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| Holy Trinity Line Art |
When Jesus dives into our world,
the whole Trinity is involved.
the whole Trinity is involved.
Jesus is sent by the Father,
as the "Word become flesh"
in "the power of the Spirit."
Jesus arrives not as a new thing,
but as the eternal Son of God to do a new thing.
Jesus doesn't just point us to the Father;
He is the action of the Father in our world.
The Father is acting through His Son
and in His Spirit
for the salvation of the world.
The Father is acting through His Son
and in His Spirit
for the salvation of the world.
In the past year or so, I have had some friends and family inquire about the wonder and the mystery of the Trinity. Perhaps one with confusion, another with skepticism, another with curiosity; and on such a journey of discovery, all of us experiencing all of the emotions above along the way.
I have loved exploring considerations of the Trinity myself, whether throughout the Story of God in all the Scriptures, in Jesus' Church's history including artwork like Rublev's Icon and the "Lakota Trinity," and more. I've also enjoyed Rev. Dr. Tim Mackie from the Bible Project (ex. "How Is God Both One and Three at the Same Time") discussing the Trinity in the video, "The Trinity, Hermeneutics & Doctrinal Development" (particularly from the 32-minute mark: From Judaism to Trinitarianism until the end).
The post below is meant to provide some brief glimpses into what I've learned and experienced. The Trinity has opened me up to more of God's beauty and love in how the triune God exists and creates in love apart from me, yet chooses to love me, befriend me, and save me. And I'm thankful for the humbling consideration that God continues to send Emmaus City Church into the world to provide glimpses of God's unity in community and community on mission.
| 1 |
Wonder & Mystery of the Trinity
in Love, Worship & Creativity
The Trinity was, and is, a totally self-sufficient community of love and glory. The Trinitarian community is, in a sense, perpetually beholding one another with love and amazement.
It flowed
– perfect, complete, and constant –
between the three persons of the Trinity.
This love was an unending appreciation,
a perpetual beholding and rejoicing
in the goodness and perfection
of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We're able to peek through the windows
on that love in the Bible,
where we see the Son worship the Father,
the Father adore and exalt the Son,
and the Spirit being both celebrated
and celebrating the others.
We're able to peek through the windows
on that love in the Bible,
where we see the Son worship the Father,
the Father adore and exalt the Son,
and the Spirit being both celebrated
and celebrating the others.
The word worship comes from the Old English weorthscipe, which combines two words meaning 'ascribe worth.' The Trinity can be said to be always at worship because the three persons of the Godhead perfectly behold the worth and wonder of one another. As Fredrick Lehman fashioned for a world-renowned hymn:
'Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made,
were every stalk on earth a quill,
and every man a scribe by trade,
to write the love of God above,
would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
though stretched from sky to sky.'
for more history behind the hymn.)
It's out of the overflow
of this endless love
that God created the world.
The whole Trinity is present
at creation's dawn
as the Father speaks,
the Son – who is the Word –
carries out the creative work,
and the Spirit fills the creation
with heavenly presence
(Genesis 1:1-3).
Creation was made out of the overflow of God's own effusive and loving being, a reflection of the way the persons of the Trinity live in harmony, love, and community with one another.
It's out of the overflow
of this endless love
that God created the world.
The whole Trinity is present
at creation's dawn
as the Father speaks,
the Son – who is the Word –
carries out the creative work,
and the Spirit fills the creation
with heavenly presence
(Genesis 1:1-3).
Creation was made out of the overflow of God's own effusive and loving being, a reflection of the way the persons of the Trinity live in harmony, love, and community with one another.
+ Mike Cosper,
At the center of the universe is the spinning dance of the communion of the Father, Son, and Spirit in this selfless, giving, sacrificial orbit of Oneness.
Before even the first shimmer of flaming star danced across space, an all-fulfilled, all-relational triune God, fully complete in the spin of the selfless, giving dance of communion, chose to create a world for the singular purpose of us sharing in His communion, orbiting in His selfless, giving love.
Love is commitment set in motion.
The triune God came for more
than making us right with Him.
He came to make us one with Him.
What the triune God has joined together,
let no way of thinking, dreaming, or living,
tear asunder.
+ Ann Voskamp,
| 2 |
Wonder & Mystery of the Trinity
in Embracing Friendship
By virtue of making us like Him, God in creation expanded the circle of friends.
The fundamental truth of friendships
is not that love is limited
but that love is infinite.
We know this because the friendship
is not that love is limited
but that love is infinite.
We know this because the friendship
of the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Spirit
did not generate less love but more love.
Jesus now calls us His friends, did not generate less love but more love.
and by saving us,
He invites us into the dance of the Trinity.
The circle of love is open and expanding.
The nature of true friendships is not to shut the outsider out, it is to draw them in. Opening outward is the truest direction of friendship. The circle grows. Here one plus one equals three or even four. The circle is complete, but it is somehow still open. Love defies mathematics and geometry.
The circle of love is open and expanding.
The nature of true friendships is not to shut the outsider out, it is to draw them in. Opening outward is the truest direction of friendship. The circle grows. Here one plus one equals three or even four. The circle is complete, but it is somehow still open. Love defies mathematics and geometry.
In a culture of loneliness and individualism,
there is no better witness to the Trinity
than embodying a counterculture
of real friendship.
If friendship is a practice that reminds us of what the Gospel is, it is also a practice that puts the Gospel on display to the world.
+ JWE,
| 3 |
Wonder & Mystery of the Trinity
at the Cross of Christ
The atonement drama has only two actors:
the one triune God and us.
And it is God who bears in Himself
the consequences of our sin.
God puts Himself in our place on the cross. He does not "punish somebody else instead." It was God's self-substitution in our place through His own Son. "God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:19). The Bible sometimes expresses this with balancing statements, and we need to take both side of the balance seriously.
the one triune God and us.
And it is God who bears in Himself
the consequences of our sin.
God puts Himself in our place on the cross. He does not "punish somebody else instead." It was God's self-substitution in our place through His own Son. "God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:19). The Bible sometimes expresses this with balancing statements, and we need to take both side of the balance seriously.
So, for example, we know that the cross was God's will (Acts 2:23). Yes, but Jesus also said, "My food (will) is to do the will of Him who sent Me" (John 4:34, emphasis mine). Isaiah 53:6 says that "the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Yes, but Peter also adds, "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross" (1 Peter 2:24). John tells us that "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son" (John 3:16, emphasis mine). Yes, but Paul adds, "The Son of God ... loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20, emphasis mine). The Father's plan and the Son's actions go together in perfect harmony.
The book The Cross of Christ
by John Stott is a classic.
In one section, he discusses exactly this point:
by John Stott is a classic.
In one section, he discusses exactly this point:
We have no liberty ...
to imply either that God
compelled Jesus to do what
He was unwilling to do Himself,
or that Jesus was an unwilling victim
of God's harsh justice.
Jesus Christ did indeed bear
the penalty of our sins,
but God was active in
and through Christ doing it,
and Christ was freely playing His part
(e.g. Hebrews 10:5-10). ...
We must never make Christ
the object of God's punishment
or God the object of Christ's persuasion,
for both God and Christ were subjects
not objects, taking the initiative together
to save sinners.
Whatever happened on the cross
in terms of "God-forsakenness"
was voluntarily accepted by both
in the same holy love
which made atonement necessary. ...
The Father did not lay on the Son
an ordeal He was reluctant to bear,
nor did the Son extract
from the Father a salvation
He was reluctant to bestow.
There is no suspicion anywhere
in the New Testament of discord
between the Father and the Son. ...
There was no unwillingness in either.
On the contrary, their wills coincided
in the perfect self-sacrifice of love.
to imply either that God
compelled Jesus to do what
He was unwilling to do Himself,
or that Jesus was an unwilling victim
of God's harsh justice.
Jesus Christ did indeed bear
the penalty of our sins,
but God was active in
and through Christ doing it,
and Christ was freely playing His part
(e.g. Hebrews 10:5-10). ...
We must never make Christ
the object of God's punishment
or God the object of Christ's persuasion,
for both God and Christ were subjects
not objects, taking the initiative together
to save sinners.
Whatever happened on the cross
in terms of "God-forsakenness"
was voluntarily accepted by both
in the same holy love
which made atonement necessary. ...
The Father did not lay on the Son
an ordeal He was reluctant to bear,
nor did the Son extract
from the Father a salvation
He was reluctant to bestow.
There is no suspicion anywhere
in the New Testament of discord
between the Father and the Son. ...
There was no unwillingness in either.
On the contrary, their wills coincided
in the perfect self-sacrifice of love.
Never separate the Father and the Son in your understanding of the cross. They were as one in Christ's death as they were one in His life.
+ Christopher J.H. Wright,
The Father, Son, and Spirit
remain sovereign
through the event of the cross.
The Son is sovereign over the grave,
even as He lies dead in it —
because the Father and Spirit
will be faithful to raise Him.
The Father is sovereign,
even as His Son marches toward Golgotha —
because Jesus will not join humanity's rebellion
and will be faithful unto death.
The Spirit is sovereign,
even when entering the grieving
and groaning of creation to apply
the work of Jesus to our broken world,
because the Father and Son
will receive the world He brings.
The hope of the world is God's sovereign love. The Father is, through the Son and in the Spirit, reconciling the world.
even as He lies dead in it —
because the Father and Spirit
will be faithful to raise Him.
The Father is sovereign,
even as His Son marches toward Golgotha —
because Jesus will not join humanity's rebellion
and will be faithful unto death.
The Spirit is sovereign,
even when entering the grieving
and groaning of creation to apply
the work of Jesus to our broken world,
because the Father and Son
will receive the world He brings.
The hope of the world is God's sovereign love. The Father is, through the Son and in the Spirit, reconciling the world.
As pastor and author Tim Keller observes:
"God did not, then,
inflict pain on someone else,
but rather on the Cross
absorbed the pain, violence, and evil
of the world into Himself."
In the words of theologian Adam Johnson,
"through Jesus Christ the triune God
brought the reality of sin
into His own proper life,
that He might deal with it
in and through Himself."
The cross and resurrection
most powerfully reveal the Trinity
because the Father, Son, and Spirit
most powerfully reveal the Trinity
because the Father, Son, and Spirit
display faithful love to one another
amid our darkest depths.
The Father, Son, and Spirit
take in our suffering, shattering, and death
in order to overwhelm it
with the life, light, and love
the Father, Son, and Spirit
share as the one God.
Alson, in Light from Light:
One might summarize
a theology of the cross as follows.
a theology of the cross as follows.
The Son of God went to the limits
of alienation from God
so that even as the worst sinner
runs with all their energy
away from the Father,
they finds themselves running
into the arms of the Son.
Here we can see the deep
soteriological implications
of the Trinitarian doctrine.
It is only because God can,
so to speak,
open Himself up,
become other to Himself
while remaining one in essence,
that He can embrace all of sin,
even the most thoroughgoing rebellion.
God wants to do life with us. We are invited to enter the life of God. In Christ, Peter tells us, we become "participants of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:3-4). This doesn't mean we become God — we are still creatures, not Creator. But it does mean we participate as creatures in the very life of our Creator: the Spirit of God dwells inside us, binding us in union with Christ, and bringing us through Christ into the embrace of the Father.
This is our salvation: to be indwelt by God within us (the Spirit), united to God before us (the Son), and embraced within the life of God surrounding us (the Father). Our salvation is none other than the very life of God.
Caricature:
The Trinity is an abstract doctrine
with no relevance for today.
Gospel:
The Trinity changes everything
– the Father, Son, and Spirit
are a holy communion of love
who invite us to participate in eternal life.
+ JRB,
| 4 |
Wonder & Mystery of the Trinity
in the Mission of God
The first thing we see the Father do in relation to Jesus is love the Son, breathing out His Spirit on Him (see baptism of Jesus, Mark 1:9-11). Doing as His Father does, Jesus breathes out the Spirit on His disciples (see after the resurrection of Jesus, John 20:21-22). In fact, Jesus had already said to them: "As the Father loved Me, so have I loved you" (John 15:9). The Father sends the Son; and doing as His Father does, Jesus thus sends His disciples by the Spirit.
The truth is that God is always on mission:
in love for the other,
which is why the Father sent His Son
and His Spirit.
It is the outworking of His very nature.
This means that when we go out and share
the knowledge of God's great love
we reflect something very profound
about who God is.
When Jesus sends us, He is allowing us
to share the missional, generous,
outgoing shape of God's own life.
The Spirit-caused enjoyment of the fellowship, the increasing love for the Father and the Son: it turns us to share God's outgoing love for the world. We become like what we worship. The Spirit shares the triune life of God by bringing God's children into the mutual delight of the Father and the Son — and there we become like our God: fruitful and life-giving.
+ Michael Reeves,
The only way to be the greatest in Christ's Kingdom is to be the last, to have the least left in your own ego and self-will, to pour out your whole self for others as He did for you.
It is a very strange Kingdom that this King invites us into, because it is the Kingdom of God, and God is very strange.
God is love; God is agape,
and that means that God
God is love; God is agape,
and that means that God
is the total gift of self
from each of the the three persons
from each of the the three persons
of the Trinity to each of the other two.
In inviting us into His Kingdom of agape,
Jesus is inviting us into theosis,
which means not imitation
but participation,
the sharing in the very life of God,
who is the source of everything real
and true and good and beautiful
and joyful.
This truth about God is also a truth
about us because we were designed
and created in God's image.
We were designed to only run
on the fuel that God runs on,
to live only with God's life.
That's why we get joy only
by giving joy;
we find ourselves only
by losing ourselves;
we live only by dying to our
natural selfishness.
It's not an ideal; it's a fact.
It's what we are,
what we are made for.
+ Dr. Peter Kreeft,
| 5 |
Wonder & Mystery of the Trinity
in Being Jesus' Church
The intention of Jesus' Church is to be a "community for the community": a multi-generational, life-transforming, unwaveringly Christ-centered community of people who, together, worship the Triune God, proclaim and demonstrate the Good News of God,
and provide every person:
a people to belong to in the family of God,
a people to grow with in Jesus Christ,
and a people to serve alongside
by the leading and power of the Holy Spirit.
a people to grow with in Jesus Christ,
and a people to serve alongside
by the leading and power of the Holy Spirit.
Since the very essence of the Trinity
is the shared, interrelated communion of love
between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
then the "essence" of the Church
For if "God is what God is in interrelatedness,"
then human transformation is
both dependent upon and realized in
a similar interrelatedness.
While God is by nature a communion of Father, Son, and Spirit, human persons enter into covenantal commitment to effect the kind of interdependence necessary for transformation (ex. baptismal vows offered as a community). And as the "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22-26) attests, relational maturity is virtually indistinguishable from spiritual maturity, and the spirituality of a community is defined by the quality of the relationships formed. As we do so, we demonstrate a quality of living that the world is yearning for and through which
humans have been created to thrive.
+ Tod Bolsinger
| Bonus |
Wonder & Mystery of the Trinity
in Oneness, Unity & Peace
Richard of St. Victor (1100s A.D.) shared that if God were just one person, God could not be intrinsically loving, since for all eternity before creation, God would have had nobody to love. If there were two persons, Richard went on, God might be loving, but in an excluding, ungenerous way. After all, when two persons love each other, they can be so infatuated with each other that they simply ignore everyone else — and a God like that would be very far from good news. But when the love between two persons is happy, healthy and secure, they rejoice to share it. Just so it is with God, said Richard. Being perfectly loving, from all eternity the Father and the Son have delighted to share love and joy with and through the Spirit.
It is not then that God becomes sharing;
being triune, God is a sharing God,
a God who loves to include.
Indeed, that is why God will go on to create.
His love is not for keeping but for spreading.
Created male and female, in the image of God, and with many other good differences between us, we come together valuing the way the triune God has made us each unique.
Oneness for the triune God means unity.
As the Father is absolutely one with His Son,
and yet is not His Son,
so Jesus prays that believers might be one,
but not that they might all be the same.
There are different kinds of gifts,
but the same Spirit. ...
If the whole body were an eye,
where would the sense of hearing be?
If the whole body were an ear,
where would the sense of smell be?
But in fact God has arranged the parts
in the body, every one of them,
just as He wanted them to be.
If they were all one part,
where would the body be?
As it is, there are many parts,
but one body.
(1 Corinthians 12:4, 17-20).
So it is not just that the Father, Son and Spirit call us into fellowship; God shares heavenly harmony that there might be harmony on earth, that people of different genders, languages, hobbies, and gifts might be one voice, we might cry: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb" (Revelation 7:10).
And that is what the family of God — by its very existence — makes known to the world: that the God of harmony is the hope for world peace; that He can and will unite enemies, rivals and strangers into one loving family under His fatherly care.
+ Michael Reeves,
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| Trinity Knot Scripture: Ephesians 4:3-6 |
4th Century Church
Adapted by New Life,
2022 A.D.
How lovely all creation shines,
How glorious from sky to sea.
All beauty is a blazing sign
To God the Everlasting.
Glory to the Father,
Glory to the Son,
Glory to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
As it is right now,
And will be forever,
World without end.
Amen.
The glory of Almighty God,
The centerpiece of all that is.
The selflessness of triune love,
Demands our highest worship.
(Chorus)
Amen, amen, amen,
World without end,
Amen.
When we behold the radiant Son,
The shadowlands will fade away.
At last the One who is to come
Will rule the new creation.
He’ll rule the new creation.
(Chorus)
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
are certainly not modifications
of the substance of "God,"
for that would compromise
the divine simplicity;
and yet they are not separate beings,
for that would result in tri-theism.
compromising the divine unity.
They are, we are forced to say,
"pure" relations subsisting as relations.
Thus, the Father is Father only in and as
a relation to the Son;
the Son is Son only in and as
a relation to the Father;
and the Spirit is Spirit only in and as
a relation to the Father and the Son.
All three persons,
since they share the
singular divine essence,
are utterly simple in their
manner of existing.
Yet, these dynamics do indeed indicate
that something like giving (or offering)
and receiving,
breathing in and breathing out,
obtains within God.
+ Thoughts on the Trinity
shared in Light from Light
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
mean that the mystery beyond us,
the mystery among us,
and the mystery within us
are all the same mystery.
mean that the mystery beyond us,
the mystery among us,
and the mystery within us
are all the same mystery.
Thus the Trinity is a way
of saying something about us
and the way we experience God.
The Trinity is also a way
of saying something about God
and God's inner nature;
that is, God does not need the creation
in order to have something to love,
because within God's being love happens.
In other words, the love God
is love not as a noun,
but as a verb.
This verb is reflexive as well as transitive.
of saying something about God
and God's inner nature;
that is, God does not need the creation
in order to have something to love,
because within God's being love happens.
In other words, the love God
is love not as a noun,
but as a verb.
This verb is reflexive as well as transitive.
If the idea of God
as both Three and One
seems farfetched and obfuscating,
look in the mirror someday.
There is
(a) the interior life
known only to yourself
and those you choose
to communicate it to
(the Father).
There is
as both Three and One
seems farfetched and obfuscating,
look in the mirror someday.
There is
(a) the interior life
known only to yourself
and those you choose
to communicate it to
(the Father).
There is
(b) the visible face,
which in some measure
reflects that inner life
(the Son).
And there is
(c) the invisible power
you have that enables you
to communicate that interior life
in such a way that others
do not merely know about it,
but know it in the sense of its
becoming part of who they are
(the Holy Spirit).
Yet what you are looking at
in the mirror
is clearly and indivisibly
the one and only you.
which in some measure
reflects that inner life
(the Son).
And there is
(c) the invisible power
you have that enables you
to communicate that interior life
in such a way that others
do not merely know about it,
but know it in the sense of its
becoming part of who they are
(the Holy Spirit).
Yet what you are looking at
in the mirror
is clearly and indivisibly
the one and only you.
+ Frederick Buechner
in Beyond Words
Other Reading Recs:
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