Jesus Saves! But How? PART 5: Jesus' Death and the Trinity

Andrew Grey continues the adult Sunday School teaching on "Jesus Saves! But How?"

This is part 5: "Jesus' Death and the Trinity" from Sunday 14th December 2025

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Well good morning. Uh welcome to Adult Sunday School. Uh we're thinking this morning about Jesus' death and the Trinity. I asked you to talk about and finish that sentence. God is what? And we'll we'll come on to that, and we're going to see how that's a really important question to answer, especially when we come to the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross. Please turn up in your Bibles John chapter 17. John chapter 17. Let me pray and then I'll read the first five verses. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for this day that you've made and given to us. We pray for ourselves, we pray for our children and our young people meeting elsewhere right now. For each one of us, we ask that you would open up our eyes that we might see wonderful things in your word for Jesus' name's sake. Amen. Amen. So, John 17 and verses 1 to 5. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. And thanks be to God for his word to us. As we begin, let's listen to some words from the Westminster Confession. Remember this series we are thinking about Jesus the Saviour, and this is the chapter that begins to describe the saving work of God in Christ. Chapter 8, verse 1. It pleased God in his eternal purpose to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, his only begotten Son, to be the mediator between God and man, the prophet, priest, and king, the head and saviour of his church, the heir of all things and judge of the world, unto whom he did from all eternity give a people to be his seed or his inheritance, and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified. And right at the heart of the Saviour's work, of course, is his dying on the cross. We began looking at that last week, and specifically how we need God's justice to be satisfied. That may not be the first thought in our minds when we come to the cross of Christ, but actually the glory of God and the vindication of his justice is actually the most important thing in this whole universe. Remember our plight, our situation. We are all by nature in Adam. We are rebels against God, we're sinful through and through, we're deserving of God's judgment, and we cannot save ourselves. But we have a good God and a gracious God who made a plan of salvation in eternity past. He chose a people to save and then in love sent a Saviour to rescue that people. And at the centre of that rescuing work is the obedient death of Christ on the cross. We saw last week how he worked atonement. Remember, making God and his people at one. He did so bearing the penalty that his people deserved in their place, a substitute, bearing what we deserved to bear. And we thought about penal substitutionary atonement. And do you remember we also thought about union with Christ? Now, how is this righteous? How is it just that there can be this double swap, this double imputation, my sin and guilt unto Christ and Christ's righteousness to me? And the answer is in union with Christ. And we said that the nearest analogy to this is the marriage union, where God says, two become one. And within that union, it is just, it is righteous to exchange certain things. And today we're going to build on this, and we're going to look at God's being, the fact that God is Trinity. We're going to look at God's attributes. We're going to think about what God the Trinity is like. And all of this, particularly as he worked in the death of Christ on the cross. And hopefully this will deepen our love for the Saviour. But also I hope it will alert us to some common errors about Christ's death on the cross. I wonder if you've ever heard or thought of something like this. Poor Jesus. He was being punished or victimized by God the Father. He's just an innocent third party as he dies on the cross. It seems so unfair. Or God the Father was angry, but through the cross, Jesus turned the Father's anger towards us into love. In fact, the cross made God the Father love us. Or God is love. And that's just who he is. Therefore, we don't need to talk about or think about punishment and sin. It's got nothing to do with God, and the cross has got nothing to do with this either. Now, all of those things are wrong. And I hope as we see, as we look at our God and what he is like, we will see why, but we'll also be led to a new appreciation of him and of our Saviour's work. So turn over to the second side of the handout. And I'd like us to think firstly about the cross and the united work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And first of all, we're going to consider what sometimes is called the covenant of redemption. This phrase, it is used to describe something that happened or was agreed upon between God the Father and God the Son in eternity past. And in different places in the Gospels, the Lord Jesus lets us, in a sense, eavesdrop on it. And that's what we're doing in those verses at the start of John 17. We are eavesdropping, if you like, on here, God the Son, as he prays to, as he talks to his father, and as he talks about his relationship with the Father, and then we begin to understand some really wonderful and amazing things. We see that he and his father covenanted together to redeem humanity. Elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus says things like this Luke 22, 29, he says, he's talking to his disciples, I assign to you, or literally, I covenant to you as my father covenanted to me a kingdom. And it's just in passing, he notes, God the Father has covenanted something to me, God the Son. Now, let's have John 17, 1 to 5 open in front of us. And here we get told the shape of this covenant. We don't see the word covenant here used, but all of the elements of a biblical covenant are present. Think of it as being a little bit like a conditional promise. There is, in effect, an agreement between Father and Son made in eternity past. To start with, there is a work. There is a work which the Father gave Jesus to do. We can see here that the Father sends the Son. The Son is sent. That's the first part of it. And he's got a job to do. What is the job? Well, it is to glorify God. How is he going to do that? How will he glorify God on earth? Well, as he gives eternal life. See that in those verses too. To give, end of verse 2, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And we know that he does that principally through his penal self-sacrifice on the cross. Rescuing those people who the Father has given to him. And a promise is made to the Son. He is given authority over all flesh and a saved people to rule over and care for. And so when we read this prayer carefully, we can actually see all of the elements of, well really, like I say, a conditional promise, a work to do, that work described, and a promise or reward for obedience. Now I wonder if you see how this helps us to think about the cross of Christ. The plan of God to save, this the plan in the mind of God to send the Saviour into the world as a man to die and to rise. This plan it is the united plan of God. It's the united plan of God the Father and God the Son. And of course, God the Holy Spirit. And it is also the loving plan of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Just some words here from J.I. Packer reflecting on the covenant of redemption. He comments as he thinks about this: the love of the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit to lost sinners is shared, unanimous love. This fantasy of a loving son placating an unloving father and commandeering an apathetic Holy Spirit is a distressing nonsense. So God loves us. God the Holy Trinity loves us. And the Father and Son, you know, in eternity past, in the mind of God, well, to this end, covenanted for their glory, but also for our everlasting good. Nor is it that the Son's death makes the Father love us. God loves us. The Father loves us, and so he sends his son. Don't know if you've ever thought about the words of the grace from the end of 2 Corinthians that you know Christian people will often say in the context of gathered worship. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God. Talking about the Father, God the Father, the love of the Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit. So when the Bible thinks about God the Father, he is a Father who loves. And so he covenanted with the Son in eternity past to rescue a people. And we see the same when we look at God the Holy Trinity in action. As God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit put into action in time what they had purposed to do in the eternal covenant of redemption. And what I want us particularly here to notice is the second heading on the next side of the handout, the inseparable operation of the Trinity. And I'll explain what I mean by that. In John 5, the Lord Jesus says this. Jesus gave them this answer, John 5, 19. I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does. And that last sentence is key for us now. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. It is literally, it's a bit stronger than that. It is whatever things the Father does, those things, you know, the same things the Son does. It's not that the Father and the Son do the same sorts of jobs, they actually do the same works. And the point is this: when God does something, every member of the Holy Trinity does it. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, they do the same works simultaneously. Now we have to note that the Father and the Son, they don't do the same works in exactly the same way. So it is God the Son who is crucified, not God the Father, not God the Spirit. But the Son is not crucified without the Father, and without the Spirit. And this is sometimes simply termed inseparable operation. And it describes the fact that the Father, Son, and Spirit never act without each other. And we can see this actually described for us in the New Testament. If you ask the New Testament, who gave Christ to be crucified? And we get these answers. God the Father did. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement. Romans 3.25. God the Son did. Christ gave Himself for our sins. Galatians 1. The Holy Spirit did. The Son offered Himself through the eternal Spirit. Hebrews 9 14. So when we think about the offering of Christ upon the cross for us and for our salvation, remember this. This work, this offering, a glorious, love-filled offering, it was accomplished by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And if we don't, if we don't think about the cross as a work of God the Holy Trinity, we will go wrong. And some of the false ideas about the cross that have flowed around the church on and off for centuries, well, in part they are because people have got God wrong, what he is like. Just over 20 years ago, a false teacher called Steve Chalk described the cross as cosmic child abuse. You know, a father doing something terrible to a son. I mean it's just a wrong and blasphemous thought in so many ways, but in part it is because he just does not understand what our God is like. He is one and he always works as one. John 10, 30, Jesus says, I and the Father are one. So just think about the suffering of the Lord Jesus for a moment. He is God as he hangs on the cross, as he bears sin and guilt and punishment. God is acting on himself in Christ. God the judge is punished in the place of those who are joined in union with him. The one who is offended against bears the sins of those who have sinned against him and who are joined with him. That those sins, those people, that guilt, the judge carries in our nature, in our place. It's a wondrous thing, isn't it? Briefly, when we come to the cross of Christ, we must remember that we come to an unbroken Trinity. Have you ever wondered whether, as the Lord Jesus suffered on the cross, whether God the Trinity was broken? I mean, we hear Jesus say, don't we, as he as he hangs on the cross and as he quotes from Psalm 22, verse 1, he says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We may even have heard someone say or teach that God the Trinity was broken, the Trinity was torn asunder between the death and the resurrection of Christ. And given that we're thinking about the cross and the being of God, we do need to mention this briefly and say loud and clear, no, the Trinity was not and cannot be broken. God is one. The persons of the Trinity, they are one. God cannot be separated. God the Son is eternal. God cannot die. And we remember, don't we, that God the Son saved his people by suffering in his human nature. And do you remember we thought about that maybe a month ago when we thought about the incarnation? Remember the Council of Chalcedon? God the Son suffered and died in his human nature. So it's true to say that God died in his human nature. And this is one of those places where we have to be led by the scriptures. We're helped by our fathers in the faith. At a certain point, we have to say, well, we just don't understand. But we proclaim this, we confess it, and we worship. So an unbroken trinity. Turn over to the back of the handout. I'd like us to think just for a few moments about the cross and the attributes of the triune God. And what I mean by it is this. When we think about God the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, what kind of God is this? What kind of God was at work when the Lord Jesus was upon the cross? That question I ask you to think about right back at the beginning. God is. How should we answer that question in our minds and in our hearts? Particularly when we think about the cross of Christ. I'm going to read just the first sentence from the Westminster Confessions, well, confession about our God from the start of chapter 2. It says this there is but one only living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions. And I want us to see here one of the ways in which our God is not like us. It's actually a really wonderful thing, an indescribably glorious thing that God is not like us. I mean, what a terrible thought that we should try and make God in our image. And one of the ways in which God is not like us is that he is without parts. Now that seems a very strange thing to say, it's a glorious thing to say. And I'm going to try and explain why. And especially this is good when we come to the sufferings of Christ upon the cross. And what we are talking here about is what the church has always called the simplicity of God. It is not that there is a thing called God overhead. Here on my left. And there are certain other things over here, his attributes. Things like holiness, wisdom, goodness, power. And then God acquires those attributes. No. The Bible teaches that God is his attributes. So take the holiness of God. Isaiah 6, verse 3. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. God is holy. It's not that God has holiness. God is holy. It's not like that there is a government-approved standard called holiness, a bit like a kite mark. Remember then? And God happens to meet that criteria and so is called holy. No, things like holiness, goodness, wisdom, and so on, they are defined by him. He is the benchmark. If something is holy, it is because it is like God. Similarly, God is love, God is power, God is life, God is goodness, and so on. Or another example, there is not a separate thing called divinity, godness, which God happens to have, or be an example of. He is the one and only God. It's one of the reasons why the personal name of God, the covenant name of God is I am. So what we talk of as the Lord, Yahweh, in Hebrew, I am. He is. God cannot obtain something from somewhere else. He is his attributes. Now think about us for a moment. We are different. We are different in so many ways. For a start, we are we are created. We are created beings. And if you're created, you have parts. We are complex. We are the result of a creator and a process putting us together, whereas he is the uncreated creator. Now think about you and me for a minute. We're created, we're composites, so we can lose things. I could lose an aspect of my character and I'd still be me. I could lose a body part. Actually, I could lose my entire body and I would still be me. God cannot lose something and still be God. He is his attributes. So if he was to cease being any one of these attributes, he would cease to be God. And the Bible tells us that explicitly that certain things are essential to God, that is, of the essence of God, and he cannot lose them in any way. So for example, truthfulness. Truthfulness is of the essence of God. God is truth. And so gloriously the Bible says God cannot lie. It's a wonderful thought, isn't it? And it flows from who he is and how he is. Life. His life is essential to him. He cannot die. There's another thing the Bible says God cannot do. He cannot die. He is perfect. That is to say, he cannot improve in any way. He cannot get worse in any way. He's unchanging. He's immutable. We are so different, aren't we? We can improve. We can also decline and decay. We change. He never changes. So God, the Holy Trinity, the one true God, He is His attributes, and He is all of His attributes, and He is always all of His attributes, because this is simply what it means to be God. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, always all holy and powerful and wise and good. Now just an application of this. No attribute can trump another attribute or diminish it. No attribute of God is, if you like, primary or bigger. And this is the orthodox teaching of the church throughout history. The simplicity of God, it is what the church has always believed. It is not as if God is like a pizza where one slice is bigger than another. I don't know if you've ever thought in those terms. Liberal Christianity, fake Christianity, will take a statement like God is love and try to use that statement to override and overwrite things like God's justice and God's holiness. But God is not, if you like, arranged in parts like a pizza, whereby one part can be bigger than the other parts. God does not have parts. You can see why we might want God to lose an attribute, or to try and slightly deform the attributes of God. You can see that. You can see why sinfully we would want that, wouldn't we? Can we kind of tone down the holiness of God or tone down the righteousness and the justice of God? And this does sometimes come out in wrong understandings of the cross of Christ. Surely God can just forgive anyone or anything, regardless of whether there is repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This idea of God's simplicity, though, it's not just a defensive doctrine, though it is that, to kind of ward us against sinful lies. I hope you can see it helps us reflect really wonderfully on our God and on the cross. So each person of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit, was at work upon the cross. Remember, all of the external works of God, they are undivided. God the Trinity, working for us. And all of God is at work on the cross. He is there, as he always is in his holiness and his righteousness and his wisdom and his goodness for his glory and for our good. Now, um, we're going to take just a few moments to discuss, and there might be, ah, I've got a question about this. Talk about that with a moment for a moment just with a friend. And there's a reflection question there, which you might like to choose to discuss. Talk about something else for three or four minutes if you'd like. How do we see God's holiness and God's righteousness and God's wisdom and God's goodness in the Saviour's sufferings? So talk about that for a moment and then we'll take five minutes or so for questions. Go for it. So given we have an entirely sovereign, all-knowing God, how should we understand the origin of sin, the fall, uh, etc.? That's the is that is that the question? Just some brief headlines. The Bible says that sin is always chargeable to those who sin. The Bible teaches the reality of what we would call second causes. So God is the primary cause of everything, He's sovereign, but that sovereignty actually does not undermine secondary causation, but it actually establishes it. So we we are moral agents, and God takes seriously our responsibility. There are aspects of that that are hard to understand, but that is that is the shape of the Bible's picture in response to that really good question. So an entirely sovereign God, there is not a molecule in this universe that is outside of his control. He turns the heart of the king wherever he wills. And yet we are morally responsible creatures. And the sovereign God sovereignly willed all things to work out as they have worked out, including moral evil and natural evil. It's a very hard thing for us to work our heads around, because it will ultimately lead to the glory of the triune God and the good of that people who in eternity past he willed to give to his son. So there are puzzles along the way, puzzles for our heads, possibly some puzzles for our hearts as well. But in a God-centered universe, and the Bible says that is the only universe that there is, that is the nature of history and reality. And I think the encouragement would be the extent to which our minds and hearts are able to lean into that rather than butt against it, we will actually find peace. But it's a very good question, and obviously, Christian people down the centuries have struggled with it, and you can probably see some fairly predictable ways you can go horribly wrong with it. That's a really good question. So when the Lord Jesus cries out on the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? How should we understand that cry? How should we understand that forsakenness? Um, you're absolutely right, it is the fulfilment of a prophecy. So the Lord Jesus, um he knew that he was writ large in the pages of the Old Testament, is a conscious, conscious fulfillment of his office as mediator as set out in the pages of the Old Testament, and Psalm 22 describes the sufferings of a faithful Christ, but a forsaken Christ. So certainly he is fulfilling prophecy and the forsakenness. I think when we read that cry of dereliction in the context of the narrative of the cross, we see, for example, um you know, darkness in the daytime. So one of the miracles is Jesus hung on the cross, it was dark, and in the Bible, we we know from the whole Bible story, darkness in the daytime is a sign of anger, a sign of God's anger. So the forsakenness that Jesus experienced, that is God the Son experiencing the penal anger of God the Father. But it's not for his own sin because he had none, it was for the sins which he was carrying for his people. So, in other words, that cry, you've got we have to understand it, yes, in the in the light of the Old Testament and everything else that is going on in the gospel story, and it's right at the very heart of the gospel that you know the cry of dereliction as he accomplishes salvation. But but remember, as we've said, it is God the Son in his human nature who bears sin and guilt and wrath and dies gloriously for us. It's such a good question. I hope that helps. So that God the Trinity is the Trinity cannot be separated. Yeah, God that the forsakenness, the separation. Well, God the Son bears punishment, separation, forsakenness in his human nature. But God, but God, but this is the bit that's hard for us to understand, but God the Holy Trinity is undivided, cannot be divided. Yeah. We are out of time. Uh let me pray. Um Father in heaven, uh, we bow before you and we worship you. We remember that you are a God merciful and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. You keep steadfast love for thousands, you forgive iniquity and transgression and sin, but you will by no means clear the guilty. And so we praise you for your holiness, and we praise you for your holy son and for your holy love. Enlarge our hearts, enlarge our minds for our good, and that we might worship you and serve you all our days. In Christ's name. Amen.