The Father and the Son

In Jesus’ name. This is Pastor Michael Lilienthal of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Albert Lea. Together, let us meditate on and wrestle with God’s Word: John 10:30: “I and the Father are one.” God is so far above us that we cannot comprehend him. We simply repeat, like children, what he reveals to us about himself. Beyond what he says, we are silent. When we speak of the three Persons of the Godhead, we repeat Scripture. The first Person is called “Father,” and the second Person is “Son.” Their relationship is revealed to us in those terms, that the Son is the only begotten of the Father, who resides in the bosom of his Father. He is also called the Word. But we have to be careful: this doesn’t mean the Son is inferior to the Father. The Father begat his Son in eternity, outside of time. Our language simply can’t get closer to the mystery than that. The Father and Son know one another; the Father loves the Son and the Son honors the Father. The Father sent the Son to win salvation according to his plan, to suffer and die and rise again, and the Son returned to the Father, bringing us with him. But the Father and Son are one being. The Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father, so that whoever sees the Son sees the Father. In his Word, we have seen the Son. He took our flesh to give us his glory.  So we have the Father’s own eternal life and love. Amen. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.