Sanders: Jesus, Scripture, & Prayer

It has been some time since my last post, so I hope to make up some lost ground. This is the last installment of my reading of Fred Sanders' The Deep Things of God: how the Trinity changes Everything (pictured right). The last three chapters cover three topics: (1) how is our relationship with Jesus trinitarian? (2) Scripture and its relation to the trinity. (3) Our prayer life in relation to the trinity.

Let us begin with the first topic: how is our relationship with Jesus trinitarian? There are some who are cautious how some evangelicals are so focused on Jesus, that it seems they ignore the Father and the Spirit. However, Sanders argues the opposite: if one has a right view of Christ, then it is a natural move for one to include the Father and the Spirit. Too often evangelicals fall prey to holding Christ without a proper integration of the other persons. In essence, our salvation is not simply the work of Christ alone, but the working of the trinity. Sanders properly sums up our salvation as such:

" The Father puts all the blessing of salvation into the incarnate Son, and the Spirit unites us to that." (173)

In the next chapter, Sanders examines how evangelicals view Scripture in light of the Son and the Spirit. He calls on one preacher and expositor named Adolph Saphir (1831-1891). Saphir was concerned with Christians who held to a type of "Bibliolatry" and not to a real relationship with God. Too often do Christians focus on studying the Word, as if that was the chief end. Instead, Saphir urges Christians to study Scripture to draw us past it to God and a deeper relationship with Him. When I first read this, I was concerned that he did not hold to a high view of Scripture. However, Saphir did state that the Word is of the utmost importance and is the means by which God draws people to Himself. Through the rest of the chapter, Sanders pulls from hymn writers of the past, like Charles Wesley and the like, to show their understanding of Scripture and how it is uniquely trinitarian.

Finally in the last chapter, Sanders examines how even the Christian's prayer life is uniquely trinitarian. He comforts the reader by stating there is not a proper formula or paradigm for praying to the Godhead. In fact, the trinity is actively at work in every prayer. When one prays, it comes from the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father. This is a very comforting reality. In fact, the Spirit prays for us even we do not (Rom. 8.26)! Praying correctly has been a struggle for me: I want to pray like Jesus and the apostles in a coherent and godly way. The following quote was comforting to read:

"If you have ever become weary of working up the right response in prayer or worship, you can glimpse the relief of being able to approach prayer and worship with the knowledge that the party started before you arrived." (215)

The persons of the trinity are constantly at work in the prayer life of the believer. What a joy it is to know that the Spirit knows my needs and can make it known to the Father!