The Holy Hug of the Triune God
Introduction
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Theology is the study of God. Systematic Theology is the study of God in His “parts.” This is well and good as far as it goes. However, there is a danger in this systematized study of God. We often make Him a Holy cadaver! We dissect His attributes, analyze all of the “Omnis,” and given our bent, think we know Who He is and What He is like. But we end up like the blind man trying to describe an elephant by feeling its trunk - our blindness leads us to distorted conclusions. One “theologian” will emphasize God’s Love while another will emphasize His Holiness. Many years ago, I was teaching on the Love of God. A dear elderly lady in the congregation came up to me afterward. She had been married to a respected minister for 50 years. Her words chill me to the bone to this day. “For 50 years I have been taught the Holiness of God. I have no problem with that. But I cannot grasp the Love of God. It seems beyond my reach.” I believe she meant that she knew the Love of God theoretically, systematically, but she could not grasp it relationally! For 50 years, she had the elephant by the trunk!!
I believe that God never intended to be merely “studied.” I believe He intends to be known! John 17:3 sets the tone for all of God’s revelation to man. “And this is life eternal, that they might know You, The Only True God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” In other words, eternity is to be spent knowing God, intimately relating to Him. And eternity for us begins at salvation. In some mysterious way, we creatures of time and space are ushered into eternity, which is timeless and has no boundaries of “space.” Eternity has “only” God!!
To put it another way, eternity is the love bond of the Father and the Son that has always been. The Spirit of God is that Love Bond. This is the implication of John 17:20-26. This is the Son’s prayer to the Father that His people will become one “as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You: that they also may be one in Us.” He declares that the same Glory that the Father gave Him, He has given to His people “that they may be one just as We are one.” And that Glory is the Eternal Spirit who is the Love Bond that proceeds out of the Father to the Son and proceeds out of the Son to the Father. This Divine oneness only exists in the Spirit’s presence. This Union, this Divine oneness, this fellowship is eternity. Before time, this is all there “is.” And that is not a negative statement. That is a beautiful declaration that God is self-existent and that His existence is Love. He needs nothing else.
So where do we come into the picture. Let me fearfully propose a theory. I say fearfully, for whenever we talk about eternity apart from the clear revelation of the Word, it must be with great caution. But let me theorize that the love of God, that love bond between Father and Son, that love which is the Spirit, expanded in its eternal expression into an explosion of expression. And that is the creation, Divinely ordered to Glorify the God Who is Love. Creation was to be the expression of the Father’s love for the Son, that is why in Colossians 1:16 “All things were created by Him and for Him; and He is before all things and by Him all things exist.” I think we can understand Hebrews 1:3,4 to say that the Father has declared His incredible Glory through His Son Who is His Word. And this Son is the “brightness of His glory, the express image of His Person.” Those are all words of expression, declaration, manifestation. All of creation is for the declaration of the Triune Godhead. That is what Paul states in Romans 1:19-20. “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has shown it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”
And we were created to behold that incredible glory, the incredible Love bond that is God in Triunity. And more than just behold it, that glorious Godhead is the design standard of our existence. By that I mean, we were created to function only in union and communion with that Divine Glory. Everything about us required that union with this Glorious God Who is Eternal Life. But when Adam chose the tree of knowledge of good and evil over the tree of life, the severance of that union with the Most Holy God meant death. And with the severance from the design pattern, the way we were made to live, the disintegration of all things began to rule creation. Man is now defined by death. And with dying man, all creation groans, subjected to futility (Romans 8:19-23) because God created man to be the “grounds keeper” of creation. And with the “grounds keeper” defined by death, the earth too suffers by that death definition.
Introduction
--------------------------------------------------------------
Theology is the study of God. Systematic Theology is the study of God in His “parts.” This is well and good as far as it goes. However, there is a danger in this systematized study of God. We often make Him a Holy cadaver! We dissect His attributes, analyze all of the “Omnis,” and given our bent, think we know Who He is and What He is like. But we end up like the blind man trying to describe an elephant by feeling its trunk - our blindness leads us to distorted conclusions. One “theologian” will emphasize God’s Love while another will emphasize His Holiness. Many years ago, I was teaching on the Love of God. A dear elderly lady in the congregation came up to me afterward. She had been married to a respected minister for 50 years. Her words chill me to the bone to this day. “For 50 years I have been taught the Holiness of God. I have no problem with that. But I cannot grasp the Love of God. It seems beyond my reach.” I believe she meant that she knew the Love of God theoretically, systematically, but she could not grasp it relationally! For 50 years, she had the elephant by the trunk!!
I believe that God never intended to be merely “studied.” I believe He intends to be known! John 17:3 sets the tone for all of God’s revelation to man. “And this is life eternal, that they might know You, The Only True God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” In other words, eternity is to be spent knowing God, intimately relating to Him. And eternity for us begins at salvation. In some mysterious way, we creatures of time and space are ushered into eternity, which is timeless and has no boundaries of “space.” Eternity has “only” God!!
To put it another way, eternity is the love bond of the Father and the Son that has always been. The Spirit of God is that Love Bond. This is the implication of John 17:20-26. This is the Son’s prayer to the Father that His people will become one “as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You: that they also may be one in Us.” He declares that the same Glory that the Father gave Him, He has given to His people “that they may be one just as We are one.” And that Glory is the Eternal Spirit who is the Love Bond that proceeds out of the Father to the Son and proceeds out of the Son to the Father. This Divine oneness only exists in the Spirit’s presence. This Union, this Divine oneness, this fellowship is eternity. Before time, this is all there “is.” And that is not a negative statement. That is a beautiful declaration that God is self-existent and that His existence is Love. He needs nothing else.
So where do we come into the picture. Let me fearfully propose a theory. I say fearfully, for whenever we talk about eternity apart from the clear revelation of the Word, it must be with great caution. But let me theorize that the love of God, that love bond between Father and Son, that love which is the Spirit, expanded in its eternal expression into an explosion of expression. And that is the creation, Divinely ordered to Glorify the God Who is Love. Creation was to be the expression of the Father’s love for the Son, that is why in Colossians 1:16 “All things were created by Him and for Him; and He is before all things and by Him all things exist.” I think we can understand Hebrews 1:3,4 to say that the Father has declared His incredible Glory through His Son Who is His Word. And this Son is the “brightness of His glory, the express image of His Person.” Those are all words of expression, declaration, manifestation. All of creation is for the declaration of the Triune Godhead. That is what Paul states in Romans 1:19-20. “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God has shown it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”
And we were created to behold that incredible glory, the incredible Love bond that is God in Triunity. And more than just behold it, that glorious Godhead is the design standard of our existence. By that I mean, we were created to function only in union and communion with that Divine Glory. Everything about us required that union with this Glorious God Who is Eternal Life. But when Adam chose the tree of knowledge of good and evil over the tree of life, the severance of that union with the Most Holy God meant death. And with the severance from the design pattern, the way we were made to live, the disintegration of all things began to rule creation. Man is now defined by death. And with dying man, all creation groans, subjected to futility (Romans 8:19-23) because God created man to be the “grounds keeper” of creation. And with the “grounds keeper” defined by death, the earth too suffers by that death definition.