When Christians Split God in Two

Text: John 3:1-17

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today is Trinity Sunday. Yes, it is the day we dust off the Athanasian Creed and confess it. And let’s be honest—we often do so with confused faces and weary voices. When we come across lines like, "Neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance," it may sound like astrophysics to our ears.

But dear Baptized Saints, do not let the length or ancient tone of the Athanasian Creed fool you. The Athanasian Creed is not theological busywork or irrelevant doctrine. It is not some ivory-tower statement meant only for seminarians. No, this creed is about your salvation. It guards and confesses the truth of the Triune God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — for you.

Let me be blunt and very practical right now to show you what I mean! 

If you believe God the Father is the angry one who thundered through the Old Testament, and God the Son (Jesus) is the one who came in the New Testament to smooth things over with love and understanding, you’ve embraced a dangerous heresy. This is not a harmless misunderstanding. Believing that the Father is exclusively angry and full of wrath while the Son is exclusively nice and full of love, splits the Trinity, distorts the Gospel, and undermines salvation. The Athanasian Creed rejects this distortion outright.  And yet, how many people believe this lie in the American Church?  Tragically, way too many.   

We hear it all the time: 

"The Old Testament is full of Law and wrath; the New Testament is full of Gospel and love." 

Dear friends, these well-intentioned Christians who unknowingly repeat this error are severely mistaken.  When they say,  "I don't like reading the Old Testament because it has too many rules and portrays God as too angry… but I love reading the New Testament with Jesus talking about love and acceptance," they have essentially spit in the face of the Athanasian Creed. 

Lord, have mercy. Christ, have Mercy, Lord, have mercy.  

Dear friends, this is not just lazy thinking. It is a theological error that puts disunity in our Triune God where there is none to begin with.  This is a sin because it breaks the 2nd Commandment by distorting the nature and identity of our Triune God.  

Mark this: the Father is not confined to wrath, nor is the Son limited to love.  Again, to say otherwise is to misunderstand both Scripture and the very nature of God and deny the teachings of the Athanasian Creed.

You see, the Athanasian Creed proclaims: the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. And yet there are not three Gods, but one God. And so, because we have One God, the mission of the Trinity is united. The will of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one. Their purpose is indivisible. Our Triune God is not divided, as if the Father is a bad cop and the Son is a good cop.  

* * *

Consider our reading from the Gospel of John for a moment.  John 3:16 is one of the most well-known verses in the world.  It is the verse that is always printed on signs at football games.  

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."

Now, please take a moment and think about what you just heard.  Let me read it again.  

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."

Did you notice what this verse did not say?  It does not say, 

“For God so hated the world that the Son had to step in and calm Him down—‘Chill out, Father. Don’t be so harsh. Let me handle this one.’”

Notice how John 3:16 does not say that the Father was seething with rage while Jesus played the role of the gentle peacemaker. John 3:16 does not say that the Son had to persuade an angry God to dig deep in His emotions to find some love for humanity. As mentioned before, this kind of thinking turns the Trinity into a dysfunctional family — like a stern, angry Father and a compassionate, rebellious Son arguing over what to do with humanity. That is not the God of the Bible. 

No, listen to the actual words of Scripture: 

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son.”

Dear friends, John 3:16 does not indicate that the Father is talked out of His wrath. It just says that the Father has love. According to John 3:16, the Father loves the world—He loves you. And because He loves you, He gives His Son. He sends Jesus not as a last resort, not begrudgingly, but out of love, in unity with the Son and the Spirit. The Son, likewise, doesn’t have to be convinced. He loves the Father, and He loves the world, and He willingly goes. He goes to the cross not in protest of the Father’s will but in full agreement with it. And the Spirit? The Spirit is not a distant third party. He proceeds from the Father and the Son to bring this unified, divine love straight to you—into your ears, your heart, and your baptism.

This is the undivided Trinity at work. One God. One will. One salvation. For you.

So what does this all mean?  Let me try to summarize this plainly.    

Basically, way too many people these days don’t know what to do about judgment, sin, and wrath. And so, they either ignore the verses in the Bible on these subjects, or worse, they apply judgment, sin, and wrath to God the Father and the Old Testament. But as previously stated, this divides the Trinity. It divides our Triune God. It pits the Father against the Son and the Son against the Father. It pits the Old Testament against the New.  Hear this loud and clear: wrath against sinners and love for sinners does not pull our Triune God in opposite directions.  No, the God who loves is the same God who judges. And the God who judges is the same God who saves. 

Baptized Saints, God’s wrath against sin and His love for humanity meet at the cross. The wrath of God against sin isn’t canceled — it’s spent. Spent entirely on Jesus. That’s not a contradiction between Father and Son. That’s unity for your redemption. 

Baptized Saints, Jesus and the Father are one. They are not divided deities. They are not in theological conflict. Our Triune God is perfectly united in mercy and justice – for you. The Old and New Testament are not two separate books but one book – one truth – for you.  

So rejoice! Rejoice that God calls out sin, condemns it, and judges it. But even more, rejoice that the Father gave the Son, the Son gave Himself, and the Spirit gives you faith through the Word and Sacraments. 

Rejoice that you are baptized into the name of this Triune God, and that your salvation is not the result of divine negotiation, but divine unity.

Baptized Saints, this God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is not playing games with your soul. He doesn’t ask you to figure out which person of the Trinity loves you most. He simply gives. The Father gives the Son. The Son gives His life. The Spirit gives you faith. One God, giving, giving, and giving again.

So today, be bold. Be confident. Confess the Athanasian Creed with clarity. Teach your children that God is not divided. Pray, knowing the God who hears your prayers is united in will and purpose. Rest easy, knowing your salvation was not hammered out in a heavenly boardroom but carried out in perfect harmony from eternity.

And the next time someone dismisses the Athanasian Creed as being too doctrinal, or if they scoff at the complexity of the Trinity, don’t retreat. Don’t shrug. Speak the truth in love. Make the sign of the cross and say it boldly:

“I worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.”

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.