It is interesting how often the number three pops up in our modern culture; in baseball it's three strikes and you're out, in law it's three strikes and you're in (prison), in nursery rhymes it's three blind mice. In some tests, such as students take for college entrance, you get three tries to pass. I remember when I was studying for the FCC Amateur Radio License exam I had to study the manual to learn the technical aspects of radio construction and operation, but the hardest part of all was the test on the Morse Code. In order to pass you had to send and receive eleven words per minute. Now that sounds pretty simple, but I assure you it is not; it's like learning a new language. Those dots and dashes, or dits and dahs, come very fast. You are allowed three trials to pass, and if you fail, you must wait until the next time the test is scheduled. This may involve a wait of several months and sometimes a year. Many give up and never pass. There is something about the number three that denotes completeness or finality. The Bible uses the number three numerous times: Jonah was three days in the belly of the fish as was Jesus in the tomb, Elijah declared a three year drought, three angels announced to Abraham and Sarah the birth of a son, three angels were sent to destroy Sodom, Saul had three sons, Job had three daughters, there are three members of the God-head, Moses was hidden three months, Isaiah went naked and barefoot for three years, and there are many more examples of the use of three.
Probably the most well known reference to three is in 1 Cor. 13:13 which is in the love chapter of the New Testament. Here Paul extolls the virtue and transcendency of love. Even the understanding of prophecy and all secrets and all knowledge, or the giving of all one possesses, or being burned alive is nothing without love for others; we don't know everything nor understand everything, but someday we will, and then we will recognize that love is the basis of life. "For now there are faith, hope, and love. But the greatest is love" (1 Cor. 13:13). I believe that it is no coincidence that the three stages in the plan of salvation closely correspond to these three qualities. We must appropriate justification by faith, we must obtain sanctification through the blessed hope, and we must achieve glorification through the power of love. Could we then paraphrase 1 Cor. 13:13 by substituting justification for faith, sanctification for hope, and glorification for love so that it would read, thus abideth justification, sanctification, and glorification, but the greatest of these is glorification? Certainly, to see Jesus face to face, to walk the streets of gold, to see sights and smell smells and taste flavors that we can't even imagine will surpass anything we know today. That experience can be classified as "the greatest."
