In previous blogs we have seen how the Trinity not only defines God, but also allows us to see the image we are meant to be. The Trinity further provides the means of salvation through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection. This provides the opportunity for us to be forgiven, transformed into God’s image and to enjoy God’s presence through the indwelling of the Holy spirit, both now and for all eternity. So, what is our response to this delightful Trinity?
Can we reject a love such as this? Or will we turn your heart to God and believe that Jesus has paid the judgement price for us. Will we ask Him to forgive us and to come and live within us giving us new birth? God offers this as a free gift. Remember, this gift is free to us, but it cost Jesus his very life. If we accept this free gift, we will find that not only will we then delight in God, but find that He will turn our hearts so that they no longer always desire to sin.
But what does this mean? Interestingly, Jesus was asked “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus answered, the most important is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ Then he added, the second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Mark 12:30-32). Wow, just two important commandment!
Well, we had better define the word “Love”. There are many definitions of love in this world. Thankfully, God gives us his by stating, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10-11). This is a totally unselfish love. John goes on to say “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another”. This is a love that has to be learnt from the one who created it, God Himself. It will transform us from the inside out as we obey the two great commandments that Jesus gives to us, out of love for what God has done for us.
I used to think that it was odd that Jesus focused on just 2 commandments. After all, God gave the Israelites 10 commandments, and the religious leaders in Jesus’ time had developed an amazing set of more than 600 laws for everyone to obey. So why just mention 2 commandments? It dawned on me that because the Trinity is love (“for love is from God: 1 John 4:7), and we are made in the image of God, then by definition, the key commandments that must be all important are the ones to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. It may seem so obvious, but to me it was a revelation, that came because I suddenly understood the nature of the Trinity.
What is so incredibly sad, is that other religions focus on obeying rules in order to be right with their deity. This, after all is just behavioral modification. Worse than that, we find we cannot obey those rules consistently, we can only try to. Where is the confidence in this? The rules make us feel righteous some of the time, and we can even boast in this as though it makes us better than others in an attempt to increase our confidence that our deity accepts us.
However, we need first of all a heart transformation so that we love God. Indeed, the Bible talks of needing heart surgery. on us – we need a new heart, and that is what God will give us. This is so clearly stated in Ezekiel 36:25-26 where it states: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” God has to do heart surgery on us and we have to allow it to happen. He needs to repair our broken image, otherwise, we are just trying to please God with our dirt (Isaiah 64:6 puts this very graphically). Trying to obey rules without this surgery is tragic.
However, in Ezekiel 36:27 God says “And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws”. Oh, so we do need to follow God’s laws, but it is a response to what God does in our hearts. Think about this. Obeying laws can never make us a child of God. Instead, as a child we then try to obey those laws with God’s help.
In summary, if obeying laws can get me into heaven and a right relationship with God, then the Trinity was totally misguided in sending Jesus to pay our penalty. Jesus wasted His time and His life and His resurrection is meaningless. To put it bluntly, God was a fool. Or was He?
The Bible makes it clear that accepting this gift of love from God makes you righteous before Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 states: “For our sakes, He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we may become the righteousness of God”. What a gift – being right before the God of the universe, because of what He has done for us.
So my hope is that we now have a greater sense of who the Trinity really is, and that we will see and experience the generous, all giving and unique love that He has for us. Who God is drives everything in our lives, including how to love. Only the Trinitarian God can provide a sure salvation, through complete forgiveness of sins, because of the Son becoming our substitute. Knowing God this way will lead us to be restored into His image, which will result in restored relationships. You see, all of Christianity rests on the nature of God – the Trinity in whom we can delight. Amazingly, almost 3,000 years ago King David stated the same thing (Psalm 37:4): “Delight yourself in the Lord”.