Rediscovering the Gospel: Bringing the Trinity Back Into the Gospel

Sunday Sermon: Nov. 3, 2013

In many ways, many Christians today have paganized and distorted the Gospel.  And, oftentimes, it is those of us who are the most adamant about the Gospel, who believe that we hold the most true and conservative view, who have unknowingly paganized it and distorted it the most.  We Christians have been all too quick to accept, baptize and celebrate one of the greatest lies that Modernity has ever given and we have "gospelized" it.  We have also been all too quick to come up with some sort of prepackaged Gospel formulas.  We have sought to market the Gospel in such a way where we feel as though dumbing it down to simple little one-liners for the sake of receptivity is justified even though the Bible never does this, nor do the Apostles, nor does the ancient Church, nor the Reformers for that matter.  I do not want to be overly harsh on this matter, but we have been so overly soft that it is hard not to be.  Whenever we distort something that is so central to the faith we will do nothing less than distort the faith altogether in our own thinking and practices and will hinder those whom God has given us responsibility for and communion with. 

What is the Gospel?  Lets first talk about what the Gospel is not.  The Gospel is not primarily about you and your individual salvation or me and my individual salvation.  A gospel that leads to individualism is not the Gospel.  Modernity preaches individualism; we should not.  Yet, we tend to look at the Gospel as being about individual salvation and about “my salvation” and not about “our salvation.”  Just as it is not appropriate to pray “give me today my daily bread” in the place of “give us today our daily bread;” so to it is not appropriate to see the Gospel in an individualistic way.  Yet many people’s versions of the “Gospel” are rampant with individualism.  The “Gospel” is thus: Jesus came into the world and died for my sins so that I can get into heaven when I die…the Gospel is that Jesus bore the wrath of God so that I would not have to go to hell when I die…the Gospel is that Jesus rose from the grave so that I would have everlasting life…the Gospel is that Jesus came into the world to wipe away my sins and my guilt.  While all of these can be true, they do not at all articulate the fullness of the Gospel.  Again, the gospel is never primarily about our individualistic salvation.  We belong to a communion of saints, a common salvation.  Yes, we are individual persons who are being saved but we are individual persons who are being saved within the context and only within the context of the Church.  Salvation is something that is shared between us and all of the saints, according to one of the New Testament authors, Jude. 

Furthermore, and worse yet, such shallow and individualistic views of the “gospel” distort our view of God.  We begin reading individualistic notions back into God.  Again, the Gospel is not all about us.  However, and bear with me here; it is also not all about Jesus.  While the Gospel has much, much, much to say about Jesus, the Gospel is not all about Jesus.  While Jesus is central to the Gospel, the Gospel is not all about Him because Jesus is not all that there is to God.  The books called the Gospels don’t just talk about Jesus, but about the Father and the Holy Spirit as well.  So much so that Jesus’ ministry is completely worthless, inadequate and unimaginable without the Father and the Spirit.  Think about this: It was the Spirit who Incarnated Jesus into the virgin Mary and it was the Holy Spirit who baptized Him to make Him the Christ (Christ is a relational term.  It means “anointed one,” specifically “one that is anointed by the Holy Spirit.”  Without the Holy Spirit, Jesus cannot be the “Christ.”) and who empowered His ministry and raised Him from the dead.  It was the Father who approved of Christ’s ministry and it was the Father who gave Jesus the Kingdom.  Furthermore, Jesus Himself tells us that He does nothing on His own accord, that He only does what He has seen His Father doing.

“Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.  Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed…By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.” 

                A Gospel that only focuses on Jesus as an individual who affects our individuality is not the Gospel.  If the Gospel is not Trinitarian, it is not the Gospel. 

How are we to define the Gospel, then?  If someone were to ask us, “what is the Gospel?”; how should we answer?  Well, the ancient Church provided an excellent answer for us and a couple of very wise young men strongly affirmed the ancient Church’s answer in a little book called the Heidelberg Catechism.  Maybe some of you have heard of it?  What is the Gospel?  Listen to the answer that they give:

Q & A 22

Q. What then must a Christian believe?

 

A. All that is promised us in the gospel,

a summary of which is taught us
in the articles of our universal
and undisputed Christian faith.

 Q & A 23

Q. What are these articles?
 

A. I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

 

Notice a few key things here:

1) Their notion of the Gospel is Trinitarian.  The Creed is shaped by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 
2)  They say that the Gospel is "summarized" by the Creed.  The Creed doesn't encompass all of the details but provides an adequate overarching view. 

               
What is the Gospel?  For us Reformed folks, in sync with the ancient church, it is best summarized by the Apostles Creed.  In their understanding of the Gospel, the Gospel is Trinitarian.  Now, what is the point of all this?  Why focus so intently on this?  This is why: In a culture that has been obsessed with individualism, with being self made, self gratifying, self pleasuring…we Christians have not stood our ground.  We have caved in to this mode of thinking more times than not.  We have not hated individualism as we should, and we have not fully understood and valued the relational reality into that which we are brought into.  We are not saved by an individual only, we are not saved by Christ alone, but salvation is the work of the whole Trinity and, as such, it brings us fully into a relational way of being and into the understanding that relationships form us into who we are. 

For example, my wife Ashley and I like to play something that we call the question game.  Whenever we are on dates, we take turns throwing random questions at one another.  Sometimes they are deep, sometimes romantic, sometimes they are cheesy.  We were out together a few months ago and I asked her where she thought she would be right now in life had she not met me, had we never started dating.  She gave her response and then asked me to answer my own question to…I must admit, it was a pretty good one!  Ask your spouse that question…just be careful about how you respond!  However, even though I gave my answer that evening, that question has loomed in the back of my mind ever since.  Understand the wisdom in what I am about to say here.  I have realized that I cannot be known apart from my relationship with my wife.  I would not exist as I do today without her.  The TJ that you know is not the TJ who would exist had I never related to Ashley in the way that I have and her with me.  You would not know me as you do today without her influence in my life.  She has had a vital hand in forming me whether she has intended to or not.  It is the relationship that we share, the communion that we share, that has been so formative for me.  Without her, I don’t think I would have left my hometown.  If I would have, I certainly wouldn’t have come to St. Louis.  My self-esteem was so shot in high school that I probably would have spent more time running from God’s calling on my life than embracing it.  I probably wouldn’t have gone to college.  Without her, I wouldn’t be the particular husband that I am (and might not be a husband at all) and I wouldn’t be shaped by the priceless friendship that she has given me over the years.  Communion shapes us.  We are defined by our relationships.  The areas where we makes decisions are always within the context of relationships.  We either choose for or against people.  We are never neutral. 

To use another example, I can look to you all.  My time with you all has shaped me tremendously over the few years that I have been with you.  You all have shaped me so much that I will never be the same person that I was again before I met you all.  You all have made me the TJ that I am now.  Because of your all’s patience with me, you have given me space to grow more fully into a man.  You all have shaped my preaching and the way that I think about church.  The youth here have made me fall further in love with youth ministry. 

What I am saying is that life is relational.  Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are being shaped by our relationships.  We are made in the image if the Triune God.  God exists as a community.  To be made in His image means that we are also made for community.  Just as the Father cannot be known apart from the Son and the Spirit, and the Son cannot be known apart from the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit cannot be known apart from the Father and the Son, so to, we cannot be known apart from God and apart each another and the people that God has placed in our lives.  Our relationships form us.  It is meant to be this way. 

“The freedom to be a person operates within the constraints of relationships.  To ignore this is to ignore God as a relational being who has created us in God’s image to also be relational beings.”  -Brandon K. McKoy, “Youth Ministry From the Outside In.”

 The Church is meant to be an image of the reality of God’s existence.  The Church is meant to reflect the dynamic love that exists between the Father, Son and Spirit in the Way that she loves others and God.  Salvation…the Gospel…is about taking on God’s Way of existence…a Way which cannot be done through an individualistic endeavor but only through community because to take on God’s Way of life is to be communal as He is. 

Jesus even went as far as to pray for us in this regard.  The night that He was betrayed, He prayed to the Father not that we would uphold perfect doctrine, not that we would be sheltered from times of doubt and heartache, not that we would live perfectly moral lives, not that we would reach the masses through our missional programs, but that we would exist as the Trinity exists…that we would be “one” the way that God is.

                “My prayer is not for them alone.  I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.  May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.  Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.  Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.  Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.  I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”   

I want to make a few points about this passage.

He is praying for us.  He is praying for you and for me and what is His prayer?

That we may be one.  Now, what does this oneness look like?  Oneness looks like the Father being in Jesus and Jesus being in the Father.  Oneness demands a plurality in order for it to exist.  Without a plurality, oneness is redundant.  This oneness is not a bleeding together of two persons, but they are simultaneously one and many.  They are simultaneously diversity and unity, unity and plurality.  Jesus’ prayer is that we, to, would take on this way of life as a Christian community; that, we would come together and exist as a church in such a way where oneness is not over-emphasized and diversity is not over-emphasized…but that we would understand that whenever unity and diversity are simultaneously held together, freedom and genuine love happens.  You can see this line of thought all over Paul’s writings.  Think of his teaching on spiritual gifts: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ…even so the body is not made up of one part but of many” (1 Cor. 12:12;14).  Another example is one that is slightly controversial sometimes these days.  There are have been many accusations that Paul was a misogynistic jerk of a sort; that he undervalued women and saw them as second class citizens and inferior beings to men.  Now, I think if we think too individualistically, that could be an easy conclusion to make.  Now, I am not a woman and I wish to be cautious here.  However, I can imagine that if you are a woman and your priorities are your rights, your equality, your wants, your desires...etc., I can see where you would take issue with Paul here.  However, if you understand that Paul sees the Church as the image of the Triune God, which is composed of different persons come together as one…his teaching on women (and men) begins to make much more sense.  For example, this becomes very evident whenever it comes to his teachings on head coverings (and short hair for men).  Head coverings were not a means to show that women were subordinate to men or second class citizens.  Paul was simply seeking to provide a tangible-visible sign that would display the dynamics of the Triune God within the Church.  Head coverings were a means of showing the men that women are equal in status in God’s Kingdom but it was also means of showing that men and women are not exactly the same; that the unity and diversity that exists between the genders is something to be celebrated.  Thus, as opposite sexes, their coming together as one body was itself a sign of diversity coming together in unity and the head coverings help to amplify this notion all the more.  Men were to keep short hair while women were to wear head coverings to celebrate this diversity in oneness.  It was a way of imaging the Trinity in a very visible and concrete way.

We have been given glory.  Many people want to end there and they fail to ask "why?"  Why have we been given glory according to Jesus?  The answer: that we may be one as God is one and be brought to complete unity.  We are brought into eternal life and given this glory for a reason: that, as a community we would reflect the community of the Triune God.  The Church is the only place where the one and the many can dwell together harmoniously because we understand that this is how God exists and how Jesus prays that we, to, would exist. 

The reality of God’s love becomes our reality as well.  We are invited into a love that already exists.   God did not start loving whenever He created us, or when he saved us, but He has always been love.  The Father invites us into this way of love through His Son and the enabling of the Spirit so that we, to, would become love as He is and love as He does.    

A few concluding points:

Whenever we understand that life is relational, there are a few warnings that we need to be aware of:

Kindness is not communion: 

The two are not synonyms.  In our day, notions of kindness often fuel individualism.  There is a type of kindness that only seeks to keep people at arms length; that says “I want you to have a positive view of me for the sake of my reputation and self esteem, so I will be nice to you, but I won’t let you in any further than this.”  It is the very same type of attitude that the apostle Paul dealt with in the Corinthians whenever he said:

                “¹¹ We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. ¹² We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us.”

Human beings are ends in themselves, not means to an end: 

People are not Pawns to be moved for our own personal agendas.  Love does not use people.  It never uses them.  It serves them and seeks their needs above itself.  How many of our ministries and our actions, though, are about our own personal agendas.  How often are we guilty of using people for our own selfish gains?   

People are not numbers, not objects to be won over to our ministry programs nor simple objects to be swayed by our church politics.  Such ways of thinking come from selfish and individualistic notions, not Biblical ones.  It doesn't seek to love people.  It only seeks to use them.