GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 3:21b-22
While he was praying, heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love. With you I am well pleased.”
The appearance of the Father and the Holy Spirit shows God’s approval on the teaching and the ministry of the Son. Jesus did not need this public statement for his own sake, but it came as a witness for those who were there. In the matter of everything Jesus Christ said and did throughout his life and his ministry, the Father and the Holy Spirit stand as witnesses, in every matter. “A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses” (Deuteronomy 19:15).
The Father spoke publicly about Jesus three times during Jesus’ ministry. This was the first. The second was at the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:35), and the third was in the Temple during Holy Week (John 12:28). The Holy Spirit is normally unseen, but there are two instances where he appears as a flying being. First, as creation began, the Spirit was there “hovering over the surface of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). At that time he was a witness to the perfection of the creation (“God saw that the light was good,” Genesis 1:4). Here he was not only hovering, but he actually landed (καταβαίνω, “came down upon”) Jesus. This is the anointing of Jesus prophesied in Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” Peter said, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power” (Acts 10:38). If you and I and others have been blessed with certain gifts of the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 2:4), it is to God’s glory that he does infinitely more with Jesus. Jesus does not receive this gift or that gift, but all of it—he is anointed with the Holy Spirit himself, descending on him visibly for the people there to see. The Spirit was visible and present just as surely as Abraham saw God and his angels visibly standing there in front of his tent (Genesis 18:1-2).
ABOUT THE TRINITY
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are mentioned together many times in the Bible (see especially 2 Corinthians 13:14). The Bible is clear that there is only one God: “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). But even in that verse, there are three references to God (Lord, God, and Lord). The Old Testament believers grasped the difference and yet the unity of the different persons: God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. There are dozens of instances of the Spirit of God descending upon various men to prophesy or to lead the people of God (Exodus 31:3; 1 Samuel 10:10; 1 Chronicles 12:18; 2 Chronicles 15:1). The Holy Spirit is God, but he is not identical to the Father. They are different persons, yet one unified God. This unity of Father and Spirit was also understood in the Old Testament, as in the parallel lines: “You are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground” (Psalm 143:10). The Spirit is the source of visions that come from God (Ezekiel 8:3; 11:24). Also, the idea that God would have a Son who would be divine and equal to the Father is clear: “To us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders. And his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
Early Christians accepted One God who is also somehow three. Justin Martyr (100-165) said, “The Father of the universe has a Son; who also, being the first-begotten Word of God, is even God.” (First Apology, 63). Theophilus of Antioch (died c. 184), in his exegesis of the fourth day of creation, speculated that “the three days prior to the (creation of the) luminaries are types of the ‘triad’ (τῆς τριάδoς) of God, his Logos (word) and his Sophia (wisdom)” (2.15). Finally, Tertullian (155-240) coined the term “triune” that we still use today. Throughout the history of the Church, the Jews have never objected to the divinity of the Holy Spirit, or to the idea that God the Father could have a Son. The only objection the Jews ever raised is that Jesus Christ called himself the Son of God (Matthew 26:63-65; Luke 22:70-71).
Here in the Jordan, we see the Trinity most clearly. Here is the Son, standing in the water of his baptism. Here is the Father, speaking from heaven (opened wide!) about his love for his Son. And here is the Holy Spirit, flying down and landing upon the Son. In terms we use in instructing our children: The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father, nor the Son. And yet the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. We borrow language from Athanasian Creed to complete the thought:
“What the Father is, so is the Son, and so is the Holy Spirit.
…they are not three who are eternal, but there is one who is eternal.
…they are not three who are uncreated, nor three who are infinite, but there is one who is uncreated and one who is infinite.
…they are nor three Gods, but one God.
…the true Christian faith forbids us to speak of three Gods or three Lords.
… And within this Trinity none comes before or after; none is greater or inferior, but all three persons are coequal and coeternal, so that in every way, as stated before, all three persons are to be worshiped as one God and one God worshiped as three persons.”
This is most certainly true.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Something extra:
A CATENA OF WITNESSES
There are many references in the Apostolic Father which show a growing understanding of the Triune God:
“The faith which is in Christ confirms these things, for he himself calls us this way through the Holy Spirit: ‘Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.’” (1 Clement 22:1)
“The apostles, after they had received their orders and in full assurance by reason of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, being full of faith in the word of God, went out in the conviction of the Holy Spirit preaching the gospel that God’s kingdom was about to come.” (1 Clement 42:3)
“For as God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit (the faith and hope of the elect) lives, he—who in humility and eager gentleness has performed, without backsliding, the decrees and commandments given by God—he shall be enrolled and chosen in the number of those who are saved through Jesus Christ, through whom is to him the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Clement 58:2)
“For you are stones of the Father’s temple, prepared for the building set up by God our Father, lifted to the heights by the machine of Jesus Christ (that is, the cross) using the Holy Spirit for a rope. Your faith is the windlass and love is the road that leads up to God.” (Ignatius to the Ephesians 9:1)
“For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived by Mary according to God’s plan, by the seed of David on the one hand and of the Holy Spirit on the other. He was born; he was baptized in order to purify the water by his suffering.” (Ignatius to the Ephesians 18:2)
“May I be received today among them as a fine and acceptable sacrifice just as you have prepared beforehand and fulfilled, O undeceiving and true God. For this reason and for all these things I praise you, I bless you and I glorify you, through the eternal and heavenly high priest Jesus Christ your beloved Son, through whom to you and the Holy Spirit with him be glory now and forever, Amen.” (Martyrdom of Polycarp 14:2-3)
“Farewell, brothers, as you walk by the word of Jesus Christ in accord with the gospel. Together with him be glory to God and the Father and the Holy Spirit to the salvation of the holy elect, even as the blessed Polycarp suffered martyrdom, in whose footsteps may we be found in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.” (Martyrdom of Polycarp 22:1)
“Now about baptism, baptize this way: After rehearsing all these things, baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” in running water. But if you don’t have running water, then baptize in some other kind of water. If you can’t in cold, then in warm. But if you don’t have any of these, then pour water on the head three times “in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” (Didache 7:1-3)
“From the eighth mountain, where there were many springs and all the Lord’s creation drinking from the springs, were such believers as 2 apostles and teachers who preached through the whole world, who taught the word of the Lord reverently and sincerely, and kept nothing back because of any evil desire. They always walked ‘in righteousness and in truth,’ just as ‘they had received the Holy Spirit.’ The path of such men is with the angels.” (Shepherd of Hermas, Hs 9,25)
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota