Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Ephesians 1,3-14. Holy Trinity

Ephesians 1,3-14 3424

Trinitatis. Tag der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit 46

Quadratus, Bishop of Athens, disciple of the Apostles, Apologist, ✠ 126

Coptic Martyrs (28+) in Minya, Egypt ✠ 2017

26. Mai 2024

1. ℣ Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity:

℟ Let us give glory to Him because He hath shown His mercy to us. (Liturgical text).

Holy, Holy, Holy is Yahweh Sebaoth; the whole earth is filled with His glory. With tese words, it is fitting for us … to praise Your Exalted Name, O Adorable God…. O grant us grace to accomplice our purpose! Amen. (Pieper 186; English 107).

2. » 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, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. 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.«

3. The Triune nature of God is found throughout the pages of Holy Scripture. We hear God declare in Genesis 1: »Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. So God created man in His own Image, in the Image of God He created him; male and female He created them« (Genesis 1,26a.27). In these verses God uses the 1^st person plural and the 3^rd person singular pronouns for Himself. The Hebrew word for God in 1,26 is אֱלֹהִ֔ים (Elohim), and that is a common masculine plural noun. When God creates man in His Image and Likeness, He creates a male and a female; Adam is a man comprised of body, soul and spirit; Eve is a woman who is also comprised of body, soul and spirit.

4. A person has a name, and names have a meaning and tell us something about the individual. Adam : man, mankind; Eve : life-giver. God’s name is Yahweh : I am who I am. One of my seminary Hebrew professors, Horace Hummel, taught us that God’s name probably highlights omnipotence more than pure being, and His Name expresses the uniquely Biblical accent on a personal God. (Hummel 71).

5. When God appears physically in the Scriptures, sometimes it is Yahweh, other times it is the Angel of Yahweh and yet again it is the Spirit of Yahweh that appears. Each of these 3 are clearly identified as God, but Yahweh, the Angel of Yahweh and the Spirit of Yahweh are each distinct Individuals from the other two. Jesus clearly teaches throughout the Gospels that there is 1 God who is comprised of 3 Persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thus we confess in the Athanasian Creed: 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 (§ 5-6).

6. Another seminary professor, Norman Nagel, said: „What is God like? So to the question what God is like, the first and immediate answer is Jesus of Nazareth. Here was a man who claimed to be God, said things that only God can say, did things that only God can do, and accepted worship that belongs only to God. Some called Jesus a blasphemer, which was near the truth. The only other possibility was that he actually was God, God confronting people as man. Here was God expressed in human terms, which is what the Scripture says of Jesus. He is called the Word, that is, the active statement, the expression, the revelation of God. He who was God from all eternity now shows Himself in human terms to us. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). God was seen and heard and touched. To know Jesus is to know God. Here is the answer to the question what God is like. We beheld His glory, the glory of the only-begotten of the Father full of grace and truth, and the height of that glory was the cross. God became a man, went to the cross, and the agony of the hell that is sin’s punishment. Jesus died for the ungodly. He died for those afraid of God and fleeing from God. He died for sinners. He died for you and for me. There is no greater love and imaginable, and that, my friends, is what God is like, abundant in mercy. God loves you“ (Nagel 152.153-54).

7. At the beginning of his Epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul mentions each Person of the Triune God is involved in our salvation. The Father sent His Son to redeem fallen humanity. The Son redeemed us by becoming our vicarious sacrifice on the cross. The Holy Spirit creates and sustains our faith in Jesus.

8. We can and should know and be certain of our eternal election and salvation (Pieper III 481). The assurance of our election we can and should gain from the Gospel (Pieper III 483). „For the substance of the Gospel is that the grace of God in Christ is for all sinners without exception, and that this grace is actually grace, contingent on nothing whatever in man. When a person hears and believes this blessed truth, we cannot but be assured that for Christ’s sake, there dwells in God’s heart not wrath, but only ardent love for us, the sinner“ (Pieper III 483).

9. We are certain of our salvation because God is the one doing the saving. If salvation is dependent on fallen and fallible men and women then there is always the possibility of doubt: did I do enough? is what I did appeasing to God? There is no doubt with Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. He paid our debt in full. All our sin is forgiven.

10. Norman Nagel often asked us the question: who is running the verb? „The living God is known best by His actions—above all, His redeeming action in Christ. It is in His actions that God has revealed Himself as a three-personed God, and we confess the mystery of the Holy Trinity most fully when we speak of His actions. … the … Creed declares quite simply what the triune God does: creates, redeems, sanctifies. God rings through most clearly in these great saving verbs“ (Nagel 156).

11. »Fidelis sermo: nam si commortui sumus cum Christo, et convivemus: si sustinebimus, et conregnabimus: si negaverimus, et ille negabit nos: si non credimus, ille fidelis permanet, negare seipsum non potest. The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with Christ, then we will also live with Him; if we endure, then we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, then He also will deny us; if we are faithless, then He remains faithful—for He cannot deny Himself« (2. Timothy 2,11-13).

12. Omnia per Christum facta sunt, omnis salus per Christum propitiata et in Christo sanctificati sumus. Όλα έγιναν δια του Χριστού, όλη η σωτηρία εξευμενίστηκε από τον Χριστό και εν Χριστώ αγιαζόμαστε. All things were made through Christ, all salvation was propitiated by Christ and in Christ we are sanctified (John 1,3; Romans 3,25; Hebrews 10,10)! Alleluia!!

13. I bind unto myself the Name,

The Strong Name of the Trinity

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One and One in Three,

Of whom all nature has creation,

Eternal Father, Spirit, Word.

Praise to the Lord

of my salvation;

Salvation is of Christ the Lord (I Bind unto Myself Today Patrick c. 373-466 lsb 604,5)

This is most certainly true.

14. Et pax Dei, quæ exuperat omnem sensum, custodiat corda vestra, et intelligentias vestras in Christo Jesu. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.

15. Let us pray. O Merciful God, fill our hearts, we pray Thee, with the graces of Thy Holy Spirit, with love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; teach us to love those who hate us, to pray for those who despitefully use us, that we may be the children of Thee, our Father, who makest Thy sun to shine on the evil and on the good and sendest rain on the just and the unjust; in adversity grant us grace to be patient, in prosperity keep us humble; may we guard the door of our lips; may we lightly esteem the pleasures of this world and thirst after heavenly things. Amen. (Trinitatis, Vespers Collect 2. The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House.)

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Septuaginta, Vol. I and II 2. Revised Edition © 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Sunday, May 26, 2024

Ephesians 1,3-14. Holy Trinity

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