LIFE SOURCE OF THE UNIVERSE
15/03/24 14:23
For most of my life, I thought little about the trinity, deeming it God but seemingly more abstruse that I wanted to deal with. I do not say that I comprehend the trinity as it is, but I have more understanding than I once did – having learned that the triune God is not a ‘blob’ but is three distinct persons as one God.
THREE PERSONS. ONE GOD
This triune nature is real and ‘oneness theology’ is not. The latter is associated with legalistic fundamentalism and for a reason. Legalism is big on abstractions and fundamentalism is big on abstractions. Christ is big on life because He is Life in Person.
TRUTH IS TRINITARIAN
The tenor of these posts in recent times has been to expound and appreciate the nature of the triune God, since it is the relationships pertaining in God’s three in one being that are/is God’s essence and more. This perichoresis and hypostatic union becomes the active evangelism of God in His reaching out to draw us into Himself so that we may share in God’s life as planned before the dawn of time. The real Gospel means that we participate in God in Jesus Christ. We are drawn in to this fellowship that is God as daughters and sons. Compared to this inclusion in God, legalistic motions are a parody. In Christ the trinity is with you and in you.
THE BEING AND MEANING OF OUR LIFE
It is God as trinity and ourselves as sons/daughters of God in this perichoretic relationship that is the meaning and the achievement of our life in God as saved and authentic sons and daughters of God.
TRINITY
What follows is not an essay by me but a portion of a statement by one of the Church Fathers, Saint Gregory Nazianzen. It reasonably easy to understand and is one of the best summaries of what God as trinity means that I have come across.
“No sooner do I consider the One than I am enlightened by the radiance of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the One.
When I bring any One of the Three before my mind I think of him as a Whole, and my vision is filled, and the most of the Whole escapes me.
I cannot grasp the greatness of that One in such a way as to attribute more greatness to the rest.
ONE GOD, THREE PERSONS
When I contemplate the Three together, I see but one Torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided Light. To us there is one God, for the Godhead is One, and all that proceeds from him is referred to One, though we believe in Three Persons. For One is not more and another less God; nor is One before and Another after; nor are they parted in will or divided in power, nor can you find here any of the features that obtain in divisible things; but the Godhead is, to speak concisely, undivided in being divided; and there is one mingling of Light, as it were of three suns joined to each other.” (1)
In Christ you have fellowship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You are never alone. Because of the atonement won by Christ, the trinity is with you and woven into your being. Live life in the Spirit so that you are alive in your flesh.
(1) Quoted in, Torrance, Thomas F.. The Christian Doctrine of God, One Being Three Persons (T&T Clark Cornerstones) (p. 112). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
THREE PERSONS. ONE GOD
This triune nature is real and ‘oneness theology’ is not. The latter is associated with legalistic fundamentalism and for a reason. Legalism is big on abstractions and fundamentalism is big on abstractions. Christ is big on life because He is Life in Person.
TRUTH IS TRINITARIAN
The tenor of these posts in recent times has been to expound and appreciate the nature of the triune God, since it is the relationships pertaining in God’s three in one being that are/is God’s essence and more. This perichoresis and hypostatic union becomes the active evangelism of God in His reaching out to draw us into Himself so that we may share in God’s life as planned before the dawn of time. The real Gospel means that we participate in God in Jesus Christ. We are drawn in to this fellowship that is God as daughters and sons. Compared to this inclusion in God, legalistic motions are a parody. In Christ the trinity is with you and in you.
THE BEING AND MEANING OF OUR LIFE
It is God as trinity and ourselves as sons/daughters of God in this perichoretic relationship that is the meaning and the achievement of our life in God as saved and authentic sons and daughters of God.
TRINITY
What follows is not an essay by me but a portion of a statement by one of the Church Fathers, Saint Gregory Nazianzen. It reasonably easy to understand and is one of the best summaries of what God as trinity means that I have come across.
“No sooner do I consider the One than I am enlightened by the radiance of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the One.
When I bring any One of the Three before my mind I think of him as a Whole, and my vision is filled, and the most of the Whole escapes me.
I cannot grasp the greatness of that One in such a way as to attribute more greatness to the rest.
ONE GOD, THREE PERSONS
When I contemplate the Three together, I see but one Torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided Light. To us there is one God, for the Godhead is One, and all that proceeds from him is referred to One, though we believe in Three Persons. For One is not more and another less God; nor is One before and Another after; nor are they parted in will or divided in power, nor can you find here any of the features that obtain in divisible things; but the Godhead is, to speak concisely, undivided in being divided; and there is one mingling of Light, as it were of three suns joined to each other.” (1)
In Christ you have fellowship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You are never alone. Because of the atonement won by Christ, the trinity is with you and woven into your being. Live life in the Spirit so that you are alive in your flesh.
(1) Quoted in, Torrance, Thomas F.. The Christian Doctrine of God, One Being Three Persons (T&T Clark Cornerstones) (p. 112). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
