Three Persons

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: Matthew 28:19: “…in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” God is one God and three Persons. What does “person” mean? The Persons of God are not members of some council. They’re not parts that together constitute the divine being. The Persons are individual centers of self-consciousness and self-determination. In Scripture the Father and Son and Holy Spirit speak to one another and about one another as distinct. Jesus spoke the words of Baptism’s Sacrament, including the names of all three Persons. At his own Baptism, all three Persons were manifest: the Son on the banks of the river, the Father speaking from heaven, and the Holy Spirit as a dove. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Holy Spirit. But they are perfectly one in essence. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. And there is one God. This is a mystery that we hold by faith, and in which we see that the whole Godhead is at work for our salvation. The Father sent his Son, the Son became Man and died for our sins, and the Son sent the Holy Spirit to create faith in our hearts, so that we are tied to his eternal life, which he gives us by his grace through his Word and Sacraments. 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.