LIFE IN THE TRINITY

Jesus did not come into the world simply to “save” individuals.  He came to create a new community that lives and moves in union with him by the Spirit. In the new community, we don’t live from a centre in ourselves but from a centre in Christ.  We become part of the new community by simply trusting in Jesus, and that is how we continue living in him.  We always fix our eyes on the one we are united to so that we live and move with him, through him and for him.  And we do so as each one in the community says, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me”.  However, we do not simply enjoy Christ living in each of us as individuals.  We are his body, in the Spirit, and “From him (Christ) the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:16).

This trust in Christ plus nothing is expressed in love as we keep in step with the indwelling Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ creates these Christ-centred communities to live out of the new life the Spirit gives.  In the Spirit, we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. We see his communion of love with the Father in the Spirit.  We see the love of Jesus as he gave himself for us.  And we aim to be attentive to his command to love one another as he loved us.  So, we are unified by the Spirit of Christ in our pursuit of love as we see it portrayed by Jesus. What counts in this new community is faith expressed in love

The Father sent his Son into the world to break the tyranny of sin over us.  He did so, to bring us into the circle of his communal life. We participate in this community as we are baptised into Christ sharing in his dying and rising in newness of life together (Galatians 3 7).  The Father also sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts enabling us to experience his communal life together as Abba’s children. That means our communal life is more than a good idea.  In the Spirit, we share together in God’s communal life of joyful love. 

In this new community, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28). In NT times, people were counted worthy according to these social distinctions.  Males had more value than females and free more than slaves.  And Jews felt they were of more value than Greeks. But in the new community, these have no place in giving worth.  People have worth simply because of Christ plus nothing. We are wholly taken up with Christ as all and in all. Fully attentive to Jesus, we are freed from traditional, hierarchical systems of worth. 

Jesus radically undercuts all our reckonings of worth and gives the only worth that counts. And so, in his new community, we rethink human identity and worth.   We see each one as Abba’s son and daughter in Christ dearly loved and highly valued.

God chose Israel to be his covenant people.  Nevertheless, Paul says, that both Israel and the Gentiles were slaves under the domain of darkness (Galatians 4:3).   But God sent his Son into the world to liberate Israel and the world so that we might receive adoption to sonship (Galatians 4:4-6).  The Father’s Son was sent as an Israelite under the law.  He was also sent to participate fully in the whole human plight under the domain of darkness.  He did so, that we may now participate in all his privileges, as sons and daughters of God.  In union with the son, we are adopted as sons and daughters with a new identity as God’s family.  So, our identity is no longer found in who we are in ourselves, but in WHOSE we are as dearly loved children of God.

All this depends on the divine initiative.  God sent his Son so that we might become sons and daughters of God.  And God sends the Spirit of adoption into our hearts so that we might experience sonship as we cry abba Father with Jesus the Son.  In the Spirit alone, we know our true identity derives from outside ourselves and is received as an undeserved gift. So, now, in the Spirit, we are to live attentive to the truth that we are radically known and loved.  And in gratitude, we are to live responsive to this gracious calling of God.  For we know that this gracious calling of God, does not come from ourselves, in any way, but all is received as the pure gift of the Father, through his Son and by his Spirit

God promised to bless Abraham and his seed. He also promised that all nations would be blessed through Abraham and his seed. God, the promise maker, proved to be the promise keeper by coming himself as Abraham’s seed in Jesus (Galatians 3: 16). In this self-giving, God’s promises to Abraham and all the world are an emphatic YES.  And we now enjoy the blessings promised to Abraham in union with Jesus, Abraham’s seed.  

But wasn’t the Law the way to blessing? Sadly not. Paul tells us that Israel and all humanity remain cursed and not blessed under the law. But Christ crucified achieves the the great reversal – the cursed are blessed.  How so? Christ participated fully in the human disaster becoming a curse for us(Galatians 3:13). And now, in union with him, we participate in all the blessings found in him.  In Christ, we are no longer cursed but blessed with every spiritual blessing.  “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14). 

What is striking is that those rescued and blessed are not the righteous few, but the cursed.  We may think that God can’t bless the ungodly under the curse.  But through Jesus, Abraham’s seed, God blesses the ungodly with every blessing.

When Paul preached the gospel in Galatia, some came to know the true and living God.  This happened as they trusted in Jesus alone. Later, these people turned from trusting Christ alone to Christ plus law observance.   

In response, Paul writes, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.” He then asks about their past experience. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? God’s Spirit came into their lives making everything new.  By the Spirit, they came to know the true and living God as their Father.  By the Spirit, God worked transforming miracles among them.  Truly, they knew God as dynamically present among them. And all this happened simply by trusting in Jesus.  They knew nothing about law observance.   And so, they really must continue trusting in Christ plus nothing. 

Paul’s words to the Galatians point the way forward for us.  We are not to invest everything in Jesus alone and then add our own religious self-efforts to move on deeper and fuller.  We must rather continue investing everything in Christ alone.  Each one of us must say, with Paul, I no longer live but Christ lives in me as the one who loved me and gave himself for me.  And as the one who constantly loves me giving himself to me and for me so, that I can give myself more fully to him.  From beginning to end, we trust in Christ plus nothing.

Philip asked Jesus to show them the Father.  Jesus replied, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.  Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me (John 14:8-11).

Here, Jesus tells us that God is One as a communion of three persons mutually indwelling one another.  In saying this, Jesus has taken us into depths that leave us beyond our depth.  And maybe that’s where we should be when discussing this unique oneness.  Only God’s Spirit can help us to know in a way that takes us beyond our own knowing.  He is the Spirit of truth who guides us into all truth.  He takes the things of Christ and makes them known to us.  But the Spirit doesn’t simply show us the mutual indwelling of three persons. The Spirit unites us with Jesus to share in his communion with the Father in the Spirit.  And from within this communion, we glimpse the unique oneness of Father, Son and Spirit mutually indwelling one another in self-giving love. We do not gain mastery over the Oneness of God so we have got it sorted. We rather find ourselves gazing into the Mystery of God as three persons in one communion of love.

Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.”  He then went on to say, “…the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”  Theologians have used the word perichoresis to describe this kind of oneness. The word perichoresis means mutual indwelling: being-in-one-another. 

Donald Migliore writes, “God is no supreme monad i.e. single unit existing in eternal solitude. God is essentially communal – a communion expressed by the Greek word perichoresis, meaning “mutual indwelling” or “being-in-one-another.” The three of the Trinity “indwell” and pervade each other; they “encircle” each other, being united in an exquisite divine dance, or to use still another metaphor, they ‘make room’ for each other, being incomparably hospitable to each other”.

This mutual indwelling means that we can only think of the three if we also think of the one. It also means that we can only think of the One if we think of the Three.  When we encounter the one person we also encounter the others.  To meet Jesus is to encounter the Father in the Spirit through him.  And, as the Holy Spirit indwells you, Father and Son make their home within you by the indwelling Spirit.  Wherever you have the one you have the three and wherever you have the three you have the one.

All this changes the way we see the Oneness of God.  God’s Oneness isn’t the divine substance that contains three within it.  No!  God’s Oneness is communal. The most intimate, the most loving and the most profound triune communion.  It is the mutual self-giving and mutual interpenetration of the three divine persons.

Too many people seem to live from one moment to another rarely considering what their lives mean.  However, there may be moments when a person pauses to consider what matters more than anything else.  We would say that we were created by God and for him.  True meaning in life can only be found in relationship with God.  In him is life in all its fullness.  

But how do we connect with God to enjoy the fullness of life found only in him? Is it through our self-effort in religious observance?  In considering this question, T F Torrance would say we must avoid thinking and acting from a centre in ourselves. We must rather think from a centre in Christ. That’s the way Jesus lived before his Father.  He said, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”  Just as Jesus was always attentive to his Father acting from a centre in his Father, we must live from a centre in Jesus. For example, we stop asking, what would Jesus do in this situation as if he were dead? Attentive to the living Jesus, we rather ask, Jesus, what are you doing here and now? And how can I get in on what you are doing so that I move with you in this situation? 

In union with Jesus, we now have a new centre of orientation and meaning for the whole of life. We can now say, I live in Christ and Christ lives in me so that we think and act from a centre in him by the Spirit.  

Jesus identified with us by becoming human and entering into the entire human plight. Furthermore, Jesus remains human even though he is now exalted to the highest place at God’s right hand.  There, he continually represents us in the presence of his Father.  He ever lives to intercede for us as those who are always in his heart.

The exalted Jesus comes to us personally as the living one by his Spirit.  This encounter opens our hearts to trust in him.  And as those who now trust in Jesus, we enjoy all the blessings that are found in him alone. 

So what’s so special about trust?  Nothing! We are not blessed by God because of our trust but only because of the one who is trusted – Jesus.   Trust isn’t focused on our trust at all.  We are focused only on the one who has proved himself entirely trustworthy. Our trust in Jesus is a declaration of bankruptcy, a radical and shattering recognition that the only thing that counts is Jesus.  Whatever else might be considered worthy of our trust is not trustworthy if it takes us away from the one who is worthy of our trust.

When we trust in Jesus, we acknowledge that the only thing that counts before God is Jesus. If we depend on anything else, we are distracted from the only one who counts.  True trust in Jesus must be trust in him alone. 

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