Three Is the Loveliest Number
In fact, with this God the good news doesn't stop there. In stunning contrast to all single-person gods, who must remain isolated in their divine transcendence, this God comes to us—comes into us!—to share with us and bring us into the life that is his. The Spirit opens my eyes to who Christ beautifully is, in all his loving kindness. He wins my heart so that, for the first time, I begin to enjoy the Son as the Father has always enjoyed him. In other words, through the Spirit, the Father brings us to share in his own joy, in the delight he has always had in his Son. The Spirit also gives us the mind of Christ, enabling us to share in his deep delight in the Father. Thus the Spirit makes us godly: Fatherlike, we enjoy the Son; Christlike, we enjoy the Father.
Now if God were a single person, godliness would be entirely different, and not about such outward-focused love and enjoyment. If for eternity he had only himself to consider, then surely self-obsession would be the highest form of godlikeness. But self-love and self-obsession are the very antithesis of this other-centered God: He offers liberation from our slavery to self, opening us out to love others as he loves. Only because God is triune can he offer us such freedom.
In the triune God we have a magnetically attractive God of overflowing love and radiant joy, the Father, Son, and Spirit finding their happy satisfaction and everlasting delight in each other. And since we become like what we worship, if we press in to know this God better, we will become delighted, friendly, and winsome, like our God. Just imagine what the world would make of that.
And it is not just the Christian life as such: The triune nature of God imbues all of life with a beauty it could never otherwise have. Because God is a relational God, the Father eternally knowing and loving the Son in the Spirit, relationships and love make sense. Indeed, this God is why they exist at all. What solitary God would imagine such things, except out of envy? Because the Father, Son, and Spirit have eternally existed in thrilling harmony, a world of harmonies makes sense. With this God it makes sense that different musical notes should come together pleasingly. The loving unity of the Father, Son, and Spirit gives us a rationale for why men and women, black and white, introvert and extrovert should come together, not to be identical, but to be united in love.
We have seen so little here, it is as if we have but smelt the banquet from afar. Hopefully, though, it has been just enough for us to sense that the triune nature of our God is not an encumbrance on Christianity but the very undergirding truth that makes it good, lovely, and beautiful. Nor is it some airy, impractical truth. It is something we can revel in every time we pray. Instead of nervously calling, "O Distant Creator," we can pray "Our Father," enjoying the Son's own relationship and privileges. And we can do so with the Son's own boldness, secure in him and enabled as he is by the Spirit.
Star Trek Into Darkness
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jacob israel
Can Michael Reeves please explain 1 Corinthians 15:23-28 in the terms of the 'Triune god' definition (that is, co-equal, co-eternal, one god in three persons, with each person being fully God, but each person not being the same as each other)? Seekers of the truth will find this very interesting: www.havefaithinjesus.wordpress.com Post: Why the Trinity and Oneness Doctrines are False
John Faris
This says all the things I have been trying to say about the Trinity for many years and says them better and more beside. Please thank the author for a late Christmas present! (I am minister of 'Trinity Presbyterian Church' Cork Ireland which got that name out of an important controversy in Irish Presbyterianism on that issue 150 years ago.)
Chin-Lee chan
I like the following of the article: "(Modern connotations of "mystery" don't help. In the New Testament era, a mystery was not a riddle to be solved, but a truth revealed to the faithful—something disclosed, not kept hidden.)" Page 1 "In the triune God we have a magnetically attractive God of overflowing love and radiant joy, the Father, Son, and Spirit finding their happy satisfaction and everlasting delight in each other." Page 3 Will Brother Michael Reeves' view in this article be less a riddle when his readers try to find the answer to the question, "When we Christians worship the Father, Son, and Spirit, how many Gods are we worshiping?", if he use the word "Godhead" in the above statement? Like, "In the triune Godhead we have a magnetically attractive Godhead of overflowing love and radiant joy, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit finding Their happy satisfaction and everlasting delight in each other, among our three Gods." Hope to hear from Brother Reeves.