Our triune God: living love

When asked about the oldest creature, some may refer to the 10.000-year-old pines of Tasmania or to a 40.000-year-old shrub there. Others might think of the 200.000 year old seagrass on the coast of the Spanish Balearic Islands. As old as these plants may be, there is something much older - and that is the eternal God revealed in Scripture as living love. Love manifests the essence of God. The love ruling between the persons of the trinity (Trinity) already existed before the creation of time, since eternity. There has never been a time when true love did not exist because our eternal, triune God is the source of true love.

Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) emphasized this truth by referring to the Father as the "lover," the Son as the "beloved," and the Holy Spirit as the love existing between them. Out of his never-ending, infinite love, God created everything that exists, including you and me. In his work *The Triune Creator*, theologian Colin Gunton argues for this Trinitarian explanation of creation, asserting that we must consider the entire Bible as a testimony, not just the creation story in Genesis. Gunton points out that this approach is not new—the early Christian church understood creation in this way. For example, Irenaeus observed that a Trinitarian perspective makes it unobjectionably clear to view creation in light of what happened in Jesus. The God who created everything out of nothing (ex nihilo) did so with full intention—out of love, in love, and for love's sake.

Thomas F. Torrance and his brother James B. used to say that creation was the result of God's infinite love. This is made clear in the words of the Almighty: "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness [...]" (1Mo 1,26)The phrase "Let us [...]" refers to the triune nature of God. Some biblical exegetes disagree, arguing that this view, with its reference to the Trinity, imposes a New Testament understanding on the Old Testament. They typically interpret "Let us [...]" as a literary device (the royal "we") or see it as an indication that God speaks with the angels as his co-creators. However, Scripture nowhere ascribes creative power to the angels. Furthermore, we should interpret the entire Bible in light of the person of Jesus and his teachings. The God who said, "Let us [...]" was the triune God, whether our ancestors were aware of this or not.

When we read the Bible with Jesus in mind, it becomes clear that God's creation of humankind in his image clearly expresses his nature, which manifests itself in love. In Colossians 1:15 and 2 Corinthians 4:4, we learn that Jesus himself is the image of God. He reflects the image of the Father to us because he and the Father are of the same essence in a relationship of perfect love. Scripture tells us that Jesus is connected to creation (including humanity) by referring to him as the "firstborn" before all creation. Paul calls Adam the image (the counterpart) of Jesus, "who was to come." (Röm 5,14)Jesus is therefore, in a sense, the archetype of all humanity. In Paul's words, Jesus is also the "last Adam," who, as the "spirit that gives life," renews sinful Adam. (1.Kor 15,45)...and so that humanity may be transformed in its own image.

As the Holy Scriptures tell us, we have “put on the new [man], who is being renewed in knowledge in the image of his Creator.” (Kol 3,10), and “all with unveiled faces behold the glory of the Lord; and we are being transformed into his image from one glory to another by the Lord who is the Spirit” (2.Kor 3,18)The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus is “the radiance of his [God's] glory and the exact representation of his being.” (Hebr 1,3)He is the true image of God, who tasted death for all by taking on our human nature. By becoming one with us, he sanctified us and made us his brothers and sisters. (Hebr 2,9-15)We were created and are now being created again in the image of the Son of God, who himself reflects for us the holy, loving relationships within the Trinity. We are to live, move, and be in Christ, who is bound to the three-person communion of love between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In and with Christ, we are God's beloved children. Unfortunately, however, those who are unable to recognize God's triune, loving nature easily lose sight of this important truth because they instead adopt various misconceptions.

• A tritheismwhich denies the essential unity of God and according to which there are three independent deities, whereby all relations among them are attributed an externality and not a characteristic inherent in and constituting the essence of God.
• A modalismwhose teaching points to the undivided nature of God, which appears at different times in one of three different modes of being. This doctrine also denies any internal or external relationship with God.
• A Subordinationism, who teaches that Jesus is a creation (or a divine being, but subordinate to the Father) and thus not eternally the God-equal Son of the Almighty. This doctrine further denies that God is intrinsically a Trinitarian relationship of everlasting holy love.
• Other doctrines that, while endorsing the Trinity doctrine, are unable to grasp their very own glory: that the Triune God embodied and gave love in his very nature, even before there was a creation.

Understanding that the Triune God is love by his very nature helps us to see love as the foundation of all being. The focus of this understanding is that everything emanates from and revolves around Jesus, who reveals the Father and sends out the Holy Spirit. Thus, understanding God and His creation (including mankind) begins with this question: Who is Jesus?

It is undeniably Trinitarian thinking that the Father created all and established His kingdom by placing His Son at the center of His plan, destiny and revelation. The Son glorifies the Father and the Father glorifies the Son. The Holy Spirit, not speaking for himself, continually points to the Son, glorifying the Son and Father. Father, Son and Holy Spirit rejoice in this triune love-borne interaction. And when we, children of God, bear witness to Jesus as our Lord, we do so through the Holy Spirit to the glory of the Father. As he prophesied, the true ministry of faith is "in spirit and in truth." With worship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we pay homage to the Elder, who created us in love, that in turn we might love Him and abide in Him forever.

Carried by love,

Joseph Tkach        
President GRACE COMMUNION INTERNATIONAL