Being Born-Again In The Fullness Of The Trinity

Speaker: Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines

May 27, 2024

in Spritual Growth

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May 26, 2024

Readings- Exodus 3:1-6
Romans 8:12-17
John 3:1-6

Trinity Sunday

Today is designated as Trinity Sunday. Regarding of where we are or what we are doing, the fullness of God is with us. Sometimes we are guilty of looking at just one individual, but there is unity in the Godhead. They are One. They are not three entities. In creation, the tree of knowledge of good and evil was not to be touched. Everything else was allowed to be used and enjoyed by man except from that tree. That if one was to partake from the tree he would die a spiritual death. Today, we have people who are like dead men walking. Existing but not having real life. People who are spiritually dead.

In the Gospel today, Nicodemus, a Pharisee approaches Christ and asks Him a question. Christ answered, “Unless a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Nicodemus, being human like us, said: “but how can I enter my mother’s womb and be born a 2nd time?” He was thinking with his natural, human mind when Jesus was talking to him in the spiritual sense. Man needed the new birth because sin in the garden had resulted in his spiritual death. To be born again means to be a new creation, having a new beginning and a new life coming from heaven. No longer the old one but a new life coming from God. Romans 6:4 “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Galatians 6:15 “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”

We are to be born again with water and the Spirit. When a child is inside the mother’s womb, he is surrounded or “submerged” in water, but when he is born, he now has a life not dependent on water. Water is very symbolic. In Baptism, we are immersed in flowing water and being cleansed. In 2nd Kings where it talks about the story of Naaman- “Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, sought out the prophet Elisha to be healed of his leprosy. Elisha told him to wash himself in the Jordan River 7 times and he would be healed. He did as Elisha instructed and was healed.” On the Cross, Jesus bore stripes for our healing.

When we talk about the Trinity, we are referring to the fullness of God who fills us all in all. Ezekiel 36:26 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

1 Corinthians 6:19 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.” Being born again means we are a new creation. But many times we still think we are our old selves. God has put in us a desire to want to change. There is something in our spirit is seeking for change. The enemy tries to twist the minds of many people who are confused with their own identities. People who are into transgender transformation, thinking that this will make them become new beings. Matthew 18:3 “And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

In the Lord’s Prayer, we should understand what we are praying when we pray for His Kingdom to come. God wants us to have the Kingdom life now and experience it. Sonship is a privilege and honor that had been given to us. John 14:21 “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

The Father’s desire, the Son’s work, and the power of the Holy Spirit belong to us if only we understand this truth. We are complete in Him. So, as we look at the Trinity, we look not only to the Father, but also to the Son and the Holy Spirit. May our hope be in God.

Trinity Sunday