The Pilgrim Path---Matthew 28: 19 / Genesis 1: 26a

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

“FATHER—SON—HOLY SPIRIT”

The Trinity is a mystery. Augustine said, “try to explain it---lose your mind, deny it---lose your soul.” We accept it by faith---for the Holy Scripture reveals it, and the Spirit enables us to be caught up in its precious reality. An early preacher named Arius (250—336) denied the full divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. He said that Jesus was really of a “different” substance from the Father. The disciples of Arius liked to say of Jesus, “There was when he was not”---so Jesus had to have had a beginning. The solid Followers of Scripture (Council of Nicea 325) had a nifty response: “There was not when he was not.” Jesus is eternal God.

Powerfully---this God-Man---came to rescue His own from eternal destruction. Not only from sexual perversion---but from envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, slander (Romans 1: 29 ff)---Because ONLY a God-Man would do! He left glory---to come into the gory moral rebellion of this world. He saves---Thanks be to God! The Son---proceeds from the Father, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son---accomplishing wonders of Gospel Recreation. How blessed we are to be able to help advance the message!

From St. Gregory the Theologian (330—390):

Once He wasn’t a man, but only God the Son, existing before all the ages, and He wasn’t connected with a body or indeed anything physical; but now in these last times He has become man too, taking our humanity upon Himself for our salvation. Thus---

He suffers in the flesh, but He is unable to suffer in His divinity;

He is limited in the body, but He is unlimited in the Spirit;

He is on the earth, and at the same time in heaven;

He belongs to the visible world, and also to the eternal order of being;

He can be understood, yet He is beyond understanding.

Christ blended together these elements in His person so that the whole of our human nature, which has fallen into sin, might be remade afresh by One who was wholly human and at the same time GOD.

From John Duncan: A very usual way for God to bring down the lofty, whether in church or state, is to allow them to dig a pit, and then to fall therein.

Meanwhile on the other side of the world:

---Ukraine’s armed forces reported, “Volunteers for their military from the USA, Great Britain, Sweden, Lithuania, Mexico, and even India (over 40 nations)---The first groups are already in the battlefield.”

---Ukrainian MP Kira Rudik: “We say, when Putin decided to invade, he only calculated Ukrainian men. So he miscalculated because women are fighting as well---I am happy and proud that I can bear arms with my fellows. This is how we will win.”

---The UN has determined that 2 million Ukrainians have fled their country because of Putin’s war…

---The World Health Organization said on Tuesday (3—8—22) that Russian attacks on hospitals, ambulances and other health care facilities have increased rapidly in recent days…

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7: 12

Grace and Peace in Jesus, the Only Redeemer of broken and wretched souls, Pastor Jason