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There are several possibilities involved in accurately translating the second phrase of Deuteronomy 6:4. The first phrase is the same, "Hear, O Israel". One possibility for correctly rendering the second phrase is "The Lord our God, the Lord is one." Another is "The Lord our God is one Lord." A third alternative is "The Lord is our God, the Lord is one." Yet an additional option is "The Lord is our God, the Lord alone."
What follows in our text follows from this last version, "The Lord is our God, the Lord alone." For what follows this confession are God's commandments, beginning with the summary of the first three commandments, those having to do with God and love of Him. "Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength" (v 5).
Obviously, to love this one God and Lord with all your substance, your whole being, heart and soul, is to love Him and Him alone. There simply is no love left over for any so-called gods; no love lost on false gods, none whatsoever. Hence, this version of our text, "The Lord is our God," this one God and Lord, "the Lord alone", anticipates the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me".
God is altogether zealous when it comes to His sovereign, absolute exclusivity. "Thou shalt worship the Lord, thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve" (Mt 4:10).
"I am the Lord; that is My name; and My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images" (Isa 42:8).
As for the Ten Commandments as a whole, what are they? What does the Bible and the Small Catechism drawn therefrom and drawing thereon teach? The Ten Commandments are the Law of God. How did God give His Law? Verse six of our text answers this. "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts."
When God created man He wrote the Law upon man's heart, universally, all-inclusively, with no exceptions. He did so in the instance of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles or non-Jews. St. Paul substantiates this, addressing the latter.
"When the Gentiles, which have not the Law," in the sense of the Ten Commandments proper spoken by God in His address to the Jews and their written code inscribed by God on stone tablets and committed to the Jews, when these non-Jews, then, "do by nature the things contained in the Law, these, having not the Law, are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another" (Rom 2:14-15).
Be this as it may, how do you know that there is a God? We know that there is a God, for one, according to what we call the natural knowledge of God. This natural knowledge has two sources, the witness of creation and the testimony of conscience. We know from our own existence, for example, that whereas "every house is built by someone; He that built all things is God" (Heb 3:4).
From living in the world we know, "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork" (Ps 19:1). What is more, from human nature and the workings of the universe we can extrapolate the unseen things of God from the things that are seen, as the Apostle Paul bears witness.
"For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that [humans] are without excuse" (Rom 1:19-20), that is, when it comes to knowledge of these things over against ignorance of them.
Secondly, in the realm of the natural knowledge of God, we know of God's existence from the testimony of conscience. As aforesaid, even the non-Jews "show the work of the Law written in their hearts," even though the Law was not originally committed to them, "their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another" (Rom 2:15).
Natural man, Jew and non-Jew alike, knows that there is a God after this fashion, because the Law written in the hearts of all men, whether originally committed to them or not, convicts all men of sin and makes them answerable to God. Thus far, the natural knowledge of God available to all men, universally, unequivocally and all-inclusively, from the witness of the created order and the testimony of human conscience.
There is, moreover, a second, more definitive source for the certainty not only of the reality of God but of this one true God and Lord, before whom all other gods so-called are false. And it is called the revealed knowledge of God, being the supernatural and spiritual over against the merely natural.
This one definitive source is the Holy Scriptures, in which God clearly reveals Himself to us spiritually and supernaturally, as opposed to merely naturally, as in, by way of Isaiah, "I am the Lord; that is My name" (Isa 42:8), and by way of Jeremiah, "The Lord is the true God, He is the living God and an everlasting King" (Jer 10:10), and by way of Jesus, the Lord God the Son, "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3).
Having answered how we know there is one true God and Lord, we now address His nature. What is God? Jesus answers, "God is a spirit" (John 4:24), which is to say, a being endowed with mind and will and personhood or personality but without a body or material existence or presence. Therefore, He must be perceived and apprehended spiritually not naturally or materially.
When St. Paul stated that natural man from the witness of human nature and the testimony of the created order could, in part, infer the unseen things of God from the visible, but that God revealed Himself most clearly to us by way of the special revelation of Holy Scripture, the Apostle had in mind, among other things, God's attributes.
These, though invisible are nonetheless real--more real than the visible--wherein He is eternal, like the never-ending circle, without beginning and without end; unchangeable; omnipotent, that is, almighty or all-powerful; omniscient or all-knowing; omnipresent (present everywhere); holy (sinless and hating and punishing sin); just (fair and impartial); faithful (making good His pledge and keeping His promises); benevolent (good, kind, committed to our wellbeing); merciful (full of pity and acting thereon) and gracious (showing undeserved favor and steadfast love, freely forgiving).
Being thus certain of the existence, nature and attributes of God, we ask who is the only true God? A Short Explanation of the Small Catechism succinctly answers, "The only true God is the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three distinct Persons in one divine Being, or Essence. (The Holy Trinity.)
"Hear, O Israel: The Lord, our God, is one Lord" (Dt 6:4). "There is none other God but one" (1Cor 8:4). These citations, beginning with our text, affirm the oneness of the one true God and Lord. Other citations attest to the truth that three distinct divine persons, each Himself God and co-eternal and co-equal with the other two, together comprise the one godhead, deity, or substance.
"Go therefore, discipling all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt 28:19), Jesus has commanded, first His apostles and, through them, all His disciples. This Great Commission makes clear both the oneness, as in "the name", singular, and the three distinct persons, as in, "of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", through which and through whom disciples are made and kept.
The New Testament benediction, given us by St. Paul, is equally definitive on this score, highlighting the three distinct though related persons, the Lord Jesus Christ, God, and the Holy Ghost, and their three different though related attributes respectively, "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all" (2Cor 13:14).
The same may be said for the Aaronic benediction by which God's name is to be placed upon His people and His blessing thereby conferred and whereby we conclude the Divine Service, in most instances, including that of the Feast of The Holy Trinity. "The Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make His face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace" (Num 6:24-26).
Finally, respecting the three divine persons, whom, from Holy Writ, we confess are distinct, that is, with regard to their personhood, each subsisting of that which is of Himself alone and, thus, of no other (self-subsisting), how are the three differentiated from each other? Here we turn to the first paragraph of the lead article of our June 2009 parish newsletter.
"We're compelled by the Word of God and the Christian faith to believe and confess of God the Father that He is made of none, neither created nor begotten; of God the Son that He is of the Father alone, not made nor created, but begotten; and of God the Holy Spirit that He is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding."
Though giving due credence to the distinctiveness of the three divine persons, on the one hand, at the same time the Scriptures and, thus, our confession underscore their oneness, their three-in-oneness, their trinity in unity and unity in trinity. And so we ask, how is the one true God triune, that is, three-in-one and one-in-three? For this is the catholic faith and its mystery.
As we confess in the Athanasian Creed, "Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith. Whoever does not keep it whole and undefiled will without doubt perish eternally. And the catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance."
Here we confess the three-in-oneness of The Holy Trinity and the holy catholic faith. And here also. "For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Holy Spirit is another. But the Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one: the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit."
Next we confess that, while distinct, each person shares one and the same attributes equally, which is yet another expression of their unity in trinity and trinity in unity, as in, "the Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Spirit uncreated; the Father infinite, the Son infinite, the Holy Spirit infinite; the Father eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet there are not three Eternals, but one Eternal, just as there are not three Uncreated or three Infinites, but one Uncreated and one Infinite. In the same way, the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, the Holy Spirit almighty; and yet there are not three Almighties, but one Almighty."
And here we arrive at the three-in-one and one-in-three essence of The Holy Trinity, the Trinitarian substance of this one God in three persons and three persons in one God, namely, the trinity in unity and unity in trinity. "So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; and yet there are not three Gods, but one God. So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord; and yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord."
This matter thus settled, we proceed to distinguishing the true Trinitarian faith, which God commands, from tri-theism, the worship of three gods, which He forbids. "Just as we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge each distinct person as God and Lord, so also are we prohibited by the catholic religion to say that there are three Gods or Lords. . . . Thus, there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
"And in this Trinity none is before or after another; none is greater or less than another; but the whole three persons are coeternal with each other and coequal, so that in all things, as has been stated above, the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity is to be worshiped." And here is the bottom line on Holy Trinity Sunday, or any Sunday, indeed, any time, for all time's sake. "Therefore, whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the Trinity."
Thus far, our confession of the doctrine of The Holy Trinity. Since it centers in the person and work of God the Son, the divine Word of and from the Father alone who created all things, and that Word incarnate who, when creation fell, redeemed the whole lost lot of us, and from whom, along with the Father, proceeds the Holy Spirit who brings us to faith and, through faith, brings us forgiveness, life and salvation, "[It] is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Confess with me, then, the last part of the Athanasian Creed, that concerning God the Son, the second Person of The Holy Trinity, "Therefore, it is the right faith that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at the same time both God and man. He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages; and He is man, born from the substance of His mother in this age: Perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh; equal to the Father with respect to His divinity, less than the Father with respect to His humanity.
"Although He is God and man, He is not two, but one Christ: one, however, not by the conversion of the divinity into flesh, but by the assumption of the humanity into God; one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.
"For as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ, who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence He will come to judge the living and the dead. At His coming all people will rise again with their bodies and give an account concerning their own deeds. And those who have done good will enter into eternal life, and those who have done evil into eternal fire.
"This is the catholic faith; whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved." Conversely, it goes without saying, everyone who does believe it is saved already. Better to be safe than sorry. Better to believe, and that, in The Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and be saved eternally. Amen.
- Pastor Erickson