church

INI
Trinity Sunday
May 30, 2010
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

YOURS IS A “THREE-RING” SALVATION
Ephesians 1:3-14

Grace be unto you and peace, from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Amen. On this festival of the Holy Trinity we consider the Word of God in
Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1, verses three to fourteen as follows:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus
Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of
the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the
riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and
prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His
good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the
fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both
which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. In Him also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him
who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first
trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted,
after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also,
having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the
guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession,
to the praise of His glory. Here ends our text.

In the Name of our Risen and Ascended Lord Jesus, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

P.T. Barnum is often referred to as the father of the American circus. He had a
genius for showmanship; he is reported to have been the first American to make
a million dollars in the entertainment business. It was Barnum who, in the
mid-1800’s, introduced an innovation known as the three-ring circus. Instead of
one central ring, like his competitors had, Barnum’s circus featured three rings,
with performances going on simultaneously in each ring. If one ring was
effective in attracting customers, he reasoned, why wouldn’t three rings be
triply effective?

And he was right, of course. Three rings are more effective than one. Our text
for today is not about the circus, and it is not about entertainment. It’s about
something far more serious, something crucial to each of our lives, and that’s
our salvation. The reason I bring up the three rings is to give you an image to
help you think about and remember this crucial subject. You already know that
three rings form the most common symbol for the Triune God, a symbol you
can see on your bulletin cover for this morning. And the intersection of those
rings reminds us of the words we sang a few minutes ago,

Thy ways, O Lord, with wise design
Are framed upon Thy throne above,
And every dark and bending line
Meets in the center of Thy love.

The work of all three persons of the Trinity centers on one thing. And believe it
or not, that one thing is your salvation! It may seem like a strange way to put it,
but our theme for this morning is a scriptural truth, that--

YOURS IS A “THREE-RING” SALVATION

I. God the Father chose you.
II. God the Son redeemed you.
III. God the Holy Spirit sealed you.

A Christian scholar named Henry Thiessen once wrote that, “Among Paul’s
Epistles there is none more sublime and profound, none greater than
Ephesians… When we turn to Ephesians, we pass into the stillness and hush of
the sanctuary. Here prevails the atmosphere of repose, of meditation, of
worship and peace.” And if Ephesians is the most sublime book in the Bible,
then chapter one is possibly the most sublime chapter in the Bible. For when
you read through this first chapter, you get the sense that Paul is simply
awestruck at just how great the grace of God is toward His adopted children,
the Christians. Paul’s eyes are open, and he sees the vast riches that belong to
us in Jesus Christ, and he’s trying to make us see it, too. He says, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. For a preacher this
twelve-verse section is an embarrassment of riches. A whole series of sermons
could be preached on every verse. This morning we will simply take in the
highlights.

You may have already guessed why this is a common sermon text for Trinity
Sunday. Paul touches here on the work of all three persons of the Triune God,
vv. 3-6 for the Father, 7-12 for the Son, and 13-14 for the Holy Ghost. The
doctrine of the Trinity is, of course, a mystery. Not a mystery in the sense of
Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie, but a mystery in the Biblical sense. In
other words, it’s a doctrine that is clearly taught in Scripture, but one which our
human reason is incapable of understanding. E.g., the eternal nature of God is a
mystery; we can’t understand how God could be without beginning or end,
existing in timelessness. Our mind is too feeble to conceive it. Same thing with
the Trinity. We can’t understand how God could be three distinct persons, and
yet still be only one God. But we know both to be true from Scripture. We
heard Jesus say in our New Testament reading, Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Ghost.” Each Person of the Trinity has a distinct identity and a
distinct work – God the Father did not die for your sins, Jesus did. The creation
and cultivation of faith is the task of the Holy Spirit, not the Father or the Son.
And yet, as we confessed in the Athanasian Creed, “…there are not three gods,
but one God.” One of the most famous passages in the Old Testament is
Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!“

How could God be three and one at the same time? We don’t know. We can’t
understand the doctrine of the Trinity, but it’s true nonetheless. And one of the
many imperfect symbols that we use to remind us of that doctrine is the symbol
of the three rings. Let it remind you today that YOURS IS A THREE-RING
SALVATION. Let’s look at the first ring of the Trinity, God the Father.
According to our text, God the Father chose you for salvation. Paul says, He
chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by
Jesus Christ to Himself.”

Wow – here’s another Biblical mystery hard on the heels of the first one: the
doctrine of predestination, or election. And predestination, by the way, is not
the same as fatalism. Fatalism is the belief that all future events are set, and you
can’t change anything that’s going to happen. They say that Iran is the most
dangerous place on earth to drive a car. Why? Because all the drivers are
fatalists. As Shiite Muslims, they believe that all events, including traffic
accidents, are foreordained. So no matter how recklessly your drive nothing will
happen to you if it’s not your day for an accident. You’d think that one of the
highest traffic fatality rates in the world would make them reexamine their
theology. But alas no.

The Bible does not teach fatalism. Then what does predestination – or
“election” – mean exactly? The word “choose” in our text means “to select out
of a group,’ and the word “predestine” means “to decide on beforehand, to
determine in advance.” When you think about it, it’s really astounding what
God is telling you in these verses. Before the world was even created, before
there was light, or earth or sea or stars, God chose you. God selected you out of
the masses of people who would be born and set you aside to be His own. What
we can’t understand is why. That’s what makes it a mystery. Why did God
choose me? It certainly wasn’t because I was less sinful than others. Isaiah says,
We are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.
– 64:6. Was it because of some kind of decision that I made, to invite Jesus into
my heart? That couldn’t be it, for Jesus Himself says, "You did not choose Me,
but I chose you.”– Jn 15:16. And besides, as we’ve said, the choosing took
place long before I was even born, in eternity. Though Scripture mentions
election frequently, the only qualifier that crops up again and again is “in
Christ.” God chose us in Christ, i.e., the same gracious good will that led God
the Father to sacrifice His innocent Son on the cross, also led him to choose us
– in Christ – in eternity. Our election too is all by grace in Christ, not by
anything in us. That’s all we know. But what a gracious knowledge that is! How
comforting to realize that all things, even our eternal election, depend not upon
us, but on our Savior Jesus Christ!

A word of warning. One writer put it well when he said, “Only in the wounds
of Jesus is predestination understood and found, and nowhere else." We
wretched sinners must ever be found sheltering in the wounds of our Savior –
it’s the only place safe for us to be. We dare never rely on our own good works
for righteousness. We dare never cling to pet sins and refuse to bring them, in
repentance, to our Lord. Let no such person falsely comfort himself with the
doctrine of election. Remember the chilling question put by the writer to the
Hebrews: How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?—2:3. No, let
us never allow election to make us secure in our sins. Rather, as God’s adopted
children, let us live our lives to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He
made us accepted in the Beloved.

But as I mentioned, YOURS IS A THREE-RING SALVATION. So let’s
examine the second ring of the Trinity, God the Son, as presented in verses
7-12 in our text. One thing made abundantly clear in those verses is that it is
God the Son who has redeemed you! Paul says, In Him we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Redemption, as you know, means to “buy back.” E.g., in ancient times a
person, if he was rich enough, could pay a large amount of money and “redeem”
a slave by “buying him back” out of his slavery and making him a free man. It’s
the perfect word to describe how Jesus paid the price of our sins, and bought us
back from sin, death, and eternal damnation. As Peter said, You were not
redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct
received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as
of a lamb without blemish and without spot. I Pet 1:18-19.

And how is this redemption bestowed on us? In a grudging, miserly way? Does
God dole out forgiveness to us a little bit at a time, never quite letting us off the
hook for our sins? No, just the opposite. Paul says God bestows this
redemption in Christ according to the riches of His grace which He made to
abound toward us. God is not stingy with His love. He is prodigal. He lavishes
mercy on us. Evangelist Haddon Robinson once observed, “With the Lord the
calf is always the fatted calf; the robe is always the best robe; the joy is
unspeakable, and the peace passes understanding. There is no grudging in God’s
goodness. He does not measure His goodness by drops like a druggist filling a
prescription. It comes to us in floods.” When God bestows His grace on us, He
does it with a fire hose, not an eyedropper!

What does that grace gain for us? Paul says, In Him also we have obtained an
inheritance. Have you ever gotten an inheritance – received property at the
death of someone you knew or were related to? There is such a thing as a small
inheritance, but usually they are quite large and frequently they come as a
surprise. A very pleasant surprise in the majority of cases! Well, we all have a
loved one who died, and it’s the same person – Jesus Christ our Savior. And the
inheritance that we will one day come into will be a very pleasant surprise
indeed! In fact, I really don’t think we have even the first idea of the magnitude
of our heavenly inheritance. Peter says that, in Christ, we are destined for …an
inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in
heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time. – I Pet 1:4-5.

But remember, YOURS IS A THREE-RING SALVATION. So we come
finally to the third ring of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit. We’re told about His
work in verses 13-14 of our text. Specifically, Paul says that it is God the Holy
Spirit who has sealed your salvation. Paul says, In Him you also trusted, after
you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having
believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

In biblical times, a seal marked ownership. The word “seal” was used in
various ways. It could mean the wax seal on a deed that showed ownership of
property. It could also mean the brand on an animal, or that tattoo on a slave or
a soldier. It was a sign that showed what or to whom something belonged. God
has marked His ownership of you by sealing you with the Holy Spirit. He has
sent the Holy Spirit into your heart. And the work of the Holy Spirit is to
separate you out of the world, and set you into that distinct group of believers.
That’s where you live. That’s who you are now, by faith. By the power of the
Holy Spirit, not an unbeliever, but a Christian. And even that faith itself, which
the Holy Spirit has worked in your heart, is a reason for you to rejoice. For in
our text Paul says that the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession. Yes, you and I are going to come
into our full inheritance in heaven one day, but even now – in Christ – it
belongs to us. Even now we have the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the down
payment on that inheritance!

You probably know what a Venn diagram is. Invented by British
mathematician John Venn in 1881, the diagram illustrates how subsets of
various groups intersect. For example, if you had three rings representing
churches that are Lutheran, churches in Pierce County, and churches that are
painted gray, then our church would be in the center area of those three
intersecting rings. It’s not a coincidence that this common Venn diagram looks
a lot like our symbol for the Trinity. For the three rings of the Trinity are the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And at the very center of the work of our Triune
God lies your salvation. Does that make you feel special? It should! Yours truly
is a “three-ring” salvation.” God the Father chose you, God the Son redeemed
you, and God the Holy Spirit sealed you. May the Lord grant us grace to live
our lives to His glory, AMEN.