To Understand Salvation, Understand the Trinity

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Scott Swain: Well, thank you, Lee and that conversation we just had at your performance review, the answer is yes about the race. I’ll be working on that when we get back to town. Well, good afternoon. Thank you for coming out. My task today is to talk about how the doctrine of the Trinity enriches our biblical theology of salvation. And so let’s jump right into that. Many of you will know the name Oliver Sacks, very famous neurologist who has really popularized contemporary brain science and how it addresses various brain injuries and helped a lot of us who don’t know anything about these things know a little bit about them. Well, one of his earliest books is entitled The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. And he starts the book describing a certain Dr P A gifted musician, a music teacher who one day, started developing certain symptoms. Students would come up to him after class, and he did not recognize them until they started speaking. But once they started speaking, he knew who they were. And from time to time, he would do the odd thing like Pat a fire hydrant on the head because he thought it was a little child. And as this teacher was introduced to Dr Sachs, they initially thought perhaps there’s something wrong with his eyes, and they checked his eyes and said, No, his sight is fine. And actually he was still very, quite eloquent, very, quite sharp, very sharp in terms of his attention to detail and many other things. But Dr Sachs said, the first time I met him, I could tell he he wasn’t really looking at me. He was turning his ear to try to listen to me, but he wasn’t looking at my face. And so the second time he met with him, he handed him a glove, leather glove, and he said, Can you tell me what this is? And he said, Well, let’s see. He started feeling this leather glove, and he said, it feels like maybe it’s a purse of some sort, and it’s got maybe five pockets where you could put coins in it, and and then finally, Dr sacks says, Well, if you put a part of the human anatomy in there, could you think about it? Says, Oh, of course, it’s a glove. And it turns out he had a brain injury that we is now very kind of widely understood, where he had the ability to see and grasp and even have a quite detailed understanding of features, but he lacked the ability to perceive a face. He could attend to the parts, but he could not grasp the whole. Well, what I want to suggest in our brief hour this afternoon, that when it comes to our biblical theology of salvation, and specifically to two themes that are very central to this conference, the theme of the Exodus, which is in many ways, the premier pattern of salvation in Scripture, and when it comes to the topic of hope, which is the goal of our salvation. When it comes to these two themes, if we don’t understand these themes in light of the broader teaching of scripture on the Triune God, then there’s a sense in which our biblical theology has a brain injury we are grasping features, but we’re not seeing the face. And so I want to kind of play the role of Benoit Blanc. I will spare you of this, any attempt to imitate the accent, but I want to follow a kind of path of discovery this afternoon, tracing out this theme of Exodus and how it moves towards hope, but in a way that helps us to see how the doctrine of the Trinity is really what brings all of these different themes together, and to help us, along with that, I’m going to appeal to something that our second speaker is very well known for, the biblical theme of mystery. Now, mystery in the Bible, of course, is not about Benoit Blanc and solving murders and so forth, but it’s the theme related to God’s eternal plan and how in ages past, under the Old Testament, that plan was largely hidden, although there are clues hidden in plain sight everywhere. But it’s not until the end of the ages, until the fullness of time, that that mystery is finally revealed. Well, Fred Sanders says that to. Really understand how the Trinity is revealed in the course of Scripture, you have to understand that Trinity too follows that mystery pattern. God has always been Trinity. It’s not that he becomes Trinitarian over the course of time, but the Trinitarian nature of God is a mystery that under the Old Testament is largely hidden, and at the fullness of times, when the context of the gospel, it is fully and finally revealed. So that’s the big picture, how the Trinity illumines gives us a deeper understanding of our salvation, and specifically the themes of Exodus and hope. The Trinity is the mystery of salvation. So, so here’s the here’s the path we’re going to go. All right, first, going to look at some preliminary issues related to the doctrine of creation and how the Trinity is hidden in plain sight, even in the context of both creation and the fall second, we’re going to look really closely at the Exodus and certain themes related to the Exodus and how the Trinity is hidden in plain sight. There. Then we’re going to move to move to how the prophets, and specifically Isaiah, look for a second Exodus, as Israel is going into exile and they seem to have lost hope. Nevertheless, God, through Isaiah and other prophets, promises a second Exodus, a new Exodus, which is very central to how then forth the gospel in proclaiming the fulfillment of this second Exodus reveals the doctrine of the Trinity to us and shows us how, in the face of Christ, These various features come together. All right, so first, how the Trinity is hidden in plain sight in creation and fall. Now, creation is a work of the Triune God, and we as Christians, looking back to Genesis one, looking back to places like Psalm 33 can see this in a number of ways. How does God create? He creates through His Word and Spirit. So Psalm 33 six says, by the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath or spirit of his mouth all their starry hosts. And the work of creation is portrayed as a work of great power. He spoke and it came to be. It’s portrayed as a work of great divine wisdom. But above all, it’s portrayed as a work of Divine Generosity. And the Triune God manifests all of these attributes in the works of creation. Well, the fall is really predicated on questioning that last revelation of the Triune God that I just mentioned, specifically his goodness. And when the serpent wants to sow doubt, when he wants to entice rebellion against the king of all things, the first thing he challenges, as I understand Genesis three is the goodness of our Father in heaven. His argument is essentially this, when, when he he starts questioning Eve about the prohibition of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. His his suggestion is that the Lord is holding something back, right? All of these good things that are in the garden, these fruitful trees, these beautiful jewels, this, this man who’s been reciting poetry since Eve has come into being, right? All of these things are just a mirage for the truth about the world, which is that God is holding something back from you. And therefore, Eve, if you’re going to flourish, if you’re going to make it in this world, you’ve got to reach out, take the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil for yourself, and you will flourish. To be free, you’ve got to revolt. God is holding something back from you. God is hiding something from you. Well, Satan is, in a sense, half right. God is hiding something and we’ll come back to that later. But in Ephesians, chapter three, verse nine, Paul talks about the mystery, and he describes it in Ephesians, 39 as the mystery that was hidden in God who created all things, there is something hidden from the beginning. It in the garden. But here’s where Satan has it wrong.

God is not holding something back from Eve. God is holding something back for Eve. The best illustration I’ve ever heard of this concept of mystery is one of my former students made and she said biblical mystery is like Christmas season at a house full of kids. What do parents love to do as Christmas approaches? Well, they like to buy presents that they think their children are gonna love, but then they like to wrap them up in paper and hide them under the tree, hidden in plain sight. Now, kids might be a little bit angry that they can’t touch those presents for weeks or months, depending how far ahead the parents have planned, right? But they should know whatever is being hidden there is not a sign that my parents are trying to keep something back from me. They’re holding something. They’re storing up something that actually they want to give to me. Well, Eve believed the serpent, and the rest of course, is our dismal history. Well, that’s the preliminary backdrop to the theme of Trinity and mystery, and so just want to keep that in the back of our mind, and we’re going to come back to that later. Second topic, how the Trinity is hidden in plain sight in the first Exodus. Now, one way of appreciating the Exodus theme as it unfolds, and really starting in the book of Genesis, but through the book of Exodus, through the rest of the Pentateuch, is to look at what is the end goal of the Exodus. Right when we see where the arrow is heading, it helps us sometimes trace the path of the arrow. Well, what is the hope toward which God’s work of redemption of his people from Israel is headed. Well, it’s very clear from a number of places in the Old Testament that the goal of the Exodus is God’s covenant relation with his people. And among many places in the Old Testament, where you see that covenant summarized, Leviticus, 2612 tells us what are the three main aspects of that covenant. You remember what it says, I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. This is the goal of the Exodus covenant, union and communion between God and His people. Well, note the three elements in that promise. First, I will be your God, right? God is going to be related to Israel in a very specific way. He will be their God. Second element, they correspondingly, will be his people. And then the third element, which is the first element in the verse, I will walk among you, so life together between God and His people. This is the goal of the covenant. Well, once you see that that that’s the bull’s eye toward which the Exodus theme is heading, you look back and you trace God’s various dealings with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. You look at the call of Moses, the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. You realize every phase along the journey is building towards the fulfillment of that covenant relationship. So let’s look at a few examples of that. First, God’s initiation of the Covenant in his promises to Abraham So Genesis 17, this is where God confirms the Abrahamic covenant. He’s already made a number of promises, but he formalizes it. You have the gift of circumcision, but he says in verse seven and eight of that chapter, that first theme we just saw in Leviticus, 2612, and it’s the exact language I will be their God. Now, fun question to ask Nancy when we’re thinking about biblical theology and you see a theme, especially you see the first time a theme is mentioned, and you know that that theme is related to other themes, you want to say, Well, why is that part of the theme mentioned? I will be their God. But why aren’t the other parts of the themes mentioned? And the short answer is, he can’t say and you will be My people, because Israel, at this point, is not a people, right? Israel is not called a people until Exodus one verse seven after, they have become fruitful and multiplied and filled the land of Egypt. To that time, it’s actually just a guy and his wife, right? But even by the end of the Exodus, all you have is 70 people that really can. Be described as 12 tribes. They’re not officially yet a people. However, what we do have even in this promise to Abraham in Genesis 17, and you see it all the way going back to Genesis, chapter 12, verse seven and eight repeated multiple times throughout the book of Genesis. While we do not yet have the promise of people and land. I’m sorry, walking among you, we do have promises that are the building blocks to these promises. Okay, so in Genesis, 12, verse seven, the first call of Abram, the Lord says to your offspring, I will give this land well, in what sense are offspring and land building blocks to that ultimate covenant fulfillment? Well, offspring are necessary for Israel to become a people, and land is necessary for God to walk among Israel and be their God, and for them to be His people. So Genesis 17, the promise to Abraham, the promises repeated to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we have this first element of the covenant. I will be your God. The second element comes when God accomplishes the first Exodus by redeeming his people from Egypt, listen to Exodus 67 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And later in Deuteronomy, will look back and say, Never in the history of the world, never since the time of creation, has anything ever like this, ever happened where a God has come down to the midst of one nation and redeemed a people out of the midst of that nation and taken that people to be his own, but accomplishing redemption of Israel from Egypt. God fulfills that second element of the covenant. So I will be your God. Israel grows to the size of a people in Egypt. God redeems them and takes them to be His people. We see the third element of the Covenant fulfilled when God consummates the Exodus, the first Exodus, by indwelling his people in the tabernacle. It’s always important when we’re reading the Bible to pay attention to purpose statements, isn’t it? Well, in Exodus, chapter 29 The Lord tells us what the purpose of the Exodus is, and listen to it. It’s the same language we’ve already seen in Leviticus. 2612 he says, I will. This is Exodus. 2944 through 46 he says, I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting, and the altar Aaron is in his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God, and they shall know that I am the LORD their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God. So what we should be seeing here is that these three elements of the Covenant, right? They’re not just the goal of the Exodus, but in a sense, there’s an ordered relation between the various elements. There’s a teleology, right? God initiates the covenant by promising to be their God. God accomplishes the covenant by redeeming them from Israel, from Egypt, and then God consummates the covenant by coming to dwell among them in the tabernacle. And by the way, this is free. Dr B will talk more about this later, but God’s coming to dwell among Israel. The Tabernacle shows us that there’s already, and already, not yet in the Old Testament, the tabernacle is the already of God indwelling Israel, the temple is the not yet, but they’re related to each other, and again, that’s why the whole Exodus theme is such a paradigm for the Christian life, right? We’re already redeemed. God already dwells in our midst, but we have not yet made it fully home. All right, one more theme here, and then we’re going to talk about Isaiah for a second, because Isaiah is really important to see how the Trinity brings all of these themes together in looking at each theme related to the covenant. At looking at the sequence of how God fulfills the covenant, how God redeems Israel, that they might be His people, that he might walk in their midst, the defining theme that moves the story along is God’s self revelation.

At each point of the storyline, God reveals something about himself that explains how the covenant can move forward. So in Exodus 17, where you get the promise I will be their God. Where does Exodus 17 begin with God’s self declaration of his name, El Shaddai. I am God Almighty. I am the God of blessing, the God who produces offspring. Okay, and so, how can Israel know? How can Abraham know, who has no children, that this promise is sure to be fulfilled because the promise is made by El Shaddai, by God Almighty, when God calls Moses and he tells Moses, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and though 400 years have passed, and though you are enslaved by the greatest tyrant of the ancient world. Nevertheless, you can be sure that I am the Lord your God, and Israel is my people. How does God underline and guarantee the fulfillment of that promise by revealing his name at the burning bush, as I am, who I am, he’s the self, same one. He has not changed. He does not change. Therefore Moses can be sure God’s promises will be fulfilled. And then in Exodus, second half of the book, latter half of the book, verses, chapters, 25 through 40, which, in their entirety, are really devoted to the construction of the tabernacle, so the fulfillment of that consummating theme of the Covenant, I will walk among you. What’s the great crisis of the Exodus narrative? Right? The great crisis of the Exodus narrative is not Pharaoh stands in the way Pharaoh’s dealt with actually quite easily by the Lord. What’s the great crisis that stands in the way of God dwelling in the midst of Israel? What’s Israel’s sin? And no sooner has God formalized His covenant relation with Israel at Sinai, that they’re breaking the second commandment, right? And they are in terms of the language of Exodus. They’re deep people in themselves. Remember what the Lord tells Moses, Go down to your people. That’s a terrible description of Israel who’s just been made God’s people, but no, they’re your people. They’re not my people. And you remember, Moses intercedes for Israel, and he keeps essentially trying to offer the Lord options for how the Lord might deal with this particular problem, and option after option, Moses offers and the Lord rejects it. And finally, Moses essentially throws his hands up in the air and says, I don’t know how to pray. If I’ve really found favor in your sight, as you’ve said, if you really do intend to give your people rest, as you’ve said, Show me your glory. In other words, reveal Yourself to me, reveal your character to me, so I will know how to pray. So I will know how to intercede for this stiff, necked and rebellious people. And of course, this is where you have that great self proclamation of the divine name in the Old Testament, Exodus, 3467 Exodus. 3318 and 19. Exodus. 34 six and seven are repeated. They become kind of a refrain for the rest of the Old Testament. They make their appearance in the New Testament. Well, in places like John 114, and 16 and so forth, and God declares himself to be the one who abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness, who abounds in compassion. And so how can this covenant relationship be fulfilled? How can God’s dwelling in the midst of Israel be guaranteed only because God is the gracious God who reveals himself to be a God who abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness, who abounds in compassion, who who pardons sin. This leads to the next theme, or third theme, how the Trinity is hidden in plain sight in the prophetic hope for a new Exodus. And I know what you’re thinking. You’re saying, Boy, it’s hidden pretty well because you haven’t said anything about the Trinity. You have to stick with me. Benoit Blanc, we’re not going to give you the answer to the end. We’ve got to build it up. Isaiah. Isaiah 63 Three and 64 are two really important chapters in the book of Isaiah, and the New Testament looks back to these chapters in a number of different ways. Isaiah 63 and 64 as Israel is on its way into exile, as Israel is inheriting the covenant curses that were threatened to her before she even came into the Promised Land covenant curses that come from her infidelity to the Lord, from her unfaithfulness to her marital vows that she took at Sinai when she entered into the Mosaic covenant with the Lord, as Israel is going into exile. Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 63 and 64 does a very interesting thing. It’s a pattern you see throughout the Old Testament. Isaiah looks back to the first Exodus, and he reminds himself of what God did in the first exodus in order to inspire hope for a second Exodus. And I want you to look at three themes in these two chapters that Isaiah mentions that he introduces that the New Testament will just seize on and will become a central part of how the New Testament reveals the Triune God as the fulfillment of this covenantal purpose, of this exodus theme, this redeeming purpose. So the first one, you see it in chapter 63 and verse 11. Now in verse 11 of Isaiah 63 and I think verse 12 as well, the Holy Spirit is mentioned twice. Okay, so the third person of the Trinity, Holy Spirit is mentioned twice. Do you know how many times in the entire Old Testament, not that the Spirit of God is mentioned, or the Spirit of the Lord, or the spirit or something, but do you know how many times the Old Testament the Holy Spirit is mentioned by name as Holy Spirit. You know how many times three? Three times two of them are in Isaiah 63 listen to what the Prophet says in verse 11. He’s looking back to the first Exodus. He’s remembering it to inspire hope. Then he remembered the days of old, of Moses and his people. Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them His Holy Spirit? And Lincoln is going to get on to me later, but I’m going to just say real quick. Real quick. Someone ever asked you, when was the Holy Spirit? When did he start indwelling God’s people?

Pentecost is the wrong answer, right? It’s at least the Exodus. All right. He’s not really gonna get on me later, but

little Covenant Theology fighting terms. All right, so the Holy Spirit is mentioned by name. Second theme in Isaiah, 63 and 64 Isaiah, 6316 listen to the language that the Prophet uses in his prayer to the Lord. He says, You are our father, though Abraham doesn’t know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Lord, You O Yahweh, are our father, our Redeemer from old. Is your name? Well, that’s interesting, calling God the covenant Lord our father. So the Holy Spirit was operative in the first Exodus came to dwell among the people of Israel. And as you read on in Chapter 63 says it’s the Holy Spirit who gave them rest in the Promised Land, and you are our father. So even though Abraham doesn’t know us, okay, even though the fathers do not know us, Jacob doesn’t know us, you know us because we’re your child and you are our father. The Covenant relation is translated into familial language. That’s what I want you to observe, and we’ll come back to that in a little bit. Last thing I want you to see, and this is really important for our next theme, we would look at the Gospels, Isaiah prayer in Isaiah 64 verse one, and this specifically is his prayer for a new Exodus. So he’s looked back to the old Exodus. He’s described the covenant relationship with God as a familial relationship. You are our father. But when he prays for the new Exodus, he asks for a very specific thing. Isaiah, 60 410, So that you would rend the heavens and come down. Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down. And the Greek of Isaiah, so that you would tear the heavens and come down. He wants heaven to be opened. He wants God to descend, and he wants the result to be a new Exodus. And again, you think back to the first Exodus. What’s the language repeatedly used to describe the way the Lord read his people. He came down. He heard their cry. He came down and he brought them up. And so what Isaiah is saying is, do it again. Tear open the heavens come down and redeem us. Which leads to the fourth theme. So far, we haven’t really said anything about the Trinity. We talked about how the Trinity is hidden in plain sight, and you say it’s hidden really well because you haven’t said anything about it. Talk about creation and fall. Talk about the first Exodus. Talk about Isaiah in the hope of a new Exodus. Well, now I want to talk about how the Trinity is revealed in the New Testament in the context of the fulfillment of this promised new Exodus. Now recall something we looked at when we talked about the first Exodus. What is it that moves each element of the storyline forward, God revealing something about himself. Well, that biblical theological logic is behind the way the New Testament talks about the fulfillment of the new Exodus? Okay, if, if the first Exodus came in the context of God’s self revelation, revealing himself as the one who is able to keep these promises, and when he does keep them, as the one who alone is able to bring them to pass, then the fulfillment of the new Exodus comes when God reveals more fully who he is, and this is how he reveals himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit at Jesus’ baptism, God moves the storyline forward by revealing that, As a serpent had said, yes, there is something more. Yes, there is something more that has been hidden, but that something more is a someone more at Jesus’ baptism, and you look at Matthew, Mark and Luke, and particularly the way they talk about it, but Mark is perhaps most pronounced in this regard. Mark portrays Jesus baptism as the revelation of the trinity which is going to spark the fulfillment of Isaiah, new Exodus. And if we had time to talk about how Mark chapter one actually quotes from isaiah 40 and some other text, quotes from Exodus chapter 23 bringing a bunch of biblical theological threads together to show how the coming of Jesus is going to bring this new Exodus. But for our present purposes, all we need to do is look at one word, the word that Mark uses to describe the heavens being opened when Jesus comes up from the water after having been baptized. You know what word it is? It’s the same word from Isaiah chapter 64 What did Isaiah Pray, oh that you would rend the heavens, or that you would tear the heavens and come down. Well Mark says, When Jesus was coming up out of the water, the heavens were torn. Isaiah’s prayer was answered. And what happened? We’ve got a self revelation of the Triune God the Father, speaks from heaven, you are my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. This Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove, and this is Mark’s way of signaling that the way the new Exodus is going to come to pass is that God is going to roll up his sleeves and do it himself. He has come down in the person of His Son to be the redeemer of his people. The Spirit descends. The Father speaks, and now we see, yes, something has been hidden from us, but what has been kept back was something for us. Psalm 3119 says, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you have worked in the side of the nations and Jesus, baptism is, as it were, the unfolding fulfillment of that stored up. Goodness that now the fullness of time is being revealed. The something more is a someone more. You are My beloved Son. Well, once you see this, this is where the threads start coming together quite clearly. This is where the features start getting their full focus, because we see the face of the one who has come to be our Redeemer. And so the three elements of the covenant that we saw earlier, the New Testament takes those three elements and it transposes them in a Trinitarian light. So for example, second, Corinthians, 618, remember what Paul says, and there’s interesting allusion to Isaiah in that context as well. Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. And what’s the promise? I will be a father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord, God Almighty. Now one of the first two elements of the Covenant, promise in Leviticus, 2612, I will be your God. Will you be my people? What’s happened to those two elements? They’ve been transposed. They’ve, they’ve, they’ve, they’ve taken on a new key, right? I will be your God is fulfilled as I will be a father to you and you’ll be my people. It’s fulfilled as you will be My sons and daughters. What about the third element I will walk among you? Well, you see this in a number of different ways already and in Second Corinthians, chapter six, but you see it most clearly if you look at a place like first, Corinthians, chapter six, verse 19, where Paul says to the Corinthians, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Okay, so the fulfillment of the covenant is a father, son, father daughter. Relation between God and His people. The indwelling of God in the midst of his people is fulfilled as the Holy Spirit who dwelled among God’s people in the first Exodus. Now, at the fullness of time, comes to dwell among his people in the second Exodus. And how do all of these promises come to pass? Well, again, Second Corinthians, 120 says, What in Jesus, the Son of God? All of God’s promises are yes and amen. One of the things that has become a fairly, I think, broad consensus of biblical scholars regarding kind of the roots of even the idea of covenant in the ancient Near East, and then how scripture appropriates. It is that covenants are, among many other things, a way of creating a kinship bond between parties that are not natural kin. Gordon hugginberger Is someone who’s made this argument with respect to marriage, and marriage is actually the perfect example of this, okay, marriage is a covenant bond that creates kin between people who weren’t natural kin, right? So for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother natural kin should be joined to his wife, and they’ll become one flesh. And one flesh there means there’ll be family, there’ll be kin. This is what the leaders from Judah say of David, hey, you’re bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. We’re family. Why are you treating us like this. This is family relation. Well,

that idea of covenant helps us understand why the covenant itself and how the covenant itself is actually itself part of the mystery, and how, how the covenant itself is aimed at teaching us about the Trinity. In Jesus, the Son of God, all God’s promises, all God’s covenant promises, are yes and amen. How does that work? Well, in the person of Christ, we’ve got the father’s natural kin, God’s own Son, true God of true God, consubstantial with the Father, to use the language of the Creed, who, by virtue of His incarnation, is also what our kin and through His redeeming work, what has he Done? He’s taken not just God’s creatures who have no natural kinship with the transcendent God. But he’s taking God’s rebellious creatures who have who who’ve disinherited themselves of any claim on God’s kindness and faithfulness, and by giving his own son, he. He’s made us his family members through union and communion with Jesus Christ. In Him, all God’s covenant promises are yes and amen, and so in Him, Jesus can say to Mary on resurrection and mourning, I’m ascending to my God and your God, and my father and your father, my natural father is now your father by covenant. This is what Christ came to do, and once you see this, the rest of New Testament, revelation of the Trinity, really starts taking on a deeper meaning. So I’ll mention a couple examples. The benediction that concludes Second Corinthians, chapter 13, benediction, probably many of us here regular basis on Sunday mornings of conclusion of worship, what does it say? The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Be with you. Well, what’s going on there? Grace, love, fellowship. Are these just kind of random attributes that Paul decided to mention there at the end of the letter, just kind of a nice, fitting conclusion. He likes to close with the word of grace. It’s kind of a common letter conclusion as well. Is that all it is. That’s why grace is first. I think it is kind of a common conclusion to a letter. But no, he’s saying something about the Trinity, and he’s saying something about the nature of our salvation. He’s saying something about the nature of our redemption. Think back to the Exodus story. Think back to the covenant pattern. What do we see? The three elements of the Covenant are teleologically related to each other. Right initiated in the covenant, promises to Abraham accomplished in the actual Exodus, the redemption of Israel from Egypt, consummated in God coming to walk among his people. Well, love, grace and fellowship aren’t really three different attributes. They’re actually one attribute of God, which you can describe as love, you can describe it as Grace, or you can describe it fellowship, but they’re describing that one attribute in a teleological relationship, love is the initiation, grace is the accomplishment, fellowship is the goal. And it’s really interesting in the context of Second Corinthians, that’s exactly what Paul means by grace. He says it earlier in chapter eight, verse nine, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And though he was rich, he made himself poor, that as he came down, so that you, through his poverty, might what go up become rich. And so how do we understand what’s the what’s the big framework for thinking about our salvation? It begins with the love of the Father. It’s accomplished through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and its goal is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Second theme, Exodus, more specifically, the theme of redemption, the theme of indwelling. Galatians, 44, through seven. Galatians, three and four is this really long biblical theology argument where Paul is addressing the question basically, what constitutes somebody a son of Abraham, and therefore, what constitutes the grounds on which they can be expected to receive the inheritance promised to Abraham and and the big debate between Paul the Judaizers is a debate about those questions. And the Judaizers, of course, saying you’ve got to be an observing Jew when it comes to various food laws and calendar and so forth and and ultimately, circumcision, of course. And Paul is saying, No, it comes about by God’s grace and through faith in Jesus Christ. And that’s how we receive the rights of sonship. That’s how we receive the right to the inheritance? Well, Paul traces that argument. It’s one of the longest biblical theology arguments in the entire Bible, two chapters, basically Galatians, three and four. And he comes to the very conclusion of it. And you know how he summarizes the whole thing with a Trinitarian summary of salvation, but really a Trinitarian new Exodus, summary of salvation. And so listen for our themes of redemption and indwelling. Paul says, when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who are under the law that they might receive adoption as sons. And because you’re sons, you are no longer what slaves. So you’ve been redeemed from enslavement. You’re no longer slaves, but sons, and therefore, what heirs? And he says, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, whereby we cry, Abba Father. He sent the Son to redeem us. He sent the Spirit to indwell us. And this is how he has brought the Exodus story to its conclusion, and it’s really remarkable. It’s that framework that then explains just how costly our redemption was, right when God redeemed Israel from Egypt in the beginning, how did he redeem them? What was the price paid the Passover lamb? But in the context of the new Exodus, right? How did God redeem us? Romans, 832, He did not spare His own Son, John. 316, he so loved the world that he gave his own son, Peter first. Peter 118, and 19. Remember, you were not redeemed by gold and silver and precious things. But by what? By the precious blood of Christ, God’s own Son? The doctrine of the Trinity tells us how much our salvation cost. It cost the death of God’s own Son for us. Well, this is how the Trinity enriches our biblical theology of salvation. Our salvation is rooted in the love of God, the Father, who wills not just to be our God, but to be our father. Our salvation is accomplished by the grace of God, the Son who redeems us by giving his own life for us on the cross. And our salvation is accomplished is consummated in the fellowship of the Spirit whom God the Father and God the Son sent to indwell us that we might cry, Abba Father, that we might confess. Jesus is Lord. Yes, God was hiding something from us, but not because he was keeping something back, but that he was keeping something for us, something more for us, someone more for us.

All right, time to wrap things up. Benoit Blunt has one final mystery to resolve, I said, quoting Ephesians 39 that even before the fall, even before the Exodus, even before the covenant, there’s a mystery hidden in plain sight in the garden,

and that mystery is related to the doctrine of the Trinity. Well, what is the nature of that mystery. Well, the same Paul who in Ephesians, 39 says the mystery was hidden in God who created all things, tells us the answer in Ephesians chapter five, remember what he says. He quotes Genesis chapter two, which talks about marriage, the marriage covenant, how a kinship bond is created through the marriage covenant between those who are not natural kin. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. And then what does Paul say about Genesis two, and what Genesis two says about marriage that ain’t talking about marriage. That’s talking about Christ and the church. Yes, Adam and Eve. There are a lot of wonderful things that God has revealed to you in the garden, but God is revealing something through your own marriage that if you would trust His goodness, if you would be patient, you would see that the God who made you has made you for himself, and that your marriage is just a temporary sign of the ultimate thing that you were made for, which is to be God’s own spouse. And all of the the ways that the Old Testament describes this, think of Ezekiel describing the Covenant as a marriage. You think of something like Psalm 45 which which talks about this handsome King and and. And and tries to woo a gentile bride to leave her father’s house and embrace this handsome King. These are all ways hidden in plain sight that are meant to tell us this is what you were made for. This is what you are being redeemed for, and this is what your hope will fully and finally, be the God who made us, gave His Son for us to redeem us, that He might, in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, give his son to us as our husband and head. And so this is our what Paul says, is our blessed hope. This is how all of the themes of Scripture, not just redemption, not just Exodus, but from creation to consummation, they’re all tied together in this purpose of the Triune God. This is the abundant goodness that our Heavenly Father has stored up for us from before the foundation of the world, that he’s worked out in history at the fullness of time. All the features of creation, salvation and consummation find their full meaning as we behold the face of Jesus Christ, the spirit anointed Son of the Father, let’s pray

Our Father in heaven, we are thankful that you have torn the heavens and that you have in the face of your son, our anointed Redeemer revealed the one who is not only the costly price of our redemption, but who is our ultimate hope that we might be His People, his bride. We thank you that you withhold no good thing from those who fear you. We ask that you would forgive us for doubting this so many times and enable us to walk in confidence of your fatherly goodness toward us in Christ, and we ask it in His name, Jesus, Christ, our Lord. Amen.