God is three-person relational.  But what do we mean by person?  To answer this question, we focus on the three-person relational God. God the Father is who he is in relation to his Son.  He is not who he is as Father without the Son.  God the Son is who he is in relation to his Father.  He is not who he is as Son without the Father.  Each Divine Person is other than and distinct from the other two.  And yet, they are so interrelated that they always intertwine with one another.

Likewise, each human person is only who he or she is as a person in relation to other persons.  We were created to be persons in relation to the personal God.  And also in relation to one another.  But we humans turn into ourselves to find who we are within ourselves.  So now we even define a person in terms of who we think we are as individuals. This is a departure from God’s intention for us.

The whole purpose of God through Jesus is to restore us to relationship.  Having reconciled us to God, Jesus sends the Spirit from the presence of the Father to restore our relation with the communal God.  That’s why TF Torrance speaks of Jesus as the “Personalising Person” and ourselves as “Personalised Persons.”  He restores our personal relationship with the personal God, and in doing so, he restores our personal relationship with one another.  We become God’s community in space and time restored in relationship with God and one another.  And so, we share in God’s communal life in union with the Son in the love of Spirit.