Identity theft is a growing concern in society today.
Every day I receive either a warning of a new scam trying to trick me into handing over my private details or I receive an actual attempt to steal my identity.
Maybe you’ve been a victim of someone trying to steal your personal details which has caused thousands of people to lose fortunes.
Our identity is important and we go to great lengths to protect it.
God’s identity is also important – in fact it is sacred.
It is protected by the 2nd commandment – you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
God gave his identity to Moses in order to free Israel from slavery.
He didn’t give him special powers – or special weapons – he revealed his identity – he gave him his name – Yahweh – I AM.
In fact today strict Jews will not mention the name of God – Yahweh – when they read the Scriptures for fear of disrespecting God’s name and replace Yahweh with the lesser form of word for Lord using Adonai.
In today’s society, sadly, there is great disrespect or rather lack of respect for God’s name as we hear the misuse of God’s name and identity in very poor use.
And I’m hoping you’ll forgive me as I use it simply to explain so we can also become aware as it has even become common place in the language of everyday Christians.
When someone hurts themselves they might use it as a curse word – “Jesus Christ”.
Or as a curse word against another person – Christ you’re an idiot.
Jesus Christ it’s hot today.
For Christ’s sake, would you please be quiet.
Or just simply – Oh My God – or even OMG with sometimes a horrible swear word inserted as well.
There seems to be little fear or respect of God and his name and identity that he cherishes and protects.
Just look at the effect that speaking God’s name has with Isaiah and his response:
The angels said: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.
And Isaiah said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
And yet today we use God’s name so carelessly and frivolously as if it means nothing.
And let us remember that the name Jesus that is used so disrespectfully today will be the source of great fear and respect when he returns on the last day:
As St Paul says in Philippians chapter 2:
God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Today we are also facing the added challenge in the Christian Church of protecting the fundamental teaching of God’s identity in “The Trinity”.
That God has revealed his identity to us as One God in Three Persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – the Trinity – Unity in Three.
But in doing so it can cause great distress for those who believe in God but believe in a different path to God.
A path that does not acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the one true and only path for the assurance of eternal life in Heaven.
As a result it has made the Christian church seem like an exclusive club.
That you have to believe in Jesus or you’re out as is often seen when quoting John 14:
No comes to the Father except through me.
But Jesus today reassures us that there is no exclusion through him as he tells Nicodemus:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
One of the challenges to proclaiming the Trinity as an essential teaching for the Christian Church is that there are no Bible passages that use the term Trinity when referring to God as three persons.
But there are clear references to the identity of God that is essential to understanding that this is how God has revealed himself as necessary for eternal life in heaven.
In our Gospel reading we see the first connection to assurance of eternal life in Jesus’ comment to Nicodemus:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
So there is the assurance of eternal life that comes through the Son – sent by his Father.
And Jesus also introduces the necessary work of the Holy Spirit when he says:
“Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.
What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
And most importantly, it is the working of the Trinity that is central to our forgiveness.
After his resurrection as he greeted the frightened disciples gathered behind locked doors he said:
“Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Probably one of the clearest indications of the Trinity at work:
As the Father sent the Son – so the Son sends you – breathing on you the Holy Spirit and the assurance of your own forgiveness and the authority to forgive others.
The Trinity is not just a name we have given to God it is his identity that has been revealed even from the beginning of creation with God the Father creating through his Word and the Spirit giving life to that Creation.
As much as we do everything to protect our identity we should do even more so to protect God’s identity because this is how he has revealed himself to us and given us the assurance of our eternal life in heaven.
And that’s what Paul said too – that through Jesus being the Son of God we have been adopted through him as children of God.
And as children of God we receive eternal life not as a reward for good deeds but as a right of inheritance.
Paul said: When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ-
And so an attack on God’s identity is an attack on our inheritance.
God is not an abstract being but a relational part of our very being whom we call Father.
And just as the Trinity was at work in Jesus’ Baptism when the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus to the words – this is my son whom I love – so too our Father in heaven declares you to be his child whom he loves and has brought into his family by receiving the very Spirit of God in you.
