Blair Smith | From “God” to “My God”

Sunday Evening, February 22, 2026
Given by Dr. Blair Smith | Adult Education Coordinator, Christ Covenant Church

From “God” to “My God”

Heidelberg Catechism—Lord’s Day 8 & 9

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Transcript

This evening, all that you'll need is your bulletin for the Scriptures we will reference and for the catechism questions that we will engage. They're all found there on pages 8, 9, and 10 of your bulletin. 

What is the most important thing about yourself? What is the most important thing about you? Over 50 years ago, a book was published by A.W. Tozer, which opened with this line: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. That's quite a statement. Do you think it's true? I hope you will consider with me this evening the weight of that statement. I hope that, not only so you will have right thoughts, right beliefs, about who God is – your creator – and I hope, for most of you, your redeemer. But also that you might rightly understand who God is for you. Who God is for you – do you hear the distinction? We want to know God, who he is as one and three, one God in three persons, but our knowledge must not stop there. Even the demons can spout off orthodox trinitarian theology. But who is God for you? Who is God for you? Can you say that the God we will speak of tonight is your God, my God. 

Well, in the evenings this year, 2026, we've been walking through the Heidelberg Catechism as it helps frame for us and summarize biblical teaching. Please don't be intimidated by words like creeds, confessions, and catechisms. These merely attempt to summarize biblical teaching for the church on a variety of topics that we find in Scripture. What a catechism does is take that teaching and break it down into digestible bites in a question-and-answer format. And the Heidelberg Catechism is especially adept at doing that in a very warm and personal way, and I think you'll see that, especially this evening, in the questions and answers before us. 

Well, the teaching the catechism has for us tonight is on the Trinity. How glorious is that? We get to spend an evening considering who God is as one God and also three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And then we see how the Heidelberg Catechism connects who God is to what he does and who he is for us. So, let's now turn to Lord's Day 8 and 9, found on page 10 in your bulletin. And for context, this follows naturally on Lord's Day 7, preached on last week by Mike Miller, which is on faith, what a Christian must believe. And the Heidelberg Catechism, as it talks about faith, it summarizes the content of our faith with the Apostles’ Creed. And so, as we go into Lord's Day 8 and 9, it begins by breaking down the Apostles’ Creed in its trinitarian shape, and then it goes into its first lines, and it speaks of this in terms of articles. And so I'm going to read the question, and then we will together say the answer for questions 24, 25, 26, which comprise Lord's Day 8 and 9. So let's look. First, 24:

Q: How are these articles divided? 

A: Into three parts. God the Father and our creation, God the Son and our deliverance, and God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification. 

Q: Since there is only one divine being, why do you speak of three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? 

A: Because that is how God has revealed himself in his Word. These three distinct persons are one true, eternal God. 

Q: What do you believe when you say (and these are the first lines now of the Apostles’ Creed), “I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth”?

A: That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them, who still upholds and rules them by his eternal counsel and providence, is my God and Father, for the sake of Christ, his Son. I trust God so much that I do not doubt he will provide whatever I need for body and soul and will turn to my good whatever adversity he sends upon me in this veil of tears. He is able to do this, because he is almighty God. He desires to do this, because he is a faithful Father. 

Amen. Would you pray with me? 

Our heavenly Father, we thank you so much that we have the great privilege tonight of considering who you are – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – one God, three persons, existing from all of eternity together in love. But by your grace, you have created this world. You have redeemed your people, and you are sanctifying your people. You have redeemed in your Son, you are sanctifying now by the Spirit. May that same Spirit, we pray, make our hearts teachable. Open to us, with the light of your word, what you have revealed yourself to be. May we be strengthened in believing who you are and believing who you are for us this evening. And even now, as we look to your Word and who you are, Trinity, we also look ahead, and we thank you that this night we not only partake of a means of grace from the Word, but also the Sacrament. And so prepare, we pray, our hearts as we will feast on Christ in faith. And may, through Word and Sacrament, you strengthen and sustain us for the week ahead, that it might all be through our lives to your glory. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. 

Now, some doctrines feel like they belong in a seminary classroom or a theological textbook, maybe more than in a sanctuary or in a pew. And I'm afraid for some the Trinity can feel like that. Sure, it's important, but maybe a little distant. Maybe it's like the math that you'll never use. One writer said that evangelical Christians often treat the Trinity with polite hospitality – a little bit as if, yes, we know this is important and necessary, but we're going to keep this whole thing at arm’s length. Welcoming the doctrine, not quite sure what to do with it. I hope you will be quite glad to know that Scripture treats the Trinity differently. The Trinity is not an abstract theological puzzle. It's the name. It's the name of the God who made you, who saved you, who's changing you. The Trinity is the one we are baptized into, if indeed we've been baptized, the one we pray to, because the Trinity is God. Now, that does not mean that trinitarian theology does not demand both our hearts and our minds. It does. We're talking about God, after all. He's infinite. He's transcendent. Therefore, he's of an entirely different nature than us. We will need our best thoughts in order to engage God in a way that's worthy of him. But it is not a game of sudoku, suduku, however you say that name. This is life when we're talking about God. Not a puzzle. This is life, for we're talking about our God. 

The great theologian and reformer of the 16th century John Calvin said that when you think of God, if it's not Trinity you are thinking of, then it's just a bare and naked name for God that is fluttering about in your brain. What he's saying is God is Trinity. These aren't two separate things. God over here, Trinity over here. So when we think about God – remember, the most important thing about us – then we should be contemplating Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not just some abstract divine category. Tonight, I want us to see this: the triune God is not theological ornamentation, not just decoration to our faith. The Trinity is not something that we learn about once and then move on to more pressing, practical things. He is the living God, and knowing him rightly changes how you worship and how you live. So, we're going to first look at God, who is one and three. And secondly, we will look at how the triune God is connected to us as creator, redeemer and sanctifier. And then thirdly, these truths will take a more personal turn, as God is not only God, not only a God who creates us and saves us, but he is my God. He is your God, if indeed you have entrusted yourself to his Son, Jesus Christ. 

So for our first point, which really concerns the basic grammar building blocks, to speak in those terms, of the Trinity. Let's turn to two short passages read earlier by Shawn. First, Deuteronomy 6:4 – “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” And then Matthew 28:19, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations (and then here is the key part), baptizing them into the name (singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” We want to hold these two verses, and the truths therein, together. Deuteronomy, it gives us the Israelite creed, the Shama, the confession that runs through Old and New Testaments. God is one. And then at the end of Matthew, as Jesus is sending out his disciples, he gives them this baptismal commission, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Three, each named distinctly, yet they share a singular name, one name or nature. So, this is where we're going to start. 

And let's look at now these two verses, in turn, a little more closely. First, Deuteronomy 6:4. From the beginning chapters and books, the Bible is relentlessly clear. There's one God. One God. Not many gods. Not one God for one people, another God for another people. God is not a territorial or domain God. He's not a God of a singular nation. No, he's one Lord over all. He's creator. He's the sovereign God. Other nations may claim gods, but he is over all of that, because he alone is God. Theologically, practically, this is really important for what it implies. Reality is not divided between competing, ultimate powers, if God is one, and God is over all. There is no room in the Bible for what we could call Star Wars theology, and by that I mean that there's a force over here, and there's a force over here, and they're somewhat equal, and they're constantly pressing in on one another. No, God is singular and ultimate, and so, reality is not divided up among various gods and powers. 

Another implication of God being one and singular and above and over all is your life and my life are not at the mercy of cosmic chaos, not being pulled this way and that by many powers and fates. No, God is in control. God is sovereign. There are not many powers that are all tugging war with one another. There is one God over all. And because God is one, worship belongs to him alone. Worship belongs to him alone. You read your Bible especially – well both testaments – you see it especially in the history of the Israelite people, but the same warnings are in the New Testament over and over again, warning against idolatry – the temptation to worship other than one God who is over all and is worthy of everyone's worship, because he has created us, he sustains us, and he governs us. So, the Lord is one. He is one nature. Therefore, he has one will, one power, one glory. This is monotheism. And I want to say, this is monotheism, but trinitarianism does not deny, but confesses those same truths from the mountaintops. God is one. He is undivided. He's unrivaled. He is unmatched. Everything we're going to say about the Trinity as Christians is not in tension or held in contrast to these fundamental truths. 

Well, in our second text, in Matthew 28:19, Jesus says to baptize in the name (singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, this is profound, because Jesus relates Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to a single name. This isn't three gods. This is one God in three persons. And notice – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – these are not three masks. These are not three roles that God plays. God was not Father when he created, and then he took on another role when he redeemed, and now he's Son. And now that that work is done, he takes on another role or another mask, and he is sanctifying as Spirit. No, here Jesus names each person of the Trinity distinctly, existing with one another. And of course, throughout the gospels, we find Jesus praying to the Father. And so that prayer itself shows us that they are distinct persons. So, the Christian confession is both. It's unity. The Lord is one. One name is shared (Matthew 28:19). But there's plurality. There's distinction: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Holding to the absolute oneness or unity of God is necessary. If we do not, we have divided loyalties, which lead us to divided worship, which falls into the gross sin of idolatry. And yet, with the coming of Jesus Christ, the pouring out of the Spirit, Scripture reveals God is also three distinct persons. These three give the very shape of the gospel, as the Father sends his only begotten Son, who obeys the Father throughout the whole course of his life, dies in our place, and then pours out his Spirit, who unites us to the Son, so that we can call on the name of the Father. These three distinct persons all relate to us, and all are God. Not three gods, but one god – true, eternal, living God, forever with one another in love. 

As these three begin turning to us, as creator, redeemer, and sanctifier, we now turn to our second point. And we must remember God is God. And God is God whether we existed or not, whether the world existed or not. It doesn't depend on us as his people. God does not depend on us or the world for who he is, because he is eternal, and he would be Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – existing in eternal love whether the world existed or not. But here's the glorious truth. In light of God creating this world, in light of him forming a people in his covenantal love, he does relate to us according to who he is. He does relate to the world and to his people according to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity isn't only who God is in himself. It is also how he has revealed himself in turning toward us in love. So, trinitarian doctrine teaches us that while the Father may be the first person of the Trinity, he is not more God than the Son or Spirit. But there is, as much as we say that, a relational order to the persons. So, Scripture often highlights that the Father is source, the one from whom all things come, the one who creates, the one who provides. And this is fitting, because relationally, within the Trinity, the Father is eternally from no one, no other person. Whereas the Son is begotten of the Father, the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son. So, matching this relational order, the Bible often appropriates to the Father the beginning of things – the beginning of our salvation and the eternal predestinating purposes of God, the beginning of creation in the act of creation itself. So thus, the Apostles’ and the Nicene Creeds begin with the statement, “I believe in God the Father almighty,” and you can finish it can't you? “Maker of heaven and earth.” All the persons of the Trinity are creator. We could go to biblical texts that speak of both Spirit and Son as creator, because all three persons of the Trinity are God. But the Bible especially associates creation with the Father because of the relational order within the Trinity. Well, what about redemption? Like creation, all the persons of the Trinity are active in our salvation. Our salvation is according to the divine will, after all. But it is the Son who is sent, the Son who takes on flesh, who obeys, who suffers, who dies, who rises, and who redeems his people. When we think of our savior, our substitute, our mediator, we rightly think of the Son, because this is how the Scriptures speak of him. 

Well, what of the third person of the Trinity? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force. He is God. He is personal. He is present. He is the source of God's love being poured out into our hearts, as Paul tells us in Romans 5:5. He opens our blind eyes. He gives us new birth. He unites us with Christ. He is the Spirit of the Son, who resides in our hearts and causes us to cry, "Abba, Father.” God is not just Trinity in heaven, a kind of closed off trio, a divine trio. He has this pulsating, dynamic, divine life, which by grace comes forth in creation and in redemption. The very order, the very texture of divine life, then shapes how the triune God relates to the world and to us. So, the pattern – it's from the Father (the Father associated with creation and purposes of God) through the Son (the Son associated with redemption and reconciliation) and then by, or in, the Spirit, the one who gives us new life and transforms us. That's the triune God at work – literally a very personal work, the persons of the Trinity – from the Father through the Son in the Spirit. And perhaps you can see this very clearly in one biblical text, a place like John 14:25. In John 14:25, Jesus spoke of the Father. When he speaks of the Father, he says the Father will send the Holy Spirit. The Father will send the Holy Spirit to God's people, but how will he send the Holy Spirit? He will send the Holy Spirit through the Son's name, so from the Father through the Son in the Spirit. But here's the beauty of the way the Trinity personally comes to us. Our relationship with the Trinity retraces that very pattern that I just described. The Spirit is sent to indwell our hearts. And as the Spirit indwells our hearts, he's communicating God's love and wisdom. In Galatians, the Spirit is called the Spirit of the Son. And so, what does that cause us to do? He, the Spirit, leads us in the Son to call on Abba Father, and so the retracing from the Father through the Son in the Spirit, then the Spirit lifting us up, uniting us with Christ, and then through Christ we call on the Father. 

Well as we turn to the third point, we're turning to Lord's Day 9. Here the Heidelberg Catechism is instructing us a little more specifically. In Lord's Day 8, the topic is more generally on the Trinity, but also how God creates and saves us according to Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Here in Lord's Day 9, it turns to what do we confess with those first lines of the Apostles’ Creed? These truths take a more personal turn, in that, as God is not only God, not only a God who creates and saves, but he is my God, and he is your God, if indeed we have entrusted ourselves to his Son. So let's slow down, and let's look carefully at Heidelberg’s answer here, because it's not only good doctrine – you will find it, I trust, comforting and emboldening. So, after rehearsing the truth about God's creation and providence, Lord's Day 9 question 26 says that the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is, for the sake of his Son, my God and my Father. Notice the move. Not first my Father, but the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Why that? Why that first? Because our confidence doesn't begin first with our relationship. It begins with Jesus. God is Father eternally. He's Father eternally to his Son, and only in his Son, Jesus Christ, do we become sons and daughters. So, the Father is our father, yes, in the Christian faith through adoption, but for the sake of Christ, who is the eternal Son. Our sonship, our being a child of God, is tethered to the eternal Son, who is son of the Father. So when we say I believe in God the Father, we're not saying, you know, God's kind of father-like. We are saying the one true God has bound himself to me in Christ with a father's love. And to reinforce this ability, this ability that the Father has to do us, the answer highlights at the beginning, God is creator. You don't think God can make you his child? Well, God created, out of nothing, everything. It says, "Who, out of nothing, created heaven and earth and all that is in them." If he made everything from nothing, he's not intimidated at all by us, our lives. He's not powerless before our circumstances. He indeed can make us his children through his Son. 

And the catechism goes on, "And who still upholds and governs them by his eternal counsel and providence." This is where this answer, the catechism, gets very practical. The Father not only made the world and everything in it, he upholds the world. He governs the world. And this gives answer to what ultimately governs your life and my life. You know, we often feel that we're at the mercy of many strong powers and many strong hands, right? The algorithms on our phones and computers, the markets which open again tomorrow, elections, your boss and your job, your past and your choices, your anxiety, other people's opinions of you. These can all press on us and weigh on us. But all of us need to evaluate how much we understand these things as actually governing us, versus, no, God's providence. God's governing, loving hand, ultimately. Providence means God is actively ruling wisely, personally, purposefully in our lives. Now, that doesn't mean life's easy, but it does mean life is not meaningless. The catechism answer recognizes this, but it also doesn't call us just to recognize that. It calls us to receive it, to appropriate it in our faith. And it does it through saying this, “In him I trust so completely as to have no doubt that he will provide me with all things – all things necessary for body and soul.” Now, you'll notice it doesn't say all things you want. It says all things necessary. God knows what's necessary. He knows what we need for our daily bread. And that is what he provides for us in his providential care, as a father. I trust the Father so completely that I have no doubt he will give what I need, body and soul. Not because we deserve it, not because we have our planning all airtight and nailed down. No, because he's Father, and will also turn to my good, the catechism says, whatever adversity he sends upon me in this veil of tears – or sometimes that's translated “this life of sorrow.” And that's very honest, isn't it? This veil of tears or this life of sorrow. True Christianity doesn't trick you. It doesn't gaslight you. It doesn't say, "Smile. Everything's fine. Just look on the bright side." The reality of Genesis 3 – it informs and shapes our perspective on all of life. It says, "Yeah, original sin, it's wrecked this world. It's done a real number. It's broken. And you will face adversity.” But look what it says: "God will turn adversity to your good." That's what he does for his children. Now, don't hear what it's not saying. Not every adversity itself is good. Evil is evil. And there's real loss, real heartache, real challenge in this world. But God's so sovereign, so wise, that he can take what is even against us as his children and use it for us, for our growth, for our good. And if you need sort of a category for that, sort of proof positive, we could always look at the cross, can we not? The worst injustice in the history of the world was meted out on the cross. The perfect Son of God, killed at the hands of unrighteous men. And yet, this wicked act becomes our very salvation. The cross reveals to us the depths of God's willingness to save us and work through adversity for the good of his people. 

Well, finally, there is this closing line to Lord's Day 9: “He is able to do so as almighty God and willing, also, as a faithful Father.” This is the final comfort that the catechism leaves us with tonight. God is not only able, he's willing. Some people believe God is powerful, but not personal. You know, he's able but maybe not all that interested or very willing to do it for you. Others maybe believe that God is not sovereign. He might be willing, but he's not very powerful. He's not very able. And neither of these are true. The catechism upholds the wonderful biblical truth. God is able to do all things for us as Almighty God. He's willing to do all things for his children as faithful Father. So, when you pray, you're not trying to cajole a reluctant deity into acting on your behalf. You are speaking to a Father who has already revealed himself and his intentions to you in giving to you his beloved Son. So, the Trinity is not a math problem. It's not what we do with three and one and one and three. It's not a museum piece that's tucked away, that some select few go and gaze at every once in a while. As Christians, we do not politely tolerate the Trinity. This is the living God, who has come near to us. If the Father is your Father for the sake of Christ, then what we're doing tonight in worship is not a performance. It's not trying to earn a place at the divine table. What we're doing tonight is gratitude, because you and I have been brought home as his children. We come to God not as a stranger. We come to God as a child to our loving Father. We can sing, because we've been redeemed, and we have been loved in Jesus Christ. We confess sins, knowing there is mercy. We listen to God's word and trust that word, because we know the source of it in God, and we come to the table, and we trust the promise here, and we receive the Sacrament. So, when you wake up tomorrow, and the week comes rushing in with its schedules and its cares, remember the pattern you've heard here tonight: from the Father through the Son by the Spirit. So, you pray to the Father, not as a distant ruler but as a faithful and willing father. You cling to the Son, not as an abstract redeemer idea, but as your redeemer, as your Christ, your substitute. And you rely upon the Spirit, not as a mood, not as a mere force, but as God himself, present in you, strengthening you, changing you, indeed causing you and me to cry upon our Father. And when adversity comes, and it will on this side of the veil of tears, this confession gives us something sturdier than just an optimistic spirit. It gives to us a Father who is both able and willing. Able as almighty Father, willing as faithful Father. We can entrust to God what we cannot control, because we know he is always in control. And we can endure challenge without despair, because our Father is not careless in our lives. He is always faithful to us and is always working out all purposes for our good and to his glory. 

So, we end tonight where we began. What comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. Not only because it shapes your thoughts about God, but because it shapes your direction, it shapes your hope, it shapes the whole orientation of your life and whether it is to God's glory. Do you know this God? Not only as God, but as your God, as your Father? If you're in Christ, you may say it tonight with confidence. If you're not, the invitation is as simple as the gospel itself. Come to the Father through the Son, and you will receive the Spirit, and with him a new name, a new family, a new home. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Let's pray together. 

Heavenly Father, indeed we thank you for the great privilege that is ours to call upon your name, Father. And we do so with the instruction of your Son on our lips, who taught us that when we pray, we should call on you as our Father. And indeed, isn't that instructive, because you are the Son's Father, but in him you are also our Father, and your Spirit indwells us and causes us to gladly, in the Son, call upon you as Father. We thank you for these truths, and I pray these truths would shape our prayer lives, our worship, indeed our whole orientation to life, knowing that in the Son, Father, you care for us. You have redeemed us. We are your children. And by your Spirit, you are more and more transforming us into the image of your Son, even using this table tonight as you feed us by your grace in your Son. We pray in his name. Amen.