Delighting in the Trinity

1. The Trinity is the vibrant source of God's love, not a dull doctrine.

God is love because God is a Trinity.

Trinity explains love. The concept of the Trinity often sounds cold and irrelevant, but the book argues it's the very reason God is love. A solitary God, alone for eternity before creation, would have no one to love and thus couldn't be inherently loving. The Trinity—Father, Son, and Spirit in eternal relationship—means God has always been loving.

Beyond "how-to". Christianity isn't primarily about lifestyle changes; it's about knowing God. Understanding the Trinity allows us to grasp God's overflowing kindness and loveliness, which in turn transforms our desires and behavior. It's not an intellectual game but a path to deeper enjoyment of God.

Not a problem. The Trinity isn't a bizarre, inexplicable problem or a mere "mystery" in the sense of being unknowable. It's a secret God has revealed about Himself. While we can't exhaust our knowledge of God, we can understand the Trinity because God has made Himself known as Father, Son, and Spirit.

2. Before creation, God was eternally a Father delighting in His Son.

“Father,” he says, “you loved me before the creation of the world.”

God's core identity. Jesus reveals God not primarily as Creator or Ruler, but as Father. This is God's most foundational identity. Before anything else existed, God was eternally a Father loving His Son. This means God is inherently outgoing and life-giving, not needing creation to be who He is.

Eternal relationship. The Son is the eternal Son, never a created being. If there was a time the Son didn't exist, God wouldn't have been Father and thus not loving. The Father eternally begets the Son, like light from a lamp, showing God's nature is to shine out and give life.

Love's cascade. The Father's primary love for the Son establishes a pattern of headship and love. As the Father is the loving head of the Son, the Son becomes the loving head of the church, loving her first. This pattern extends to marriage, where husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church, freely and unconditionally.

3. Creation is the joyful overflow of God's perfect, shared love.

The fountain of love brimmed over.

Love's motive. Unlike solitary gods who might create out of loneliness or need for servants, the triune God creates from an overflow of His eternal, shared love. The Father's delight in the Son is so great that it spills out to create others to share in that love. Creation is an act of grace, not necessity.

Son as blueprint. Jesus Christ, the Son, is the logic and goal of creation. Created "by him and for him," the universe is the Father's gift to the Son, intended to be inherited by Him. Astonishingly, this inheritance is shared with believers, who become "co-heirs with Christ."

Spirit's beautifying work. While the Father conceives creation and the Son executes it, the Spirit perfects and beautifies it. Described as hovering like a dove in Genesis 1, the Spirit vivifies and brings life. Creativity itself is a gift of the Spirit, making the world alive with beauty and reflecting God's own radiant nature.

4. Salvation is being brought into the Father's love for the Son.

I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.

Sin's core problem. Sin is not merely rule-breaking but a deeper perversion of love. Made in the image of the God of love, we were created to love God and others. Sin is turning inward, loving ourselves and other things more than God, twisting our desires away from Him.

Love's ultimate display. God's response to sin reveals the depth of His love. He sent His eternally beloved Son as an atoning sacrifice. The cross shows God's love is holy, strong, and self-giving. The Father gives His glory exclusively to the Son, and the Son shares that glory and the Father's love with believers.

Sharing divine fellowship. Salvation is more than forgiveness; it's adoption into God's family. Through Christ, our High Priest, we are brought before the Father, receiving the Spirit of sonship. We are loved "even as" the Father loves the Son, sharing their intimate fellowship and having the privilege to call God "Abba."

5. The Spirit shares God's life, transforming and beautifying believers.

Where the Spirit is, there it is always summer,” wrote William Tyndale, for there “there are always good fruits, that is to say, good works.”

Giver of life. The Spirit is the "giver of life," bringing new birth to spiritually dead hearts by giving us new desires for God. He uses Scripture to open our eyes to Christ's beauty, winning our hearts back to Him. This new life is not abstract but a sharing in the Spirit's own life of fellowship with the Father and Son.

Personal presence. The Spirit is not an impersonal force but a person who comes to live in believers. This personal presence allows for intimate communion with the Father and Son. Thinking of the Spirit as a force risks reducing grace to a mere "thing" and undermining the deeply personal nature of salvation and the Christian life.

Beautifying work. The Spirit transforms us by cultivating a taste for Christ, the epitome of beauty. He turns our eyes from self-absorption to Christ-obsession, making us more Godlike. This transformation involves aligning our desires with God's, leading to "wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to do every kind of good."

6. The triune God is uniquely desirable and unlike any other god.

The triunity of God is the secret of His beauty.

Beyond the Ruler. Atheist critiques often target a God conceived primarily as a distant, controlling Ruler, which is indeed undesirable. But the triune God is fundamentally a loving Father, whose rule is fatherly care. This God, characterized by love, radiance, and joy, is inherently beautiful and desirable.

Mercy's source. Attributes like mercy are central to the triune God because love of the other is central to His being. A single-person God, eternally alone, would lack this inherent inclination towards mercy. The triune God's mercy is the overflow of His eternal love into fallen time.

Avoiding idols. Without the Trinity, our minds tend to create idols, distorting God into something less lovely or even devilish. Speaking of a generic "God" risks applying horrifying characteristics (like loveless constancy or frightful power) to the wrong being. The Trinity defines and brightens every attribute of God.

7. God's attributes are redefined and brightened by His triune nature.

Holiness is a most beautiful, lovely thing.

Holiness as beauty. Holiness isn't a cold, unloving aspect of God that separates Him from us in a prissy way. It's the perfection and purity of the love between the Father and the Son. God is "set apart" from us not by aloofness, but by the absence of the ugly, selfish traits found in us.

Wrath from love. God's wrath isn't arbitrary rage but His necessary response to evil, stemming from His love. Just as a loving parent hates what harms their child, God's love for His Son, His children, and His creation compels Him to oppose sin and evil. His wrath is proof of His sincere, potent love.

Glory as worth. God's glory isn't a craving for applause but His inherent worth and what makes Him Himself. Giving God glory means recognizing and celebrating who He is—the Father, Son, and Spirit in perfect, overflowing love. His majesty is not distant but displayed in His loving actions, like stooping down to lift the needy.

8. The Trinity is the foundation for human harmony, relationship, and mission.

From harmony, from Heav’nly harmony This universal frame began.

Harmony in diversity. The eternal harmony of the Father, Son, and Spirit provides the logic for a world where distinct beings can exist in unity. Created in God's image, humans are made for relationship and fellowship, reflecting the divine community. This contrasts with monistic views where ultimate reality is sameness, not unity in diversity.

New family. Sin broke human relationships, but the Son reconciles us not only to God but to each other, creating a new family. The Spirit unites diverse people (male/female, Jew/Gentile) into one body, enabling them to cry "Abba" together and love one another. This unity in diversity reflects the triune God.

Outgoing mission. The Christian life is one of sharing God's outgoing nature. Just as the Father sent the Son and the Spirit, Jesus sends His disciples. Mission flows from the overflow of love and delight in the divine fellowship, not from obligation. The Spirit empowers believers to share this joy, making them fruitful and life-giving like their God.

Last updated: May 9, 2025