Knowing Our Triune God and Making Him Known Matthew 28:16-20

Today we’re going to talk about the importance of Knowing Our Triune God and Making Him Known.

I tend to make the word “known” into a two syllable word: “knowen”. My daughter reminds me that it’s known, not knowen, to which I reply, “I knowa”.

The Triune God first made himself known at Creation when He made humanity. In our Old Testament today we heard that God said, “Let US make man in OUR image.” US and OUR refer to the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In Numbers 6, God told Moses that when the people gathered together, Aaron, and later his descendants, who would be the Jewish priests, were to dismiss the people with a blessing. ²⁴ The Lord bless you and keep you; ²⁵ the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; ²⁶ the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

“The Lord” is used three times, showing the three-ness or three persons of God. The Father is the Lord; the Son is the Lord; and the Holy Spirit is the Lord.

Deuteronomy 6:4 makes clear the oneness of God: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. There is only one God, not two or three or more: one God in three persons.

In Isaiah 6:3 we see the Trinity being glorified in the calling of the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah had a vision of the throne of God, with seraphim, angels with six wings, flying over the throne and crying out: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the earth is full of His glory.

“His glory” is singular; this indicates God is one, only one God. But “holy” is repeated three times, holy, holy, holy, indicating that God is three persons.

A number of Old Testament verses refer to God’s Son, like Psalm 2:7, The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.”  

Likewise a number of verses refer to the Spirit, like Zechariah 4:6, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.  

In the New Testament the Trinity is revealed even more clearly.

Many times Jesus refers to His Father, and to Himself as the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Yet when He speaks of God he always uses the singular: God, not Gods. So Jesus shows us that God is three in one.

In our Gospel today we heard Jesus tell his disciples to baptize in the name of the Triune God; in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Why is it so important that God reveals Himself as Triune, and that we know Him to be the Father, Son, and Holy Trinity?

1) It distinguishes Him from all others. No one or nothing else is Triune, only God.

Three humans can never make a Trinity; three angels can’t make a Trinity; nor can three devils, or three things or three objects. Only God has the power and nature to be both three and one at the same time. In this way He’s entirely unique from everyone and everything else.

Hinduism, which is polytheistic, believing in many gods, teaches that there are three main gods: Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the sustainer, and Sheva, the destroyer. But there’s no understanding of those three as one. It’s taught that they’re all separate, not triune.

In Islam it’s taught that God is strictly one; only one person, not three; not Triune.   

So how did people arrive at these misunderstandings of the identity of God?

Trying to figure out God on your own, from common sense, without Divine revelation, is how people come to the conclusion that either God is one person, or there are many gods, or that there is no god.

The reason people come to those conclusions is because there’s nothing else like God; nothing else that’s three in one. So we only figure it out if it’s revealed to us, if God Himself tells us, which He does in His Word, both Old and New Testaments.

God reveals Himself as Triune, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we believe Him.

2) This leads us to the second reason this is so important:  because it saves us.     

Only the Triune God is a saving God. To put it another way, if God were not Triune he wouldn’t be able to save us.

It’s taught in other, nonChristian belief systems that God is a creator; that he’s a teacher; that he’s a ruler; that he’s a judge; and many things. But only the Gospel reveals Him as a Savior.

In all other religions, it’s taught that in the end, people must save themselves, perhaps with some help from God, and with teachings from God about how to be good enough to save yourself.

In all other religions it’s taught that it’s your behavior that saves you, or condemns you.

In Christianity it’s your behavior, your sin, that condemns you, but it’s God’s behavior, His grace, the good He does on your behalf, that saves you.

It’s impossible to save yourself; admitting that is just being honest. As hard as we might try we can never fully keep ourselves from sinning, and we surely can’t overcome death. Only God can; only God can do the saving. And to do it He needs to be Triune.  Because He is, He can save us.

The Father could send the Son to us, true God and true man.

The Son could become one of us; obey God perfectly; and with no sin of his own to die for, he could die for us, suffer our punishment on the cross, and then, being God, he had the power to rise so he could raise us to eternal life.

The Father and the Son could send the Holy Spirit, who comes into our spirit at Baptism, to give us the power to believe in Christ, and receive His salvation.

None of that could happen if God was not Triune. He could still create us; he could still rule over us, he could still teach us, he could judge us, but He couldn’t save us if He was not the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; each of the three persons truly and completely God, and thus able to fulfill their unique role in saving us.

Knowing that God is Triune we have a Savior to depend on, and we don’t have to get caught up in the vanity and legalism of thinking that we can or have to save ourselves.

If we think we can save ourselves, we’re doomed, but if we believe God saves, then we have hope.

3) The third reason it’s important to know and believe that God is Triune is because it keeps us from making up our own gods to follow, whatever that might be, or making up our own gospel and teachings to believe.

The first commandment says, You shall have no other gods before me, or other than me. And the second part of that is You shall make no graven images. No gods of your own making or choosing, and no false teachings built around these false notions of God.

Just as God reveals Himself and His Triune identity in the Bible, so He reveals His gospel and His teachings for us to believe and follow. Knowing this, we don’t have to succumb to agnosticism and subjectivism; not knowing, or believing whatever.

In revealing Himself to the world, God reveals salvation to the world; He reveals truth to the world; and He reveals love to the world.   

4) The fourth reason our Triune God makes Himself known to us is so that we can make Him known to the world, to “all nations” as Jesus says in our Gospel, all groups of people around the globe.

The more we come to know our Triune God though His Word, and the more we come to love Him by faith, the more we can share Him with others.

In the whole wide world, there’s nothing like Him. He’s one of a kind; the only Trinity there is, and the only Savior for the world.

No one can love the world so greatly, as can a God who is Triune. The Father loves us dearly and completely and so gave life to us, creating us in His image; the Son loves us dearly and completely, and so died for us to redeem us; the Holy Spirit loves us dearly and completely, and so lives in us to sanctify us, to make us holy with faith and love.

How amazing it is that God is Triune. And how amazing all that he can be and all that He can do because He’s Triune. That’s good news for us to make known to the world. 

As you know your Triune God, and as you make Him known, may His peace, which passes understanding, guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.