The Triune Fountain of All Blessing Text: 2 Corinthians 13:14
Introduction: The Grammar of Our God
We come now to the final verse of Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. After a long and often painful correspondence, full of sharp rebukes, tender appeals, and glorious theological excursions, Paul does not end with a final warning or a last-ditch argument. He ends with a blessing. But this is not just any blessing. It is not a pious platitude or a sentimental sign-off. This is the whole Christian faith distilled into one potent, Trinitarian sentence. This is the deep magic of the kingdom. This is the grammar of our God, and therefore, the grammar of our salvation and our life together.
In our day, the doctrine of the Trinity is often treated as a piece of high, abstract theology, something for the seminarians to fuss over, a mathematical problem to be filed away under "mystery." But for the apostle Paul, and for the early church, the Trinity was not a problem to be solved but a reality to be lived. It was not a theological Rubik's Cube but the very air they breathed. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not abstract philosophical principles; they are the living God, and all of life is to be lived in relation to Him.
This benediction is a profound summary of the gospel. Everything we have as Christians flows to us from the triune Godhead. It is a Trinitarian blessing because ours is a Trinitarian salvation. The Father does not save us in one way, the Son in another, and the Spirit in a third. They are not working at cross-purposes. The Father elects, the Son redeems, and the Spirit applies that redemption, and they do so in perfect, harmonious unity. To receive this blessing is to be swept up into the very life of God Himself.
Paul is writing to a church that has been fractured by division, arrogance, and spiritual immaturity. They have challenged his authority, tolerated gross sin, and been led astray by false teachers. And his final word to them is to point them back to the fountainhead of all grace, love, and fellowship. The solution to their chaos was not a new church growth program; it was a fresh apprehension of their triune God. And the same is true for us. Whatever our struggles, whatever our sins, whatever our needs, the answer is found here, in the threefold blessing of our one God.
The Text
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
(2 Corinthians 13:14 LSB)
The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
The blessing begins with the second person of the Trinity, not because the Son is more important, but because He is our point of entry into the life of God. We have no access to the Father except through the Son.
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ..." (2 Corinthians 13:14a)
Grace, in the first instance, is unmerited favor. It is God's Riches At Christ's Expense. It is the radical, scandalous kindness of God shown to sinners who deserve only wrath. We were rebels, spiritual traitors, dead in our trespasses and sins. We had no claim on God, nothing to offer Him, nothing to commend ourselves to Him. And yet, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That is grace.
This grace is specifically the grace of the "Lord Jesus Christ." Each of these names is packed with meaning. He is Lord (Kurios), the sovereign ruler of the universe, the one to whom every knee will bow. He is Jesus (Yeshua), the man who saves His people from their sins. He is Christ (Christos), the anointed one, the promised Messiah, our prophet, priest, and king. This grace flows from who He is and what He has done. It is the grace of the incarnation, that the eternal Son would take on flesh and dwell among us. It is the grace of His perfect, sinless life, lived in our place. It is the grace of His substitutionary death on the cross, where He absorbed the full fury of God's wrath against our sin. It is the grace of His triumphant resurrection, which declared victory over sin, death, and the devil.
This grace is not a one-time transaction that gets us out of hell. It is an ongoing, empowering reality. It is the divine assistance that enables us to live the Christian life. Paul himself said, "by the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10). We stand in grace, we walk in grace, we serve in grace. When Paul prays for this grace to be "with you all," he is praying that the active, powerful, and unmerited favor of Jesus Christ would be the defining reality of their lives. It is the only thing that could heal the divisions in Corinth, and it is the only thing that can heal ours.
The Love of God
From the grace of the Son, Paul moves to the fountain from which that grace flows: the love of the Father.
"...and the love of God..." (2 Corinthians 13:14b)
The "God" here is best understood as God the Father. The ultimate source of our salvation is the eternal, electing love of the Father. Why did God save us? The final answer is not because we were worthy, or because we made a good decision, but because He loved us. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son" (John 3:16). The cross is not the event that convinced the Father to love us; the cross is the result of the Father's eternal love for us. He gave His Son because He loved us.
This is not a sentimental, squishy love. This is a holy, sovereign, and covenantal love. It is a love that chose a people for itself before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). It is a love that is steadfast and immovable. It is the love of a Father for His children. When we are united to Christ by faith, we are adopted into God's family, and we become the objects of the very same love with which the Father has eternally loved the Son. Jesus prays "that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:26). This is a staggering thought. The Christian is loved by God the Father with the same quality of love that He has for His own eternal Son.
This love is the anchor of our souls. Our circumstances change, our feelings fluctuate, our obedience falters. But the Father's love for us in Christ is constant. Nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:39). To have this love "with you all" is to live in the secure, unshakeable, and eternal affection of the sovereign Father. It is this love that casts out all fear.
The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit
Finally, Paul brings the blessing to its experiential reality in our lives through the third person of the Trinity.
"...and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all." (2 Corinthians 13:14c)
The grace of the Son is secured for us, and the love of the Father is the source of it all, but it is the Holy Spirit who makes it real to us. The word for "fellowship" is koinonia. It means sharing, communion, partnership, mutual participation. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force or a vague influence. He is a person, and He brings us into a living, dynamic relationship with the Father and the Son.
This koinonia works in two directions. First, it is our fellowship with the Spirit Himself. He dwells within us, guides us, comforts us, convicts us, and empowers us. He is God with us and in us. Second, it is the fellowship He creates between believers. We are brought into one body by one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). Our unity is not based on shared interests, or common backgrounds, or political agreement. Our unity is a supernatural reality created by the Holy Spirit. He is the glue that holds the church together. He takes a motley crew of sinners like the Corinthians, or like us, and makes them into a temple of the living God.
The fellowship of the Spirit is the experienced reality of the Christian faith. It is where the rubber of Trinitarian theology meets the road of our daily lives. It is in this fellowship that the love of God is poured into our hearts (Rom. 5:5). It is in this fellowship that we cry out "Abba, Father" (Gal. 4:6). It is in this fellowship that the grace of Christ is made manifest in our relationships with one another. When Paul prays for this fellowship to be "with you all," he is praying that their life together would be characterized by this supernatural, Spirit-produced unity and communion.
Conclusion: The God Who Is For Us
Notice the final phrase: "be with you all." This is not a blessing for a spiritual elite. It is for the whole church at Corinth, the weak and the strong, the mature and the immature. It is for all of us. This Trinitarian blessing is the birthright of every single believer.
This verse is a universe of theology and comfort in a single sentence. It teaches us that our God is a relational God, a God of love and communion within Himself from all eternity. And the gospel is the glorious invitation to be brought into that divine life. We are invited into the grace of the Son, which brings us into the love of the Father, which is made real to us by the fellowship of the Spirit.
This is the shape of the Christian life. We live by grace, in love, through fellowship. This is the answer to our pride, our division, our fears, and our failures. The solution is not to try harder, but to look higher. It is to receive afresh the benediction of our triune God. The Father is for us, the Son is for us, and the Spirit is for us. And if this God is for us, who can be against us?
So let us live in the reality of this blessing. Let us walk in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, rest in the love of God the Father, and cultivate the fellowship of the Holy Spirit with one another. This is the whole duty of man, and it is our highest joy. Amen.