1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts, be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word, on this Holy Trinity Sunday, is taken from Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31, it’s entitled, “Jesus, the Wisdom of God,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Why is it that we tend to start putting things together without looking at the instructions? Of course, when we get stuck, then we might take a look. On this Father’s Day weekend, Dad’s you know I’m talking to you, I’m guilty of not looking at the instructions also. If we get stuck putting things together, we may not even look at them then. God’s Word is more than “instructions for life,” it is the Word of the Creator, and he delights to have us enjoy life the way he created it (Prov 8:31). Instead, we have often it gone alone and ignored the wisdom God not only put right there in the box when he packaged all this but also gave us in writing. And yes, we get stuck. People are stuck in their sins but don’t even know it.
3. God’s Word for life is first a Word for his gift of life: forgiveness for the sinful way of life and a whole new life in Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. This is his true wisdom. God’s Word for life is also a Word for his way of life, his way of living. This, too, is his true wisdom, and we are wise to follow it. Of course, we will fail and falter and fall, which brings us back to his gift of life: God’s grace and forgiveness in Christ, the eternal Wisdom of God!
4. Our world seeks wisdom, from “handyman hacks” to the countless offerings of self-help books, from the practical to the deeply philosophical. The gradual decline of civic righteousness, built into creation by the Creator who made it all to be “very good” (Gen 1:31), has only widened the search for something true, noble, good, but practical for everyday living. As Christians, we know where true wisdom is found, and our Old Testament Reading for this Holy Trinity Sunday helps us discover it again. A remarkable metaphor from the book of Proverbs reminds us that, in the Trinity we encounter God’s true way of wisdom. Jesus, the wisdom of God
5. God’s wisdom is true wisdom. This is the message of the book of Proverbs and of the whole of God’s Word (Proverbs 9:10). Proverbs often illustrates this by personifying Wisdom as a virtuous woman (Proverbs 9:1–5). It should seem obvious to listen to the Creator, who put the whole operation together to work smoothly. But fallen and sinful wisdom is clever and devious. Proverbs pictures it as a deceptive woman, attracting wondering then wandering eyes, hands, and ways (Proverbs 9:13–18). Still, God holds out for those who listen to his true wisdom. He wants to rejoice in humanity as the ultimate delight of his creation (Psalm 8).
6. True wisdom begins with understanding God. For many, this begins with the marvels of creation that “natural causes” are hard pressed to explain. God’s work is marvelous! Our text from Proverbs 8:24–31 says, “24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. 25 Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth, 26 before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. 27 When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, 28 when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, 29 when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30 then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, 31 rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.” These verses from Proverbs 8 beautifully describe Jesus, as wisdom's eternal presence with God, especially during creation, showing God's delight in both His creation and in humanity. Many have also seen a foreshadowing of Christ here—eternally with the Father, sharing in His work and love for mankind. For the full story, we have come to know God as the triune God, three persons that are both simple and yet too complex to comprehend and explain.
7. One perspective on the Trinity is the relationship of the three persons. A famous ancient controversy dating back to the fourth century hinged on verse Proverbs 8:22 of our text, which says, “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.” In this verse wisdom is personified and speaks of being with the Lord from the very beginning—before creation itself. It highlights God's eternal wisdom as foundational to all that He made. Christians often see in this passage a reflection of Christ, the eternal Word, who was with God in the beginning as the Gospel of John 1:1–3 testifies.
8. Jesus, God’s Son says, “Before Abraham was, I am” (Jn 8:58). This month marks 1,700 years since the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, a pivotal moment in Church history. Convened by Emperor Constantine to resolve a theological dispute, the Council addressed a critical question: Who is Jesus? The debate centered on the teachings of Arius, who claimed Jesus was a created being and not equal to God the Father, versus Alexander of Alexandria, who upheld Christ’s eternal divinity and equality with the Father.
9. The Council affirmed the biblical and apostolic teaching that Jesus is “begotten, not made, of one substance (homoousios) with the Father”, rejecting Arianism as heresy. This teaching was preserved in the Nicene Creed, which remains a cornerstone of orthodox Christian belief. At the Council it was argued that the divinity of Christ was of central importance to the Christian idea of salvation. If what Arius was maintaining was true, Christ could not save anyone, since no mere “creature” can save another creature. Only God can save and even Arius seemed to agree that, according to the New Testament, salvation was meant to come through Jesus.
10. According to Luther’s Small Catechism, Jesus became true man in order to take our place under the Law (Gal. 4:4-5) and suffer and die for our sins. By His holy, precious blood and innocent suffering and death, Jesus paid the price for our redemption. Through His human nature, Jesus could physically bear the punishment for sins that we deserved, acting as our substitute. Jesus’ resurrection in the flesh assures us of our own resurrection and victory over death. Martin Luther emphasized that Christ had to be both true God and true man to be our Savior: True man so He could suffer and die for us, and True God so His death would have infinite value to redeem the whole world from sin, death, and power of the devil. It’s a beautiful and comforting teaching: our Lord Jesus didn’t save us from afar—He became one of us to redeem us with His own life.
11. Despite this, Arian ideas persist today in groups like Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and even among some evangelicals, highlighting a continued need for sound theological education. In fact, Arianism remains alive and well among evangelicals. In 2022, a survey conducted by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research found that 73% of evangelicals agreed with the statement, “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.” This widespread ignorance of Church history and the Creeds among many Christians, and the lack of interest in theological seriousness and formation among many churches, has consequences. The Council of Nicaea not only clarified the deity of Christ but laid the foundation for later doctrines about the Trinity and Christ’s two natures as we see in the Athanasian Creed we confessed today, which the Church comprised years later by the 6th century. The Athanasian Creed was not written by Athanasius of Alexandria (who lived in the 4th century), but it reflects his strong defense of Trinitarian doctrine against heresies like Arianism.
12. Another perspective on the Trinity is the work of these three persons, inseparable yet described as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Our teaching on the Trinity is grounded in a proper understanding of Scripture, as the debates over Proverbs 8:22 attest. Jesus the Son (Second Person) is distinct from the Father yet has existed from before the creation. The Son, as God’s true Wisdom, was present at creation, and even joined in the craftsmanship (Proverbs 8:30). The Son was both the delight of the Father and joined the Father in delighting in creation, especially the creation of humanity.
13. Our teaching on the Trinity is grounded in a correct understanding of the “way” of God (Proverbs 8:22). This begins with the “way” of creation, visible to all. But fallen creation will continue to falter, to follow fallen wisdom, the temptress. So, the Creator came to establish a new creation, through the death of the old and a resurrection to new life. This is the primary work of God’s Son, the Redeemer, by whose resurrection God made him Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:36).
14. God’s “Wisdom for the way” is—Wisdom that leads us into the way of life. Wisdom that guides us on the way of life. We have this because the Sanctifier, the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, has come to teach us all things. Last week’s Pentecost Gospel, Jn 14:26, Jesus says, “"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.". And the Spirit’s “all things” is Christ. Jesus says in John 15:26, "But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me." Therefore, we are, by grace—Those who know and can live by God’s true wisdom in Christ. God’s delight in Christ!
15. Holy Trinity is the one feast of the church year that is explicitly about a doctrine. Now, knowing the doctrine taught in Holy Scripture is a kind of wisdom—and not knowing correct doctrine would be catastrophic for the church, as the Arian controversy showed. But knowing the doctrine of the Trinity as Scripture teaches it is more than a wisdom of “knowing the right stuff.” It is very practical—the way we know how all things truly operate best, how the one God set up everything to work for the good of his creatures. Above all, that is to say, the doctrine of the Trinity is about being wise unto salvation—the way of eternal life as God has worked it for us in the saving work of his Wisdom, the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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