The Trinity: Self-giving Love
Submitted by Dirk Gently on November 01 1999 at 23:55:41
|
This is likely to be long, and perhaps somewhat tedious. I think it's interesting and perhaps even relevant to this forum, but that's for you all to decide. :^) Shema Israel YHWH elohenu YHWH echad! "Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one!" Deuteronomy 6:4 "Who is the LORD?" Christians answer that question in our worship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We affirm that we worship one God, but we also affirm that there is some basis of distinction between the "persons" whom we worship. The Father was not made flesh. It was the Son who became incarnate in the womb of the virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was the Spirit whom the Father sent to anoint the Son when he was baptised by John in the Jordan. It was the Son who was crucified, not the Father or the Spirit. Likewise, the Son sent the Spirit from the Father to indwell the apostles at Pentecost. By affirming that there is distinction in fundamental Reality, we are saying that there is a space for the "other." We are not water droplets, to be absorbed ultimately into the One. Personal identity is built into the fabric of existence because the Self-existing One is not simply "one." "Yeah, but what about that verse you quoted? The LORD is one, right?" Yes and no. In Genesis ch. 1, God's verdict after each progressive stage of creation is that "it is good." After he created man in his image (male and female he created them!), he sees that it is "very good." In Gen. 2, we get a few more details about that "very good" creation. It seems that it was not good for man to be alone, and so a "suitable companion" was created. It was only after Man consisted of a community that God deemed his creation very good. And therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Right from the beginning of the biblical narrative, we see that the image of God consists of a union of persons founded in love. This "one" flesh that is compounded of two bodies is the same word "one" (echad) which is used in Deut. 6:4. (Usually it's used to indicate a solitary entity, an individual, but it can be used to describe a union.) I'm really not interested in addressing the question of what this may mean for human sexuality or gender relations. What I am interested in investigating is the question of what this says about love. In the Gospel of John, Christ said, "Greater love hath no man than this, than he lay down his life for his friends." (Some passages just have to be read in the King James Version. [grin]) Not all of us will be called to physically die for our loved ones, but there is another way of laying down our lives. This is where the "Eastern Orthodox view point" that Heather brought up in her post below comes in. We all must "take up our cross" and "die to self." This sounds horribly dreary and negative, doesn't it? Yet if we look at the example of Christ elsewhere, we can get another perspective. The NIV translates John 13:1 kind of loosely, but the footnotes in other versions I've checked support the idea that in washing their feet, Christ was showing the "full extent of his love." A rabbi in first century Palestine didn't wash anyone's feet, and certainly not his own disciples! This is love in the extreme. "Death before dishonour" is not compatible with the love Christ expects of his followers. Philippians 2:1-8 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. There's a lot in that passage, but what I want to draw out of it is the relation between love and humility. When we love one another as Christ loves us, we will lay down our lives for one another in every thing we do and say. We will crucify the "Self" which views itself as the centre of the universe. This is as far from being "self-destructive" as it is possible to get, for even (or perhaps especially) in despair, we can't see beyond ourselves. "That's all great," you might be saying, "but what do ethics have to do with the Trinity?" Here it comes. God is love. What kind of love is godly? Well, just the kind I've been describing. "God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) The love of God is self-giving. I don't think anyone would argue that. But how could God love before there was anything to love? In other words, if we say that God is love, and we also say that this is something that can never change about him, what was he loving before creation? If we adhere to a strict monotheism, then we're left with two possibilities. Either the love of God in himself is self-centred and narcissistic, and therefore completely unlike the love which he shows to and asks of us, or God did not love until he created something to love. But if he needed a creature in order to love, how can we say that God is love? Now I'm finally going to answer Andy's question about how the Son can be begotten and yet still be God. (Sorry to keep you waiting!) This past century has shown us that time is not absolute. My physics consists of a few years in high school, so I can't give any kind of coherent, scientific explanation, but the point I'm trying to make doesn't require it. That point is simply this: "time" is an aspect of creation. Or to put it in another way, there was no time before creation. And if there was no time, there can be no "before" and "after". The Nicene Creed puts it this way. "I believe...in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made..." In the Orthodox tradition, we view the Father as being the "source" or "head" of the Triune Godhead. This does not have a causal meaning. How could it, if there is no "before" or "after"? What it means is that the Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father. And what does that mean if it's not to be understood in a cause-and-effect manner? If we go back to our definition of godly love as "self-giving love," then we can say that it is the love of the Father which gives of himself in a relationship of "begetting" with the Son. And as the Son receives this self-giving love, he in one sense receives his "self". And likewise, there can be no Father without a Son, so in the Son's humble acceptance of the Father's love, the Father too receives his "self" as Father. There is not nearly as much biblical information about the relation of the Spirit to the Father and the Son, but we know that the Spirit "proceeds from the Father" (John 15:26) and "knows the things of God" just as the spirit of a man "knows the things of a man" (1 Corinthians 2:11). And what would a man know if there was no "spirit" within him? Think of someone with amnesia or Alzheimer's. It's true that the word "trinity" doesn't appear in the Bible, but I think that the doctrine itself is very biblical. All of a sudden, the two great commandments take on a deeper meaning. To love our brother (and our enemy) is to partake in the life of God. To hate anyone is to cut ourselves off from the love of God. In our church, right before we recite the Creed, we sing, "Let us love one another, that with one accord we may confess Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Trinity, one in essence, and undivided." In other words, if we have not love, our worship is empty and vain, a sounding gong and a clanging cymbal. John 17:20-24 "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world." That is our destiny. And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen. |