Death and Resurrection, Part IV

…And yet even this is not the full extent of death and resurrection. It is a reality here and now in our lives, as we talk and eat and sleep and work. The second way we participate in death and resurrection is through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, who changes us more and more in to Christ’s likeness, even in this life.

Through the transforming grace and power of the Spirit, we die to ourselves and are raised to new life in Christ. Because we (humanity as a whole) sinned, we (as individuals) are born into sin and bound to sin by our sinful nature (Ephesians 2:1). We cannot please or obey God, or become like Christ, of our own strength (Romans 8:8). But through the Spirit, given as a gift purchased on the cross, we can change. We can die to our sinful nature and be freed from the prison that is pride – freed from a life where we revolve around ourselves. In Christ we are enabled to see the filth of our sinfulness (we are “worms of the dust” in the words of Jonathan Edwards) and the beauty of God’s holiness, and therefore to see the beauty of what God did on the cross in transferring his righteousness to us, washing away our dirt and making us white as snow. And thus we can be freed from the death of sin and made into creatures who live in Christ, knowing him for who he is and living with gratitude and love for him. Paul puts it this: “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:19-20).* No longer are we trapped in sin and pride – we are enabled to forget ourselves and see God and all that is outside of ourselves. This theme of death to self and new life in Christ is central in all of Paul’s letters. Here are a few relevant NT passages:

• “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his…For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him…So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” – Romans 6:5ff
• “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” – Romans 8:11
• “For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” – 2 Corinthians 4:11
• “…one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” - 2 Corinthians 5:14-15
• “God…because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” – Ephesians 2:4
• “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” – Galatians 6:14
• “…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” – Philippians 3:11

It is a gradual and ongoing process in our lives. Over time the Spirit (and it is no work of our own, but fully a work of God through his Spirit in us) enables us and frees us from our natural, fallen ways. We are made into new people (Ephesians 4:22-24) as the Spirit brings us to life in Christ and a towards a deeper knowledge of and resemblence of him...

*This participation in Christ’s death and resurrection in our own lives is the reality that is symbolized or pictured in baptism. The descent into the water images our death with Christ, and our resurrection to new life in Christ is pictured in the coming out of the water (see Romans 6:3-4, Colossians 2:12). Communion, too, is connected to death and resurrection. The body of Christ, as a community, remembers his sacrifice in giving himself for us on the cross. We participate in this just as we follow Christ in our lives.

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Death and Resurrection, Part III

…This passage also shows how the redemption made possible by Christ is not limited to people, but in fact covers all of creation. The whole of creation is freed from bondage and decay through Christ’s death. Paul writes in Colossians 1:20 that through Christ God “reconcile[d] to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Here we see the redeeming power of God in Christ. As a human being God invaded a fallen and decaying world, penetrating enemy territory, and with the resurrection God turned the tide 180 degrees.

Just as the prophets spoke to Israel of God gathering his scattered people to himself (Deuteronomy 30:3, Isaiah 11:12, 56:8; Micah 2:12, Zechariah 10:8-10), so he is in fact gathering all of this broken and scattered world to himself once more, and bringing in the harvest of the redeemed (Matthew 12:30, Luke 10:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:1, Revelation 14:15). A fallen world lost in sin and full of the discordant, opposing voices of individuals is being brought together in the unity of love – a sacrificial love for others (see my posts on “The Love of God”). A broken world is healed by the Great Healer, and corrupted and depraved creatures are transformed from the inside out into the children of God they were made to be. With Adam, the first man, sin and death entered the whole world, but with Christ, the new man, death was reversed (Romans 5:12-19, 1 Corinthians 15:21). Jonathan Edwards writes, “the work of redemption is that by which good men are, as it were, brought into being, as good men, or as restored to holiness and happiness. The word of redemption is a new creation, according to Scripture, whereby men are brought into a new existence.” The old passes away like a shadow and all things are made new (Isaiah 42:9, 48:6, 65:17; 1 Corinthians 7:31; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Revelation 21:4-5) with the restoration of a still older and deeper beauty. Creation is regathered, reunited, restored, renewed, redeemed, and resurrected.

There are many ways to describe this enormous event, but perhaps the best way is in terms of death and resurrection. This is the extent of the resurrection – a whole dying world is raised to life. God’s victory over death is so powerful and so complete that it spreads over all of redemptive history, raising millions of fallen people from death and resurrecting this fallen world itself, all in the wake of the cross. It’s really quite a cosmic event. The kingdom of heaven will come to this earth – indeed it is already begun through the work of the Spirit…

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Death and Resurrection, Part II

…Perhaps one could say there are two ways in which we die and are raised. First, Christ’s saving work makes possible our bodily resurrection from death, when he returns. Only through the justification achieved on the cross could we sinners be lifted out of sin and death. This is the “general” resurrection from the dead, foreshadowed first in Daniel 12 and spoken of further in the NT, particularly in 1 Corinthians 15. Christ is the “firstborn from among the dead” (Colossians 1:20, Revelation 1:5; see also Hebrews 1:6), and although he is our Lord and King he is called the “firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). Jesus Christ, the man who was God, was the first to rise from death with a new resurrection body. He ushered in the kingdom of heaven on earth and turned the tide in the history of redemption – away from death and decay, and towards life, renewed and restored. We are predestined to be made into his likeness and to be glorified with him (Romans 8:29-30, 2 Corinthians 3:18). Although we live now in natural bodies, bound to death and decay because of sin (it was in the garden that we first died), we will be raised with glorious, imperishable spiritual bodies (1 Corinthians 15:42-57). Similarly, Christ is spoken of as the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep [died]” (1 Corinthians 15:20), and we will follow him, being raised as the fruit of his work on the cross (verse 23, James 1:18). In Romans 8, Paul tells how God ordained the fall, subjecting his creation to the death and decay that resulted from sin. This was done, though, with the greater purpose of resurrection in mind. Redemption is a painful process because we must pass through death and the reality of a fallen world, but we have the hope of glory:

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” – Romans 8:19-23

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Death and Resurrection, Part I

In many of my posts I have written about the theme of Christ’s death and resurrection, an event that is highly significant in many different ways. First and foremost, it is an event ordained, orchestrated, and carried out by God, and he is in every way the central character, “the Alpha and Omega in this affair of redemption” (Jonathan Edwards, Essay on the Trinity). It is the mysterious event at the center of God’s story, his great victory over evil, and reality itself, the climax of redemptive history and the cornerstone behind all the beautiful truth of the gospel, and through it God is most fully revealed in all his wisdom and power. Some may think the message of the cross is foolish or even offensive, and it may seem so on the surface – the whole idea of life through death is certainly counterintuitive – but the cross of Christ is filled with the rich beauty of paradox. There are so many diverse and contrasting facets of what was done on the cross, and that makes it all the more powerful and beautiful as a single, cohesive event. The idea of death and resurrection in general is a theme that finds its way into all kinds of stories, from numerous ancient pagan myths and legends to recent popular films and novels. Finally, it is the cornerstone of our faith, the linchpin and foundation of all we believe. Without death and resurrection, Christianity would crumble and die.

Clearly we witness in the cross of Christ something enormously significant – it speaks to our hearts and minds in many ways, and for many reasons it is essential that we understand it and know what it means. But the power of Christ’s resurrection is so great that it is more than all this for those who believe in his name. Death and resurrection is a reality here and now – those who follow in Christ’s footsteps are not only to know it as fact, but to experience it and participate in it, living out the cross of Christ in our own lives. This theme saturates the entire New Testament.* Let’s take a look at what the Scriptures have to say about the death and resurrection of those who follow Christ…

*The theme of resurrection from death and joy rising out of mourning is present in the Old Testament as well, although in more veiled ways. God’s chosen people, the Israelites, turn away from God again and again and must face the punishment of justice again and again. But the prophets always keep an element of hope in the messages, even in the darkest times, when God’s people are in exile and his temple in ruins. They speak of redemption, saying that in the aftermath of judgment there may come a day when God breathes life into dead Israel and turns her grief into joy (for example, see Jeremiah 31). Isaiah foretells the coming of a suffering servant who will bring healing and salvation to Israel (Isaiah 53). There is always the glimpse of a light at the end of the tunnel, and renewed hope for salvation and restoration sometimes springs to life out of the shadows. It is a hope founded on the faithfulness and saving power of God.

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Who Is God?

Thoughts on who God is (his nature and character) and how we can know him (revelation):

• Staring at the Sun: How can we possibly know God? It is like staring at the sun. We will never know God in his fullness, and this is cause for more wonder and joy, not less.
• How Should We Think of God? If God is an unexplored continent, we are only in the farthest borderlands. No, we can hardly even see the shore on the horizon yet. What must that great country be like?
• Does God need creation?
• To what extent is it really possible to describe God with human language?

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The Trinity: Joining the Dance of God

It is out of this life and love of God that human beings, created in God’s image to know and love God, came to be. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity, “God is not a static thing – not even a person – but a dynamic pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama…[T]he mysterious something which is behind all things must be more than a person…something superpersonal…The whole purpose for which we exist is to be taken into the life of God.” It is into this “dance” that we, created beings in the image of God, are invited. Tim Keller makes this the theme of the last chapter of his book The Reason for God; he writes, “if God is triune, then loving relationships in community are ‘the great fountain…at the center of reality’” (The Reason for God p. 216). The end goal of redemptive history is “that [Christ] and his Father, his people, should be as one society one family; that the church should be as it were admitted into the society of the blessed Trinity” (Edwards, The Excellency of Christ). And not only are we invited to take part in the love that comes from God, but also his joy. The whole of Scripture is perfectly clear on this point. We are commanded again and again to be happy:

• “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” – Philippians 4:4
• “Rejoice always.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:16
• “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace.” – Romans 15:13
• “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready.” – Revelation 19:7
• Paul’s joy in Christ and desire to see others share that joy overflows constantly in his letters (Romans 5:2-3, 11; Colossians 1:24, Philippians 3:1, and countless other places).
• The theme of joy in God – in his presence and salvation – cannot be missed in the Old Testament either, and in particular the Psalms (Psalm 20:5, 43:4, 68:3, Ezra 6:16, Deuteronomy 6:16, Habakkuk 3:18, and countless other places).

One can hardly miss the point – God wants us to be joyful in him, and he lets us know again and again! God is a God of joy, taking pleasure in the joy of his creatures! The beauty of it all is that our joy is also God’s glory, as Jonathan Edwards describes so eloquently in The End for Which God Created the World, and John Piper in every one of his books. The only real joy is joy in God, in his beauty and power and goodness and the fullness of all that he is – the joy of knowing him and entering into the community that is centered on the Trinity. This joy both satisfies our deepest desires and brings honor and glory to his name, and it is rooted in God’s nature. And it was this joy that was purchased for us on the cross in a paradoxically beautiful way – through the deepest suffering of God himself. The purpose of the cross, and of all evil and suffering, is nothing more or less than joy – a greater joy for God’s people than could otherwise have been accomplished – the joy of seeing and embracing “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

A knowledge of the Trinity can greatly enrich our understanding of the big picture of what reality is all about. From the ontological foundation of the Triune God of love flows a creation filled with beings in the image of that God, who are teleologically drawn into the community and love of God that was there from the beginning. The persons of the Trinity work in redemptive history in unique ways in order that God’s people may more fully see the beauty and majesty of the Trinity. He is the Author of this great story that is reality itself, and the Composer of the music of creation, and the Orderer of all things. And all that he writes or composes or designs, all that he brings into being, is imbued with his beauty and ordained so that his creatures may know him – the One who lives as three.

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The Trinity: Love and Joy in the Being of God

Understanding the Trinity helps us to see how “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Even before the creation of the world, there was love within the community of the Trinity, inherent to the very being of God. If God were not Triune, but instead simply a “one-person being” as we are, perhaps one could still say that it was in his nature to love. But it could not be said that the very act of love was part of God, as it in fact is in the community of the Trinity. Before the foundation of the world, before any created thing existed, the Father and the Son loved and delighted in one another (John 17:24).

Not only is love inherent to God, but joy also. In his remarkable book The Pleasures of God, John Piper works through the Scriptures and identifies the things that are said to bring pleasure to God. First and foremost is the wondrous fact of the Father’s delight in his Son, a theme that comes across again and again in Scripture (Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 3:16-17, 12:18-20, 17:6). The Father delights in and rejoices in his beloved Son! Piper writes:

“Who can look upon the sun shining in full strength? The answer is that God can. The radiance of the Son’s face shines first and foremost for the enjoyment of his Father. ‘This is the Son whom I love; he is my pleasure. You must fall on your face and turn away, but I behold my Son in his radiance every day with love and never-fading joy’…The original, the primal, the deepest, the foundational joy of God is the joy he has in his own perfections as he sees them reflected in the glory of his Son…There is only one fountain of lasting joy – overflowing gladness of God in God. Without beginning and without ending, without source and without cause” (The Pleasures of God 28, 42, 45).

Overflowing from the love and joy within the Trinity came creation (John 1:3, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 1:2). Piper writes of the Son “rejoicing with the Father in the work of making a million worlds” (The Pleasures of God p. 31). From God, the ultimate Reality, came created reality, different from God and something other than God, but imbued with his power and wisdom – and filled with beings capable of love and joy, beings like God himself. Together the Father and Son, in the love of the Spirit, sang creation into existence, and “the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job 38:7).

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The Trinity: An Ontological Foundation

At first glance the doctrine of the Trinity may seem unreasonable or even impossible. How can God be three persons and yet one God? After carefully considering these things, it becomes clear that the being of God is not nearly as simple as we may have thought, and that although we may approach some limited knowledge of God through what he has graciously revealed, he is beyond our comprehension simply because he is God. That is what it means for us to be finite beings and God to be the infinite source of all reality.

We can, I think, deduce from what we observe in the world that there is some sort of Supreme Being – an entity of such power and greatness inherent to its being that it exists of necessity and thus provides an answer in itself as to why anything at all exists. One would expect that only the greatest thing would exist of necessity, upholding its own being, and an all-powerful, infinite Being seems to be the best fit for this “necessary greatest thing.” That is, an all-powerful, infinite Being as the ontological foundation of reality is perhaps the best explanation both of reality in general and of human beings (with consciousness, thought, and emotion) in particular. But why, one might ask, does a three-in-one God exist as opposed to nothing at all? To an extent we must recognize that we will not fully understand why God exists as he does. It seems to me, though, that the explanatory nature of God as “necessary greatest thing” – the source of reality and alternative to nothingness – is preserved in the unity of the Trinity. One might say that if he is three persons God is divided and not one thing, and thus a less great being, or no longer the greatest and most supreme conceivable thing, or even one single thing at all. But God, although he is three persons, is no less One Being – no less One ultimate, absolute, supreme, and infinitely great and powerful entity. The ontological self-existence of God is grounded in the unity – the “oneness” – of his diverse being. That is part of the incomprehensibly wonderful mystery of the Tri-unity of God. If God were not Triune he would not be God. It is in the unity of the diverse perfections of God that the greatest beauty is found.

But still the mystery remains – why is God the way he is? A simpler “Supreme Being” might strike us as something that must exist necessarily, or as something that is “self-explanatory” as a self-existent entity, but does not the Trinity seem a bit arbitrary? Perhaps we can accept that a Triune God might be the greatest possible Being, but why three persons? In this life we will not fully know the answer to that question. A day will come, though, when we will look upon the Trinity with unveiled faces. In that day we will see God for who he is, and he himself, in all the splendor of the fullness of his being, will be the answer. We have seen glimpses of the awesome answer that is this God himself, but the full truth will only be made known to us in the kingdom of heaven – in “the high country of the Trinity where the air is thin.” For now we must accept what God has revealed as sufficient for reasonable faith and press on to know more deeply what can be known of the Triune God with our fallen, mortal minds, while at the same time remembering that we are in over our heads in trying to comprehend things that are beyond us.

It is a remarkable and awesome truth that an unknown Supreme Being should exist instead of nothing, but how much more stunning and astonishing and awe-inspiring it is that this God, this diverse yet united Trinity, exists as opposed to nothingness – that we actually have some knowledge of who God is! It is amazing that the I AM (Exodus 3:14) is Triune – “the Trinity IS.” It’s mind-blowing that this is just the way it is, the way God is, and it is that way so that the redemption of a fallen world can be achieved, a fallen world that the same Triune God ordained because of who He is. Instead of nothing existing, the Trinity exists. Instead of nothing, this reality exists.

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The Trinity in Redemptive History

As distinct persons, the Father, Son, and Spirit play unique roles in the history of the redemption of a fallen world and in God’s act of bringing us humans back into the life and love of God. God’s actions are rooted in his ontologically foundational, eternal, and diverse yet united Being, so although each person plays a unique role, the united Being of God acts to achieve redemption without any tension or conflict within himself (that is, between persons in the Godhead). The purpose of the Trinity is one.

First, the Father begins history with the creation of the world and chooses the Israelites as a starting point for spreading salvation and knowledge of God to the whole world. God the Father sovereignly directs redemptive history and gradually reveals more and more of himself and his plan for salvation to his people Israel. Finally, God the Father gives his only Son in order to atone for our sins and to show us the depth of his love for us (Romans 5:8, Ephesians 3:19). In all this the Father works to raise us from death and return us to the life of being in his presence.

The Son participates in the act of creation along with the Father; numerous verses mention the Son’s involvement in creation in connection with his being the image or reflection of the Father (see John 1:3, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 1:2). The Son, who, as Lewis writes, is “streaming forth from the Father,” enters the world and becomes a man; he is the Mediator, the bridge between us and the Father, and our way of knowing what the Father is like. Just as the Son is the image and reflection of the Father in his very being, so he is the supreme revelation of the Father to us, the very face of God revealed to man (2 Corinthians 4:6). Remember Jesus’s words to Philip, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work” (John 14:9-10, see also John 1:14,18, 14:6). Furthermore, Jesus Christ, being both God and a man, links humanity to God. Through his death and resurrection Christ also perfects humanity and is the first man to be what God intended for man to be – the “firstborn from among the dead” (Colossians 1:18). The whole great event of death and resurrection is begun in and centered on the Son’s death and resurrection and explodes outwards from the cross over all history and all people. In Christ we too are justified and raised from death – the temple curtain is torn in two and the gates of heaven are flung open. It is Christ who paves the way for our resurrection, and it is him we follow in that resurrection.

The Holy Spirit is the gift given to believers, dwelling within us, working through us, and giving us a knowledge and understanding of the things of God. Jesus said that “[the Father] will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth…he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17, see also John 7:39, Acts 1:4-5). The gift of the Spirit, purchased for us on the cross, is the beginning of the kingdom of heaven on earth and provides us with assurance of the final glory that is to come (Ephesians 1:13-14). Like the Son, the Spirit reveals God to us, but in a different, more internal way – through the Spirit we are enabled to understand the things of God and to overcome the sinful nature that has enslaved us (Romans 7-8). Through the Spirit we are sanctified and brought closer to God than we could have come ourselves – the resurrection that began in Christ and is to come fully in the future is begun in us through the Spirit’s work here and now.

Paul summarizes it concisely in Ephesians 2:18: “For through [Christ] we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” It is important to think about the roles of the Trinity in the atonement and with respect to the cross, the central event in redemptive history. Edwards makes this striking insight:

“The Father appoints and provides the Redeemer, and Himself accepts the price and grants the thing purchased; the Son is the Redeemer by offering Himself and is the price; and the Holy Ghost immediately communicates to us the thing purchased by communicating Himself, and He is the thing purchased...it is God of Whom our good is purchased and it is God that purchases it and it is God also that is the thing purchased…All our good is of God the Father, it is all through God the Son, and all is in the Holy Ghost as He is Himself all our good. God is Himself the portion and purchased inheritance of His people. Thus God is the Alpha and the Omega in this affair of redemption.”

Yet again Romans 11:36 comes to mind. Of course, we must remember that Edwards speaks of the economic offices of the persons of the Trinity and how God is revealed to us, but not necessarily of the transcendent persons in and of themselves. Thus, it would be wrong to conclude that it is only the Father to whom we owe a debt, or that only the Spirit is given, and not, in a sense, the whole being of God, or that only the Son suffered for us and not God in all his Triune fullness.* In a different sense, the whole Trinity must participate in each role by virtue of the unity of God. However, it has been revealed to us that each person in the Trinity is the primary worker in each step in the act of redemption, and we would be wise to think of God primarily as he has revealed himself to us.

*If the love between the Father and the Son is personified in the Spirit, as Scripture seems to suggest, then perhaps we can glimpse what the cross may have meant for the Spirit in Jesus' words "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34).

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The Trinity: A Deeper Unity

In all this consideration of the relationship between three distinct persons, we must be careful to remember the unity in the Godhead. Edwards writes:

“There is such a wonderful union between them that they are, after an ineffable and inconceivable manner, One in Another, so that One hath Another and they have communion in One Another and are as it were predicable One of Another; as Christ said of Himself and the Father 'I am in the Father and the Father in Me,' so may it be said concerning all the Persons in the Trinity, the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, the Holy Ghost is in the Father, and the Father in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost is in the Son, and the Son in the Holy Ghost.”

When Christ speaks of unity with the Father and Paul speaks of Christ as the image of God, it seems reasonable to conclude that “whole Divine essence” as Edwards calls it – the same essential nature or tapestry of Divine perfections (the same greatness, goodness, holiness, wisdom, knowledge, power, beauty, justice, love, joy, etc.) – is inherent in each person. Although they play distinct roles and are distinct beings in the Divine order, the persons of the Trinity share the same Divine substance or nature. As the Son is the image of the Father, so in a different way the Father is the image of his image; similarly each person of the Trinity reflects the essence of the others.

Edwards argues that because of this, characteristics specific to any one person of the Trinity are shared with the others in an incomprehensible way that preserves both the distinctness of each person and the unity of one being. Furthermore, because of this deep unity and shared essence between the persons of the Trinity, each is equal in honor; when one person is honored, the whole being of God is honored. Thus we cannot speak of, for example, Christ being praised and not the Father. For example, Paul writes in Philippians 2:11 that the Father is glorified when we say “Jesus is Lord,” and John writes that “he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father” (John 5:23).

I would guess that there is even more to the unity within “the one who lives as three” than a shared essence, but I confess that here I speculate. It seems to me that the most natural interpretation of the Trinity is that although there are three “centers of consciousness” in the Godhead, there is at the same time a shared consciousness that is the mind of the whole Triune God – not a fourth mind, but simply the three combined, almost as if they/“he” are/is tied up together in a “web of being” of sorts. Perhaps this is something along the lines of what Paul meant when he wrote, “the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10-11). (Remember that Paul speaks elsewhere of the Spirit as a person that can be grieved.) Here of course, my perspective is that of a fallen, sinful, and finite creature trying to comprehend the infinite Creator. I am stuck, as Lewis wrote, in two dimensions.

We would be wise to note Edwards’s conclusion, “I am far from pretending to explaining the Trinity so as to render it no longer a mystery. I think it to be the highest and deepest of all Divine mysteries still…Scripture with reason may lead to say something…[though] there are still left many things pertaining to it incomprehensible...No wonder that the more things we are told concerning that which is so infinitely above our reach, the number of visible mysteries increases.”

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