“How Can These Things Be?”
Text: John 3:1-17
5-26-2024
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Would you please turn with me to page 319 in the hymnal as we confess our Christian faith using the words of the Athanasian Creed? We’ll read it responsively, verse by verse. (read) The reason we confessed the Creed during the sermon is because I wanted it to be fresh in your minds. And actually, this Creed is a sermon in itself about the Holy Trinity. I know, I know. You’re thinking that Pastor should just say Amen and sit down, right? Ah, if it were only that easy. Seriously, though, it should be obvious from the opening sentence that this Creed is for the whole Christian Church to use. And we should probably use it more regularly because it’s a very precise explanation of the complex doctrine of the Trinity. But let's be honest. Did you actually understand everything you were saying? Don’t blow it off and say, “No, but I don’t need to understand it.” Listen again to what verse 26 says, “Therefore, whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the Trinity.”
That’s important to say in our day and age, because there are Christians, including some of us Lutherans, who have a watered-down theology of the Trinity. Instead, the focus is on just believing in Jesus as your “personal Lord and Savior.” Don’t get me wrong, that is a vital component of the saving faith. But it doesn’t stand alone. That’s because Jesus Christ doesn’t stand alone. He is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit. In fact, quite often in the Bible we find Jesus turning our attention to one or both of the other two persons of the Trinity. That’s because you can’t have one of them without the other two. And that is the essence of our confession in the Athanasian Creed.
As you take time to ponder the words of this Creed and recognize their importance, it will most likely lead you to ask what Nicodemus did in verse 9 of our Gospel, “How can these things be?” You see, Jesus had been explaining to him the workings of God in bringing people into His Kingdom. And I would have you note how Christ points to the actions of all 3 persons of the Trinity in this saving process. He speaks of God, that is, the Father and the Holy Spirit and Himself, the Son. But Nicodemus was stuck on the mechanics of “how” rather than believing in the “what” and the “who” of God’s saving work. And I fear that this same problem trips us up with the doctrine of the Trinity. How can there possibly be 3 divine persons and yet only 1 God? How can the Son of God take on human flesh and unite His divine nature with His human nature in one body? If the 3 persons are inseparable, then how did the Son die on the cross but not the Father and the Holy Spirit? And there are probably a hundred more how questions that we could come up with. These are mysteries that we’ll never fully know the answer to this side of heaven. The danger for us is getting stuck on the “how” and letting that interfere with our faith in the “what” and “who” of the Trinity and their work for our salvation.
Perhaps an illustration will help. Have you ever seen the movie “Extraordinary Measures”? It’s the true story of a man who had two children with a rare genetic disorder. Their bodies were not producing an enzyme that allowed them to process the glycogen that’s in the food we eat. Glycogen is necessary for our bodies to have the energy to move and do things. Well, this disease caused their muscles and vital organs to gradually weaken. It’s a deadly disease. A scientist gave the parents a detailed explanation of how this all works, including diagrams. Now, if you’re like me, this kind of medical stuff is way over your head. But you know what? Your body is performing that function right now even as I speak. Wouldn’t it be silly for a person to say, “Well, I don’t understand how this works, so I’m not going to eat another bite until I do!” No, you accept the fact that your body does this vital task even though you don’t understand the “how.” Likewise with the Trinity. You don’t have to have the answers to all those “how” questions, before you can believe in the Trinity and their saving work.
Sadly, there are those in our world who are incessantly stuck on the “how” of the Trinity. And that prevents them from having a saving faith. A prime example is the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They may have visited your homes with the booklets they produce. They used to occasionally stop at the parsonage when I was at Trinity. I guess they wanted a challenge. And yes, even though Gayleen would get frustrated with me, I would engage them in a robust conversation. Nearly every time we got around to a discussion of why they don’t believe in the Trinity. As an aside, they haven’t come to visit me in our new house… and don’t you call them up to encourage them to do so! Anyway, I’ve read plenty of their materials before, and simply put, they are still hung up on the “how” of Jesus being true God and true man. They have the same problem with the Trinity. Since they can’t comprehend “how” it can be possible, then they refuse to accept the existence and the work of the Trinity, which leaves them stuck in their unbelief and destined for damnation. Sadly, these folks are not alone. There are other religions and even some Christian denominations who can’t understand doctrines like the Trinity and so they water down or totally abandon their theology regarding it.
That being said, it doesn’t mean that we’re left totally in the dark about our Triune God. The Scriptures reveals many, many truths about Him, which we embrace by faith. We would do well to examine and study them regularly. It’s a good thing to search the Scriptures together in order to gain a richer and fuller understanding of who God is and what he has done for us. Like Nicodemus, Christ draws us deeper into the truths about our salvation and the means by which God accomplishes it. The problem is the tendency of our old sinful nature is to revert back to the question of “How can these things be?”
Consider for a moment, the Means of Grace. We are Baptized in the name of all 3 persons of the Holy Trinity because God is not just a casual observer from far off. He is there working in and through that plain water in order to create faith and forgive your sins. Don’t ask how, but embrace this work of the Trinity by faith. When you confess your sins, God uses your Pastor to deliver the Lord’s forgiveness in the Absolution. I’ve heard fellow Christians ask, “How can a human being forgive your sins.” The answer is: he can’t! But God can, and He does it through the lips of your Pastor. Don’t ask how, but embrace this work of the Trinity by faith. God is truly present in His Holy Word, whether that be spoken or read. Through it, He can create and sustain faith, convict us of our sins, and shower us with His forgiving grace. Don’t ask how, but embrace this work of the Trinity by faith. The Holy Trinity also comes to us in, with, and under the bread and wine of Holy Communion. Those visible elements are the means by which we receive the body and blood of Christ for our forgiveness and the feeding of our souls. And as I said earlier, where one person of the Trinity is, the other two are also there. Don’t ask how, but embrace this work of the Trinity by faith.
It took time for the Word of God to percolate deeper and deeper into the soul of Nicodemus. Somewhere along the way, he eventually dropped his “how” questions along with his resistance to the Holy Spirit working faith in his heart. We know this for a fact because later, at Jesus’ crucifixion and death, he reappears as a disciple of Christ. By faith, he received the truth of his salvation through the work of our Triune God. Friends, there is much about the Holy Trinity that may lead you to ask, “How can these things be?” My prayer is that you also would leave behind the “how” questions and instead, by faith, embrace the revealed truth of your salvation which happened through the work of our Triune God– Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen!
Soli Deo Gloria!