As we saw last week, each member of the Trinity played a special role in the incarnation. God the Father gave His only begotten Son (John 1:14; 3:16, Hebrews 1:5-6), Jesus Christ, Who was conceived through the Spirit’s power (Luke 1:35). The Word, or Christ, was God (yet distinct from God the Father) and present from the beginning (John 1:1-2), He was the Creator, the Life-Giver, and the Light Who overcame the darkness (John 1:3-5)
The Word became flesh
so that man could experience His grace
and truth (John 1:14) and see the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). God the
Father was pleased that in Jesus Christ the Son would be the fullness of the
Godhead, or all Three Persons of the Trinity bodily (Colossians 1:19; 2:8,9), As Isaiah foretold, the
Name of the Son would also be the Counsellor (the Spirit Who guides us)
and the Everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6-7).
Those who walked the earth with Jesus were privileged to
see God in the flesh, and subsequent believers have been blessed to read of Him
in Scripture. When we realize that we are sinners in need of a Savior (Romans 3:23) and that Jesus Christ died for our sins, was
buried, and rose from the dead (1
Corinthians 15:1-4), we are indwelled from the moment of salvation by
the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14) Who teaches us
that we are children of God the Father (Romans 8:16).
Just as we now know Christ through the revelation of the Spirit, it is through our knowledge of
and relationship with Jesus that we
can know the Father (John 14:8-9). From an early age,
Jesus knew that He must do His Father’s
business (Luke 2:49), and
in His earthly ministry, His very food was to do His Father’s will and to finish
His work (John 4:34).
The Scriptures are largely silent on much of Jesus’
childhood, but Luke tells us that the Child
grew not only physically but strong in Spirit,
filled with wisdom, and the grace of God
(the Father) was upon Him (Luke 2:40). Thus we see in Jesus the
effects of and interaction with the other Two Persons of the Trinity
Jesus faithfully
honored His Father (John 8:49),
did good works in His Father’s name
(John 10:25,32), and prayed to the Father (Matthew
11:25; Luke 10:21; John 11:41). In His model prayer, He also
taught His disciples to pray to the Father (Matthew
6:9; Luke 11:2). He told the Samaritan woman at the well to
worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, just as she was
coming to realize that He was the Messiah,
or Christ (John 4:21-26).
At Gethsemane, Jesus prayed to the Father for the cup to pass from Him if that were
possible; for the Father’s will to
be done; and for the Father to keep you
and me (John 17), giving
us eternal life by knowing “thee the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (v. 3). Thus, Jesus
Himself clearly recognized the distinction between Himself and the Father.
When Jesus was on the cross, He prayed to the Father to
forgive those who crucified Him (Luke
23:34), and His last words acknowledged the other Two Persons of the
Trinity, as Jesus commended His Spirit to the Father (Luke 23:46).
Yet at that moment that He became sin to appease God’s
wrath at all sinners (2 Corinthians 5:21),
Jesus could not call out to His Father, but only to His God (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34),
because Holy God the Father could not look on all the sin Jesus Christ bore for
us. After Jesus died, the Father raised Him from the dead through
the power of the Holy Spirit. Without
the Trinity acting as Three distinct Persons united in one will, the
crucifixion and resurrection that is the defining miracle of Christianity would
not be possible.
After He arose from the dead, Jesus Christ told Mary Magdalene that He would ascend to His Father (Who was also her Father),
and to His God (Who was also her God; John
20:17). Jesus told His followers that after He ascended to Heaven, the Comforter, or Holy Spirit, would be with them always, remind them of Jesus Christ, and teach them (John 14:16,26;15:26; 16:7). This promise was
realized at Pentecost, when the Spirit descended on the apostles like cloven tongues
of fire (Acts 2:1-4), giving
power to Peter and the others to preach truth. .
By Divine inspiration, Peter then spoke clearly of the
Trinity: This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 33
Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this,
which ye now see and hear (Acts 2:32-33).
Paul also clarified that God the Father raised Jesus from
the dead using the power of the Holy Spirit, and that same Spirit gives believers new life and power to mortify the flesh (Romans 8:10-11) when they trust
in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus
Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
as the only Way to the Father (John 14:6).
Since His ascension, Jesus
Christ the Son has been seated at the right hand of God the Father (Hebrews 1:3),
mediating and interceding for us, hearing the prayers brought from believers to
Him through the Holy Spirit. Paul
tells us that through Christ, we have
access by one Spirit unto the Father (Ephesians 2:18).
In Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles, he was constantly led
by the Spirit, Who inspired his preaching (Acts
18:5) and instructed him not only
in spiritual matters (Acts 17:16)
but in highly practical decisions regarding his ministry, such as where to
travel and where not to go (Acts 19:21;
21:4). Paul describes the
mystery of God, and of the Father,
and of Christ (Colossians 2:2,3) which was not
revealed before the incarnation.
2
Corinthians 13:14The
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with
you all. Amen.
© 2013 Laurie Collett
