The Trinity on My Side

English Standard Version Chapter 15

26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

a mystery

There’s no question, our belief that God is one, yet three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is a mystery. In our Western, secular culture, driven by the religion of science and the montra, “prove it to me”, there’s very little room for mystery. We refuse to accept that there are things too great for our understanding to overcome, to high for our thoughts to reach. If it is beyond us, it must be beneath us. If we cannot comprehend it then it must not be real.

But let’s be honest with each other, most of us don’t spend our days tinkering about with mysteries. Most of us have to deal with this thing we call real life.

real life

Maybe your feelings about the Trinity could be expressed in the words of Anne Lamott:

“I didn't need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.” ― Anne Lamott

As we look at this text for the next few moments, I hope to be able to show you that the very fact that God is both Father, Son and Holy Spirit, has many wonderful and practical implications for your everyday life.

(Prayer)

John 15:26–27 ESV

26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

John

Chapters 14-17 of the gospel of John have to be the most revealing scriptures of the thoughts and prayers of Jesus. Intimate details of his relationship to the Father and his disciples are revealed, as well as some of the most defining statements about life and eternity.

If you look closely at verse 26, you will see all three persons of the Godhead in this one verse. Do you see them?

Father

In this verse, and in this larger discourse that starts in chapter 14, Jesus speaks of the Father as the one:

from whom the Son and the Helper comes

This in and of itself reveals the Father’s concern for you, his love for you. He gave His one and only Son for you. In 2 Corinthians, Paul says that the reason the Father did all this was not to create a bunch of people that always did exactly what He said, but that in sending Jesus he was “reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their sins against them.” I hope you realise how amazing an act this is. That He who is altogether perfect and holy, high, exalted and worthy of all honor and praise concerns himself with you so much, desires you so much, that He gave that which is most dear and near to Himself to you. This is not, as some believe, a far-off, angry or apathetic divine being who requires more from us that we can ever possibly give and is dissatisfied when we fail to give it. No, He is a giving God, giving at His own cost, not in a general way, but in a very specific, intimate way. He gives Himself to you.

In chapter 14 we see that the Father:

wants you to believe in Him

Son

Oh and we could speak for hours about the Son, and the Father would be pleased to hear it! Jesus himself says in chapter 14 of John that those who love the Son are loved by the Father. Even the Father himself doted publicly on His Son at Jesus’ baptism (the first concrete example of the tri-une nature of God). As the Spirit descended upon Jesus in brilliant dove-like fashion, the Father’s voice rang out from the heavens, “this is my son, in whom I am well pleased.” Or with other words, “that’s my boy and I love him!”

dwells in a place that has many rooms prepared for you one day

is the one to whom we must come

This Son, Jesus Christ, humbled himself lower than He ever should have, were he bound to the glory due to kings. No, but he, being in very nature God, did not count equality with God a thing to be held on to and made himself nothing, being obedient to the Father, walking among us, revealing the Father’s heart to us, calling us to repentance, dying in our place to set us free from the grip of death on our days and our destinies. Rising again and thereby guaranteeing us eternal life. In all of this he showed himself to be both Son and King, Lord and friend, and if I may, became as it were a big brother to you and to me, paving the way for us to have unfettered access to the Father. Your life has hope because the Son lives and has given his resurrection life to you. (Because He lives)

reveals himself in Jesus (if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the father)

dwells in the Son and does His work through the Son

Spirit

is glorified when we ask for anything in Jesus name

Jesus speaks of the Spirit here as “the Helper”, the one who will “bear witness about” Jesus.

the life of the Spirit in us is what brings alive the Trinity within us (come from the Father, sent from the Son, bearing witness to the Son, sealing us as children of the Father)

sends the Helper

You

loves those who love the Son

comes and makes his home with those who love the Son

In chapter 15 we see that the Father:

prunes every branch that does not bear fruit