June 15, 2025
"Our Triune God"
John 8:48-59
Imagine someone calling himself “God.” We’d probably think this person is crazy. Something isn’t right with this person. He looks like any other human being, so how could he be God?
Believe it or not, throughout history, there have been people who have made such a claim. It’s usually been emperors of empires who have claimed to be God. They even went so far to demand people to worship them. Those who refused to do so were often times killed. This was not uncommon. Christians, for example, were tortured and killed for refusing to worship the emperor of Rome. Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den because he wouldn’t worship King Darius, the king of Persia. But in this particular case, God Almighty rescued Daniel and spared him from death. But this generally wasn't the case. Those who refused to worship an emperor met death.
This goes to show us how rulers who claimed to be God let power go to their heads. This led them to commit all kinds of atrocities against people. I suppose many of these rulers believed they had a right to do so. Anyway, we can see that because they considered themselves God, so to speak, they believed they could abuse people.
Such rulers exist today. North Korea is a good example. The leader there considers himself God. Everyone is required to worship him by having a picture of him hanging in their home. Christianity is certainly looked down upon. North Korea is considered one of the most oppressive regimes in the world. For fear of torture, imprisonment, or death, people submit to him.
From the examples I’ve given, it’s quite clear that some men have made the claim that they are God. We have history to attest to this. I’m sure that some men will make this claim in the future, too.
Maybe we are wondering what this has to do with our text for today. Well, Jesus is making the claim that He is God. In verse 58, He says, “I tell you the truth...before Abraham was born, I am!” When Jesus said this, Abraham had already been dead for a couple of thousand years. Jesus was saying in this verse that He was alive before Abraham was. The Jews thought that Jesus was nuts. He wasn’t even yet 50 years old, so how could He have been alive before Abraham.
The Jews were ready to stone Jesus for this. How could He, being a man, be God? It wasn’t possible in their eyes. Jesus was simply committing the sin of blasphemy. For this He deserved to die.
To this day, many Jews reject the divinity of Jesus. He is not God in their view. They maintain that they believe in God, but not in God’s Son, Jesus. And Jews aren’t the only ones who reject Jesus’ divinity. Muslims do as well. Jesus is only a man to them. At least they acknowledge Him as a real person who lived here on earth.
But we acknowledge and confess Jesus as much more. We believe that He is God in the fullest sense. He is God who took on our flesh, and is like one of us, to an extent. That’s why we worship Him and believe in Him for the salvation of our soul. For us, He is he Savior of the world. He is the only one who can save us.
Those who don’t believe in the divinity of Jesus don’t see Jesus as a beacon of salvation. They don’t turn to Him for the forgiveness of their sins. They aren’t looking forward to living with Him forever in His kingdom. This is where quite a few people are at today.
But again, this isn’t where we are at. For us, Jesus is God. We believe in Him for our salvation. He was both true man and true God. And He had to be in order to die for us and rise from the dead. His death means we die to sin, and His resurrection means we will rise to new life.
If Jesus hadn’t been both God and man, He couldn’t have died and risen from the dead. This is why it was so important for Him to be both. And all people must understand this about Jesus. As Peter says, there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.
Now some might think that we place too much emphasis on who Jesus was. The more important thing is simply to believe in God. That’s more important than emphasizing that Jesus was both God and man, that Jesus was both divine and human. Let’s just talk about belief in God.
The fact that Jesus was both God and man is a mystery. We don’t fully understand how this could have been possible. We can’t wrap our minds completely around this truth. But it is truth nevertheless. This truth defines who our God is in Jesus. In other words, we have to know what God it is in whom we believe.
Many people say they believe in God. But the question is, what God do they believe in? The Jews and Muslims say they believe in God. The Jews of Jesus’ day said they believed in God. But what God did they believe in? As I said before, they rejected Jesus, who was God. So, what God did they believe in?
They didn’t believe in the same God as we do. They didn’t believe in the true God. They didn’t believe in Jesus. They regarded Him as an ordinary person. He wasn’t true God and true man to them. So, they didn’t believe in the true God, even though they said they believed in God.
We have to be careful here. I think often times when a person says he believes in God, we automatically assume that this person is on the same page as we are. We think he believes the same things about God as we do. But this isn’t necessarily the case. This is why it is important to know who our God is.
Trinity Sunday is a celebration of our God. On this day we make it a point to clarify who our God is. We confess that our God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Anyone who doesn’t confess this doesn’t believe in the true God. A person may say he believes in God, but if he doesn’t confess Him as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he doesn’t believe in the true God. God has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We must believe this about Him. Anyone who rejects any person of the Godhead rejects God.
John, Jesus’ disciple, so much as says this. In his second letter, verse 9, he writes, “Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.” If a person rejects Jesus but says he believes in God—that person, according to John, doesn’t believe in the true God.
This is why I make a point about Jesus and who He is. He is God. We must believe in Him to be believing in the true God.
So again, just because a person says he believes in God doesn’t mean he believes in the true God.
The notion that most religions believe in God but take a different path isn’t true. Not all religions believe in the true God. I can’t emphasize this enough.
So, what do I hope we will get from this message—the understanding that Jesus was both God and man who came to save us from our sins and that we must believe in Him as the true God. Anyone who doesn’t believe in Jesus doesn’t believe in the true God. This is what the Bible teaches us.
We are truly blessed in that God has revealed Himself to us. The true God came into our lives to save us. I pray that we will always give Him thanks for revealing the truth about Himself to us.
I also pray that God would inspire us to share the truth about the true God with those who don’t know Him.