A Trinitarian Savior

Let me give you one more insight into how we know that God values saving his people. In Matthew 1, Joseph is commanded to name his son Jesus. Have you thought about this? What does Jesus mean? D.A. Carson notes that this is the Greek form of Joshua, which means, "Yahweh is salvation" or "YHWH saves."

YHWH saves. Can God make it any clearer that he intends to save us?

When God decided on his name, he emphasized that his identity is to save us.

And how are we saved?

The Triune God has always intended to save his people through the death of the Son on the Cross.

The entire history of his saving work among his people has been to invite them to place their faith in God and thereby experience deliverance, forgiveness, and a relationship with their Creator.

Sometimes there is a sense, though, that salvation is only the work of Jesus. He does all the hard work on the cross while the Father and the Spirit watch from a distance.

Or perhaps even worse, as Matt Jensen, a professor at Biola, explains it, "If we read the crucifixion as a bit of good cop/bad cop and ascribe those roles to the Son and the Father respectively, we drastically confuse the issue."

By contrast, as the theologian Michael Reeves writes:

"When the triune God gives us his Word, he gives us his very self, for the Son is the Word of God, the perfect revelation of his Father. The Word was with God and the Word was God…This God does not give us some thing that is other than himself, or merely tell us about himself; he actually gives us himself…In Jesus we see that God is Father, Son and Spirit, for he is beloved by the Father and anointed with the Spirit. In Jesus we see a God so generous and kind that he gives himself to us and comes to be with us."

As Christians, we believe that our salvation is thoroughly Trinitarian, the work of one God, the united and singular work of the Father, Son, and Spirit.

Let this reassure your heart: there is no person or part of God that did not intend to save you. Our Triune God was unified and wholehearted in his commitment to save us.