God’s plan of redemption is both Christ-centered and Trinitarian. It focuses on Christ because He is not only a key player, but also the One Member of the Trinity who is most visible to us as human beings. John sums up the miracle of Christ’s coming to earth in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John also tells us, “No one has ever seen God; the only God [Jesus Christ], who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18). So, “the man Christ Jesus” is not only our only “mediator between God and men,” (1 Timothy 2:5), but He is our only source of clear knowledge about the person and character of God. Jesus even goes so far as to tell us that He is the key to our ability to know God the Father in Matthew 11:27, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
At the same time, God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and all three members of the Trinity have a crucial role to play in God’s plan of redemption. We can even go so far as to say that God’s plan of redemption is dependent upon the unique roles of each of these three Persons of the Godhead. The Trinity makes Christianity very different from narrowly monotheistic religions like Islam or even Unitarian [that is, non-Trinitarian] versions of Christianity. The existence of multiple Persons within the Godhead allows God to be both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus,” as Paul phrases it in Romans 3:26. In other words, these three Persons allow God to be both a just and honest Judge condemning sin for how it is an offense against Him, while at the same time allowing Him also to be a “Justifier” who can forgive sin and grant the gift of righteousness to His people through Christ’s sacrificial life and death. Narrowly monotheistic religions have no clear way to grant forgiveness in any meaningful way. This is why biblical Christianity is unique.
Jesus tells us that God’s plan of redemption begins with God the Father. We see this truth in Jesus’ High Priestly prayer to the Father in John 17:1-2, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him” (italics added). In other words, those who receive eternal life have ultimately been given this gift by God the Father. We see the same truth a few verses later in Jesus’ words in John 17:6, “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word” (italics added). Believers are always God the Father’s love gift to His Son. We see this same thing in Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, when he writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he [the Father] chose us in him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (italics added). Our redemption begins with the work of the Father in choosing those who would be His people and drawing them to Jesus Christ (John 6:44).
At the same time, it is God the Son’s work that in a sense actually accomplishes our redemption. There is an intimate connection or relationship between Jesus and His people. For example, He tells us we are His sheep: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me” (John 10:14). He also tells us in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Do you see what Jesus is doing? Jesus is claiming He has supernatural insight and spiritual discernment into knowing who are His sheep and who are not. Jesus tells us even more in John 10:11, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jesus didn’t die for those who would reject Him. He died for His sheep, including “”those who will believe in me through their word” (John 17:20).
It is Jesus’ incarnation, including His obedient and holy life, His atoning sacrificial death on the cross of Calvary, His resurrection from the dead, His ascension to the Heavenly Throne where He continues to intercede for His people that provides the divine mechanism making our salvation possible. Our sins are placed on Christ who bears God’s wrath on our behalf, and His righteousness is placed on us so that we can enter into a new and restored relationship with God. All the blessings we can ever experience from God are directly related to everything Christ has done on our behalf. In one sense, He is the logical focus of our salvation—and thus of our praise and worship.
But there is also the work of the Holy Spirit as the One who connects us up with the blessings secured by Christ. Many of us are familiar with Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus in John 3. Key lessons here include our need to be born again, if we are to ever come into a right relationship with God (see especially verses 3 and 7). But we also need to see the crucial role of the Holy Spirit in our being born again. Jesus explains the new birth this way in verses 5-8:
“Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
The final phrase sums up the Spirit’s role in our redemption: we are “born of the Spirit.” Without the Spirit’s work of connecting us up with the blessings of Christ, our salvation would remain incomplete and unrealized. The Spirit’s work is as essential as the work of the Father and the work of the Son.
We are also participants in the working out of God’s perfect plan of redemption. We too have a role in this process. The gospel message is summed up this way, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). God calls us—even commands us—to “repent and believe in the gospel.” This is why the Reformers traditionally described salvation as being “by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.” God’s plan of salvation always involves faith or belief in God’s plan of redemption. There is no other way we can ever experience salvation apart from a human response of faith in Christ.
What is so amazing about God’s plan of redemption is that those whom the Father has chosen and given to Christ are the same ones whom the Son has laid down His life for, who are the same ones that are born again by the Spirit, who is turn are the exact same ones who respond in faith and repentance to the gospel. God knows that there is no way in the world that any of us as human beings will ever respond to the gospel in faith and obedience apart from the transforming work of His Spirit in our lives. The gospel begins with God and is empowered and made possible by God; yet God in His grace involves us in the process as well. Our minds, wills, and emotions are all transformed by God’s grace and we respond in praise and worship to God for all He has done.
Pause and Reflect
(1) There is a mystery here: God is at work in bringing His people to salvation, but at the same time He involves us as well. Trust and worship are our only proper responses. Have you come to treasure Christ as your Savior and Lord?
(2) What implications does all this have for our sharing Christ with others? Why should we share Christ at all if God is ultimately in control of the process? How can we balance this with God’s command for us to share the gospel with others and for others to respond in faith and repentance? What is a proper biblical answer to this dilemma? (Hint: there is one.)