D. Scott Meadows

https://banneroftruth.org/us/devotional/the-trinity/

Analysis of the prayer of this title in The Valley of Vision,¹ pp. 2, 3

OUTLINE

Opening address (three Persons, one Being, My Savior)

Opening praise (distinct adoration to three Persons for bringing sinners into the kingdom of God)

I. You Have Loved Me, Triune God

• Father, in love You sent Jesus to save me
• Jesus, in love You became man, atoned for my sins, provided righteousness for me
• Holy Spirit, in love You indwell, quicken, illumine me

Praise for God’s love (qualities: gracious, indescribable, astonishing, powerful)

II. You Have Saved Me, Triune God
• Father, You have given me to Jesus
• Jesus, You have taken me to Yourself
• Holy Spirit, You have united me to Jesus

III. You Hear My Prayers, Triune God
• Father, enthroned, You hear me
• Jesus, You reach for my petitions
• Holy Spirit, You assist me in prayer

Closing petition (Your command is my request: to live as Your kingdom citizen)

BIBLICAL SUPPORT

Opening address (biblical support for Trinitarianism is abundant; Deut 6.4; Isa 44.6; 1 Cor 8.4; 1 Tim 2.5; cf. Matt 3.16, 17; 1 Cor 12.4-6; Num 6.24-27 with 2 Cor 13.14; Eph 2.18; 1 John 5.7). Athanasian Creed (4th cent.): “Whoever wants to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic [shared by all true Christians] faith. Now this is the catholic faith, that we worship one God in three persons and three persons in one God without confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being. For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Holy Spirit is still another; but there is one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all equal in glory and eternal in majesty.” This language is “second order reflection” on all that Scripture says on this topic, attempting to express it coherently using different words to say the same thing in substance. Without Trinitarian theology, we cannot account for a great deal of what the Bible says about God.

Opening praise. Matt 6.14; Rom 9.5; Heb 9.14; Rev 15.4; Jn 17.3; Col 1.13.

I. You Love Me, Triune God
• Father. 1 Jn 4.10, 14.
• Jesus. Heb 2.16, 17; Matt 3.15; Rom 3.12 ESV.
• Holy Spirit. Rom 15.30; Acts 5.3, 4; 1 John 4.8; Jn 14.17; Rom 8.9; Gal 4.6; Jn 16.13, 14.

Praise for God’s love. 1 Jn 3.1; 4.10.

II. You Have Saved Me, Triune God
• Father. Jn 6.37, 39; 10.27–29; 17.2, 6, 9, 11.
• Jesus. 2 Cor 11.2; Eph 5.25–27.
• Holy Spirit. Acts 15.8, 9; Ezek 36.26; 1 Cor 12.13.

III. You Hear My Prayers, Triune God
• Father. Psa 65.2; Rev 3.21.
• Jesus. Jn 14.13, 14.
• Holy Spirit. Rom 8.26; Eph 6.18; Luke 18.1. Note: Rom 8.26 is probably best understood as the Spirit helping us to pray, not as the Spirit interceding separately from us as Christ does. Prayer is what human beings do; Christ prays as the God-man. He is the one Mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2.5).

The Holy Spirit is not our advocate with God. This belongs alone unto Jesus Christ, and is a part of his office. He is said, indeed, to “make intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered,” Rom. 8:26; but this he doth not immediately, or in his own person. He no otherwise “maketh intercession for us” but by enabling us to make intercession according unto the mind of God; for to make intercession formally is utterly in consistent with the divine nature and his person, who hath no other nature but that which is divine. He is, therefore, incapable of being our advocate with God; the Lord Christ is so alone, and that on the account of his precedent propitiation made for us (The Works of John Owen, IV.362).

Closing petition (Gen 1.3; Psa 33.6, 9; Psa 10.17; Ezek 36.37; Phil 4.6; Matt 6.10).

CLOSING THOUGHT

This is a beautiful, scriptural prayer worthy of our prolonged meditation for enriching our own prayers to the Lord. Ω

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1. Bennett, Arthur. The Valley of Vision: a Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions. 2002 edition. Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1975.

From The Valley of Vision.

Available at Trinity Book Service.