soliDEOgloria!

The Inseparable Relationship of the Trinity
(as applied to prayer)

We see this relationship in creation, incarnation, salvation, sanctification, consummation, and glorification.

God the Father knows what we need before we ask.

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:7-8).

God the Son is a High Priest who can sympathize with our weakness, giving us confidence to draw near the throne of grace.

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16).

God the Spirit knows how to pray even when we do not, interceding for us with groanings too deep for words.

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27).

God’s Work in Incarnation, Salvation, and Sanctification

Incarnation: God the Father (John 1:1-2) -> God the Son (John 1:14; John 3:16) -> God the Spirit (Acts 1:1-4; 2:1-13)

Salvation: God the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2); God the Son (2 Corinthians 4:1-6) -> God the Father (2 Corinthians 5)

Sanctification: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6-7). We will show more examples of this (Trinitarian working in sanctification) through the prayers of New Testament believers as an instructive tool at the end of the message.

Double Intercession

Prayer is a great blessing, but it can be daunting and difficult when you stop to think about what is involved in a finite, sinful creature reaching out to an infinite, Holy God. Not only does God know that prayer is daunting, but it is even a biblical doctrine that we are not in ourselves equipped for:

Read Romans 8:26-34

Romans 8:26 says, “For we do not know what to pray for as we ought.” That same passage goes on to say that “the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the heart knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” And within a few verses, a second intercessor appears: “Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Romans 8:34). Christian prayer has a double intercession into it.

“For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2:18).

This takes the pressure off us to make prayer happen. The Son and Spirit are involved in our prayers. We are invited to enter an eternal conversation in an appropriately lower, creaturely way, but the heavenly analogue of prayer is already going on in the life of God rather than waiting for us to get it started. If you have ever become weary of working up the right response in prayer or worship, you can glimpse the relief of being able to approach prayer and worship with the knowledge that the party already started before you arrived.

In every surrender of the soul to sanctification of the Spirit, to His leading as the Spirit of Holiness, look to the Father who grants His mighty working, and who sanctifies through faith in the Son, and expect the Spirit’s power to manifest itself in showing the will of God, and Jesus as your Sanctification.

Who do I pray to? The Father? The Son? The Spirit? God? The Trinity? All of the above?

Here is the theologically correct answer: pray to the Father (destination; treasure), in the name of the Son (bridge; mediation), in total reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit (vehicle).

You cannot single prayer of Christ addressed to “God,” not one; nor can you find a single prayer of Christ’s in which He so much as mentions “God” (Robert Speer in his Fundamentals Essay).

C.S. Lewis

“An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get into touch with God. But if he is a Christian he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God: God, so to speak, inside him. But he also knows that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the man who was God – that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him. You see what is happening? God is the thing to which he is praying – the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on – the motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. So the whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers. The man is being caught up into the higher kind of life; he is being pulled into God, by God, while still remaining himself. He is being taken up into the life of the Trinity.”

Much of what Henry Scougal (The Life of God in the Soul of Man), Jonathan Edwards, C.S. Lewis and John Piper are saying is that the Trinity is inviting us into “the joy of the Lord” (Matthew 25).

Sushi illustration; beach illustration

New Testament Examples: