Our purpose at the Omega Institute is to help the believer understand and appreciate the doctrines of Scripture in a way he or she can truly digest and apply. This series of devotionals cover the spectrum of Evangelical biblical doctrine in such a way that the Christian can meditate each week on a different truth from Scripture so as to master the essentials and better know and serve his or her Lord.
Key Verses:
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.”
—2 Corinthians 13:14
There is a concluding remark, a doxological statement penned by the apostle Paul in the latter part of his second letter to the Church at Corinth which may, at first glance, seem unremarkable:
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.”
2 Corinthians 13:14
How often do we find in Holy Writ precious gems buried within seemingly benign text? There are three distinct Persons mentioned in this benediction: (1) the Lord Jesus Christ, (2) God and (3) the Holy Spirit. Moreover, these Persons are spoken of side by side with equal honor and in the most intimate of terms. Here, Paul does not say “may the grace and love and fellowship of God be with you all.” He certainly could have … theologically, all three of these persons are God; this much can be more than proven by the Scriptures. It is the distinction between these three that I pray you, the reader, do not miss. It is specifically the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the triune Godhead, that Paul has in mind here as he prays it upon his fellow brethren at Corinth. This grace is spoken of in this very same epistle by the very same apostle Paul:
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”
—2 Corinthians 8:9
This love of God (the Father: θε?s is consistently used in Paul’s writings to designate the Father) is also spoken of elsewhere by the apostle John, in his gospel:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
—John 3:16
… as well as in his first epistle:
“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called the children of God; and such we are. —1 John 3:1
Likewise, this fellowship of the Spirit is spoken of by Jesus Himself as recorded in John’s gospel:
“But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and disclose it to you.” —John 16:13
Is it that the Father has no grace, the Son no fellowship or the Spirit no love? Of course not, but this benediction points up the importance of what theologians refer to as the economic trinity: our consideration of how the members of the Godhead work with one another in securing our redemption. Although these qualities are not exclusive to these three members of the Trinity, there is something specifically gracious our Lord Jesus did in expressing the heart of God, just as there is something specifically loving the Father did and something specifically personal (sharing: fellowship) the Holy Spirit did and does in conveying God’s heart to His people. This is one of the many reasons that understanding the doctrine of the Trinity matters. There is a sense in which we relate to each of these distinct Persons with an awareness of how they accomplished the salvation we so enjoy.
The Son is the One who is sent: as the writer of Hebrews records in 10:5-10 so dramatically, He clearly offers Himself as the sacrifice for sin to the Father in view of our utter helplessness to save ourselves. He is the Hero who sacrifices Himself for the sake of the damsel in distress (that damsel is the Church whose salvation He does more than make possible, but secures: John 6:37-40). We rightly apply our awe to the very level of deity when we proclaim with Wesley, “amazing love, how can it be, that Thou my God shouldst die for me?”
The Father is the One who sends: as a father, I can identify with the pain that grips one’s heart at the very thought of either of my children suffering harm in any way. To lose a child has to be the very height of human pain and grief. Yet, when we consider that our human relationships with our children are imperfect and sinful, how much more must the Father’s heart have been broken to witness His perfect Son with whom He enjoyed a relationship of infinite love and unity, take on the sin and guilt of an unworthy people? This kind of love is of the highest and noblest sort. A loving Father is a precious thing – I have known the want of it as a son and I have known the joy of it as a father: my dad never loved me and I adore my two sons. However, as believers, what I and my sons have in common is that we have a heavenly Father who has already demonstrated the noblest traits of a devoted parent.
The Spirit is the One who secures: it must not be forgotten that Jesus entered the world in time and space and lived and died according to the same dimensions. The Father sent the Son to live and die for us and although this decision was made in eternity, it happened at a specific moment. The incarnation, life, death and resurrection of God the Son is something that happened outside of us. It affects us because the Holy Spirit applies the grace and the power and the benefits to us by mystically uniting us with the Son and by bestowing on His people all of the graces to live out the reality of our salvation. It is the Spirit of God who takes what was done in time and space and places it securely inside the deepest part of us. He makes it ours: we now own it because He shares it with us.
By understanding the nature of our God, we understand what this divine Being has done for us and how He relates to us; not as a single Person shuffling multiple tasks, but as a loving trio working in unison to affect the totality of a salvation that is literally mind-blowing.
This is why I can say that I love my Lord Jesus and what He did for me, and I love my Father in heaven and His magnanimous heart in giving so much for me and I love the Holy Spirit for taking all that is precious about God and intimately bequeathing it to me. I love my Lord by following Him and focusing on Him; I love my Father by seeking to do His will and I love my Lord the Spirit by submitting to His leading and choosing to have Him fill me and empty me of flesh and sin.
Yes, the Trinity matters and in the weeks ahead, we will discover just how much. The Athanasian Creed opens with these words: “We worship one God in trinity and trinity in unity…” Let us love Him as trinity as well, for that is what He is.
—Larry Carrino
