THE TRINITY III
The Story Continues
10/14/12
In his book “The Forgotten Trinity” James White quotes the following from the Personal Narrative of the great 18th century preacher Jonathan Edwards.
“Sometimes, only mentioning a single word caused my heart to burn within me; or only seeing the name of Christ, or the name of some attribute of God. And God has appeared glorious to me, on account of the Trinity. It has made me have exalting thoughts of God, that he subsists in three persons; Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The sweetest joys and delights I have experienced have not been those that have arisen from a hope of my own good estate; but in a direct view of the glorious things of the gospel. When I enjoy this sweetness, it seems to carry me above the thoughts of my own estate. It seems at such times a loss that I cannot bear, to take off my eye from the glorious, pleasant object I behold without me, to turn my eye in upon myself, and my own good estate… Once, as I rode out into the woods for my health, in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly has been, to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God, as Mediator between God and man, and his wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet, appeared also great above the heavens. The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception, which continued as near as I can judge, about an hour; which kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears, and weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of soul to be, what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated; to lie in the dust, and to be full of Christ alone; to love him with a holy and pure love; to trust in him; to live upon him; to serve and follow him; and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure, with a divine and heavenly purity. I have, several other times, had views very much of the same nature, and which have had the same effects.”
White points out that the “spiritual experiences” of today are often very different then the one described by Edwards. Today when most folks talk about a spiritual experience it is usually about what they believe that God has done for them, or through them. The focus tends to be not on God, but on the experience itself. Which is very different then the spiritual experience I just read to you from J. Edwards.
One of my goals in teaching about the Trinity is that you would experience God in a new way. A way in which you could share those words with Edwards and say, “God has appeared glorious to me, on account of the Trinity. It has made me have exalting thoughts of God, that he subsists in three persons; Father, Son and Holy Ghost…” If I could just get one of you to experience that, this work would not be in vain.
In our study of the Trinity we have been working off an illustration that I gave a couple weeks ago, that I believe helps us to understand on a human level the importance of the Trinity on a Spiritual level. It also demonstrates for us why love is at the center of our understanding of the Trinity. At this point I will remind you of what we are talking about when we talk about the Trinity. To again quote James White, “Within the one being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” That is the definition we are working under, and we will look at that in more detail in the future.
Let me briefly remind you of the illustration. You go into Brooks restaurant to eat. There in corner you see me with a young blond haired, blued eyed women who appears to be about 5’9” tall. We are doing the kissy, kissy thing, holding hands etc. You come over to confront me, wanting to know what I thing I’m doing with this women who is not my wife. I protest and tell you that this is my wife Darleen. You object by saying, you know my wife Darleen, she is 5’ tall, has brown hair and brown eye, and this is not my wife. I continue to say, no you are wrong, this is my wife Darleen and you do not know what you are talking about.
My question was, what would be going through your mind about then. Anger, hurt. You would probably not like me very much after that, you would certainly feel bad for Darleen. And all those emotions would come from love that you have towards Darleen and myself.
I then asked you to consider if it were my daughter Brooke who saw me. Think of what would go through her mind if the same thing had happened. She has a more intimate love for Darleen that any of you. She knows first hand what a loving mom and wife she is. Think of how she would react if I said “This is my wife Darleen” to her. The hurt would be greater because the love is greater.
I also asked you to consider if it were my wife Darleen in that situation and I said the same thing to her. There would certainly be some emotions there. Hurt, jealousy, anger. Again, the hurt would be greater because the love towards me is greater and also of a different kind
Last week we began to look at some specific Scriptural truths that this illustration makes clear to us. We looked at two last week. The first was the God is God and there is no other. The second was that just calling something God, does not make it God. Anymore, than as we see in the illustration, me calling someone my wife, make them my wife.
Let us move know to the third truth I want us to see, and that is God loves to love, and thus loves to be loved, for God is Love. But what we must see is that God has revealed that love in certain way, and thus we are to love God in that way, or else it is not really His love. Let us work our way through this thought.
Lets begin with the illustration. Darleen also loves to love. She loves me and she certainly would expect me to return that love, that is what marriage is about. But she expects and desires that love to be returned in the same way she loves me. She loves me in that she is loyal to me. She makes sacrifices for me. She often times puts me first. Again she loves me in a certain way and wants to be loved in that way.
Now looking back at the illustration. I can say I love her, but it is not the same love she is showing me. I am not being loyal, not making sacrifices for her, not putting her first. In fact I am doing the opposite of those things. Some would say, and rightfully so, that I am not truly loving her.
So it is with God. God loves to love, and God desires us to return that love. But it must be the same kind of love that He gives toward us. I will say that you cannot love God the way God desires unless you love the Trinity, because that is how God reveals His love to us. Looking at the Scriptures I believe we can see this to be true.
There is a couple of passage in the Bible that will help us see this. The first in John 17:23-26, listen to that passage, This is from the high Priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus. “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.””
The next passage I want to read to you is 1 John 4:7-11, listen to what that tells us; “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
Keep in mind the truth that we are considering, that is God loves to love, and thus loves to be love, for God is Love. But what we must see is that God has revealed that love in certain way, and thus we are to love God in that way and that love I believe can only be seen in the Trinity. Look at some points we see in these passages that show us this.
First, God is love from all eternity. Notice what Jesus states there in John 17:24, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”
This speaks not only to the eternal nature of God’s love, but to the eternal nature of the Son. The phrase “before the foundation of the world”, is another way of saying eternity past. Before there was a world, before any created thing existed, the Father loved the Son. According to what Jesus states here, the Father and Son have eternally had a loving relationship.
We also see this eternal nature of God’s love in the statement there in 1 John 4:8, God is love. If God is love then He must have always been love. God does not, nor can He change. He has always been love. He is not just a loving God but He is love.
What we must understand is that God did not begin to love when He created the universe. God did not become love when He created the world because now He had something to love. God does not become love because now He has something to direct that love towards. In fact we must see creation as flowing from the fact that God is love. We know from the Scriptures that God loves the Son from all eternity and it is through His Son that He creates.
We also need to see that God did not create the world because He was missing something, He did not have a need for fellowship. Creation does not complete God in some way. To quote Brunner here, “God does not need a world, He wills it, and He wills it because He will to give Himself.” God does it out of love, because as I said, God loves to love, and thus loves to be loved.
So we see from our passages that God’s love is eternal for God is love. There has, according to Jesus, always been a love between Him and the Father, therefore we see through this eternal love that there is more then one person within the Godhead.
What we also see in these passages is that God goes beyond just the demonstration of His love in creation, but makes that eternal love manifest by entering into that creation through the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, in order to bring eternal life to His people.
Once more in looking back to our passages. Look at John 17:23; “so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” Notice how it is that the we know that God loved us as He loved the Son, Because He send the Son to bring eternal life.
This same truth is stated in 1 John 4:9, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”
I think we need to stress the phrase “Only Son”. There is only one Son. Jesus is absolutely unique, and His mission was absolutely unique. God does not send another creature into the world, that would not be anything special. He does not send another angel into the world, again that would not be distinctive, He had done that before. No, in order to demonstrate His love God does something amazing, sometime remarkable, something He had never done before, He sends His Only Son. What we see is the creator entering into His creation. That is what makes this manifested love so incredibly astonishing. I will demonstrate in some future sermons that the Scriptures do indeed teach, beyond a doubt the divine nature of Jesus Christ.
But what we must see is that if you take away the Triune nature of God, and reduce Jesus to a mere creature, or if you remove His eternal nature, I say you destroy the way God says He will manifest His love. God tells us in His word this is how He will manifest my love, He will send His Son, His Only Son, that Son who shares in His nature, essence, glory. That Son will comes and bring salvation to His people. That is how God states He will manifest His love.
That word in Greek “manifest” in 1 John 4:9 is “Phaneroo” means to make something visible, or to make known something that was hidden before. So we see that God makes His love visible through Jesus Christ. That is through the work of salvation accomplished by the Son. This is something we are told over and over in 1 John.
In fact this is how John begin this epistle. Look at 1 John 1:1-2; “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life–– the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us––”
John states here that this life, that is eternal life which is in Jesus Christ. He states that this life was “With that Father” and that it was made manifest, or made visible to us.
This reminds me of what John states in John 1:1, 14; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” That is how the Bible states God manifested His love, that the Word, who was God, became flesh, died for our sins, rose again, and now has returned to the glory He shared with the Father.
I really feel the need to drive this point home because it is so important, because if we fail to see this, we fail to see the magnitude of the love of God, we will fail to see the magnitude of God Himself.
In 1 John John uses the Greek word “Phaneroo” five times. Five times he uses in reference to God making manifest or visible the work of Christ, which we have seen is Him making His love visible to us.
In 1 John 3:5 we read, “You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.” The “appeared” is that same Greek word. Jesus is made visible to take away our sins.
Also 1 John 3:8; “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” Again that word appeared is the same Greek word. Jesus is made manifest to destroy the works of the devil. That is free us from the bondage of sin.
I point out those to you so you understand that they fall into the category of how God manifested or makes visible His love to us.
A couple more verses to consider from 1 John. Look at 1 John 3:1; “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him”
What kind of love does the Father have for us, a love by which we are make His Children.
Also 1 John 3:16; “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” How do we know love, through the atoning death of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
One of the central messages of 1 John is clear, God has made manifest, or made visible, His love through the work of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. And may I repeat what I said earlier if you take away the Triune nature of God, and reduce Jesus to a mere creature, or if you remove His eternal nature, I say you destroy the way God says He will manifest His love.
The last point to make is that this love that God manifest toward us does have an effect of us, and that is cause us to love God and to love, the way He desires us to. Again looking to our passage, this time 1 John 4:10; “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
Also in 1 John 4:19; “We love because he first loved us.”
The passage are clear, for us to love we must first be loved by God. For us to have true love towards God and others, He had to love us first. For us to love we must experience the love of God through Jesus Christ. We must experience in the way that the Word of God states God has manifested it. Thus we see in this not only does God love to love, but He loves to be loved.
And that brings us to the place we began, that God loves to love, and God desires us to return that love. But it must be the same kind of love that He gives toward us.
But let us not lose sight of the bigger picture that we have been looking at, and that is the Trinity is at its core about love. For by it I say we learn the true extent of the love of God. But if you deny the Triune nature of God, you will not appreciate the scope of that love.
You see it was God who gave Himself for our salvation. What would be a greater display of God’s love, God entering into His creation to suffer and die and rise again for us, or God simply sending a creature to do that.
We are told in Titus 2:13-14 “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” I
It was Jesus Christ who is our great God and Saviour, who gave Himself for us. To redeem us, and to purify for Himself a people for his own possession. We are the people of Christ according to this verse.
But in 1 Peter 2:10 we are told “Once you were not a people, but now you are God‘s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
We are the people of God, we are the people of Christ, the same people, the same God.
Another passage to look at Acts 20:28 “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” How was the church of God obtained? Through whose blood? The Blood of God.
But are we not told this in Heb. 13:12 “So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.”
The point I believe is clear that it is by God’s love that we have eternal life. It is a love that is about what God did, not a creature of God. If you deny the triune nature of God, you end up denying the extent of wonderful incredible love.
So in closing I pray that you have been given some insight today into the love of God and it’s connection with the Trinity, especially in respects to the deity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I pray that you have a better understanding of the truth that God loves to love, and that He loves to be loved.
LET US PRAY
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