The Triune God — The God of all Grace

“Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.”                                                                                                                                      (Jude 1:1)

The opening verse of Jude’s epistle is full of instruction, setting before us in the simplest of terms some of the most profound and soul-cheering truths of Holy Scripture. Here Jude sets before us the most fundamental and essential revelation of Holy Scripture, the doctrine of the trinity. — “There are Three that bear record in heaven; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are One (1 John 5:7).

Equally Gracious

Jude tells us that all God’s elect are a people “sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.” All three Persons in the Godhead are equally gracious. All three are involved in the work of saving our souls. In fact, whenever the three Persons of the Holy Trinity are presented together in the Scriptures, it is always in connection with redemption, grace, and salvation. The only exception I have found to that is in the Genesis account of creation (Gen. 1:1-3). But, even there, the creation itself is a picture of God’s salvation. Whenever one Person in the Trinity is presented alone, the result is judgment.

            Sometimes God the Father is presented alone, as when he stood upon Mt. Sinai, clothed with thunder and lightening, delivering the law to Moses. So terrible was his presence that the very mountain shook in the prospect of God’s awesome judgment (Ex. 20:18).

            Sometimes God the Son appears alone, as when he appears in his glorious second advent. Then men and women who have despised and rejected him will cry for the mountains to fall upon them and pray in terror that they might be saved from “the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev. 6:14).

            When God the Holy Spirit is represented alone, the consequences are the same. Those who blaspheme him, committing that sin which can never be forgiven, are reserved as reprobates unto everlasting judgment (Matt. 12:31-32).

            Whenever one Person in the Trinity is presented alone, the result is judgment. However, when all three of the divine persons are set before us together, the consequence is always mercy, grace, redemption, and salvation (Eph. 1:3-14; 1 Pet. 1:2; Rev. 1:4-6). If I understand the implications of this fact correctly, it is one more way of assuring us of that which is taught throughout the Scriptures. The whole Being of God, in all his attributes, in all his glory, in the Trinity of his Persons is set for the everlasting salvation of his elect (Jer. 32:41; Rom. 8:28-32).

            This is one of the many great gospel truths Paul shows us in the first chapter of Ephesians. As the three Persons of the eternal Godhead are equal in divinity, but distinct in personality, so all three of the divine persons are equal in grace, but distinct in the operations of grace.

God the Father

God the Father is set before us as the Fountain of all grace (Eph. 1:3-6). It was God the Father who, in the covenant of grace, proposed redemption, devised the plan, and chose the people whom he would save by his almighty grace. He found a way whereby his banished ones could be brought back to him and never expelled from his presence. Then, “in the fulness of time,” he sent his Son to be the Medium or Mediator of grace to his chosen (Gal 4:4-6).

God the Son

God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, is the channel of all grace (Eph. 1:7-12). All grace comes to sinners through Christ the Mediator. In Ephesians 1 Paul tells us fourteen times that everything God does for sinners and gives to sinners is in Christ. Apart from Christ there is no grace! God will not deal with man, but by Christ. Man cannot deal with God, but by Christ. Christ is the Revelation of God, the incarnation of God, and the only way to God.

            All grace comes to us through Christ. There is no other way the grace of God can reach a sinner. Let no rejecter of God’s Son imagine that he shall be the beneficiary of God’s grace! It is the work of Christ upon the cross that has brought grace and justice together in the salvation of sinners. It is through his blood, only through the blood of the cross, that “mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Ps. 85:10).

God the Spirit

The Fountain of all grace is God the Father. The medium of all grace is God the Son. And God the Holy Spirit is the Administrator of all grace (Eph. 1:13-14). It is God the Holy Spirit who effectually applies the blood of Christ to chosen, redeemed sinners. He regenerates the dead by omnipotent power. He calls the redeemed with irresistible grace. He gives faith to the chosen by almighty operations of grace. He seals God’s elect unto everlasting glory.

            In Hebrews 9:12-14 the Apostle describes our twofold redemption: accomplished and applied. Without the sovereign, gracious operations of God the Holy Spirit in conversion, no sinner would ever become the beneficiary of grace. He takes the things of Christ and shows them to his people. He quickens those the Father chose, reclaims those the Son redeemed, and leads to the Good Shepherd everyone of those lost sheep for whom the Good Shepherd laid down his life (John 10:11). “He conquers the stoutest hearts and cleanses the foulest spiritual leper. He opens the sin-blinded eyes and unstops the sin-closed ears. The blessed Holy Spirit reveals the grace of the Father and applies the grace of the Son.” (C. D. Cole)

            All who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied” (1 Peter 1:2). All three Persons in the Godhead are equally gracious; and all three must be equally praised.

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Praise Him all creatures here below!

Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts! Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!”