Part II, summarizing Michael Reeves clips on the Trinity includes messages 4 through 6:

“Trinity Shapes Our Prayer Life”
“Trinity and Our Evangelism”
“Trinity and Christian Assurance”

#4 Trinity Shapes Our Prayer Life

n. Abba.  Aramaic.  “Daddy,” “dear Father,” “papa”; a term of endearment… a more intimate expression than the normal Hebrew word for “father” (av).

Normal Christian prayer is a rich fellowship with all three persons of the Trinity together.  Jesus says to his friends, when you pray, pray like this, “Our Father” (Matthew 6:9).  He means we get to approach the Father as his dearly loved children, just as the Son himself does. The Son brings me before his father and the Spirit of the Son enables me to cry what the Son himself has always cried, “Abba, Father.”  That’s what’s going on in Christian prayer.

The Spirit is the wind in the sails of my Christian prayer making me say what the Son has always said—and saying it with the Son’s own confidence. I’m brought into the rich fellowship of Trinity; there, not to address some distant potentate, but to address the Almighty as my Abba.

#5 Trinity and Our Evangelism

Who God is makes all the difference to the gospel we proclaim.

Let’s just imagine that God is essentially just about ruling.  For an eternity he’s not been about relationship.  He’s just been about power and that’s it.

What would the gospel be?  He’s the ruler; we’ve broken the rules, but maybe he’ll forgive us somehow.  The good news is I get to be brought back under his rule?  But if that’s the gospel, all the relationship I get to have with him is, I get to live under the ruler as an accepted citizen.

But with this God, it’s very different.  This God does not want us merely to be an accepted citizen, He wants to embrace me with the love he has for his Son.

Jesus says something extraordinary in John 17:23 about those who will believe on him through the Word (v. 20) “Father, you have loved them, even as you’ve loved me.”  That’s the gospel we can bring to the world!

#6 Trinity and Christian Assurance

If God were different, I’m not sure we could have any assurance before him at all.  If God is simply the heavenly master, what confidence could we have before him?  If we’re simply his slaves, why wouldn’t he cast us off if I ever offend him?

But this God is very different.  With this God, the Spirit unites us to his Son.  Paul says, again and again, that Christians are those who are “in Christ”; and therefore, we are Sons of God the Father.

The Father could never ever weaken or cool in his love for his Son, let alone ever send his son away.  If we’re in the Son, he’ll never send us away.  Embraced by the eternal love of the Father, Christians are most safe in the Son.

AND… we’re the Father’s gift to the Son.  He won’t let us away.  Likewise, the Son makes us his gift, returning our keeping to the Father and he promises he’ll never let any be snatched out of his hand.

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For more on the Trinity from Michael Reeves you can listen to his 22 min. podcast called “Delighting in the Trinity.”

Michael Reeves (@mike_reeves) is an author and the theological adviser for the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF) in the United Kingdom. He oversees Theology Network, a theological resources website, and was formerly an associate minister at AllSoulsChurch, Langham Place.