Personality. Relatedness. That’s what the biblical doctrine of
the Holy Trinity reminds us of. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit are not abstract ideas, not some arcane
formulation of Hellenistic philosophy, but Persons, with
all that term implies. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are
of one substance, related to one another in the unity of the
Godhead, related to one another in the perfection of love that
unites them: God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity.
The
Triune God has made Himself known to us in the pages of Scripture,
but especially through the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God comes to us as Personality in Jesus. He comes to reveal
Himself to us so we can know Him, so we can enter into
relationship with Him. In the flesh and blood of Jesus God comes
to us as One who is like us in all ways yet without sin.
He doesn’t come to judge and destroy us (which is certainly what
we sinners deserve), but to forgive and save us and name us as His
children (which is certainly what we don’t deserve). In the gift
of God’s only-begotten Son, the love that unites the Persons of
the Holy Trinity overflows to a lost and dying world. How can you
know God loves you? He gave His Son for you, that’s how.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son,
that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life. The highest expression of God’s love is
the gift of His Son. In the flesh and blood of the Man Jesus, God
takes up residence – pitches His tent – among us in order to
reveal His love for us. Through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ
God comes to us where we are so He can lift us up to where He is.
We don’t go to Him. He must come to us.
Yes,
I know, Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, the Scripture says. But
he came in confusion. He came in the darkness of a distorted,
imperfect understanding, which is all we fallen mortals are
capable of unless the light of God shines upon us to make things
plain to us. Nicodemus knew (or thought he knew) that Jesus was a
teacher sent by God, because no one could do the signs Jesus was
doing if God were not with him. But he did not know that Jesus
was so much more than just a rabbi, infinitely more than a mere
teacher. Nicodemus didn’t yet understand that Jesus is the God
who fashioned the universe out of nothing, who set the stars and
planets in their courses, who designed and engineered the miracle
of conception and birth, and the even greater miracle of the new
birth from above.
Nicodemus comes to Jesus in darkness and confusion and
uncertainty, but Jesus comes to Nicodemus to dispel that darkness
and confusion and uncertainty through the Word He speaks. It’s a
Word that puzzles Nicodemus at first. It seems to deepen his
confusion rather than clarify it. What can Jesus mean when He
says that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is
born again, born from above?
How can a man be born when he is old? Nicodemus asks.
Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb
to be born! It had been a long time since Nicodemus wore
diapers, a long time since he goo-gooed and nursed and crawled
around at his mother’s feet while she was doing housework.
Nicodemus is now a respected leader in the Jewish Sanhedrin; he’s
a man of stature and position and wealth. How can he reverse all
that and become a baby in the womb again? It’s absurd to think
that an old man could enter his mother’s womb a second time to be
born, even if his mother were still alive and willing! What can
Jesus mean?
With
his next words Jesus thickens the stew of Nicodemus’ confusion.
Truly, truly I say to you, unless a man is born of water and
the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Flesh gives birth
to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be
surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.”
Our
Lord is speaking here not of a physical rebirth but a spiritual
one. How is this spiritual birth accomplished? By water and the
Spirit. In other words, by Baptism, described in Scripture as
the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
Because each of us was conceived and born in a state of sin, our
physical birth can’t get us into the kingdom of God. We were born
from our earthly mothers as fallen, sinful citizens of a fallen,
sinful world, enemies of God, the Scripture says,
by nature objects of wrath. So if we are to enter the
kingdom of God, we have to be born from above. God has to do it.
We have to be born again of water and the Spirit.
You
can’t enter your mother’s womb a second time to be born.
Nicodemus had that much right. But when you were brought to the
Font for Baptism, you were born again from the womb of your
Mother, the Holy Christian Church. When you emerged from the Font
dripping with water and the Spirit, the old had passed away
and behold, all things had been made new. You were taken
to the Font as a squirming little heathen, full of sin, death, and
the Old Adam. But then you were baptized in the Name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Triune God
placed His holy, saving Name upon you. He declared you to be a
member of His household, His child redeemed by the precious blood
of Jesus. And you were taken away from the Font not as the little
heathen you’d been just a few moments before, but as a new
creation, a citizen of God’s kingdom, made alive in Christ
forever.
You
became a real person in Holy Baptism. Not just an impersonal
object of wrath, which is what you once were -- but an object of
God’s love, a beneficiary of His mercy and kindness and grace.
The love of God which led Him to give His only begotten Son
intersected your life in Baptism. The faith that looks to Jesus
lifted up on the Cross as the Sacrifice for the world’s sin, was
given to you in holy Baptism. The promise that everyone who
believes in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin has eternal life was
signed over to you in Baptism. And the assurance that God didn’t
send His Son into the world to condemn the world but rather that
through Him the world might be saved was applied to you in Holy
Baptism. God gave His Son for you so you could be saved through
Him.
So
now you don’t need to go groping after God in the darkness of
confusion and uncertainty like Nicodemus did. In Jesus Christ,
God has come after you, to find you and save you and gather you
into His family. In Jesus the light of God’s mercy and
forgiveness has shone upon you. You know God and His mercy
through Jesus Christ. You know the Father who loved you and gave
His Son for you. You know the Son who was lifted up on the Cross
to die on your behalf and reconcile you to God. You know the
Spirit who washed you in your Baptism and gave you the faith that
looks to Jesus and sees in Him the Redeemer of our fallen human
race. You know the Triune God who for the sake of Jesus Christ
freely saves you and gives you the gift of everlasting life.
God
is not an impersonal force that cannot be known. God is personal
– Three Persons, in fact – who loves, and acts, and takes the
initiative to rescue us from sin and death and hell. God makes
Himself known to us in Jesus. We don’t have to wonder how God
feels about us. He loves us: The gift of His Son is proof of
that. We don’t need to speculate about what God does for us: He
forgives us and saves us eternally: The Cross of Christ is proof
of that. And we don’t need to figure out a way to come into
relationship with God so we can know Him: Our Baptism of water and
the Spirit brought us into relationship with Him. And now, as
baptized believers, it’s our privilege and calling to come to know
God better and better through hearing and learning His Word and by
partaking the Sacrament of the Altar regularly and frequently.
In
today’s Gospel reading, we heard how our Lord described to
Nicodemus the saving work of the Holy Trinity. We heard about the
Father who sent His Son in order to save the world. We heard
about the Son who was lifted up so that everyone who believes in
Him may have eternal life. And we heard about the Holy Spirit who
gave us the heavenly new birth in the water of our Baptism. Jesus
makes plain to Nicodemus and to us that the Holy Trinity is a God
of love, a God of life, a God of forgiveness and salvation. No
wonder then that the Church sings in adoration and praise, God
in Three Persons, blessed Trinity.
In Nomine Patris. . .
