As a church we have just begun a new series in our Adult Sunday School class on the Trinity. And in just the first two seminars, we have been moved and astounded by the vastness, the depth, and the beauty of our Triune God. What we’ve seen is that the whole of our existence and our redemption is bound up in the Trinity. We do not exist apart from the Trinity and we are not saved apart from the Trinity. Two verses that are especially crucial at pointing out these two realities are 1 Corinthians 8:6 and 2 Corinthians 13:14. First, consider 1 Corinthians 8:6.

1 Corinthians 8:6—for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

We exist from the Father (1 Corinthians 8:6). This isn’t new to us. When we think of the act of creation, we rightly think of God, whose name is YHWH (Exodus 3:15). And we often, rightly, think of God the Father, who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth with the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit (Genesis 1:1–2; Malachi 2:10). But here in 1 Corinthians 8:6, we see the divine name, communicated in the title “Lord,” attributed to Jesus. Through the one Lord—who is YHWH—through Jesus we exist. Of course you see this throughout Scripture (John 1:1–3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2). As our Associate Pastor Coty Pinckney said the other day when reflecting on this verse, “We don’t even breathe apart from Christ.” That is an astounding reality. Whether saved or not saved you only breathe, move, think, eat, sleep, and exist because of Jesus the Son of God. Thus, we were created and we exist only by and through the Trinity. And we are only recreated in salvation through the Trinity as well. Look at 2 Corinthians 13:14.

2 Corinthians 13:14—The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Paul associates some very specific terms to the three persons of the Trinity: the grace of Jesus, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. God the Father, in his love predestined us to be his sons through Jesus before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4–5). And through the grace of Jesus’ sin atoning life, death, and resurrection, we have been made alive with Christ when we could do nothing to save ourselves (Ephesians 2:4–10). And we walk in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, our helper and teacher who sanctifies and seals us for salvation (John 14:26; Ephesians 1:13–14; 1 Peter 1:2). Our redemption is born out of the Trinity.

We exist and we are saved only through the Trinity. And as we grow in our knowledge of the persons of the Trinity, we find a wellspring of spiritual nourishment and refreshment. I don’t think I can improve upon what Herman Bavinck writes regarding the spiritual benefits of growing in the knowledge of the distinct persons of the Trinity in his work, The Wonderful Works of God. Therefore, I leave you with his extended reflection on the matter. May it bless you as it has blessed me.

For believers come to know the workings of the Father, the Creator of all things, He who gave them life, and breath, and all things. They learn to know Him as the Lawgiver who gave out His holy commandments in order that they should walk in them. They learn to know Him as the Judge who is provoked to terrible wrath by all the unrighteousness of men and who in no sense holds the guilty guiltless. And they learn to know Him, finally, as the Father who for Christ’s sake is their God and Father, on whom they trust so far that they do not doubt but that He will supply for every need of body and soul, and that He will convert all evil which accrues to them in this vale of tears into good. They know that He can do this as Almighty God and that He wants to do it as a faithful Father. Hence they confess: I believe in God, the Father, the Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

Thus, too, they learn to know in themselves the workings of the Son, He who is the only-begotten of the Father, conceived in Mary of the Holy Spirit. They learn to know Him as their highest Prophet and Teacher, He who has perfectly revealed to them the secret counsel and will of God in the matter of their redemption. They learn to know Him as their only Highpriest, who has redeemed them by the one sacrifice of His body, and who still constantly intercedes for them with the Father. They learn to know Him as their eternal King, who rules them with His Word and Spirit and who shelters and preserves them in their achieved redemption. Hence they confess: I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only-begotten Son, our Lord.

And they also learn to recognize in themselves the workings of the Holy Spirit, He who regenerates them and leads them into all truth. They learn to know Him as the Operator of their faith, He who through that faith causes them to share in Christ and all His benefits. They learn to know Him as the Comforter, He who prays in them with unutterable longings and who testifies with their spirit that they are children of God. They learn to know Him as the pledge of their eternal inheritance, He who preserves them until the day of their redemption. And they therefore confess: I believe also in the Holy Spirit.

Thus the confession of the trinity is the sum of the Christian religion. Without it neither the creation nor the redemption nor the sanctification can be purely maintained.

Every departure from this confession leads to error in the other heads of doctrine, just as a mistaken representation of the articles of faith can be traced back to a misconception of the doctrine of the trinity. We can truly proclaim the mighty works of God only when we recognize and confess them as the one great work of Father, Son, and Spirit.

In the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is contained the whole salvation of men.[1]

[1] Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God: Instructions in the Christian Religion According to the Reformed Confession (Glenside, PA: Westminster Seminary Press, 2019), 142–43.