Christ. I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).

Now if that is where we stopped, we would have an orthodox faith. We would believe in line with the Scriptures.

But if that’s all we said it would leave the doctrine of the Trinity feeling very stuffy.

We might glorify God for his sheer infinity. How incomprehensible and gloriously beyond us He actually is.

But we wouldn’t get much further than that.

The Trinity would stay a doctrine barely touched, making no practical difference in our life and faith.

Let’s fix all that. Let me show you the glory of the Trinity and what it means for you.

Point number 3...

III. God is Love

What does the Trinity tell us about who God is?

I think most Christians primarily think of God as Creator or Ruler.

And that’s true. He is the Creator of all things and the Ruling Sovereign of the whole universe.

But that is not primarily who God is because that would mean that God, to be who He is, is dependent on creation, and God has life in Himself. He is not dependent on anything.

So let me ask you this. What was God doing before the Creation of the world?

Most people think that is a philosophical question with no real answer. But Jesus actually tells us.

John 17:24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Before the foundation of the world, God the Father was loving God the Son.

This is amazing because this is telling us who God is within Himself.

How do the three persons of the Godhead relate to one another within the Trinity?

According to the Bible the Father eternally begets the the Son. For God so loved the world he gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16).

Some have used this to try and that say the Son is created. A created being because when a father begets a son, a son is born, comes to exist.

But the Eternal Son is Eternally begotten. That means there was never a point in time where the Son came to be.

Instead, when the Son is called the only begotten Son of God, He is not begotten in terms of biology or generation.

He is begotten in terms of relationship.

Meaning He is God’s only Son. The totally unique Son of His love who is the exact imprint of His nature.

The Son is not begotten in the sense that He is created. He is begotten in that He is beloved.

The beloved Son of the Heavenly Father.

And the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son.

Within the Trinity, God pours out and communicates His love for the Son through the Spirit.

We say this in Jesus’ Baptism. The Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove and the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16-17).

This is how even communicates His love for us. Romans 5:5 God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

So in eternity past, the Father loved and delighted in the Son through the Holy Spirit and the Son returned that love and delighted in the Father by the Spirit, and in doing so, all three persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit delighted in and rejoiced in one another through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit with eternal and infinite love.

That’s why God, in His essence, is love (1John 4:8), and has been love from all eternity.

Why? Because God is Trinity.

Jonathan Edwards even said the “happiness of the Deity, as all other true happiness, consists in love and society,” or in other words, fellowship within the Godhead (Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity, 33).

Creation

So when God made the world it wasn’t to serve His own ego or make a bunch of slaves to do His bidding so He could sit back and relax.

From eternity past the Godhead was fully satisfied and self-sufficient within Himself. He needed nothing and He needed no one.

Instead, God created us to glorify His Name, and because God is Trinity, the way God glorifies His name is pouring out His love.

Creation itself testifies to the Love of God.

Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God.

Usually, when we read that verse we only think of God’s power. Wow! God created all this? How almighty. how powerful must He be?

But Paul says in Romans 1 that in creation, God also reveals His divine nature (Rom 1:19). His love.

Have you ever stopped and wondered at how beautiful the world is?

Why are the mountains so glorious? Music so beautiful?

A cool lakeside morning or a stream running through a forest glade in an everflowing stream of peace?

What about all the stars in the heavens? Doesn’t it seem superfluous? Over the top? Why are there so many?

What about the warmth of the Sun? A delicious meal?

The rain that falls on the just and the unjust alike giving food and life to all?

Everything about the world proclaims God’s goodness and overflowing, abounding, generous, too good to be true love He has for all things because of the infinite love He has within Himself.

Fall

That’s what makes the Fall so tragic and broken.

What did Adam and Eve do after they sinned? They hid themselves and were afraid (Gen 3:8-10).

The Communion with God we were created for, the very fellowship that gave us life, purpose, and meaning was broken in an instant and all mankind instead of knowing God’s love were condemned under His wrath.

Salvation

But the good news of the gospel is because God is love, that is not the end of the story.

Salvation is where the God who is love shows us just how truly loving He truly is.

1 John 4:8-10 God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

The cross of Christ shows us the infinite depth of just how serious and weighty, how glorious a thing it is to say God is love.

While we were still sinners God sent His eternal begotten Son, His beloved Son, to die in our place for our sins (Romans 5:8).

We turned our backs on the God who is love to worship and serve the creature, ourselves, our sins, our lusts and pleasures.

That by the way should tell you just how wicked and heinous our sin truly is.

Any yet, in Christ God still loved us anyway.

Jesus said in John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

And in John 10:18 No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up.

These two verses together tell us that Christ showed us the greatest love someone can show to another person.

He laid down His life for us.

He bore our curse for our sins and suffered and died on our behalf.

And as He hung on the cross, He did not curse or revile or spew out anger and hate. He said Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).

And here’s the glory of it. Because Jesus is the Son of God, the radiance of His glory and the exact imprint of His nature (Hebrews 1:3), the Son on the cross just shows us how truly loving the Father really is.

This is why the only way to the Father is through faith in the Son.

He alone is the One who reveals who God is.

By definition, to believe in Jesus Christ as the Eternal Son of God is to believe in God as the eternally loving Father.

And through faith in Christ, God forgives all our sin, and His Heavenly Father becomes our Heavenly Father.

We are born again, beloved sons and daughters of God through faith in Christ’s work on the cross.

And God seals us with the Holy Spirit and Romans 5:5, that we saw earlier, pours His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit He has given to us, draws us up into love and fellowship with Him, and gives us eternal life.

All three persons of the Trinity, the One True God, working together for our salvation.

The Father authors the plan of salvation and elects us in Christ before the foundation of the world.

The Son accomplishes salvation on our behalf through His sacrificial death on the cross.

And the Holy Spirit applies this salvation to us by opening our eyes to the gospel and sealing us for eternal life.

And all of this is an outflow of the amazing love of the Triune God.

Do you see why the Trinity is so glorious? So central to our faith and a great comfort to our souls?

Because God is Trinity, God is love and saves us from our sins.

And because of Christ, God loves us with the same love had for Christ before the foundation of the world.

Go back to the High Priestly prayer in John 17, where Jesus prays for all of us.

John 17:23-24 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Even as you loved me. How was that?

Eternally. Abundantly. Fully with fiery zeal.

Remember what the Father said at Jesus’ baptism.

This is my beloved Son with whom, I am well pleased.

Because of Christ, thats what God says about every one of you.

You have all the pleasure of the Father because you are God’s beloved son or daughter.

Then Jesus says...

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Where is Christ?

At the right hand of the Father. In His love and presence.

But we can get more specific than that.

John 1:18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Who is at the Father’s side could be literally translated as in the bosom of the Father.

In other words, in the Father’s heart. Beloved. Perfectly. Fully. Eternally.

That’s what Jesus prayed for. And that’s the prayer God answered.

Because of Christ, if you have faith in Him, God forgives all of your sins and removes them as far from you as east is from the west and places you in the Father’s Heart with Christ.

Perfectly. Fully. Eternally beloved by the Father and sealed with the Holy Ghost.

Conclusion

The Trinity shows us that God is not far off. He is not distant, cold or aloof.

In Christ, He is our most loving Father.

That’s the practical difference the Trinity makes in your everyday life and it makes all the difference in the World.

Belief in the Son is by definition and invitation to believe in a Trinitarian Faith.

Jesus is the Spirit anointed Son of the Heavenly Father.

The One true God who alone reveals God to be Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and therefore reveals the One True God as the God of love who shows us the true glory of that love through His death on the cross

That’s why Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Him.

And How great is God’s grace and love to seal us with the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ to comfort us and assure us of the Father’s love and the Son’s once for all, eternal salvation.

The Trinity shows us the glory of God because the Trinity shows us just what it means that God is love.

Let’s Pray

Lord God of our salvation, Glorious Trinity

Heavenly Father, Blessed Son, and Eternal Spirit

We worship you as One Being, one Essence, One God in three divine Persons

For being so loving and gracious and bringing us to a knowledge of the truth.

Heavenly Father, you have loved us and sent your Son to redeem and ransom us from all our sins.

Lord Jesus, you have loved us and taken on our very nature, shed your own blood, and washed away all our sins. Wrought in us righteousness and covered all of our unworthiness.

Holy Spirit, you have loved us and sealed us for eternal life, opening our blind eyes to all the glories of Jesus and the Father’s great love for us in Him.

Blessed Trinity, we worship and praise you for love so unmerited, so wondrous, so mighty to save lost and ruined sinners and bring them to glory.

Father God, we thank you that in the fullness of grace you have given us to Jesus to be his sheep, jewel, and treasured possession.

Jesus we thank you, that you took on our flesh and bound yourself to us as our great Bridegroom who will never leave us or forsake us, forever faithful to the covenant you established with your precious blood.

And Holy Spirit, we thank you for giving us the gift of faith, sowing the seed of the gospel and subduing our stubborn hearts to free us from sin and seal us for Christ forever.

Father you are high and lifted up, enthroned forever to hear our prayers.

Jesus you are our Great High Priest arms outstretched to always receive us and intercede on our behalf.

And Holy Spirit, you are always kind, willing to help us in all our weaknesses even praying for us with groanings too deep for words to strengthen us and keep us from falling.

O Triune God, impress the gospel and your great love for us on our souls and teach us to take hold of the eternal life you have so freely given.

Help us to give up every darling lust, submit in heart and life to your perfect will, and love and worship you as your beloved church baptized into the threefold Name of love.

Amen.

Scripture Reading

Ephesians 1:3-7, 13-14 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace…In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.