Who Is God?
If you’ve been around a Christian, you may hear them say something like “God is love”. It sounds true, it's easy on the ears, and a concept that everyone can get behind. But, how do we know that's true? Other religions claim that their god is a god of love, so what makes the Christians claim any more true than what others say? Nearly all religions claim that they have a holy book, the true path to life, and a God that is transcendently more loving than we could ever imagine. So why would the God of the Bible be any different? The answer is because the God of the Bible is Trinity. The trinity is not just an aspect of God or characteristic of God, it's who he is. Meaning that He is one God that exists in three coequal persons that all share one essence. God eternally exists as Father, Son, and Spirit. Here's why this is drastically important: if God isn’t trinity, then we have no basis to say that God is love. I know, this can be a lot. If God is truly loving and isn’t trinity, how would he be a loving God without creating you and I? Would that mean that he needs us in order to love and to be loved? This isn’t a god that's self-sufficient or self-reliant, but this is a God that’s dependent on creation in order to be fully complete. One who we might even say “oh poor God, what would you ever do without us?” But here’s why God being trinity is utterly stunning.
When we look at how Jesus talks about his relationship with The Father, the theme we most often see in their relationship is one of mutual adoration. During the baptism of Jesus, we get a glimpse of how the Father cherishes Christ, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:16-17). The driving force that draws mutual love between Father and Son is the Spirit himself who perfects and beautifies all things. We first see the Spirit’s work in Genesis 1 as He hovers over the face of the waters and is molding the formless and void earth that was spoken into existence. In John 17:24, Jesus is speaking to the Father on our behalf this lush and rich prayer, and found within it, we see what their relationship was like prior to creation, “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.” In the text we see Jesus desire to share Himself with mankind, a shared glory, and all done out of love given from the Father. The best way I’ve seen this be put is in the book Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves, where he goes on to explain what it means for God to be a loving Father. Before God was a creator, king, or even almighty, he was simply a Father eternally loving his Son through the Spirit in perfect harmony. It was true bliss in every sense of the word. We don’t worship and behold some heavenly police officer, we get to savor and delight in a God who nourishes and cares for us in all things He does. We have a God who is all powerful, yet willingly took on the form of a servant. We have a God who knows all things, yet delights when we pray our highest joy and deepest sorrow to Him because He cares for us. You and I will never be able to grasp all of who God is, but it will be the greatest privilege of our lives to continue in our pursuit of knowing till eternity’s end.
My prayer for you is that in your endeavor in knowing God greater every day, that you would rely on God all the more in the process. God delights in revealing His word through His Spirit who continues to illuminate the hearts and minds to greater depths and fuller satisfaction in Him and Him alone. I’ll leave you with a quote that has changed my outlook on not just knowing God, but the skill of learning altogether.
“The heart cannot love what the mind does not know.” - Jen Wilkin
Here is a list of some resources that have helped me in understanding the Trinity:
Delighting in the Trinity - Michael Reeves
Knowing Faith Podcast Ep. 3 - Is God three or one?
On the incarnation - St. Athanasius (newest edition with the foreword by C.S. Lewis)