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ISAIAH 40:12-17,27-31

2 CORINTHIANS 13:11-14

MATTHEW 28:16-20

TRINITY SUNDAY REFLECTION

The theme for our Trinity Sunday reflection is grace, love and fellowship. Christians all over the world observe Trinity Sunday to commemorate God’s unique revelation to humanity in three unique or distinct but inseparable persons. The unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead, co-eternal and sharing similar attributes. In other words, God revealed Himself to humanity as a loving Father, a gracious Son and an empowering Holy Spirit that fellowships with believers. The God we worship is a Triune God. The revelation and doctrine of the Trinity have not been fully comprehended by the human mind although it is evident in Scripture. How can God manifest Himself in three persons and yet still remain one God? This is a divine mystery. Some erroneously think that Christian worship three Gods. The fact remains that, we worship one God who has three personalities based on the manner He chose to reveal Himself to humanity. Paul in his concluding words to the Corinthians in his second epistle prayed for the blessings of the Trinity for them. He wrote that “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:14).  Paul attributes three functions unique to each person in the Trinity, these functions constitute the theme for our reflection, “Grace, Love and Fellowship”. Grace means the unmerited or undeserving favour that Christ gave to humanity through His sacrificial death so that by believing Him we shall be justified and made righteous through Him to receive Eternal life, love is the unconditional affection God has for humanity for which we became the beneficiaries of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Fellowship is the body of Christ in which the Holy Spirit dwells for the purpose of empowerment and sustenance. Fellowship is also the relationship that exists among believers. We shall discuss the interconnectedness of the grace, love and fellowship of the Triune God or Trinity in the life of the believer.

Beloved in the Lord, the key functions of the Trinity as mentioned by Paul in 2 Corinthians 13:14 are interconnected in the life of a believer. Our salvation through Jesus is a matter of grace through the love of God and the sustenance of the Holy Spirit, not through any human effort. We did not deserve the grace or the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross because of our sins and spiritual weakness. However, the unconditional love of the Father who understands our weakness and helplessness qualified us for Jesus’ gracious sacrifice. Isaiah explained God’s love for us who are willing to be saved when he said that “The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” (Isaiah 40:28-29). In addition, to appreciate or to understand God’s love that qualifies us for the gracious sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Paul wrote that “For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.​ Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. “(2 Corinthians 5:21 – 6:1). Again, Paul wrote that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood…” (Romans 5:8-9).

Beloved in the Lord, after we have been saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of the Father, we must be set apart from the world to leave a life worthy of our calling as God’s children. It is impossible to walk or live in this temptatious world with our own understanding and might, therefore the Father through His love has given those who have been saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus the gift, empowerment and fellowship of the Holy Spirit to be able to walk in our new nature. The Holy Spirit is in constant fellowship with the body of Christ to help us remain spotless and victorious over sin even as we preach to win more souls until the return or the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved in the Lord, for a person to be declared saved, he or she must experience the manifestation of God’s three inseparable, distinct and interconnected persons and their unique functions. It is for this reason Jesus said to His disciples “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20). In other words, our salvation is not complete unless we have experienced the Triune God through baptism and regeneration. Through the gracious salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ, we experience the unconditional love of God and are empowered by the fellowship of the Holy Spirit to live a life worthy of our calling.

Dear friend, If we have been saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God then we have access to the fellowship of the Holy Spirit who empowers the church and sustains the believer. Jesus further explains the distinct functions of the Trinity when He said that “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:23-26). In other words, having become products of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must continue to have a relationship with Him by obeying His teachings so that through our obedience, we shall continually experience the love of the Father and be given access to His gift of empowerment through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, our helper.

In summary, the theme for our reflection is grace, love and fellowship. We have underscored the fact that grace, love and fellowship are key functions of the personalities of the Trinity or Godhead. These functions are inseparable, distinct and interconnected in the life of a believer. In our reflection, we have stressed the fact that we have been saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ because God first loved us, and once we are saved the Holy Spirit continue to be in fellowship with us to help us remain faithful and obedient to the Word of God in anticipation of the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we continue to experience the presence of the Trinity and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit never depart from our lives. Amen.