You may have heard it said that Presbyterians emphasize the Father, Baptists the Son, and Pentecostals the Spirit. As I leave you to judge the truthfulness of this assertion, may we consider our salvation in light of the Trinitarian revelation.
When I consider my development in the understanding of salvation, I notice that I hardly thought of salvation in Trinitarian terms. Sure, I believed that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But my prayer did not show that awareness. My daily conversations about God did not take the Trinitarian doctrine seriously.
And perhaps this is true of you as well.
Last month as I spoke about the doctrine of the Trinity at our Monthly Apologetics Forum with RZIM-Uganda at Calvary Chapel Kampala, I insisted that salvation is life in the Trinity.
Salvation is the Father loving us so much that He sends His only begotten Son born of a virgin to die for our sins. It is the Father sending the Spirit at Pentecost to unite us to the Son in baptism, so that through our unity with the Son we may become the sons of God.
Eternal life, according to Jesus, is to know God the Father, and God the Son, with knowledge only made possible by the Spirit who alone knows the things of God (John 17:3, John 16:13, 1 Cor 2:11).
The salvation plan of God begins before the foundation of the world when the Elect are chosen in Christ by the Father (Eph 1:4). In the fullness of time, the Son dies for them (John 10:11), and the Father draws them to Christ (John 6:44, 65), by the Spirit.
Because the Elect are in Christ by God’s sovereign decree, Christ takes on their sin, and they, in due time, take on His righteousness (2 Cor 5:21). He is made sin who knew no sin, and the Elect become the righteousness of God in Christ. We term this justification.
It is the Father who made us and redeems us for Himself. It is Him who chose us in Christ and sent His Son and Spirit for our redemption. It is the Father who draws us, while we are still rebels against Him, to Christ. It is to Him that we are reconciled, and eternal life is in our knowledge of Him.
This should help us correct a misconception that God the Father is the angry One, while the Son is the loving One. There is one God who declares His love for sinners (Rom 5:8). This same God hates sinners (Psalm 11:5). This God is Trinitarian. He is both simple in His attributes, and complex to our comprehension. Thus, we are saved from Him, by Him, through Him, and for Him. Our salvation is life in the Trinity.
It is the Father who has this Life in Himself and who granted that the Son may have Life in Himself as well (John 5:26). As believers, we participate in this Life in unity with Christ by the Spirit who gives life (John 6:63). We call this regeneration or being born again.
The Spirit then sanctifies those who are regenerated (or born again) and justified. Sanctification is a process in which those who are united to the Son by the Spirit through the will of the Father are transformed into the image of the Son by the Spirit, so that they may genuinely be sons of God in life and practice.
That is, since the Elect in due time are made sons through adoption, they are made to look like the Son in their walk and life, by the Spirit. This process remains as long as we are on earth. We shall not attain sinlessness in this life.
It is on Christ’s return when the children of God by faith shall fully appear as Christ is (in His humanity). On that day, incorruption shall consume corruption. We call this glorification. At glorification, the Church shall be arrayed in pure garments, the perfect gift of the Father to the Son. And it is the Spirit who cleanses the Church, making her ready for the wedding feast of the Lamb (1 Pet 1:2)
As we consider how the three Persons of the Trinity are involved in our salvation, we must recall that they do not accomplish three salvations, but one. This is because it is one God who saves us, not three. None of the three Persons is more loving, none more just than the other.
Therefore, our conversation about God and salvation must be in Trinitarian terms. Our prayer should consider this more often. We raise our eyes to the Father who so loved us that He sent His Son for our salvation. We thank God the Son who laid His human life down in obedience to the Father and for our redemption. We worship the Spirit who unites us to Christ in baptism and transforms us into the likeness of Christ in sanctification and discipleship.
Discipleship then is a process in which our gaze is raised from what is seen, including God’s works, to God Himself. The actions of God are not an end in themselves. They are intended to cause us to raise our meditations to the inner life of God (John 5:36). And he who has gazed on Him will be satisfied with eternal life since salvation is life in the Trinity.
May we behold Christ in the pages of scripture, and through this gaze experience the peace of being the sons of God. May our conversations, prayer, and lifestyle be Trinitarian.
For more reading, consider my other writeup.