2. Corinthians 13,11-14. Trinity Sunday

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

2. Corinthians 13,11-14        3519

Trinitatis 045 weiß

Julitta, Quirinus, Martyrs 304  

16. Juni 2019 

1. O Almighty, Everliving God, who has taught us to know and confess in true faith that, in 3 Persons of equal power and majesty, You are 1 Everlasting God, desiring to be worshiped as such; sustain us steadfast in that faith, so that we remain faithful to the right worship of You.  Amen. (Löhe 483) 

2. »Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.« 

3. While the actual word „Trinity“ or „Triune“ does not appear in the Holy Scriptures, the concept is there throughout the pages of the Old and New Testaments. Meditate upon the Apostle Paul’s final greeting in His 2. Epistle to the Corinthians. He mentions God, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, a clear Trinitarian confession of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We also find a Trinitarian confession in the opening verses of Genesis: »In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. God said: „Let there be light, and there was light.“« (Genesis 1,1-3). In his Gospel, the Apostle John tells us: »In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us« (John 1,1.14). Again, the Scriptures affirm that at Creation there is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.   

4. The Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds are tripartite creeds with a part devoted to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, respectively. The first half of the Athanasian Creed confesses in great detail the Triune nature of God. „We worship One God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the Persons nor dividing the Substance. For the Father is One Person, the Son is Another and the Holy Spirit is Another. But the Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is One: the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal“ (Athanasian Creed 4-6).   

5. This means that those attributes we confess about God apply to each Person. When Paul writes that God the Father of love and peace will be with us, that also means that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are also of love and peace, and likewise they will be with us too. Paul’s final verse in the epistle could be read this way as well: »The grace of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you all.« 

6. Notice also how Paul employs a Trinitarian structure in that final verse where he mentions: grace, love and fellowship. These attributes tells us something about the Triune God. 1. God is gracious. He is merciful, forgiving and compassionate. This attribute manifests itself with the crucified Jesus who redeemed us from our sins. He was the vicarious sacrifice sent by a Gracious Heavenly Father who wanted to save His fallen Creation. 2. God is loving, and this is closely connected to God’s attribute of grace. Out of love for His fallen Creation, God the Father was willing to send His Only-begotten Son to redeem us, and Jesus was willing to lay down His life for us as this sacrifice. 3. God enjoys fellowship. He created the world with rich diversity, a host of angels and culminated it with making man and woman in His own Image and Likeness. God gathers together Christians in His Church so He can fellowship with us, we with Him and we with one another. Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper as a meal a fellowship where He gives out His forgiveness. The cup is a participation in the blood of Christ; the bread is a participation in the body of Christ (1. Corinthians 10,16).   

7. „Thus there is 1 Father; 1 Son; and 1 Holy Spirit. And in this Trinity none is before after another; none as greater or less or than another; but the whole 3 Persons are Coeternal with each other and Coequal, so that in all things the Trinity in Unity and the Unity in Trinity is to be worshipped (Athanasian Creed 23-25).  Amen. 

8. Let us pray. O Triune God, You are a blessing to us; keep sound doctrine in our midst, so that we may rightly understand Your revelation to us through Your Holy Scriptures and in understanding be at peace and blessed in Your gracious heart towards us through Christ Jesus, our Loving Savior.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.