Week 7 Reading Reflection

Guest Author Dr. Jordan Cooper

Today’s author is probably known to most of the subscribers to the Daily Book of Concord. Dr. Jordan Cooper is a well-respected author, teacher, podcast/videocast host, and probably the most famous person I’ve ever gone out to lunch with. Today, he directs us to the doctrine of the Trinity and the means of grace.

The Large Catechism II:9-III:16

The doctrine of the Trinity can sometimes seem like a philosophical abstraction. Some Christians view the idea as too complicated—something that should be left to theologians to debate. In this section of Luther’s Large Catechism, we are shown how wrong we are in this assumption. There is, in fact, nothing more practical than the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

The Apostles’ Creed is a summary of God’s redemptive work in the world and its Trinitarian character: the Father creates, the Son redeems, and the Spirit sanctifies. Salvation brings us into fellowship with the Triune God. As Luther summarizes:

For in all three articles God himself has revealed and opened to us the most profound depths of his fatherly heart and his pure, unutterable love. For this very purpose he created us, so that he might redeem us and make us holy, and, moreover, having granted and bestowed upon us everything in heaven and on earth, he has also given us his Son and his Holy Spirit, through whom he brings us to himself. (LC II.64)

God’s self-giving is Trinitarian in shape as is all that he does. Creation, redemption, and sanctification all bring us into the life of the Godhead. 

Luther continually reminds us that where we encounter this Triune God is not in the inner impulses of the soul, nor through personal moral striving. Instead, God has chosen to give himself to each of us within particular earthly things—what we refer to as “means of grace.”

Holiness, the Triune God, and the Means of Grace

Let’s explore how this plays out in the final section of the Creed. The third article which addresses the topic of sanctification explores the daily Christian life with relation to the Christian’s obedience. This life of service to God and neighbor is not based upon some kind of attainable sinless perfection that is achieved by human striving; it is the product of God’s divine gifts through the church. 

The Holy Spirit does not work spontaneously or immediately, but “through the Word” (LC II.57), and also in “signs” (LC II.55). By “signs” here Luther means the Sacraments. Christian holiness is so tied to these external means of grace that one must be part of the “Christian community” in order to receive it (LC II.55). The short of it is: if we want to encounter the Triune God, we need to go to church! It is in the Divine Service that God has chosen to reveal himself to his creatures through forgiveness, love, and communion.

Our fellowship with God includes growth in conformity with his will. Luther defines the role of the Holy Spirit as bringing about a “daily increase” in holiness (LC II. 59). Despite the common misperception of Lutheran theology, the reformer is clear in his affirmation that Christian sanctification is a process of growth.

However, Luther recognizes the dual reality of the Christian’s identity on the earth as both saint and sinner. While he affirms that “holiness has begun and is growing daily,” (LC II. 57), he refers to us as only “halfway pure and holy” (LC II.58). God has not promised the total shedding of our sinful flesh until the day of resurrection, when we will have glorified bodies and minds that are incapable of sin. Life in this age is a daily battle between the old Adam and the righteous impulses created in us by the power of God’s Spirit.

The fact of this continuance of our sinful nature does not break off our fellowship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because of the life-giving sacrifice of Christ, we live daily under the protection of Christ’s righteousness which shields us from all accusations of the devil. As Luther refers to growth in holiness as a daily reality, so does he speak about the forgiveness of sins (LC II.59). This forgiveness is the result of the Father’s sending of the Son, the Son’s redemptive death, and the Spirit’s application of salvation to us in the means of grace. 

It’s All Trinitarian

For the sake of brevity, I chose only to focus on the third article of the Creed, but I could spend as much time exploring the Trinitarian shape of all three articles. It is important to note that it is not as if it is only the Father who created, or only the Son who redeems, or only the Spirit who sanctifies. The three persons of the Godhead are all involved in every divine work. The Father does not do anything apart from the Son and Spirit, nor the Son apart from Father and Spirit, nor the Spirit apart from Father and Son.

In the creation account of Genesis 1, for example, God the Father is presented as he through whom the heavens and the earth come. But, the means by which the Father creates is through speaking, as he declares “let there be” (Gen. 1:3). John identifies this speaking of God as the Son (John 1:1). Further, the Spirit is also described as an instrument of creation, as he hovers over the waters (Gen. 1:2). In the first three verses of the Bible, we already have the Father, Son, and Spirit displayed before us.

God as one essence in three persons is not simply a truth to be discovered in abstract speculation. Rather, he is to be encountered in his Triunity in our daily communion with him. In each Divine Service, we come into contact with our Father who speaks, the Son who redeems, and the Holy Spirit who gives, strengthens, and preserves our faith.

Jordan Cooper (PhD South African Theological Seminary) is the Executive Director of Just and Sinner, President of the American Lutheran Theological Seminary, and an ordained Lutheran pastor. He has published multiple books, including Prolegomena: A Defense of the Scholastic Method (Weidner Institute, 2020), and In Defense of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful (Just and Sinner, 2021).