LIFE IN THE TRINITY

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

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).