Proclaimer Blog
Preaching and the Trinity – notes from the conference
Here are my rather garbled notes from Carl Trueman's session last night. An excellent apologtic for faithful preaching. Just a week and you can have audio/video as well!
- Words are the standard mode of God's presence. God is a God who speaks, this is foundational. God is often characterised by speech. Gen 1 and John 1 both reinforce this truth. The first divine action in the Bible is God speaking. God then maintains relationship with his creatures through speech (Gen 1.28 for example and on into Gen 2). Relationships with the living God are linguistic. God's speech makes him present in an obvious intentional way. The absence of God is described as a famine of words (Amos 8). Idols in the Old Testament are always marked by silence (Psalm 115). However, we also need to say that:
- The Spirit is the means by which God's presence comes in the created realm. This, of course, creates an immediate close link between Word and Spirit. This is clear throughout the Old Testament, and the Spirit does in the New Testament what he does in the Old. He is the agent of God's presence and activity. There are clear parallels between God's Word and his Spirit. Q89 of Westminster Shorter Catechism: How is the Word made effectual to salvation? A. The Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching, of the Word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation. If you want a proof text then read Deuteronomy! So often the language used of the Word is indistinguishable from the language of the Spirit – e.g. 'living and active.'
Why does the doctrine of the Trinity give us confidence in preaching?
Where do you find a gracious God? Answer: in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The obvious follow up question is Where do you find the Lord Jesus Christ. Luther said, it is in the preached word of God. The word combined with the Spirit is the means of God's presence. So, we can have confidence that if we preach the word, Christ will be present by his Spirit. This view avoids the kind of mysticism where the Spirit and the Word are separated. 'I didn't feel my preaching went well.' That is neither here nor there. If we faithfully preached Christ, then the Spirit is there. The word of God written and spoken has an objectivity which is not determined by the morality or status of the preacher.
It also pushes us towards a Christ centred approach of Biblical interpretation. The Spirit's task is to point to Christ. Preaching that is Christ centred in its content will be Spirit filled in its delivery whether you feel it or not. Indifference to the word is no sign of absence of the Spirit – read Jeremiah! This truth also gives us humility. If our preaching is met with blessing it is nothing to do with us! This truth also gives us excitement. Our triune God has always existed in this dynamic relationship. Our preaching is the preaching of a dynamic God who does dynamic things. Preaching should be exciting! Things happen when preaching takes place.