Unity in Trinity :: Isaiah 6:1-7
Have you pondered the mystery of your Christian faith lately?
Have you ever given just one thought to it? Maybe one why? One when? One how?
What puzzles you most about your faith?
Is it the mystery of who Christ really is, and what faith in him really means?
Let’s get this right: Christ is both God and man; fully God, fully man; 100 percent God, 100 percent man. Talk about a mystery! He is all knowing, all powerful, all present. But he is like us. And you can’t separate the man Jesus from God and God from the man Jesus. God lives, God dies, God rises again, and He promises to come again. That blows my mind! He’s both finite and infinite at the same time. And whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold this faith: Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity, neither confusing the persons, nor dividing the substance. ... The whole three persons are coeternal with each other and coequal, so that in all things, as has been stated, the Trinity in Unity and the Unity in Trinity is to be worshiped. This is a most profound mystery we face today.
There is much fear and trepidation among us when we try to talk about this doctrine of the Holy Trinity ... because obviously, we just don’t understand it. But brothers and sisters in Christ, behold what we see and hear today about the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit is too important to ignore. The mystery of the Trinity, which our own church is named after, makes a profound difference in our lives ... shaping and defining our faith and life in Christ.
So today we’re gonna talk about it. We need to believe it. We need to confess it. We can’t ever afford to let it go. As we just confessed: Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold this catholic faith ... that God is One, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Three in One.
He’s not like an egg; he’s not like water. He is God: Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity. He defies our reason, and defines our faith. As Jesus told the disciples, we know the Father through the Son, for they are one (Jn 14:9). If you have seen the Son, you have seen the Father. The Father has made this known to you through the Holy Spirit, for he teaches us all these things and causes us to remember all that Christ has said and done (Jn 14:26).
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God (Rom 11:33)! Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity.
So I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that so many of us deny this truth one way or another. Men and women all around us have been reducing the scriptures to be something about good living. Without a proper understanding of the Trinity, without a strong confession of faith, we either take God out of the man Jesus or humanity out of God. That in turn leads all kinds of people into believing all kinds of false doctrine that steals their hope, and destroys faith in Christ.
Think about it ...
If God is not triune, then he can’t be God at all. There are not two gods, only one.
If God is not triune, then he is not active in our lives and still serving us.
If God is not triune, there is no solution for the problem of sin and guilt and death.
If God is not triune, then we have no savior and no living hope, let alone any hope of the resurrection and eternal life in paradise.
But God is Triune; he is the Only God. He is active in our lives, serving us in word and water, and body and blood. He has given us the solution to sin, death, and the devil through our savior, Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.
When we deny the Trinity, we then start telling ourselves ... we don’t need to hear from God every day and we can bring ourselves to the knowledge of the truth on our own. When we deny the Trinity, we then begin denying the inspiration of scripture that reveals the Unity at work from “in the beginning” (Gen 1:1) to Amen (Rev 22:21). When we deny the Trinity, we begin denying that His means of grace ... baptism, absolution, the Lord’s Supper ... actually impart the forgiveness of sins.
Without the Trinity, we wouldn’t have Christmas. Without Christmas, we wouldn’t have Easter. Without Easter, there would be no Pentecost. But thanks be to God, we do have the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity.
Now we know God in Christ has reconciled man to God. Now we know the resurrection is possible. Now we have a living hope. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing (Acts 2:33).
One place we clearly see this confession take shape is in our reading from Isaiah. The Prophet writes, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up (v1).
What an awesome majestic sight!
Sometimes when we see this word the Lord, it is referring specifically to the name Yahweh, which the Jews were afraid to speak. But here in Isaiah, it clearly reveals Christ! He is Adonai. We know this because Isaiah will tell us later, Behold, my servant will succeed; he will rise, be exalted, and be very high (52:13). Jesus later quotes this verse, and John testifies that Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of [Christ] (Jn 12:41), who without question identified himself as God.
Hovering above the Lord’s throne were seraphim, angel servants of the Lord. Each had six wings: With two they covered their eyes before the brilliance of God’s glory. With two they modestly and humbly covered their feet. With two they flew, singing the heavenly chorus we all know and love ...
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of thy glory.
You know this hymn well ... we sing it every time we celebrate the Divine Service that God gives to us. This threefold holiness means much more than that God is sinless. It shows us Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity. It literally means that even the angels recognize that God is set apart from all else that exists, that he is exclusively different, in a class all by himself, Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity. And his holiness stands in a contrast to those of us who dwell on earth. As psalmist declares well, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! ... What is man that you are mindful of him?
God didn’t create us because he was bored or needed someone to love. God has no needs. Instead, He is complete in and of himself: Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity. God could justly wash his holy hands of all mankind and remove us from his sight forever because we are steeped in sin. But instead, he does love us, and he desires all men to come to the knowledge of the truth that he alone is the way, the truth and the life, Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity.
Thus, upon entering God’s Divine Service, and seeing the Lord, we do exactly what Isaiah does. We fall to our knees, crying out with Isaiah, Woe is me! ... recognizing like Isaiah that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. That we are lost, a people with unclean lips. As we join Isaiah in confessing this truth too, we admit we know our sin is killing us ... that we speak filthy, useless, mean, disgusting things not worthy of praising God in prayer or worship.
So brothers and sisters in Christ, in the sight of the divine glory revealed in word and sacraments, repent, everyone of you. And God who is faithful and just will cleanse you of all unrighteousness and forgive you of all your sins ... the sins of your idolatry, your love of yourselves, your failure to keep all that Jesus taught and did.
He will ... because he promised ... a promise fulfilled in who he really is: Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity: Calling us, redeeming us, making us one with him. He made this happen by loving us in this way: He gave his only Son as the all-atoning sacrifice for all your sins. He poured out his just and righteous anger ... not on us, who deserve it, but upon the sinless Son of God on the cross. Jesus then carried your sin to the grave so that it will never be heard from again. Then because God indeed makes all things new, he raised Jesus from the grave for your justification. As you embrace these truths, he gives you new life from above.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this word is near you ... it’s on your lips and in your heart ... that is, the word of faith which we proclaim. ...
You confessed it just like Isaiah.
This word of God has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away. Your sin is atoned for.
To be sure, it’s not by means of philosophical understanding of the Holy Trinity that we learn to understand God’s love for us. Indeed, it is by the Word alone that was inspired by the Holy Spirit, who teaches us of the Father’s love for us through the Son, who lived for you, died for you, and overcame death for you. These Words and sacraments unite us with the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
When the significance of this mystery really hits us, we must be awestruck beyond words.