We Are Children Of The Triune God
Ididn’t see it. One of the difficulties of being in MN is that there are deer around—but you don’t see them. You can be driving along, and not even too fast. And you only notice these huge eyes staring back at you as you look to the side. And that deer was there all that time. But you didn’t see it. As Christians, we have a God that is not seen. And this morning in God’s word we see so very clearly that we are his children—but not with our eyes. We are children of the Triune God. But like that deer at the side of the road, it’s not something we can see with our eyes or smell with our noses. So it’s easy to forget what it really means that we are children of the Triune God. So, in Romans 8, we read: “12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. 14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” (Romans 8:12–14 NIV11-GKE)
We are children of the Triune God. And that means that the Holy Spirit leads us. Look at how God’s word describes the sin in our lives and in our hearts. Either sin puts us to death, or we put sin to death. We are in a death-struggle against our sin. And in this context it is so vitally important for us to realize that we are children of the Triune God. For the Holy Spirit is the one who leads us. As we came into this world, we did not know who God was, so the Holy Spirit revealed the Triune God to us. We did not trust in him, so he gave us faith in him. And, as Paul points out here, we don’t just need the Holy Spirit to make us Christians, we also need him to keep us in the faith. We need him to lead us to carry on this fight against our sin. And day by day, that’s exactly what the Holy Spirit does. He leads us to put to death our sins, repent of them and wage war against them every day.
But, my dear friends in Christ, there too is where we see our sins. One of the traps and temptations we can so easily fall into is that we forget. We forget that the Holy Spirit is the one who gave us the ability to hate sin and wage war against it. And where there are those times we resist the sins that confront us, there is the temptation to conclude that we were the ones, by our own power, who were able to get this work done on our own. Or, to put it differently, we forget that we are Children of the Triune God and that the Holy Spirit is the one who leads us every day to put sin to death. And that’s why what Paul says next is so important: “15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:15–16 NIV11-GKE)
We are children of the Triune God. The Spirit leads us. But here in these words we learn that the Father adopts us. And that’s a very beautiful and interesting picture. We are not God’s children by essence and genetics. We are adopted children. Last summer we stayed for a little while with some friends in Texas. They have three children—all of whom are girls. But one of them is adopted from China. All you have to do is take one look at them and see that as far as blood and genes go, that little girl born in China doesn’t have much in common with that family. But also, all you have to do is take one look to realize that she is part of that family. She is treated with the same love and dignity as the other two daughters.
We are like that. We are not children of God by blood and genes. But we are still children of the Triune God. We are his children because the Holy Spirit leads us. We are his children because the Father adopts us, declaring that all our sins are forgiven—even those sins we commit when we take credit for ourselves for putting sin to death, when that credit should to to God alone. And because the Father adopts us, we are able to call the Father those small, little, precious words: “my father.”1 And that leads us to the final words of this section: “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Romans 8:17 NIV11-GKE)
We are children of the Triune God. The Spirit leads us. The Father adopts us. And Jesus, the Son of God—what does he do? He forged friendship with us through his own suffering. Jesus is the one who died on the cross, suffering miserably and mercilessly for us. And because he did this, our sins are paid for and we have every right to call ourselves children of God.
But notice the point that Paul makes with this. We share in Christ’s suffering. We do not share in his sufferings so as to somehow pay a little bit for our sins. For Jesus paid for them all. Why do we suffer now, since are we children of the Triune God? One of the reasons we suffer is so that we can find proof that we are Children of our Heavenly Father. How so? If your Father cares for you, he disciplines you. One saddest things you see when you grow up is that there are Fathers out there who do not care for their children. And they show it by doing nothing. When their children need to be corrected, they ignore them and let their children continue to do what is wrong. Your Father in heaven is just the opposite. He disciplines you. He shows you what is wrong and how wrong it is in his word. And he even allows you to suffer. Why?—So that you would have proof that you are children of the Heavenly Father.
And so, my dear friends in Christ, you are children of the Triune God. The Holy Spirit leads you. The Father adopts you. And the Son suffers for you. But, like that dear on the side of the road, it’s not something you can see with your eyes. So all that much more so, on this day I’m not asking you to go home and do works of service with your hands. No instead, I’m inviting you to go home and ponder this in your heart. If you look at our hymns, there are so many of them that end with a final verse praising the Trinity. And these are the verses, that when we cut down the hymns to save time, are the first verses that are cut. But they are there for a reason. They are there so that the people singing these words would stop and ponder this amazing fact that they are children of the Triune God—not by blood, but by faith. The Holy Spirit led them. The Father adopted them. The Son suffered for them. They took these words, sung them and then throughout the week and throughout their lives, they pondered them. That is what these words invite you to do this morning. For you are children of the Triune God. The Spirit leads you. The Father adopts you. The Son suffers for you. Amen.
1 “ⲁⲃⲃⲁⲟⲡⲏ̅ⲣ” (Romans 8:15 GNT-ALEX)