A Triune Salvation (1 John 4:13-14)

“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.” (1 John 4:13-14)

“One God in three persons” - this theological truth has pervaded Christianity from the beginning. For many, discussions of the Trinity are trivial at best, pedantic at worst; and yet, God has revealed this key theological truth for our holiness and our happiness. The practical dismissal of the Trinity from our Christian life testifies to the great deficiency in our faith. When John wants to communicate the gravity of God’s love, he can do so in no other terms. God is love - the Father loved us and sent His Son, the Son loved us and was sent by the Father, the Spirit loves us and was proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Father chose us before the foundation of the world, the Son accomplished our salvation on the cross, and the Spirit applies the work of the Son to us in real time. What a glorious salvation is this!

Can we not stand and admire the triune God? Alienated from the Godhead, at enmity with everything for which He stands, what title do engage in fellowship with Him? Father, Son, and Spirit - perfectly content within Himself, what reason does He have to want fellowship with us? The only answer lies in that fount of goodness overflowing from God Himself, freely engaging Himself to bring us into restored communion with Himself. Nothing - not sin, not Satan, not even death itself - will prevent Christ from accomplishing the salvation for which He was sent. As the Father sent us the Son, and the Spirit gives to us from Christ, we must, as Calvin says, “look nowhere else but to Christ for a real and full certainty of divine love towards us.” Rest assured today - there is nothing lacking in this salvation. As we often sing,

Glory be to the Father 

and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit:

As it was in the beginning,

is now and ever shall be, 

world without end. Amen.