LIFE IN THE TRINITY

We humans need to know that we are valued.  We want to be assured that we have worth in our own eyes and the eyes of others. More so we need to look God in the face assured that we are truly valued by him. How can we know that God sees us as we are and still wants us?  The answer is Jesus. The Father’s Son was sent into our world as one of us.  He identified fully with us in our human condition becoming nothing for us.  And now, by the Spirit, we live in Jesus and Jesus lives in us. and we find our true worth only in him.  Living in him, we discover, that the one thing that counts before God is being wrapped up in Jesus. 

Within this living union, we don’t simply make deductions about how Jesus might feel towards us. As Jesus lives in us, he wants to communicate to us the same family affection that flows between the Father and his dearly loved Son. Furthermore, by the Spirit, the indwelling Jesus wants to tell us that it is impossible to break this knot of love and turn his heart away from us. Nothing can turn the Father’s heart from Jesus or Jesus’ heart from his Father.  And nothing can turn the heart of both Father and Son away from us.  We know this as we live in them and they live in us by the Spirit. 

We do not try to find our value in what we achieve, in what we acquire, or in how we appear before others.  God calls us into union with Jesus and in him we know personally our true value to God and that’s all that matter

Trinity is One God in three persons and three persons in One God.  For many, this is a big puzzle.  And they soon give up on the puzzle thinking that Trinity is beyond them and not much use to them in real life.  So they soon depart from it and consider something more useful instead.  

However, looking at Jesus, in the gospel story, we see Trinity differently.  For by the Spirit, Jesus opens to us the beauty of God as Triune Communion.  Through him, we do not see God, not as one distinct, self-contained individual that we call GOD.  No!  The God we meet in Jesus is the communion of three persons mutually indwelling one another in self-giving love towards one another. 

Jesus points us to what God has always been and always will be.  There has always been within God a movement of personal relationship and the giving and receiving of love between three persons.  The three are always towards one another and for one another in mutual self-giving.  Looking at Jesus, we see the Oneness of God as the most intimate, the most loving and most profound triune communion.

We do not possess anything in human life that enables us to understand this communal being.  It is unique.  Nevertheless, our faith seeks understanding.  And we gain understanding only as we look at Jesus in the gospel story.  In him, we see the inner relations of God as the communion of love that is personal, dynamic and relational.  

The only way we can know anything at all about God is through his self-revelation.  He has communicated himself to us in the Jesus’ story by the Spirit. This good news story reveals the One God as three persons who mutually indwell one another as a communion of love.  That is how he has made himself known to us in the story.  There is no “essence” of God that is in any way different from this.  No static, impersonal, substance behind, above or beyond what we come to know through the gospel story.  In the good news story, we see that God is essentially a Communal Being.

When we hear the words “God is Love” (1 John 4:16), we may think first of God’s love towards us.  No wonder!  His love towards us is so wonderful!  However, before we see God’s love towards us we must see God as love within himself.  Our God is love because he is three persons in love relationship.    The Father has always loved the Son.  The Son has always loved the Father.  These two have always loved one another in the love of the Spirit. 

Love expresses itself in self-giving.  And that is how God is love within himself.  The Father loves the Son and always gives himself to the Son.  The Son loves the Father and gives himself to the Father.  The Spirit gives himself to both the Father and the Son.  Through Jesus, God has given himself to us and for us.  And now, he continually gives himself to us as Father and Son make their home with us in the Spirit. 

I used to receive teaching about God that began with the essence of God. This essence was defined in such a way that God appeared non-relational.   Relationships did not appear essential to God’s Being.  This impersonal divine essence would be God with or without a relationship with anyone else.  He is an isolated individual turned in on his own perfection.  

I have since learned that we don’t begin with the one divine essence or substance.  Rather, we first say Father, Son and Spirit as one communion of love.  So we begin with the Triune Communion: three persons mutually indwelling one another in joyful love. 

Why do we say God IS Father, Son and Spirit as One communion of love?  Simply because that is the way God has made himself known to us through Jesus within the gospel story. In this story, we see the Father acting through his Son and by his Spirit.  He acts to save us from ourselves and to bring us into communion sharing in his circle of love.  

We don’t attempt to know more about Trinity by leaping into abstract and speculative thinking about the three-in-one.  We always stay within the story through which God has revealed himself through Jesus and in his Spirit.  Why? Because God is not different in himself from who he is towards us in Jesus.  The only true God is the one we meet in Jesus.  

Paul tells us that he received his gospel as God revealed Christ in him. This dramatic encounter with the risen Jesus changed everything for Paul. He experienced a complete reorientation of thinking and living. Was this revelation given because Paul deserved special attention? Was it given because he was keen on God and had gained special favour?  No!  Paul would say he deserved God’s judgement because he was opposing God rather than living for God.  And following the revelation of Jesus, Paul had to learn anew what it means to “live to God”. 

This encounter with the risen Jesus was an event that bore no relation at all to Paul’s worth. It came simply from God’s decision.  Paul says,  “…when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me…(Galatians 1:15) God’s action revealing Jesus to Paul was all down to the underserved intervention of God. 

God moves towards us giving himself to us even though we are not worthy of his attention.  Indeed in the absence of worth. The fact that the gift comes from God this way does not mean our part is bypassed.  No! God’s giving creates a relationship in which we respond to his giving as he energises us into action.  Within this relationship, He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  And as God continually works within us, we work out our salvation with fear and trembling,

On the day of Pentecost, Peter declared, The God of Israel has made Jesus both Lord and Christ.  If Saul of Tarsus heard this, he would have been outraged.  For Saul, there was only one Lord, the God of Israel.  He could never say that a mere human was Lord in the same way.  And not just a human, but a crucified one! Only as the living Lord himself encountered Saul could he say that Jesus is Lord of all, and my Lord. 

Saul, known to us as Paul, confessed Jesus as Lord; but also declared the Spirit as Lord. “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3: 17).  In the presence of the Lord, who is the Spirit, we also confess Jesus as Lord.  And in the same Spirit, we contemplate the Lord’s glory and are transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory (2 Corinthians 3: 18).  

Once we were in bondage under sin reigning over us in death, but the crucified Jesus disarmed and destroyed the dark powers that once ruled over us. And through him, we are transferred from the old dominion ruled by hostile powers to the new dominion of Christ.  And now, the Lord who is the Spirit enables us to remain free confessing Jesus as Lord and also contemplating his glory. so that we are transformed into his likeness.  Yes, we are truly free in the Spirit under the Lord Jesus. All because of the Lord who is the Spirit, for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Corinthians 3: 17).

We confess from the heart that Jesus is Lord. But how do we come to this inner conviction and outer confession?  Only by the Spirit.  Paul says, “…no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12.3).  Apart from the Spirit, we are under other lords and not free at all to respond to Jesus as Lord in any way. Only the Spirit can set us free to see who Jesus really is and confess him as Lord from the heart.  As the Spirit opens the eyes of our hearts we believe in the utterly astonishing truth that this person, who is one of us, is Lord of heaven and earth.  The Spirit is himself  Lord setting us free to confess Jesus as Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

As those who confess Jesus as Lord, we are called to live under him as Lord so that we no longer serve the lords we once lived under, but only by the Spirit and not mere self-effort. There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn or receive the Spirit; there is nothing at all we can do to attain the divine indwelling (e.g., Romans 8:10, Galatians 3:1–5). Instead, we are to simply draw from this deep well within us, and then we will no longer serve sin and any other Lord, but only the one true Lord, Jesus. The divine indwelling is never earned by any behaviour whatsoever or any ritual, but only as a gift recognised and realised as personal presence trusted and treasured.

We give thanks to God for giving us the indescribable gift of his Son as human.  Nothing in us indicates that we were worthy to receive this gift. The gift was given to us freely even though we were hostile towards God. Furthermore, we were called by God to accept the gift personally even though we did not want it apart from God working in us by his Spirit. We also have to say that we had no qualifications for this calling.  We came to know God not based on our intellectual capacity or skill in inquiry.  The initiative here was entirely God’s (“having come to know God, or rather having been known by God,” (Gal.4:9). From beginning to end, God moves towards us giving himself to us irrespective of any worth in us, indeed in the absence of worth.  Yes, In Jesus, God comes to people making them his own without them being worthy of his attention in any way.

Paul was once a man zealous for God’s law, but the risen Jesus encountered him and everything changed.  From that moment, Paul was now captivated fully by God’s free gift of himself in Jesus.  Following his encounter with Jesus, Paul went on to nurture new communities that would be shaped entirely by grace. The patterns of life within these new communities were significantly at odds with other communities. In these Jesus’ communities, shaped by grace, people did not seek for worth or value in themselves or something else. They were valued simply because they belonged to Jesus who wanted them only for themselves.  Their whole identity was based, not on who they were, but rather on WHOSE they were. 

God came personally into our world as Jesus.  He came to rescue us from the present evil age and to bring us into a relationship with himself.  In coming to us this way, God revealed himself so that we can now see what he is like.  Furthermore, the inbreaking of God into the realm of darkness also made visible the extent to which all human beings are in the grasp of powers larger than themselves. These cosmic powers are enemies of God that reign over the whole world holding humans as captives. But, God came into this dark realm to defeat his enemies and reclaim the world that he created. And so, we must say that the gospel is first, last and always about God’s powerful and gracious initiative. He has entered our world to do for us what we could never do for ourselves as captives within the domain of darkness. 

God’s reclaiming of the world means liberation for humans.  In Christ, we are set free from sin and death and all the powers that held us in bondage.  Now we are free to live with God and for God.  However, our liberation is not complete.  We still sin and we also die.  And yet, in union with Jesus, we have died to sin to live new lives sharing in Jesus’ resurrection.  Furthermore, we have also received God’s Spirit who is the Presence of the future and the guarantee of our full liberation to come. Truly, God has rescued us from the domain of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.  Now we live as the  community of the King under his reign of light and life and love. 

In the opening lines of Galatians Paul reminds us that it is by God’s gracious will that Jesus gave himself to rescue us from the present evil age.   Our religious self-effort plays no part at all in this rescue.  It is entirely God’s initiative.  Through his Son, God’s dynamic presence came on the scene with liberating power.  And yet, his power is displayed in human lowliness and weakness.  That’s the way the powers of this dark age are defeated and rescue happens.

Jesus is the inbreaking of the new age right in the middle of the old, so there are now two ages – the old and the new. In the old age, we humans were in bondage to sin and death.  With the inbreaking of the new age, however, there is a “new creation”, a new era of freedom in newness of life. Now we say, “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Everything is made new in Christ. 

By his Spirit, Jesus encounters us personally so that we come to know God participating in this new age.  However, we must stress that even this personal knowing is entirely down to God’s initiative. As Paul says to the Galatians, “But now that you know God—or rather, now that you have been known by God” (Galatians 4:9).  God is the primary mover, and human beings are the receivers who simply respond gratefully to God’s gracious action.  And we respond by the enabling of God’s Spirit.