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Gender and the Image of God

By Dave Cruver on December 18, 2006 1:54 PM |

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"We are meant to interpret our humanity, our male-female relations, in the light of the Trinity. God is love. Love always implies communion between persons, and that is what we see supremely in God. The Father loves the Son in the communion of the Spirit. The Son loves the Father in the communion of the Spirit in their continuing mutual "indwelling" (perichoresis was the word used by the fathers of the church). The Spirit is the bond of communion between the Father and the Son and between God and ourselves. The Spirit is God giving God's self love. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are equally God (autotheoi). But there is differentiation within God - personal distinctions in the Godhead. There is unity, diversity and perfect harmony. It is this triune God who has being-in-communion, in love, who has created us as male and female in that image to be "co-lovers" (condiligentes in Duns Scotus's expressive word), to share in the triune love and to love one another in perichoretic unity. "Then God said, 'let us make man in our image, in our likeness.' ...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them" (Gen 1:26-27). These purposes of God in creation find their fulfillment in redemption. Therefore, to understand what it means to be in the image of God, one must look at Christ and the new creation in him. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). This does not mean that it does not matter, therefore, whether we are male or female. We do not become unisex. If so, what would be the difference between heterosexuality and homosexuality? There is unity, diversity and harmony which should be reflected in the church. The gospel does not eliminate our gender identity. But as men and women we find our masculine and feminine identity and fulfillment in Christ, our true being in mutual communion."

- James B. Torrance, Worship, Community & the Triune God of Grace, (IVP, 1996), 104-105. (HT: Michael Pailthorpe

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Adoption

perichoresis was the word used by the fathers of the church). The Spirit is the bond of communion between the Father and the Son and between God and ourselves. The Spirit is God giving God's self love. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are equally God (autotheoi). But there is differentiation within God - personal distinctions in the Godhead. There is unity, diversity and perfect harmony. It is this triune God who has being-in-communion, in love, who has created us as male and female in that image to be "co-lovers" (condiligentes in Duns Scotus's expressive word), to share in the triune love and to love one another in perichoretic unity. "Then God said, 'let us make man in our image, in our likeness.' ...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them" (Gen 1:26-27). These purposes of God in creation find their fulfillment in redemption. Therefore, to understand what it means to be in the image of God, one must look at Christ and the new creation in him. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). This does not mean that it does not matter, therefore, whether we are male or female. We do not become unisex. If so, what would be the difference between heterosexuality and homosexuality? There is unity, diversity and harmony which should be reflected in the church. The gospel does not eliminate our gender identity. But as men and women we find our masculine and feminine identity and fulfillment in Christ, our true being in mutual communion." - James B. Torrance, Worship, Community & the Triune God of Grace, (IVP, 1996), 104-105. (HT: Michael Pailthorpe" >Gender and the Image of God
The Trinity
1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Introduction: 1. Notice that on the surface there are essentially two movements of love spoken of in these verses: Christian-to-Christian and God-to-man. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves (another) has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love (another) does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 2. Notice, secondly, that the Christian-to-Christian movement of love is predicated upon the God-to-man movement of love. 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God…[10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins [summarize/restate observation #2]. 3. So even though there is a strong emphasis in these verses upon the movement of love between Christians, John is careful to show that this Christian-to-Christian love is ultimately grounded in the movement of God’s love to man as seen in the work of redemption. Now as important as it is for us to observe these two movements, if that is as far as we go in our understanding of this text’s emphasis on love, we have not gone nearly far enough. ILLUS: The difference between looking at a galaxy through the Hubble Telescope versus journeying into the galaxy itself to explore it. 4. Key Verse for entering the galaxy of love: 1 John 4:8 1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God (referring to the Father), because God (the Father) is love. 5. John’s statement: God the Father is love. Orals Examination Question: How does the doctrine of the Trinity help us understand John’s statement that God the Father is love? 6. Sermon Objective: What I want us to do is to consider the love of the Father not primarily as it relates to man but as it relates to who the Father is in himself, that is, as it relates to who the Father is in His Triune relationships. And then we will make some applications as it relates to love among Christians. ILLUS: Compare the Trinity to an ocean as deep and wide as 10 trillion universes combined So I say with T.F. Torrance, “the truth of the Holy Trinity is more to be adored than expressed” (The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being, Three Persons, ix). I. The Trinity at Creation A. “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1) 1. What does Scripture tell us about this God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth? Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. • This God is one, not two, not three. He is one. And yet from the NT we know that this one God who was at the beginning is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Matthew 28 we have these words of Jesus: Matthew 28:18-19 And Jesus came and said to [his disciples], "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. • Here we have the incarnate second person of the Trinity commanding his disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not in the names. So very clearly, the God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth was and is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 2. Scripture does not just give us the knowledge that the God who in the beginning created all things is Triune, it also tells us how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were involved in creation in the beginning. a. The Father – 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist Psalm 148:1-5 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! [2] Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! [3] Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! [4] Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! [5] Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. Ephesians 3:9 [God gave Paul grace] to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, Revelation 4:11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." • It is the Father who was the direct creator of the heavens and the earth; and it is by the Father’s will that all things exist and were created. And yet notice what Scripture says about the second person of the Trinity, the Son. b. The Son – John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was [now connect this with Genesis 1:1] in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. Colossians 1:16 For by him [that is, Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him [and verse 17 goes on to say that not only were all things created through Christ but also] [17] …in him all things hold together. • Thus far the biblical data tells us that the Father created the heavens and the earth through the Son. So what about the Spirit? c. The Spirit – Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. [2] The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Question: What was the purpose of this hovering? Why was the Spirit hovering over the face of the waters? • Listen to the words of Psalm 104:30. Psalm 104:30 When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. (see Grenz 62) • What is significant here is that the activity of God at work within and upon creation is attributed to the Spirit of God. While there is only one creative activity of God and not three, from the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit, it is the special work of the Spirit to bring the life-giving power of God to bear upon the creature. It is the Spirit of God who is the life of the creature. Micah 3:8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, Isaiah 31:3 The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. 3. Now one of the key thoughts that I want you to keep central in your thinking right now is that at the beginning the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—moved outward and in that outward movement created all that now is. It was not just God the Father who moved outward. It was not just God the Father and God the Son that moved outward. It was God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that moved outward as one God and three persons to create all things in heaven and earth. B. “Let us make man…” (Genesis 1:26) Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let us [plural] make man in our image [plural], after our likeness [plural]. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." [27] So God [singular] created man in his own image, in the image of God [singular] he created him; male and female he created them. 1. The climax of God’s creative activity a. As you know, man was created on the sixth day. On each previous day, including His filling the earth with animals earlier on the sixth day, God formed and filled the created order by saying, “Let there be…Let there be…Let there be…” But when it came time to create man, God did not say, “Let there be man, male and female.” Rather, He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” and then He formed man from the dust of the ground. What this signifies is that man is the climax of God’s creative activity. It is in man that God’s creative activity comes to its intended goal. But what is the intended goal that is reached in the creation of man? In his theology of the Old Testament, Gustav Oehler answers our question: “In all His creating God approves the works of His hands; but still the creating God does not reach the goal of His creation until He has set over against Him His image in man. From this last fact it is plain that the self-revelation of God, the unveiling of His being, is the final end of the creation of the world; or, to express it more generally, that the whole world serves to reveal the divine glory, and is thereby the object of divine joy” (Old Testament Theology, 121). b. Now what Oehler is saying is that in bringing His creative activity to its climax by creating man in His image, God is demonstrating that the unveiling of His being is the final and joyful end for which He created the world. And in placing His image in man God was graciously granting man the privilege of participating and sharing in His divine joy! 2. The Trinitarian significance of verses 26 and 27 and the image of God a. I want to raise a question at this point: If it is true that the God who created all things is Triune, if it is true that in creation the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit moved outward, don’t we have reason to believe that the Triune God moved outward in the creation of man? • I agree with OT scholar Derek Kidner when he says that the use of the plural here is “the plural of fullness…and this fullness, glimpsed in the Old Testament, was to be unfolded as tri-unity” (Genesis, 51-52). • So when we read the words “Let us make man in our image,” what we have once again is the Triune God—not just the Father, not just the Son, not just the Spirit—moving outward in creative activity. a. So what might the image of God in man be? Let me begin answering that question by saying what it is not. The image of God in man is not the image of the Father. It is not the image of the pre-incarnate Son. It is not the image of the Spirit. Rather, it is the image (singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, the image of God is the image of the Triune God. • I believe that Genesis 1:26-27 holds the key to understanding what is the heart of the image of God in man, and what is to be the distinctive feature of our lives as God’s representatives within the created order. • If you recall, creation itself is the result of the Triune God’s movement outward. Creation is not just the result of the Father moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Son moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Spirit moving outward in creative activity. It is the result of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Tri-personal God moving outward in the work of creation. So when we read that the Father, Son, and Spirit agreed together to make man in their image, we have, once again, the Tri-personal God moving outward in creative activity, this time in the creation of man and the placing of his Tri-personal image in man. b. Is it any wonder then that humanity is not just male but male and female? Man was not created just to be one. That’s why God said that it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). Man was created for relationship. The image of God in man cannot truly be understood apart from relationship between persons. As Colin Gunton says, “Just as to be God is not to be an individual but three persons inextricably interrelated as being in communion, so to be man…is to be created for life in community…To be in the image of God is therefore to be in necessary relation to others so made” (The Triune Creator: A Historical and Systematic Study, 208). • At the heart of the image of God in man is the communion of persons. The God who said, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness” is himself an eternal communion of persons. Therefore, to be in the image of God is to be made to live in communion with other persons. 3. Now that we’ve considered the Trinity at creation when the Tri-personal God moved outward in creative activity culminating in the placing of his Triune image in man, let’s back up in time and consider the Trinity before creation. II. The Trinity before Creation A. God’s Essence 1. The Economic Trinity – Theologians have traditionally looked at the Trinity in two ways. This is not to say that there is more than one Trinity, but that there are two ways at looking at the same reality. We can look at the Trinity economically, that’s one way; and we can look at the Trinity ontologically, that’s the other way. What are these two ways at looking at the Trinity? • When we consider the Trinity economically, we are concerned with the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history. We are seeking to answer this question, “What is the particular function of each person of the Godhead in the accomplishment of redemption?” • This brings us back to our question regarding John’s words in 1 John 4:8. “How does the Holy Trinity help us understand John’s words in 1 John 4:8 that God is love?” Most people by far answer this question from the economic perspective. “Well,” they say, “The Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And the Son accomplished that for which the Father sent him, namely, redemption. And the Spirit applies that for which the Father sent the Son to accomplish.” Rarely do people answer this question from the ontological perspective. Why don’t they? Because John himself emphasizes the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history in the verses that follow. 1 John 4:8-11 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. • It is evident from the context that John is thinking of the person of the Father when he says that “God is love.” John says that “God sent his only Son into the world.” So clearly John is mainly thinking about the statement “God is love” from an economic perspective, that is, from the perspective of the love of the Father as it is manifested within the history of redemption. Question: But does this mean that before the Father sent his only Son into the world he was not love? Absolutely not. This leads us to the Ontological Trinity. 2. The Ontological Trinity – When we consider the Trinity ontologically, we are concerned with God as he is in himself. In the economic Trinity we are concerned with the redemptive activity of God. In the ontological Trinity we are concerned with the eternal character of God antecedent to all history. • In the 12th century Richard of St. Victor, a Scot living in France, helped clarify the church’s thinking on the doctrine of the Trinity. 1 Corinthians 13 was huge for him. “Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way” (verses 4-5). Richard of St. Victor essentially reasoned in thus: If Scriptural love is never self-centered, if it is never turned in upon itself, but is always turned out upon another in self-giving and others-benefiting, and Scripture teaches that the Father is love, then the Father could never have been a solitary person. He could never have been isolated or lonely within himself. Question: When we look at “the Father is love” from the ontological perspective, what do we learn? First, we learn that from all eternity the Father has overflowed with perfect love to the Son, and the Son from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Father poured out upon him. Second, we learn that from all eternity the Son overflowed with perfect love to the Father, and the Father from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Son poured out upon Him. Third, Scripture teaches that from all eternity the Spirit has been and continues to be the mutual love and the bond of love between the Father and the Son (2 Corinthians 13:14, “communion of the Holy Spirit”). • This is what the church has historically referred to the Trinity as the Communion of Love. From all eternity perfect love has perpetually flowed among the persons of the Trinity. So we see that the Triune God’s movement outward at creation was not a new thing. The Triune God has always moved outward within himself as the Tri-personal God. It is out of this eternal outward movement of love within himself that God chose to make a world and place his Tri-personal image in man in order that man might share, might participate in the eternal riches of the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is. Enter the problem… B. God’s Grace (2 Corinthians 8) 1. As we know, at the Fall man forfeited the blessing of sharing in the love which from all eternity has flowed perpetually between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man suddenly found himself in utter poverty as he no longer enjoyed the privilege of participating in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. Man who was created in the image of God suddenly found himself cut off from the river of love that unendingly flows among the three persons of the Trinity. But even as we know this, Paul says that we: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. • Is the wealth of Jesus to which Paul refers financial wealth? No, it was the wealth of the communion of love which he eternally enjoyed with the Father. Question: What was Jesus’ poverty? Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" • He became utterly poor at the cross when his eternal communion with the Father was broken. Notice the purpose for which Jesus became poor: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. Question: What do you think our wealth is to which Paul refers here? “The gospel…concerns the triune God’s self-communication for the purpose of enlarging the circle of communion. The gospel proclaims a new possibility, namely, that of becoming a ‘communicant’ in the life of God…The gospel is ultimately unintelligible apart from Trinitarian theology. Only the doctrine of the Trinity adequately accounts for how those who are not God come to share in the fellowship of Father and Son through the Spirit” (The Drama of Doctrine, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, 43). Galatians 4:4-6 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. [6] And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" • God sent his Son into the world to give us the status of sonship. He sent his Spirit into our hearts to give us the experience of that sonship, that is, to give us the experience of the Communion of Love that the Son has eternally enjoyed with the Father! And at the center of this great text is the redemptive work of Christ. This becomes clear when you read Galatians 4:4-5 and Galatians 3:13-14 side by side. Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Galatians 3:13-14 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"— [14] so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith (the one whom God sends into our hearts to give us the experience of sonship which is the experience of the Communion of Love!). • So it is because of the cross that we are given to share in the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is! • Consider 2 Corinthians 13:14 in the light of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 8:9. 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (what is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? That he became poor at the cross that we might become rich) and the love of God (what is the love of God? That he sent His son to bear our sin and die in our place) and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (what is the fellowship of the Spirit? It is the communion of love between the Father and the Son! May this grace, this love, this communion, Paul says,) be with you all. • So what is each local church called to be? A community that actively participates in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. This means that Emmanuel Bible Church is to be a communion of persons that together experiences the mutual love between the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit and in that experience of love moves outward in self-sacrificial love toward each other and those outside these walls. Consider again 1 John 4:7-12. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Conclusion: I close with these words from my favorite Trinitarian theologian… "To know this God, who both condescends to share all that we are and makes us share in all that He is in Jesus Christ, is to be lifted up in His Spirit to share in God's own self-knowing and self-loving until we are enabled to apprehend Him in some real measure in Himself beyond anything that we are capable of in ourselves. It is to be lifted out of ourselves, as it were, into God, until we know Him and love Him and enjoy Him in His eternal Reality as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in such a way that the Trinity enters into the fundamental fabric of our thinking of Him and constitutes the basic grammar of our worship and knowledge of the One God (T.F. Torrance, The Ground and Grammar of Theology, 155). ____________________________ Dan Cruver Sermon presented in Pittsburgh, PA

Apologetics

perichoresis was the word used by the fathers of the church). The Spirit is the bond of communion between the Father and the Son and between God and ourselves. The Spirit is God giving God's self love. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are equally God (autotheoi). But there is differentiation within God - personal distinctions in the Godhead. There is unity, diversity and perfect harmony. It is this triune God who has being-in-communion, in love, who has created us as male and female in that image to be "co-lovers" (condiligentes in Duns Scotus's expressive word), to share in the triune love and to love one another in perichoretic unity. "Then God said, 'let us make man in our image, in our likeness.' ...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them" (Gen 1:26-27). These purposes of God in creation find their fulfillment in redemption. Therefore, to understand what it means to be in the image of God, one must look at Christ and the new creation in him. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). This does not mean that it does not matter, therefore, whether we are male or female. We do not become unisex. If so, what would be the difference between heterosexuality and homosexuality? There is unity, diversity and harmony which should be reflected in the church. The gospel does not eliminate our gender identity. But as men and women we find our masculine and feminine identity and fulfillment in Christ, our true being in mutual communion." - James B. Torrance, Worship, Community & the Triune God of Grace, (IVP, 1996), 104-105. (HT: Michael Pailthorpe" >Gender and the Image of God
The Trinity
1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Introduction: 1. Notice that on the surface there are essentially two movements of love spoken of in these verses: Christian-to-Christian and God-to-man. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves (another) has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love (another) does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 2. Notice, secondly, that the Christian-to-Christian movement of love is predicated upon the God-to-man movement of love. 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God…[10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins [summarize/restate observation #2]. 3. So even though there is a strong emphasis in these verses upon the movement of love between Christians, John is careful to show that this Christian-to-Christian love is ultimately grounded in the movement of God’s love to man as seen in the work of redemption. Now as important as it is for us to observe these two movements, if that is as far as we go in our understanding of this text’s emphasis on love, we have not gone nearly far enough. ILLUS: The difference between looking at a galaxy through the Hubble Telescope versus journeying into the galaxy itself to explore it. 4. Key Verse for entering the galaxy of love: 1 John 4:8 1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God (referring to the Father), because God (the Father) is love. 5. John’s statement: God the Father is love. Orals Examination Question: How does the doctrine of the Trinity help us understand John’s statement that God the Father is love? 6. Sermon Objective: What I want us to do is to consider the love of the Father not primarily as it relates to man but as it relates to who the Father is in himself, that is, as it relates to who the Father is in His Triune relationships. And then we will make some applications as it relates to love among Christians. ILLUS: Compare the Trinity to an ocean as deep and wide as 10 trillion universes combined So I say with T.F. Torrance, “the truth of the Holy Trinity is more to be adored than expressed” (The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being, Three Persons, ix). I. The Trinity at Creation A. “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1) 1. What does Scripture tell us about this God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth? Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. • This God is one, not two, not three. He is one. And yet from the NT we know that this one God who was at the beginning is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Matthew 28 we have these words of Jesus: Matthew 28:18-19 And Jesus came and said to [his disciples], "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. • Here we have the incarnate second person of the Trinity commanding his disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not in the names. So very clearly, the God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth was and is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 2. Scripture does not just give us the knowledge that the God who in the beginning created all things is Triune, it also tells us how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were involved in creation in the beginning. a. The Father – 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist Psalm 148:1-5 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! [2] Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! [3] Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! [4] Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! [5] Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. Ephesians 3:9 [God gave Paul grace] to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, Revelation 4:11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." • It is the Father who was the direct creator of the heavens and the earth; and it is by the Father’s will that all things exist and were created. And yet notice what Scripture says about the second person of the Trinity, the Son. b. The Son – John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was [now connect this with Genesis 1:1] in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. Colossians 1:16 For by him [that is, Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him [and verse 17 goes on to say that not only were all things created through Christ but also] [17] …in him all things hold together. • Thus far the biblical data tells us that the Father created the heavens and the earth through the Son. So what about the Spirit? c. The Spirit – Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. [2] The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Question: What was the purpose of this hovering? Why was the Spirit hovering over the face of the waters? • Listen to the words of Psalm 104:30. Psalm 104:30 When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. (see Grenz 62) • What is significant here is that the activity of God at work within and upon creation is attributed to the Spirit of God. While there is only one creative activity of God and not three, from the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit, it is the special work of the Spirit to bring the life-giving power of God to bear upon the creature. It is the Spirit of God who is the life of the creature. Micah 3:8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, Isaiah 31:3 The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. 3. Now one of the key thoughts that I want you to keep central in your thinking right now is that at the beginning the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—moved outward and in that outward movement created all that now is. It was not just God the Father who moved outward. It was not just God the Father and God the Son that moved outward. It was God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that moved outward as one God and three persons to create all things in heaven and earth. B. “Let us make man…” (Genesis 1:26) Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let us [plural] make man in our image [plural], after our likeness [plural]. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." [27] So God [singular] created man in his own image, in the image of God [singular] he created him; male and female he created them. 1. The climax of God’s creative activity a. As you know, man was created on the sixth day. On each previous day, including His filling the earth with animals earlier on the sixth day, God formed and filled the created order by saying, “Let there be…Let there be…Let there be…” But when it came time to create man, God did not say, “Let there be man, male and female.” Rather, He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” and then He formed man from the dust of the ground. What this signifies is that man is the climax of God’s creative activity. It is in man that God’s creative activity comes to its intended goal. But what is the intended goal that is reached in the creation of man? In his theology of the Old Testament, Gustav Oehler answers our question: “In all His creating God approves the works of His hands; but still the creating God does not reach the goal of His creation until He has set over against Him His image in man. From this last fact it is plain that the self-revelation of God, the unveiling of His being, is the final end of the creation of the world; or, to express it more generally, that the whole world serves to reveal the divine glory, and is thereby the object of divine joy” (Old Testament Theology, 121). b. Now what Oehler is saying is that in bringing His creative activity to its climax by creating man in His image, God is demonstrating that the unveiling of His being is the final and joyful end for which He created the world. And in placing His image in man God was graciously granting man the privilege of participating and sharing in His divine joy! 2. The Trinitarian significance of verses 26 and 27 and the image of God a. I want to raise a question at this point: If it is true that the God who created all things is Triune, if it is true that in creation the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit moved outward, don’t we have reason to believe that the Triune God moved outward in the creation of man? • I agree with OT scholar Derek Kidner when he says that the use of the plural here is “the plural of fullness…and this fullness, glimpsed in the Old Testament, was to be unfolded as tri-unity” (Genesis, 51-52). • So when we read the words “Let us make man in our image,” what we have once again is the Triune God—not just the Father, not just the Son, not just the Spirit—moving outward in creative activity. a. So what might the image of God in man be? Let me begin answering that question by saying what it is not. The image of God in man is not the image of the Father. It is not the image of the pre-incarnate Son. It is not the image of the Spirit. Rather, it is the image (singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, the image of God is the image of the Triune God. • I believe that Genesis 1:26-27 holds the key to understanding what is the heart of the image of God in man, and what is to be the distinctive feature of our lives as God’s representatives within the created order. • If you recall, creation itself is the result of the Triune God’s movement outward. Creation is not just the result of the Father moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Son moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Spirit moving outward in creative activity. It is the result of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Tri-personal God moving outward in the work of creation. So when we read that the Father, Son, and Spirit agreed together to make man in their image, we have, once again, the Tri-personal God moving outward in creative activity, this time in the creation of man and the placing of his Tri-personal image in man. b. Is it any wonder then that humanity is not just male but male and female? Man was not created just to be one. That’s why God said that it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). Man was created for relationship. The image of God in man cannot truly be understood apart from relationship between persons. As Colin Gunton says, “Just as to be God is not to be an individual but three persons inextricably interrelated as being in communion, so to be man…is to be created for life in community…To be in the image of God is therefore to be in necessary relation to others so made” (The Triune Creator: A Historical and Systematic Study, 208). • At the heart of the image of God in man is the communion of persons. The God who said, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness” is himself an eternal communion of persons. Therefore, to be in the image of God is to be made to live in communion with other persons. 3. Now that we’ve considered the Trinity at creation when the Tri-personal God moved outward in creative activity culminating in the placing of his Triune image in man, let’s back up in time and consider the Trinity before creation. II. The Trinity before Creation A. God’s Essence 1. The Economic Trinity – Theologians have traditionally looked at the Trinity in two ways. This is not to say that there is more than one Trinity, but that there are two ways at looking at the same reality. We can look at the Trinity economically, that’s one way; and we can look at the Trinity ontologically, that’s the other way. What are these two ways at looking at the Trinity? • When we consider the Trinity economically, we are concerned with the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history. We are seeking to answer this question, “What is the particular function of each person of the Godhead in the accomplishment of redemption?” • This brings us back to our question regarding John’s words in 1 John 4:8. “How does the Holy Trinity help us understand John’s words in 1 John 4:8 that God is love?” Most people by far answer this question from the economic perspective. “Well,” they say, “The Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And the Son accomplished that for which the Father sent him, namely, redemption. And the Spirit applies that for which the Father sent the Son to accomplish.” Rarely do people answer this question from the ontological perspective. Why don’t they? Because John himself emphasizes the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history in the verses that follow. 1 John 4:8-11 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. • It is evident from the context that John is thinking of the person of the Father when he says that “God is love.” John says that “God sent his only Son into the world.” So clearly John is mainly thinking about the statement “God is love” from an economic perspective, that is, from the perspective of the love of the Father as it is manifested within the history of redemption. Question: But does this mean that before the Father sent his only Son into the world he was not love? Absolutely not. This leads us to the Ontological Trinity. 2. The Ontological Trinity – When we consider the Trinity ontologically, we are concerned with God as he is in himself. In the economic Trinity we are concerned with the redemptive activity of God. In the ontological Trinity we are concerned with the eternal character of God antecedent to all history. • In the 12th century Richard of St. Victor, a Scot living in France, helped clarify the church’s thinking on the doctrine of the Trinity. 1 Corinthians 13 was huge for him. “Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way” (verses 4-5). Richard of St. Victor essentially reasoned in thus: If Scriptural love is never self-centered, if it is never turned in upon itself, but is always turned out upon another in self-giving and others-benefiting, and Scripture teaches that the Father is love, then the Father could never have been a solitary person. He could never have been isolated or lonely within himself. Question: When we look at “the Father is love” from the ontological perspective, what do we learn? First, we learn that from all eternity the Father has overflowed with perfect love to the Son, and the Son from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Father poured out upon him. Second, we learn that from all eternity the Son overflowed with perfect love to the Father, and the Father from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Son poured out upon Him. Third, Scripture teaches that from all eternity the Spirit has been and continues to be the mutual love and the bond of love between the Father and the Son (2 Corinthians 13:14, “communion of the Holy Spirit”). • This is what the church has historically referred to the Trinity as the Communion of Love. From all eternity perfect love has perpetually flowed among the persons of the Trinity. So we see that the Triune God’s movement outward at creation was not a new thing. The Triune God has always moved outward within himself as the Tri-personal God. It is out of this eternal outward movement of love within himself that God chose to make a world and place his Tri-personal image in man in order that man might share, might participate in the eternal riches of the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is. Enter the problem… B. God’s Grace (2 Corinthians 8) 1. As we know, at the Fall man forfeited the blessing of sharing in the love which from all eternity has flowed perpetually between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man suddenly found himself in utter poverty as he no longer enjoyed the privilege of participating in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. Man who was created in the image of God suddenly found himself cut off from the river of love that unendingly flows among the three persons of the Trinity. But even as we know this, Paul says that we: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. • Is the wealth of Jesus to which Paul refers financial wealth? No, it was the wealth of the communion of love which he eternally enjoyed with the Father. Question: What was Jesus’ poverty? Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" • He became utterly poor at the cross when his eternal communion with the Father was broken. Notice the purpose for which Jesus became poor: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. Question: What do you think our wealth is to which Paul refers here? “The gospel…concerns the triune God’s self-communication for the purpose of enlarging the circle of communion. The gospel proclaims a new possibility, namely, that of becoming a ‘communicant’ in the life of God…The gospel is ultimately unintelligible apart from Trinitarian theology. Only the doctrine of the Trinity adequately accounts for how those who are not God come to share in the fellowship of Father and Son through the Spirit” (The Drama of Doctrine, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, 43). Galatians 4:4-6 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. [6] And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" • God sent his Son into the world to give us the status of sonship. He sent his Spirit into our hearts to give us the experience of that sonship, that is, to give us the experience of the Communion of Love that the Son has eternally enjoyed with the Father! And at the center of this great text is the redemptive work of Christ. This becomes clear when you read Galatians 4:4-5 and Galatians 3:13-14 side by side. Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Galatians 3:13-14 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"— [14] so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith (the one whom God sends into our hearts to give us the experience of sonship which is the experience of the Communion of Love!). • So it is because of the cross that we are given to share in the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is! • Consider 2 Corinthians 13:14 in the light of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 8:9. 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (what is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? That he became poor at the cross that we might become rich) and the love of God (what is the love of God? That he sent His son to bear our sin and die in our place) and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (what is the fellowship of the Spirit? It is the communion of love between the Father and the Son! May this grace, this love, this communion, Paul says,) be with you all. • So what is each local church called to be? A community that actively participates in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. This means that Emmanuel Bible Church is to be a communion of persons that together experiences the mutual love between the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit and in that experience of love moves outward in self-sacrificial love toward each other and those outside these walls. Consider again 1 John 4:7-12. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Conclusion: I close with these words from my favorite Trinitarian theologian… "To know this God, who both condescends to share all that we are and makes us share in all that He is in Jesus Christ, is to be lifted up in His Spirit to share in God's own self-knowing and self-loving until we are enabled to apprehend Him in some real measure in Himself beyond anything that we are capable of in ourselves. It is to be lifted out of ourselves, as it were, into God, until we know Him and love Him and enjoy Him in His eternal Reality as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in such a way that the Trinity enters into the fundamental fabric of our thinking of Him and constitutes the basic grammar of our worship and knowledge of the One God (T.F. Torrance, The Ground and Grammar of Theology, 155). ____________________________ Dan Cruver Sermon presented in Pittsburgh, PA

Biblical Resources

perichoresis was the word used by the fathers of the church). The Spirit is the bond of communion between the Father and the Son and between God and ourselves. The Spirit is God giving God's self love. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are equally God (autotheoi). But there is differentiation within God - personal distinctions in the Godhead. There is unity, diversity and perfect harmony. It is this triune God who has being-in-communion, in love, who has created us as male and female in that image to be "co-lovers" (condiligentes in Duns Scotus's expressive word), to share in the triune love and to love one another in perichoretic unity. "Then God said, 'let us make man in our image, in our likeness.' ...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them" (Gen 1:26-27). These purposes of God in creation find their fulfillment in redemption. Therefore, to understand what it means to be in the image of God, one must look at Christ and the new creation in him. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). This does not mean that it does not matter, therefore, whether we are male or female. We do not become unisex. If so, what would be the difference between heterosexuality and homosexuality? There is unity, diversity and harmony which should be reflected in the church. The gospel does not eliminate our gender identity. But as men and women we find our masculine and feminine identity and fulfillment in Christ, our true being in mutual communion." - James B. Torrance, Worship, Community & the Triune God of Grace, (IVP, 1996), 104-105. (HT: Michael Pailthorpe" >Gender and the Image of God
The Trinity
1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Introduction: 1. Notice that on the surface there are essentially two movements of love spoken of in these verses: Christian-to-Christian and God-to-man. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves (another) has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love (another) does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 2. Notice, secondly, that the Christian-to-Christian movement of love is predicated upon the God-to-man movement of love. 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God…[10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins [summarize/restate observation #2]. 3. So even though there is a strong emphasis in these verses upon the movement of love between Christians, John is careful to show that this Christian-to-Christian love is ultimately grounded in the movement of God’s love to man as seen in the work of redemption. Now as important as it is for us to observe these two movements, if that is as far as we go in our understanding of this text’s emphasis on love, we have not gone nearly far enough. ILLUS: The difference between looking at a galaxy through the Hubble Telescope versus journeying into the galaxy itself to explore it. 4. Key Verse for entering the galaxy of love: 1 John 4:8 1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God (referring to the Father), because God (the Father) is love. 5. John’s statement: God the Father is love. Orals Examination Question: How does the doctrine of the Trinity help us understand John’s statement that God the Father is love? 6. Sermon Objective: What I want us to do is to consider the love of the Father not primarily as it relates to man but as it relates to who the Father is in himself, that is, as it relates to who the Father is in His Triune relationships. And then we will make some applications as it relates to love among Christians. ILLUS: Compare the Trinity to an ocean as deep and wide as 10 trillion universes combined So I say with T.F. Torrance, “the truth of the Holy Trinity is more to be adored than expressed” (The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being, Three Persons, ix). I. The Trinity at Creation A. “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1) 1. What does Scripture tell us about this God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth? Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. • This God is one, not two, not three. He is one. And yet from the NT we know that this one God who was at the beginning is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Matthew 28 we have these words of Jesus: Matthew 28:18-19 And Jesus came and said to [his disciples], "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. • Here we have the incarnate second person of the Trinity commanding his disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not in the names. So very clearly, the God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth was and is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 2. Scripture does not just give us the knowledge that the God who in the beginning created all things is Triune, it also tells us how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were involved in creation in the beginning. a. The Father – 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist Psalm 148:1-5 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! [2] Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! [3] Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! [4] Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! [5] Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. Ephesians 3:9 [God gave Paul grace] to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, Revelation 4:11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." • It is the Father who was the direct creator of the heavens and the earth; and it is by the Father’s will that all things exist and were created. And yet notice what Scripture says about the second person of the Trinity, the Son. b. The Son – John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was [now connect this with Genesis 1:1] in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. Colossians 1:16 For by him [that is, Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him [and verse 17 goes on to say that not only were all things created through Christ but also] [17] …in him all things hold together. • Thus far the biblical data tells us that the Father created the heavens and the earth through the Son. So what about the Spirit? c. The Spirit – Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. [2] The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Question: What was the purpose of this hovering? Why was the Spirit hovering over the face of the waters? • Listen to the words of Psalm 104:30. Psalm 104:30 When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. (see Grenz 62) • What is significant here is that the activity of God at work within and upon creation is attributed to the Spirit of God. While there is only one creative activity of God and not three, from the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit, it is the special work of the Spirit to bring the life-giving power of God to bear upon the creature. It is the Spirit of God who is the life of the creature. Micah 3:8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, Isaiah 31:3 The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. 3. Now one of the key thoughts that I want you to keep central in your thinking right now is that at the beginning the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—moved outward and in that outward movement created all that now is. It was not just God the Father who moved outward. It was not just God the Father and God the Son that moved outward. It was God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that moved outward as one God and three persons to create all things in heaven and earth. B. “Let us make man…” (Genesis 1:26) Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let us [plural] make man in our image [plural], after our likeness [plural]. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." [27] So God [singular] created man in his own image, in the image of God [singular] he created him; male and female he created them. 1. The climax of God’s creative activity a. As you know, man was created on the sixth day. On each previous day, including His filling the earth with animals earlier on the sixth day, God formed and filled the created order by saying, “Let there be…Let there be…Let there be…” But when it came time to create man, God did not say, “Let there be man, male and female.” Rather, He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” and then He formed man from the dust of the ground. What this signifies is that man is the climax of God’s creative activity. It is in man that God’s creative activity comes to its intended goal. But what is the intended goal that is reached in the creation of man? In his theology of the Old Testament, Gustav Oehler answers our question: “In all His creating God approves the works of His hands; but still the creating God does not reach the goal of His creation until He has set over against Him His image in man. From this last fact it is plain that the self-revelation of God, the unveiling of His being, is the final end of the creation of the world; or, to express it more generally, that the whole world serves to reveal the divine glory, and is thereby the object of divine joy” (Old Testament Theology, 121). b. Now what Oehler is saying is that in bringing His creative activity to its climax by creating man in His image, God is demonstrating that the unveiling of His being is the final and joyful end for which He created the world. And in placing His image in man God was graciously granting man the privilege of participating and sharing in His divine joy! 2. The Trinitarian significance of verses 26 and 27 and the image of God a. I want to raise a question at this point: If it is true that the God who created all things is Triune, if it is true that in creation the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit moved outward, don’t we have reason to believe that the Triune God moved outward in the creation of man? • I agree with OT scholar Derek Kidner when he says that the use of the plural here is “the plural of fullness…and this fullness, glimpsed in the Old Testament, was to be unfolded as tri-unity” (Genesis, 51-52). • So when we read the words “Let us make man in our image,” what we have once again is the Triune God—not just the Father, not just the Son, not just the Spirit—moving outward in creative activity. a. So what might the image of God in man be? Let me begin answering that question by saying what it is not. The image of God in man is not the image of the Father. It is not the image of the pre-incarnate Son. It is not the image of the Spirit. Rather, it is the image (singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, the image of God is the image of the Triune God. • I believe that Genesis 1:26-27 holds the key to understanding what is the heart of the image of God in man, and what is to be the distinctive feature of our lives as God’s representatives within the created order. • If you recall, creation itself is the result of the Triune God’s movement outward. Creation is not just the result of the Father moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Son moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Spirit moving outward in creative activity. It is the result of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Tri-personal God moving outward in the work of creation. So when we read that the Father, Son, and Spirit agreed together to make man in their image, we have, once again, the Tri-personal God moving outward in creative activity, this time in the creation of man and the placing of his Tri-personal image in man. b. Is it any wonder then that humanity is not just male but male and female? Man was not created just to be one. That’s why God said that it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). Man was created for relationship. The image of God in man cannot truly be understood apart from relationship between persons. As Colin Gunton says, “Just as to be God is not to be an individual but three persons inextricably interrelated as being in communion, so to be man…is to be created for life in community…To be in the image of God is therefore to be in necessary relation to others so made” (The Triune Creator: A Historical and Systematic Study, 208). • At the heart of the image of God in man is the communion of persons. The God who said, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness” is himself an eternal communion of persons. Therefore, to be in the image of God is to be made to live in communion with other persons. 3. Now that we’ve considered the Trinity at creation when the Tri-personal God moved outward in creative activity culminating in the placing of his Triune image in man, let’s back up in time and consider the Trinity before creation. II. The Trinity before Creation A. God’s Essence 1. The Economic Trinity – Theologians have traditionally looked at the Trinity in two ways. This is not to say that there is more than one Trinity, but that there are two ways at looking at the same reality. We can look at the Trinity economically, that’s one way; and we can look at the Trinity ontologically, that’s the other way. What are these two ways at looking at the Trinity? • When we consider the Trinity economically, we are concerned with the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history. We are seeking to answer this question, “What is the particular function of each person of the Godhead in the accomplishment of redemption?” • This brings us back to our question regarding John’s words in 1 John 4:8. “How does the Holy Trinity help us understand John’s words in 1 John 4:8 that God is love?” Most people by far answer this question from the economic perspective. “Well,” they say, “The Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And the Son accomplished that for which the Father sent him, namely, redemption. And the Spirit applies that for which the Father sent the Son to accomplish.” Rarely do people answer this question from the ontological perspective. Why don’t they? Because John himself emphasizes the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history in the verses that follow. 1 John 4:8-11 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. • It is evident from the context that John is thinking of the person of the Father when he says that “God is love.” John says that “God sent his only Son into the world.” So clearly John is mainly thinking about the statement “God is love” from an economic perspective, that is, from the perspective of the love of the Father as it is manifested within the history of redemption. Question: But does this mean that before the Father sent his only Son into the world he was not love? Absolutely not. This leads us to the Ontological Trinity. 2. The Ontological Trinity – When we consider the Trinity ontologically, we are concerned with God as he is in himself. In the economic Trinity we are concerned with the redemptive activity of God. In the ontological Trinity we are concerned with the eternal character of God antecedent to all history. • In the 12th century Richard of St. Victor, a Scot living in France, helped clarify the church’s thinking on the doctrine of the Trinity. 1 Corinthians 13 was huge for him. “Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way” (verses 4-5). Richard of St. Victor essentially reasoned in thus: If Scriptural love is never self-centered, if it is never turned in upon itself, but is always turned out upon another in self-giving and others-benefiting, and Scripture teaches that the Father is love, then the Father could never have been a solitary person. He could never have been isolated or lonely within himself. Question: When we look at “the Father is love” from the ontological perspective, what do we learn? First, we learn that from all eternity the Father has overflowed with perfect love to the Son, and the Son from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Father poured out upon him. Second, we learn that from all eternity the Son overflowed with perfect love to the Father, and the Father from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Son poured out upon Him. Third, Scripture teaches that from all eternity the Spirit has been and continues to be the mutual love and the bond of love between the Father and the Son (2 Corinthians 13:14, “communion of the Holy Spirit”). • This is what the church has historically referred to the Trinity as the Communion of Love. From all eternity perfect love has perpetually flowed among the persons of the Trinity. So we see that the Triune God’s movement outward at creation was not a new thing. The Triune God has always moved outward within himself as the Tri-personal God. It is out of this eternal outward movement of love within himself that God chose to make a world and place his Tri-personal image in man in order that man might share, might participate in the eternal riches of the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is. Enter the problem… B. God’s Grace (2 Corinthians 8) 1. As we know, at the Fall man forfeited the blessing of sharing in the love which from all eternity has flowed perpetually between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man suddenly found himself in utter poverty as he no longer enjoyed the privilege of participating in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. Man who was created in the image of God suddenly found himself cut off from the river of love that unendingly flows among the three persons of the Trinity. But even as we know this, Paul says that we: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. • Is the wealth of Jesus to which Paul refers financial wealth? No, it was the wealth of the communion of love which he eternally enjoyed with the Father. Question: What was Jesus’ poverty? Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" • He became utterly poor at the cross when his eternal communion with the Father was broken. Notice the purpose for which Jesus became poor: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. Question: What do you think our wealth is to which Paul refers here? “The gospel…concerns the triune God’s self-communication for the purpose of enlarging the circle of communion. The gospel proclaims a new possibility, namely, that of becoming a ‘communicant’ in the life of God…The gospel is ultimately unintelligible apart from Trinitarian theology. Only the doctrine of the Trinity adequately accounts for how those who are not God come to share in the fellowship of Father and Son through the Spirit” (The Drama of Doctrine, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, 43). Galatians 4:4-6 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. [6] And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" • God sent his Son into the world to give us the status of sonship. He sent his Spirit into our hearts to give us the experience of that sonship, that is, to give us the experience of the Communion of Love that the Son has eternally enjoyed with the Father! And at the center of this great text is the redemptive work of Christ. This becomes clear when you read Galatians 4:4-5 and Galatians 3:13-14 side by side. Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Galatians 3:13-14 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"— [14] so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith (the one whom God sends into our hearts to give us the experience of sonship which is the experience of the Communion of Love!). • So it is because of the cross that we are given to share in the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is! • Consider 2 Corinthians 13:14 in the light of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 8:9. 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (what is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? That he became poor at the cross that we might become rich) and the love of God (what is the love of God? That he sent His son to bear our sin and die in our place) and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (what is the fellowship of the Spirit? It is the communion of love between the Father and the Son! May this grace, this love, this communion, Paul says,) be with you all. • So what is each local church called to be? A community that actively participates in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. This means that Emmanuel Bible Church is to be a communion of persons that together experiences the mutual love between the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit and in that experience of love moves outward in self-sacrificial love toward each other and those outside these walls. Consider again 1 John 4:7-12. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Conclusion: I close with these words from my favorite Trinitarian theologian… "To know this God, who both condescends to share all that we are and makes us share in all that He is in Jesus Christ, is to be lifted up in His Spirit to share in God's own self-knowing and self-loving until we are enabled to apprehend Him in some real measure in Himself beyond anything that we are capable of in ourselves. It is to be lifted out of ourselves, as it were, into God, until we know Him and love Him and enjoy Him in His eternal Reality as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in such a way that the Trinity enters into the fundamental fabric of our thinking of Him and constitutes the basic grammar of our worship and knowledge of the One God (T.F. Torrance, The Ground and Grammar of Theology, 155). ____________________________ Dan Cruver Sermon presented in Pittsburgh, PA

Christian Worldview

perichoresis was the word used by the fathers of the church). The Spirit is the bond of communion between the Father and the Son and between God and ourselves. The Spirit is God giving God's self love. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are equally God (autotheoi). But there is differentiation within God - personal distinctions in the Godhead. There is unity, diversity and perfect harmony. It is this triune God who has being-in-communion, in love, who has created us as male and female in that image to be "co-lovers" (condiligentes in Duns Scotus's expressive word), to share in the triune love and to love one another in perichoretic unity. "Then God said, 'let us make man in our image, in our likeness.' ...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them" (Gen 1:26-27). These purposes of God in creation find their fulfillment in redemption. Therefore, to understand what it means to be in the image of God, one must look at Christ and the new creation in him. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). This does not mean that it does not matter, therefore, whether we are male or female. We do not become unisex. If so, what would be the difference between heterosexuality and homosexuality? There is unity, diversity and harmony which should be reflected in the church. The gospel does not eliminate our gender identity. But as men and women we find our masculine and feminine identity and fulfillment in Christ, our true being in mutual communion." - James B. Torrance, Worship, Community & the Triune God of Grace, (IVP, 1996), 104-105. (HT: Michael Pailthorpe" >Gender and the Image of God
The Trinity
1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Introduction: 1. Notice that on the surface there are essentially two movements of love spoken of in these verses: Christian-to-Christian and God-to-man. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves (another) has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love (another) does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 2. Notice, secondly, that the Christian-to-Christian movement of love is predicated upon the God-to-man movement of love. 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God…[10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins [summarize/restate observation #2]. 3. So even though there is a strong emphasis in these verses upon the movement of love between Christians, John is careful to show that this Christian-to-Christian love is ultimately grounded in the movement of God’s love to man as seen in the work of redemption. Now as important as it is for us to observe these two movements, if that is as far as we go in our understanding of this text’s emphasis on love, we have not gone nearly far enough. ILLUS: The difference between looking at a galaxy through the Hubble Telescope versus journeying into the galaxy itself to explore it. 4. Key Verse for entering the galaxy of love: 1 John 4:8 1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God (referring to the Father), because God (the Father) is love. 5. John’s statement: God the Father is love. Orals Examination Question: How does the doctrine of the Trinity help us understand John’s statement that God the Father is love? 6. Sermon Objective: What I want us to do is to consider the love of the Father not primarily as it relates to man but as it relates to who the Father is in himself, that is, as it relates to who the Father is in His Triune relationships. And then we will make some applications as it relates to love among Christians. ILLUS: Compare the Trinity to an ocean as deep and wide as 10 trillion universes combined So I say with T.F. Torrance, “the truth of the Holy Trinity is more to be adored than expressed” (The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being, Three Persons, ix). I. The Trinity at Creation A. “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1) 1. What does Scripture tell us about this God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth? Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. • This God is one, not two, not three. He is one. And yet from the NT we know that this one God who was at the beginning is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Matthew 28 we have these words of Jesus: Matthew 28:18-19 And Jesus came and said to [his disciples], "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. • Here we have the incarnate second person of the Trinity commanding his disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not in the names. So very clearly, the God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth was and is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 2. Scripture does not just give us the knowledge that the God who in the beginning created all things is Triune, it also tells us how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were involved in creation in the beginning. a. The Father – 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist Psalm 148:1-5 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! [2] Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! [3] Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! [4] Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! [5] Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. Ephesians 3:9 [God gave Paul grace] to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, Revelation 4:11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." • It is the Father who was the direct creator of the heavens and the earth; and it is by the Father’s will that all things exist and were created. And yet notice what Scripture says about the second person of the Trinity, the Son. b. The Son – John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was [now connect this with Genesis 1:1] in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. Colossians 1:16 For by him [that is, Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him [and verse 17 goes on to say that not only were all things created through Christ but also] [17] …in him all things hold together. • Thus far the biblical data tells us that the Father created the heavens and the earth through the Son. So what about the Spirit? c. The Spirit – Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. [2] The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Question: What was the purpose of this hovering? Why was the Spirit hovering over the face of the waters? • Listen to the words of Psalm 104:30. Psalm 104:30 When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. (see Grenz 62) • What is significant here is that the activity of God at work within and upon creation is attributed to the Spirit of God. While there is only one creative activity of God and not three, from the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit, it is the special work of the Spirit to bring the life-giving power of God to bear upon the creature. It is the Spirit of God who is the life of the creature. Micah 3:8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, Isaiah 31:3 The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. 3. Now one of the key thoughts that I want you to keep central in your thinking right now is that at the beginning the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—moved outward and in that outward movement created all that now is. It was not just God the Father who moved outward. It was not just God the Father and God the Son that moved outward. It was God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that moved outward as one God and three persons to create all things in heaven and earth. B. “Let us make man…” (Genesis 1:26) Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let us [plural] make man in our image [plural], after our likeness [plural]. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." [27] So God [singular] created man in his own image, in the image of God [singular] he created him; male and female he created them. 1. The climax of God’s creative activity a. As you know, man was created on the sixth day. On each previous day, including His filling the earth with animals earlier on the sixth day, God formed and filled the created order by saying, “Let there be…Let there be…Let there be…” But when it came time to create man, God did not say, “Let there be man, male and female.” Rather, He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” and then He formed man from the dust of the ground. What this signifies is that man is the climax of God’s creative activity. It is in man that God’s creative activity comes to its intended goal. But what is the intended goal that is reached in the creation of man? In his theology of the Old Testament, Gustav Oehler answers our question: “In all His creating God approves the works of His hands; but still the creating God does not reach the goal of His creation until He has set over against Him His image in man. From this last fact it is plain that the self-revelation of God, the unveiling of His being, is the final end of the creation of the world; or, to express it more generally, that the whole world serves to reveal the divine glory, and is thereby the object of divine joy” (Old Testament Theology, 121). b. Now what Oehler is saying is that in bringing His creative activity to its climax by creating man in His image, God is demonstrating that the unveiling of His being is the final and joyful end for which He created the world. And in placing His image in man God was graciously granting man the privilege of participating and sharing in His divine joy! 2. The Trinitarian significance of verses 26 and 27 and the image of God a. I want to raise a question at this point: If it is true that the God who created all things is Triune, if it is true that in creation the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit moved outward, don’t we have reason to believe that the Triune God moved outward in the creation of man? • I agree with OT scholar Derek Kidner when he says that the use of the plural here is “the plural of fullness…and this fullness, glimpsed in the Old Testament, was to be unfolded as tri-unity” (Genesis, 51-52). • So when we read the words “Let us make man in our image,” what we have once again is the Triune God—not just the Father, not just the Son, not just the Spirit—moving outward in creative activity. a. So what might the image of God in man be? Let me begin answering that question by saying what it is not. The image of God in man is not the image of the Father. It is not the image of the pre-incarnate Son. It is not the image of the Spirit. Rather, it is the image (singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, the image of God is the image of the Triune God. • I believe that Genesis 1:26-27 holds the key to understanding what is the heart of the image of God in man, and what is to be the distinctive feature of our lives as God’s representatives within the created order. • If you recall, creation itself is the result of the Triune God’s movement outward. Creation is not just the result of the Father moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Son moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Spirit moving outward in creative activity. It is the result of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Tri-personal God moving outward in the work of creation. So when we read that the Father, Son, and Spirit agreed together to make man in their image, we have, once again, the Tri-personal God moving outward in creative activity, this time in the creation of man and the placing of his Tri-personal image in man. b. Is it any wonder then that humanity is not just male but male and female? Man was not created just to be one. That’s why God said that it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). Man was created for relationship. The image of God in man cannot truly be understood apart from relationship between persons. As Colin Gunton says, “Just as to be God is not to be an individual but three persons inextricably interrelated as being in communion, so to be man…is to be created for life in community…To be in the image of God is therefore to be in necessary relation to others so made” (The Triune Creator: A Historical and Systematic Study, 208). • At the heart of the image of God in man is the communion of persons. The God who said, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness” is himself an eternal communion of persons. Therefore, to be in the image of God is to be made to live in communion with other persons. 3. Now that we’ve considered the Trinity at creation when the Tri-personal God moved outward in creative activity culminating in the placing of his Triune image in man, let’s back up in time and consider the Trinity before creation. II. The Trinity before Creation A. God’s Essence 1. The Economic Trinity – Theologians have traditionally looked at the Trinity in two ways. This is not to say that there is more than one Trinity, but that there are two ways at looking at the same reality. We can look at the Trinity economically, that’s one way; and we can look at the Trinity ontologically, that’s the other way. What are these two ways at looking at the Trinity? • When we consider the Trinity economically, we are concerned with the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history. We are seeking to answer this question, “What is the particular function of each person of the Godhead in the accomplishment of redemption?” • This brings us back to our question regarding John’s words in 1 John 4:8. “How does the Holy Trinity help us understand John’s words in 1 John 4:8 that God is love?” Most people by far answer this question from the economic perspective. “Well,” they say, “The Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And the Son accomplished that for which the Father sent him, namely, redemption. And the Spirit applies that for which the Father sent the Son to accomplish.” Rarely do people answer this question from the ontological perspective. Why don’t they? Because John himself emphasizes the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history in the verses that follow. 1 John 4:8-11 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. • It is evident from the context that John is thinking of the person of the Father when he says that “God is love.” John says that “God sent his only Son into the world.” So clearly John is mainly thinking about the statement “God is love” from an economic perspective, that is, from the perspective of the love of the Father as it is manifested within the history of redemption. Question: But does this mean that before the Father sent his only Son into the world he was not love? Absolutely not. This leads us to the Ontological Trinity. 2. The Ontological Trinity – When we consider the Trinity ontologically, we are concerned with God as he is in himself. In the economic Trinity we are concerned with the redemptive activity of God. In the ontological Trinity we are concerned with the eternal character of God antecedent to all history. • In the 12th century Richard of St. Victor, a Scot living in France, helped clarify the church’s thinking on the doctrine of the Trinity. 1 Corinthians 13 was huge for him. “Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way” (verses 4-5). Richard of St. Victor essentially reasoned in thus: If Scriptural love is never self-centered, if it is never turned in upon itself, but is always turned out upon another in self-giving and others-benefiting, and Scripture teaches that the Father is love, then the Father could never have been a solitary person. He could never have been isolated or lonely within himself. Question: When we look at “the Father is love” from the ontological perspective, what do we learn? First, we learn that from all eternity the Father has overflowed with perfect love to the Son, and the Son from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Father poured out upon him. Second, we learn that from all eternity the Son overflowed with perfect love to the Father, and the Father from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Son poured out upon Him. Third, Scripture teaches that from all eternity the Spirit has been and continues to be the mutual love and the bond of love between the Father and the Son (2 Corinthians 13:14, “communion of the Holy Spirit”). • This is what the church has historically referred to the Trinity as the Communion of Love. From all eternity perfect love has perpetually flowed among the persons of the Trinity. So we see that the Triune God’s movement outward at creation was not a new thing. The Triune God has always moved outward within himself as the Tri-personal God. It is out of this eternal outward movement of love within himself that God chose to make a world and place his Tri-personal image in man in order that man might share, might participate in the eternal riches of the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is. Enter the problem… B. God’s Grace (2 Corinthians 8) 1. As we know, at the Fall man forfeited the blessing of sharing in the love which from all eternity has flowed perpetually between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man suddenly found himself in utter poverty as he no longer enjoyed the privilege of participating in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. Man who was created in the image of God suddenly found himself cut off from the river of love that unendingly flows among the three persons of the Trinity. But even as we know this, Paul says that we: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. • Is the wealth of Jesus to which Paul refers financial wealth? No, it was the wealth of the communion of love which he eternally enjoyed with the Father. Question: What was Jesus’ poverty? Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" • He became utterly poor at the cross when his eternal communion with the Father was broken. Notice the purpose for which Jesus became poor: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. Question: What do you think our wealth is to which Paul refers here? “The gospel…concerns the triune God’s self-communication for the purpose of enlarging the circle of communion. The gospel proclaims a new possibility, namely, that of becoming a ‘communicant’ in the life of God…The gospel is ultimately unintelligible apart from Trinitarian theology. Only the doctrine of the Trinity adequately accounts for how those who are not God come to share in the fellowship of Father and Son through the Spirit” (The Drama of Doctrine, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, 43). Galatians 4:4-6 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. [6] And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" • God sent his Son into the world to give us the status of sonship. He sent his Spirit into our hearts to give us the experience of that sonship, that is, to give us the experience of the Communion of Love that the Son has eternally enjoyed with the Father! And at the center of this great text is the redemptive work of Christ. This becomes clear when you read Galatians 4:4-5 and Galatians 3:13-14 side by side. Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Galatians 3:13-14 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"— [14] so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith (the one whom God sends into our hearts to give us the experience of sonship which is the experience of the Communion of Love!). • So it is because of the cross that we are given to share in the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is! • Consider 2 Corinthians 13:14 in the light of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 8:9. 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (what is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? That he became poor at the cross that we might become rich) and the love of God (what is the love of God? That he sent His son to bear our sin and die in our place) and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (what is the fellowship of the Spirit? It is the communion of love between the Father and the Son! May this grace, this love, this communion, Paul says,) be with you all. • So what is each local church called to be? A community that actively participates in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. This means that Emmanuel Bible Church is to be a communion of persons that together experiences the mutual love between the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit and in that experience of love moves outward in self-sacrificial love toward each other and those outside these walls. Consider again 1 John 4:7-12. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Conclusion: I close with these words from my favorite Trinitarian theologian… "To know this God, who both condescends to share all that we are and makes us share in all that He is in Jesus Christ, is to be lifted up in His Spirit to share in God's own self-knowing and self-loving until we are enabled to apprehend Him in some real measure in Himself beyond anything that we are capable of in ourselves. It is to be lifted out of ourselves, as it were, into God, until we know Him and love Him and enjoy Him in His eternal Reality as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in such a way that the Trinity enters into the fundamental fabric of our thinking of Him and constitutes the basic grammar of our worship and knowledge of the One God (T.F. Torrance, The Ground and Grammar of Theology, 155). ____________________________ Dan Cruver Sermon presented in Pittsburgh, PA

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perichoresis was the word used by the fathers of the church). The Spirit is the bond of communion between the Father and the Son and between God and ourselves. The Spirit is God giving God's self love. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are equally God (autotheoi). But there is differentiation within God - personal distinctions in the Godhead. There is unity, diversity and perfect harmony. It is this triune God who has being-in-communion, in love, who has created us as male and female in that image to be "co-lovers" (condiligentes in Duns Scotus's expressive word), to share in the triune love and to love one another in perichoretic unity. "Then God said, 'let us make man in our image, in our likeness.' ...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them" (Gen 1:26-27). These purposes of God in creation find their fulfillment in redemption. Therefore, to understand what it means to be in the image of God, one must look at Christ and the new creation in him. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). This does not mean that it does not matter, therefore, whether we are male or female. We do not become unisex. If so, what would be the difference between heterosexuality and homosexuality? There is unity, diversity and harmony which should be reflected in the church. The gospel does not eliminate our gender identity. But as men and women we find our masculine and feminine identity and fulfillment in Christ, our true being in mutual communion." - James B. Torrance, Worship, Community & the Triune God of Grace, (IVP, 1996), 104-105. (HT: Michael Pailthorpe" >Gender and the Image of God
The Trinity
1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Introduction: 1. Notice that on the surface there are essentially two movements of love spoken of in these verses: Christian-to-Christian and God-to-man. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves (another) has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love (another) does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 2. Notice, secondly, that the Christian-to-Christian movement of love is predicated upon the God-to-man movement of love. 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God…[10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins [summarize/restate observation #2]. 3. So even though there is a strong emphasis in these verses upon the movement of love between Christians, John is careful to show that this Christian-to-Christian love is ultimately grounded in the movement of God’s love to man as seen in the work of redemption. Now as important as it is for us to observe these two movements, if that is as far as we go in our understanding of this text’s emphasis on love, we have not gone nearly far enough. ILLUS: The difference between looking at a galaxy through the Hubble Telescope versus journeying into the galaxy itself to explore it. 4. Key Verse for entering the galaxy of love: 1 John 4:8 1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God (referring to the Father), because God (the Father) is love. 5. John’s statement: God the Father is love. Orals Examination Question: How does the doctrine of the Trinity help us understand John’s statement that God the Father is love? 6. Sermon Objective: What I want us to do is to consider the love of the Father not primarily as it relates to man but as it relates to who the Father is in himself, that is, as it relates to who the Father is in His Triune relationships. And then we will make some applications as it relates to love among Christians. ILLUS: Compare the Trinity to an ocean as deep and wide as 10 trillion universes combined So I say with T.F. Torrance, “the truth of the Holy Trinity is more to be adored than expressed” (The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being, Three Persons, ix). I. The Trinity at Creation A. “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1) 1. What does Scripture tell us about this God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth? Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. • This God is one, not two, not three. He is one. And yet from the NT we know that this one God who was at the beginning is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Matthew 28 we have these words of Jesus: Matthew 28:18-19 And Jesus came and said to [his disciples], "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. • Here we have the incarnate second person of the Trinity commanding his disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not in the names. So very clearly, the God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth was and is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 2. Scripture does not just give us the knowledge that the God who in the beginning created all things is Triune, it also tells us how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were involved in creation in the beginning. a. The Father – 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist Psalm 148:1-5 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! [2] Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! [3] Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! [4] Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! [5] Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. Ephesians 3:9 [God gave Paul grace] to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, Revelation 4:11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." • It is the Father who was the direct creator of the heavens and the earth; and it is by the Father’s will that all things exist and were created. And yet notice what Scripture says about the second person of the Trinity, the Son. b. The Son – John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was [now connect this with Genesis 1:1] in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. Colossians 1:16 For by him [that is, Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him [and verse 17 goes on to say that not only were all things created through Christ but also] [17] …in him all things hold together. • Thus far the biblical data tells us that the Father created the heavens and the earth through the Son. So what about the Spirit? c. The Spirit – Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. [2] The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Question: What was the purpose of this hovering? Why was the Spirit hovering over the face of the waters? • Listen to the words of Psalm 104:30. Psalm 104:30 When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. (see Grenz 62) • What is significant here is that the activity of God at work within and upon creation is attributed to the Spirit of God. While there is only one creative activity of God and not three, from the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit, it is the special work of the Spirit to bring the life-giving power of God to bear upon the creature. It is the Spirit of God who is the life of the creature. Micah 3:8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, Isaiah 31:3 The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. 3. Now one of the key thoughts that I want you to keep central in your thinking right now is that at the beginning the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—moved outward and in that outward movement created all that now is. It was not just God the Father who moved outward. It was not just God the Father and God the Son that moved outward. It was God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that moved outward as one God and three persons to create all things in heaven and earth. B. “Let us make man…” (Genesis 1:26) Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let us [plural] make man in our image [plural], after our likeness [plural]. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." [27] So God [singular] created man in his own image, in the image of God [singular] he created him; male and female he created them. 1. The climax of God’s creative activity a. As you know, man was created on the sixth day. On each previous day, including His filling the earth with animals earlier on the sixth day, God formed and filled the created order by saying, “Let there be…Let there be…Let there be…” But when it came time to create man, God did not say, “Let there be man, male and female.” Rather, He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” and then He formed man from the dust of the ground. What this signifies is that man is the climax of God’s creative activity. It is in man that God’s creative activity comes to its intended goal. But what is the intended goal that is reached in the creation of man? In his theology of the Old Testament, Gustav Oehler answers our question: “In all His creating God approves the works of His hands; but still the creating God does not reach the goal of His creation until He has set over against Him His image in man. From this last fact it is plain that the self-revelation of God, the unveiling of His being, is the final end of the creation of the world; or, to express it more generally, that the whole world serves to reveal the divine glory, and is thereby the object of divine joy” (Old Testament Theology, 121). b. Now what Oehler is saying is that in bringing His creative activity to its climax by creating man in His image, God is demonstrating that the unveiling of His being is the final and joyful end for which He created the world. And in placing His image in man God was graciously granting man the privilege of participating and sharing in His divine joy! 2. The Trinitarian significance of verses 26 and 27 and the image of God a. I want to raise a question at this point: If it is true that the God who created all things is Triune, if it is true that in creation the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit moved outward, don’t we have reason to believe that the Triune God moved outward in the creation of man? • I agree with OT scholar Derek Kidner when he says that the use of the plural here is “the plural of fullness…and this fullness, glimpsed in the Old Testament, was to be unfolded as tri-unity” (Genesis, 51-52). • So when we read the words “Let us make man in our image,” what we have once again is the Triune God—not just the Father, not just the Son, not just the Spirit—moving outward in creative activity. a. So what might the image of God in man be? Let me begin answering that question by saying what it is not. The image of God in man is not the image of the Father. It is not the image of the pre-incarnate Son. It is not the image of the Spirit. Rather, it is the image (singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, the image of God is the image of the Triune God. • I believe that Genesis 1:26-27 holds the key to understanding what is the heart of the image of God in man, and what is to be the distinctive feature of our lives as God’s representatives within the created order. • If you recall, creation itself is the result of the Triune God’s movement outward. Creation is not just the result of the Father moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Son moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Spirit moving outward in creative activity. It is the result of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Tri-personal God moving outward in the work of creation. So when we read that the Father, Son, and Spirit agreed together to make man in their image, we have, once again, the Tri-personal God moving outward in creative activity, this time in the creation of man and the placing of his Tri-personal image in man. b. Is it any wonder then that humanity is not just male but male and female? Man was not created just to be one. That’s why God said that it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). Man was created for relationship. The image of God in man cannot truly be understood apart from relationship between persons. As Colin Gunton says, “Just as to be God is not to be an individual but three persons inextricably interrelated as being in communion, so to be man…is to be created for life in community…To be in the image of God is therefore to be in necessary relation to others so made” (The Triune Creator: A Historical and Systematic Study, 208). • At the heart of the image of God in man is the communion of persons. The God who said, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness” is himself an eternal communion of persons. Therefore, to be in the image of God is to be made to live in communion with other persons. 3. Now that we’ve considered the Trinity at creation when the Tri-personal God moved outward in creative activity culminating in the placing of his Triune image in man, let’s back up in time and consider the Trinity before creation. II. The Trinity before Creation A. God’s Essence 1. The Economic Trinity – Theologians have traditionally looked at the Trinity in two ways. This is not to say that there is more than one Trinity, but that there are two ways at looking at the same reality. We can look at the Trinity economically, that’s one way; and we can look at the Trinity ontologically, that’s the other way. What are these two ways at looking at the Trinity? • When we consider the Trinity economically, we are concerned with the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history. We are seeking to answer this question, “What is the particular function of each person of the Godhead in the accomplishment of redemption?” • This brings us back to our question regarding John’s words in 1 John 4:8. “How does the Holy Trinity help us understand John’s words in 1 John 4:8 that God is love?” Most people by far answer this question from the economic perspective. “Well,” they say, “The Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And the Son accomplished that for which the Father sent him, namely, redemption. And the Spirit applies that for which the Father sent the Son to accomplish.” Rarely do people answer this question from the ontological perspective. Why don’t they? Because John himself emphasizes the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history in the verses that follow. 1 John 4:8-11 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. • It is evident from the context that John is thinking of the person of the Father when he says that “God is love.” John says that “God sent his only Son into the world.” So clearly John is mainly thinking about the statement “God is love” from an economic perspective, that is, from the perspective of the love of the Father as it is manifested within the history of redemption. Question: But does this mean that before the Father sent his only Son into the world he was not love? Absolutely not. This leads us to the Ontological Trinity. 2. The Ontological Trinity – When we consider the Trinity ontologically, we are concerned with God as he is in himself. In the economic Trinity we are concerned with the redemptive activity of God. In the ontological Trinity we are concerned with the eternal character of God antecedent to all history. • In the 12th century Richard of St. Victor, a Scot living in France, helped clarify the church’s thinking on the doctrine of the Trinity. 1 Corinthians 13 was huge for him. “Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way” (verses 4-5). Richard of St. Victor essentially reasoned in thus: If Scriptural love is never self-centered, if it is never turned in upon itself, but is always turned out upon another in self-giving and others-benefiting, and Scripture teaches that the Father is love, then the Father could never have been a solitary person. He could never have been isolated or lonely within himself. Question: When we look at “the Father is love” from the ontological perspective, what do we learn? First, we learn that from all eternity the Father has overflowed with perfect love to the Son, and the Son from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Father poured out upon him. Second, we learn that from all eternity the Son overflowed with perfect love to the Father, and the Father from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Son poured out upon Him. Third, Scripture teaches that from all eternity the Spirit has been and continues to be the mutual love and the bond of love between the Father and the Son (2 Corinthians 13:14, “communion of the Holy Spirit”). • This is what the church has historically referred to the Trinity as the Communion of Love. From all eternity perfect love has perpetually flowed among the persons of the Trinity. So we see that the Triune God’s movement outward at creation was not a new thing. The Triune God has always moved outward within himself as the Tri-personal God. It is out of this eternal outward movement of love within himself that God chose to make a world and place his Tri-personal image in man in order that man might share, might participate in the eternal riches of the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is. Enter the problem… B. God’s Grace (2 Corinthians 8) 1. As we know, at the Fall man forfeited the blessing of sharing in the love which from all eternity has flowed perpetually between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man suddenly found himself in utter poverty as he no longer enjoyed the privilege of participating in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. Man who was created in the image of God suddenly found himself cut off from the river of love that unendingly flows among the three persons of the Trinity. But even as we know this, Paul says that we: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. • Is the wealth of Jesus to which Paul refers financial wealth? No, it was the wealth of the communion of love which he eternally enjoyed with the Father. Question: What was Jesus’ poverty? Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" • He became utterly poor at the cross when his eternal communion with the Father was broken. Notice the purpose for which Jesus became poor: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. Question: What do you think our wealth is to which Paul refers here? “The gospel…concerns the triune God’s self-communication for the purpose of enlarging the circle of communion. The gospel proclaims a new possibility, namely, that of becoming a ‘communicant’ in the life of God…The gospel is ultimately unintelligible apart from Trinitarian theology. Only the doctrine of the Trinity adequately accounts for how those who are not God come to share in the fellowship of Father and Son through the Spirit” (The Drama of Doctrine, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, 43). Galatians 4:4-6 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. [6] And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" • God sent his Son into the world to give us the status of sonship. He sent his Spirit into our hearts to give us the experience of that sonship, that is, to give us the experience of the Communion of Love that the Son has eternally enjoyed with the Father! And at the center of this great text is the redemptive work of Christ. This becomes clear when you read Galatians 4:4-5 and Galatians 3:13-14 side by side. Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Galatians 3:13-14 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"— [14] so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith (the one whom God sends into our hearts to give us the experience of sonship which is the experience of the Communion of Love!). • So it is because of the cross that we are given to share in the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is! • Consider 2 Corinthians 13:14 in the light of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 8:9. 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (what is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? That he became poor at the cross that we might become rich) and the love of God (what is the love of God? That he sent His son to bear our sin and die in our place) and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (what is the fellowship of the Spirit? It is the communion of love between the Father and the Son! May this grace, this love, this communion, Paul says,) be with you all. • So what is each local church called to be? A community that actively participates in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. This means that Emmanuel Bible Church is to be a communion of persons that together experiences the mutual love between the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit and in that experience of love moves outward in self-sacrificial love toward each other and those outside these walls. Consider again 1 John 4:7-12. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Conclusion: I close with these words from my favorite Trinitarian theologian… "To know this God, who both condescends to share all that we are and makes us share in all that He is in Jesus Christ, is to be lifted up in His Spirit to share in God's own self-knowing and self-loving until we are enabled to apprehend Him in some real measure in Himself beyond anything that we are capable of in ourselves. It is to be lifted out of ourselves, as it were, into God, until we know Him and love Him and enjoy Him in His eternal Reality as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in such a way that the Trinity enters into the fundamental fabric of our thinking of Him and constitutes the basic grammar of our worship and knowledge of the One God (T.F. Torrance, The Ground and Grammar of Theology, 155). ____________________________ Dan Cruver Sermon presented in Pittsburgh, PA

Gospel Blogs

perichoresis was the word used by the fathers of the church). The Spirit is the bond of communion between the Father and the Son and between God and ourselves. The Spirit is God giving God's self love. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are equally God (autotheoi). But there is differentiation within God - personal distinctions in the Godhead. There is unity, diversity and perfect harmony. It is this triune God who has being-in-communion, in love, who has created us as male and female in that image to be "co-lovers" (condiligentes in Duns Scotus's expressive word), to share in the triune love and to love one another in perichoretic unity. "Then God said, 'let us make man in our image, in our likeness.' ...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them" (Gen 1:26-27). These purposes of God in creation find their fulfillment in redemption. Therefore, to understand what it means to be in the image of God, one must look at Christ and the new creation in him. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). This does not mean that it does not matter, therefore, whether we are male or female. We do not become unisex. If so, what would be the difference between heterosexuality and homosexuality? There is unity, diversity and harmony which should be reflected in the church. The gospel does not eliminate our gender identity. But as men and women we find our masculine and feminine identity and fulfillment in Christ, our true being in mutual communion." - James B. Torrance, Worship, Community & the Triune God of Grace, (IVP, 1996), 104-105. (HT: Michael Pailthorpe" >Gender and the Image of God
The Trinity
1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Introduction: 1. Notice that on the surface there are essentially two movements of love spoken of in these verses: Christian-to-Christian and God-to-man. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves (another) has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love (another) does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 2. Notice, secondly, that the Christian-to-Christian movement of love is predicated upon the God-to-man movement of love. 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God…[10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins [summarize/restate observation #2]. 3. So even though there is a strong emphasis in these verses upon the movement of love between Christians, John is careful to show that this Christian-to-Christian love is ultimately grounded in the movement of God’s love to man as seen in the work of redemption. Now as important as it is for us to observe these two movements, if that is as far as we go in our understanding of this text’s emphasis on love, we have not gone nearly far enough. ILLUS: The difference between looking at a galaxy through the Hubble Telescope versus journeying into the galaxy itself to explore it. 4. Key Verse for entering the galaxy of love: 1 John 4:8 1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God (referring to the Father), because God (the Father) is love. 5. John’s statement: God the Father is love. Orals Examination Question: How does the doctrine of the Trinity help us understand John’s statement that God the Father is love? 6. Sermon Objective: What I want us to do is to consider the love of the Father not primarily as it relates to man but as it relates to who the Father is in himself, that is, as it relates to who the Father is in His Triune relationships. And then we will make some applications as it relates to love among Christians. ILLUS: Compare the Trinity to an ocean as deep and wide as 10 trillion universes combined So I say with T.F. Torrance, “the truth of the Holy Trinity is more to be adored than expressed” (The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being, Three Persons, ix). I. The Trinity at Creation A. “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1) 1. What does Scripture tell us about this God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth? Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. • This God is one, not two, not three. He is one. And yet from the NT we know that this one God who was at the beginning is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Matthew 28 we have these words of Jesus: Matthew 28:18-19 And Jesus came and said to [his disciples], "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. • Here we have the incarnate second person of the Trinity commanding his disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not in the names. So very clearly, the God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth was and is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 2. Scripture does not just give us the knowledge that the God who in the beginning created all things is Triune, it also tells us how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were involved in creation in the beginning. a. The Father – 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist Psalm 148:1-5 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! [2] Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! [3] Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! [4] Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! [5] Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. Ephesians 3:9 [God gave Paul grace] to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, Revelation 4:11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." • It is the Father who was the direct creator of the heavens and the earth; and it is by the Father’s will that all things exist and were created. And yet notice what Scripture says about the second person of the Trinity, the Son. b. The Son – John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was [now connect this with Genesis 1:1] in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. Colossians 1:16 For by him [that is, Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him [and verse 17 goes on to say that not only were all things created through Christ but also] [17] …in him all things hold together. • Thus far the biblical data tells us that the Father created the heavens and the earth through the Son. So what about the Spirit? c. The Spirit – Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. [2] The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Question: What was the purpose of this hovering? Why was the Spirit hovering over the face of the waters? • Listen to the words of Psalm 104:30. Psalm 104:30 When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. (see Grenz 62) • What is significant here is that the activity of God at work within and upon creation is attributed to the Spirit of God. While there is only one creative activity of God and not three, from the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit, it is the special work of the Spirit to bring the life-giving power of God to bear upon the creature. It is the Spirit of God who is the life of the creature. Micah 3:8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, Isaiah 31:3 The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. 3. Now one of the key thoughts that I want you to keep central in your thinking right now is that at the beginning the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—moved outward and in that outward movement created all that now is. It was not just God the Father who moved outward. It was not just God the Father and God the Son that moved outward. It was God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that moved outward as one God and three persons to create all things in heaven and earth. B. “Let us make man…” (Genesis 1:26) Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let us [plural] make man in our image [plural], after our likeness [plural]. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." [27] So God [singular] created man in his own image, in the image of God [singular] he created him; male and female he created them. 1. The climax of God’s creative activity a. As you know, man was created on the sixth day. On each previous day, including His filling the earth with animals earlier on the sixth day, God formed and filled the created order by saying, “Let there be…Let there be…Let there be…” But when it came time to create man, God did not say, “Let there be man, male and female.” Rather, He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” and then He formed man from the dust of the ground. What this signifies is that man is the climax of God’s creative activity. It is in man that God’s creative activity comes to its intended goal. But what is the intended goal that is reached in the creation of man? In his theology of the Old Testament, Gustav Oehler answers our question: “In all His creating God approves the works of His hands; but still the creating God does not reach the goal of His creation until He has set over against Him His image in man. From this last fact it is plain that the self-revelation of God, the unveiling of His being, is the final end of the creation of the world; or, to express it more generally, that the whole world serves to reveal the divine glory, and is thereby the object of divine joy” (Old Testament Theology, 121). b. Now what Oehler is saying is that in bringing His creative activity to its climax by creating man in His image, God is demonstrating that the unveiling of His being is the final and joyful end for which He created the world. And in placing His image in man God was graciously granting man the privilege of participating and sharing in His divine joy! 2. The Trinitarian significance of verses 26 and 27 and the image of God a. I want to raise a question at this point: If it is true that the God who created all things is Triune, if it is true that in creation the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit moved outward, don’t we have reason to believe that the Triune God moved outward in the creation of man? • I agree with OT scholar Derek Kidner when he says that the use of the plural here is “the plural of fullness…and this fullness, glimpsed in the Old Testament, was to be unfolded as tri-unity” (Genesis, 51-52). • So when we read the words “Let us make man in our image,” what we have once again is the Triune God—not just the Father, not just the Son, not just the Spirit—moving outward in creative activity. a. So what might the image of God in man be? Let me begin answering that question by saying what it is not. The image of God in man is not the image of the Father. It is not the image of the pre-incarnate Son. It is not the image of the Spirit. Rather, it is the image (singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, the image of God is the image of the Triune God. • I believe that Genesis 1:26-27 holds the key to understanding what is the heart of the image of God in man, and what is to be the distinctive feature of our lives as God’s representatives within the created order. • If you recall, creation itself is the result of the Triune God’s movement outward. Creation is not just the result of the Father moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Son moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Spirit moving outward in creative activity. It is the result of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Tri-personal God moving outward in the work of creation. So when we read that the Father, Son, and Spirit agreed together to make man in their image, we have, once again, the Tri-personal God moving outward in creative activity, this time in the creation of man and the placing of his Tri-personal image in man. b. Is it any wonder then that humanity is not just male but male and female? Man was not created just to be one. That’s why God said that it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). Man was created for relationship. The image of God in man cannot truly be understood apart from relationship between persons. As Colin Gunton says, “Just as to be God is not to be an individual but three persons inextricably interrelated as being in communion, so to be man…is to be created for life in community…To be in the image of God is therefore to be in necessary relation to others so made” (The Triune Creator: A Historical and Systematic Study, 208). • At the heart of the image of God in man is the communion of persons. The God who said, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness” is himself an eternal communion of persons. Therefore, to be in the image of God is to be made to live in communion with other persons. 3. Now that we’ve considered the Trinity at creation when the Tri-personal God moved outward in creative activity culminating in the placing of his Triune image in man, let’s back up in time and consider the Trinity before creation. II. The Trinity before Creation A. God’s Essence 1. The Economic Trinity – Theologians have traditionally looked at the Trinity in two ways. This is not to say that there is more than one Trinity, but that there are two ways at looking at the same reality. We can look at the Trinity economically, that’s one way; and we can look at the Trinity ontologically, that’s the other way. What are these two ways at looking at the Trinity? • When we consider the Trinity economically, we are concerned with the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history. We are seeking to answer this question, “What is the particular function of each person of the Godhead in the accomplishment of redemption?” • This brings us back to our question regarding John’s words in 1 John 4:8. “How does the Holy Trinity help us understand John’s words in 1 John 4:8 that God is love?” Most people by far answer this question from the economic perspective. “Well,” they say, “The Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And the Son accomplished that for which the Father sent him, namely, redemption. And the Spirit applies that for which the Father sent the Son to accomplish.” Rarely do people answer this question from the ontological perspective. Why don’t they? Because John himself emphasizes the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history in the verses that follow. 1 John 4:8-11 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. • It is evident from the context that John is thinking of the person of the Father when he says that “God is love.” John says that “God sent his only Son into the world.” So clearly John is mainly thinking about the statement “God is love” from an economic perspective, that is, from the perspective of the love of the Father as it is manifested within the history of redemption. Question: But does this mean that before the Father sent his only Son into the world he was not love? Absolutely not. This leads us to the Ontological Trinity. 2. The Ontological Trinity – When we consider the Trinity ontologically, we are concerned with God as he is in himself. In the economic Trinity we are concerned with the redemptive activity of God. In the ontological Trinity we are concerned with the eternal character of God antecedent to all history. • In the 12th century Richard of St. Victor, a Scot living in France, helped clarify the church’s thinking on the doctrine of the Trinity. 1 Corinthians 13 was huge for him. “Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way” (verses 4-5). Richard of St. Victor essentially reasoned in thus: If Scriptural love is never self-centered, if it is never turned in upon itself, but is always turned out upon another in self-giving and others-benefiting, and Scripture teaches that the Father is love, then the Father could never have been a solitary person. He could never have been isolated or lonely within himself. Question: When we look at “the Father is love” from the ontological perspective, what do we learn? First, we learn that from all eternity the Father has overflowed with perfect love to the Son, and the Son from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Father poured out upon him. Second, we learn that from all eternity the Son overflowed with perfect love to the Father, and the Father from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Son poured out upon Him. Third, Scripture teaches that from all eternity the Spirit has been and continues to be the mutual love and the bond of love between the Father and the Son (2 Corinthians 13:14, “communion of the Holy Spirit”). • This is what the church has historically referred to the Trinity as the Communion of Love. From all eternity perfect love has perpetually flowed among the persons of the Trinity. So we see that the Triune God’s movement outward at creation was not a new thing. The Triune God has always moved outward within himself as the Tri-personal God. It is out of this eternal outward movement of love within himself that God chose to make a world and place his Tri-personal image in man in order that man might share, might participate in the eternal riches of the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is. Enter the problem… B. God’s Grace (2 Corinthians 8) 1. As we know, at the Fall man forfeited the blessing of sharing in the love which from all eternity has flowed perpetually between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man suddenly found himself in utter poverty as he no longer enjoyed the privilege of participating in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. Man who was created in the image of God suddenly found himself cut off from the river of love that unendingly flows among the three persons of the Trinity. But even as we know this, Paul says that we: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. • Is the wealth of Jesus to which Paul refers financial wealth? No, it was the wealth of the communion of love which he eternally enjoyed with the Father. Question: What was Jesus’ poverty? Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" • He became utterly poor at the cross when his eternal communion with the Father was broken. Notice the purpose for which Jesus became poor: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. Question: What do you think our wealth is to which Paul refers here? “The gospel…concerns the triune God’s self-communication for the purpose of enlarging the circle of communion. The gospel proclaims a new possibility, namely, that of becoming a ‘communicant’ in the life of God…The gospel is ultimately unintelligible apart from Trinitarian theology. Only the doctrine of the Trinity adequately accounts for how those who are not God come to share in the fellowship of Father and Son through the Spirit” (The Drama of Doctrine, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, 43). Galatians 4:4-6 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. [6] And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" • God sent his Son into the world to give us the status of sonship. He sent his Spirit into our hearts to give us the experience of that sonship, that is, to give us the experience of the Communion of Love that the Son has eternally enjoyed with the Father! And at the center of this great text is the redemptive work of Christ. This becomes clear when you read Galatians 4:4-5 and Galatians 3:13-14 side by side. Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Galatians 3:13-14 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"— [14] so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith (the one whom God sends into our hearts to give us the experience of sonship which is the experience of the Communion of Love!). • So it is because of the cross that we are given to share in the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is! • Consider 2 Corinthians 13:14 in the light of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 8:9. 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (what is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? That he became poor at the cross that we might become rich) and the love of God (what is the love of God? That he sent His son to bear our sin and die in our place) and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (what is the fellowship of the Spirit? It is the communion of love between the Father and the Son! May this grace, this love, this communion, Paul says,) be with you all. • So what is each local church called to be? A community that actively participates in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. This means that Emmanuel Bible Church is to be a communion of persons that together experiences the mutual love between the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit and in that experience of love moves outward in self-sacrificial love toward each other and those outside these walls. Consider again 1 John 4:7-12. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Conclusion: I close with these words from my favorite Trinitarian theologian… "To know this God, who both condescends to share all that we are and makes us share in all that He is in Jesus Christ, is to be lifted up in His Spirit to share in God's own self-knowing and self-loving until we are enabled to apprehend Him in some real measure in Himself beyond anything that we are capable of in ourselves. It is to be lifted out of ourselves, as it were, into God, until we know Him and love Him and enjoy Him in His eternal Reality as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in such a way that the Trinity enters into the fundamental fabric of our thinking of Him and constitutes the basic grammar of our worship and knowledge of the One God (T.F. Torrance, The Ground and Grammar of Theology, 155). ____________________________ Dan Cruver Sermon presented in Pittsburgh, PA

Gospel-Centered Audio Sermons

perichoresis was the word used by the fathers of the church). The Spirit is the bond of communion between the Father and the Son and between God and ourselves. The Spirit is God giving God's self love. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are equally God (autotheoi). But there is differentiation within God - personal distinctions in the Godhead. There is unity, diversity and perfect harmony. It is this triune God who has being-in-communion, in love, who has created us as male and female in that image to be "co-lovers" (condiligentes in Duns Scotus's expressive word), to share in the triune love and to love one another in perichoretic unity. "Then God said, 'let us make man in our image, in our likeness.' ...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them" (Gen 1:26-27). These purposes of God in creation find their fulfillment in redemption. Therefore, to understand what it means to be in the image of God, one must look at Christ and the new creation in him. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). This does not mean that it does not matter, therefore, whether we are male or female. We do not become unisex. If so, what would be the difference between heterosexuality and homosexuality? There is unity, diversity and harmony which should be reflected in the church. The gospel does not eliminate our gender identity. But as men and women we find our masculine and feminine identity and fulfillment in Christ, our true being in mutual communion." - James B. Torrance, Worship, Community & the Triune God of Grace, (IVP, 1996), 104-105. (HT: Michael Pailthorpe" >Gender and the Image of God
The Trinity
1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Introduction: 1. Notice that on the surface there are essentially two movements of love spoken of in these verses: Christian-to-Christian and God-to-man. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves (another) has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love (another) does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 2. Notice, secondly, that the Christian-to-Christian movement of love is predicated upon the God-to-man movement of love. 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God…[10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins [summarize/restate observation #2]. 3. So even though there is a strong emphasis in these verses upon the movement of love between Christians, John is careful to show that this Christian-to-Christian love is ultimately grounded in the movement of God’s love to man as seen in the work of redemption. Now as important as it is for us to observe these two movements, if that is as far as we go in our understanding of this text’s emphasis on love, we have not gone nearly far enough. ILLUS: The difference between looking at a galaxy through the Hubble Telescope versus journeying into the galaxy itself to explore it. 4. Key Verse for entering the galaxy of love: 1 John 4:8 1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God (referring to the Father), because God (the Father) is love. 5. John’s statement: God the Father is love. Orals Examination Question: How does the doctrine of the Trinity help us understand John’s statement that God the Father is love? 6. Sermon Objective: What I want us to do is to consider the love of the Father not primarily as it relates to man but as it relates to who the Father is in himself, that is, as it relates to who the Father is in His Triune relationships. And then we will make some applications as it relates to love among Christians. ILLUS: Compare the Trinity to an ocean as deep and wide as 10 trillion universes combined So I say with T.F. Torrance, “the truth of the Holy Trinity is more to be adored than expressed” (The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being, Three Persons, ix). I. The Trinity at Creation A. “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1) 1. What does Scripture tell us about this God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth? Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. • This God is one, not two, not three. He is one. And yet from the NT we know that this one God who was at the beginning is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Matthew 28 we have these words of Jesus: Matthew 28:18-19 And Jesus came and said to [his disciples], "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. • Here we have the incarnate second person of the Trinity commanding his disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not in the names. So very clearly, the God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth was and is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 2. Scripture does not just give us the knowledge that the God who in the beginning created all things is Triune, it also tells us how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were involved in creation in the beginning. a. The Father – 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist Psalm 148:1-5 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! [2] Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! [3] Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! [4] Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! [5] Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. Ephesians 3:9 [God gave Paul grace] to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, Revelation 4:11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." • It is the Father who was the direct creator of the heavens and the earth; and it is by the Father’s will that all things exist and were created. And yet notice what Scripture says about the second person of the Trinity, the Son. b. The Son – John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was [now connect this with Genesis 1:1] in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. Colossians 1:16 For by him [that is, Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him [and verse 17 goes on to say that not only were all things created through Christ but also] [17] …in him all things hold together. • Thus far the biblical data tells us that the Father created the heavens and the earth through the Son. So what about the Spirit? c. The Spirit – Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. [2] The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Question: What was the purpose of this hovering? Why was the Spirit hovering over the face of the waters? • Listen to the words of Psalm 104:30. Psalm 104:30 When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. (see Grenz 62) • What is significant here is that the activity of God at work within and upon creation is attributed to the Spirit of God. While there is only one creative activity of God and not three, from the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit, it is the special work of the Spirit to bring the life-giving power of God to bear upon the creature. It is the Spirit of God who is the life of the creature. Micah 3:8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, Isaiah 31:3 The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. 3. Now one of the key thoughts that I want you to keep central in your thinking right now is that at the beginning the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—moved outward and in that outward movement created all that now is. It was not just God the Father who moved outward. It was not just God the Father and God the Son that moved outward. It was God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that moved outward as one God and three persons to create all things in heaven and earth. B. “Let us make man…” (Genesis 1:26) Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let us [plural] make man in our image [plural], after our likeness [plural]. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." [27] So God [singular] created man in his own image, in the image of God [singular] he created him; male and female he created them. 1. The climax of God’s creative activity a. As you know, man was created on the sixth day. On each previous day, including His filling the earth with animals earlier on the sixth day, God formed and filled the created order by saying, “Let there be…Let there be…Let there be…” But when it came time to create man, God did not say, “Let there be man, male and female.” Rather, He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” and then He formed man from the dust of the ground. What this signifies is that man is the climax of God’s creative activity. It is in man that God’s creative activity comes to its intended goal. But what is the intended goal that is reached in the creation of man? In his theology of the Old Testament, Gustav Oehler answers our question: “In all His creating God approves the works of His hands; but still the creating God does not reach the goal of His creation until He has set over against Him His image in man. From this last fact it is plain that the self-revelation of God, the unveiling of His being, is the final end of the creation of the world; or, to express it more generally, that the whole world serves to reveal the divine glory, and is thereby the object of divine joy” (Old Testament Theology, 121). b. Now what Oehler is saying is that in bringing His creative activity to its climax by creating man in His image, God is demonstrating that the unveiling of His being is the final and joyful end for which He created the world. And in placing His image in man God was graciously granting man the privilege of participating and sharing in His divine joy! 2. The Trinitarian significance of verses 26 and 27 and the image of God a. I want to raise a question at this point: If it is true that the God who created all things is Triune, if it is true that in creation the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit moved outward, don’t we have reason to believe that the Triune God moved outward in the creation of man? • I agree with OT scholar Derek Kidner when he says that the use of the plural here is “the plural of fullness…and this fullness, glimpsed in the Old Testament, was to be unfolded as tri-unity” (Genesis, 51-52). • So when we read the words “Let us make man in our image,” what we have once again is the Triune God—not just the Father, not just the Son, not just the Spirit—moving outward in creative activity. a. So what might the image of God in man be? Let me begin answering that question by saying what it is not. The image of God in man is not the image of the Father. It is not the image of the pre-incarnate Son. It is not the image of the Spirit. Rather, it is the image (singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, the image of God is the image of the Triune God. • I believe that Genesis 1:26-27 holds the key to understanding what is the heart of the image of God in man, and what is to be the distinctive feature of our lives as God’s representatives within the created order. • If you recall, creation itself is the result of the Triune God’s movement outward. Creation is not just the result of the Father moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Son moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Spirit moving outward in creative activity. It is the result of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Tri-personal God moving outward in the work of creation. So when we read that the Father, Son, and Spirit agreed together to make man in their image, we have, once again, the Tri-personal God moving outward in creative activity, this time in the creation of man and the placing of his Tri-personal image in man. b. Is it any wonder then that humanity is not just male but male and female? Man was not created just to be one. That’s why God said that it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). Man was created for relationship. The image of God in man cannot truly be understood apart from relationship between persons. As Colin Gunton says, “Just as to be God is not to be an individual but three persons inextricably interrelated as being in communion, so to be man…is to be created for life in community…To be in the image of God is therefore to be in necessary relation to others so made” (The Triune Creator: A Historical and Systematic Study, 208). • At the heart of the image of God in man is the communion of persons. The God who said, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness” is himself an eternal communion of persons. Therefore, to be in the image of God is to be made to live in communion with other persons. 3. Now that we’ve considered the Trinity at creation when the Tri-personal God moved outward in creative activity culminating in the placing of his Triune image in man, let’s back up in time and consider the Trinity before creation. II. The Trinity before Creation A. God’s Essence 1. The Economic Trinity – Theologians have traditionally looked at the Trinity in two ways. This is not to say that there is more than one Trinity, but that there are two ways at looking at the same reality. We can look at the Trinity economically, that’s one way; and we can look at the Trinity ontologically, that’s the other way. What are these two ways at looking at the Trinity? • When we consider the Trinity economically, we are concerned with the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history. We are seeking to answer this question, “What is the particular function of each person of the Godhead in the accomplishment of redemption?” • This brings us back to our question regarding John’s words in 1 John 4:8. “How does the Holy Trinity help us understand John’s words in 1 John 4:8 that God is love?” Most people by far answer this question from the economic perspective. “Well,” they say, “The Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And the Son accomplished that for which the Father sent him, namely, redemption. And the Spirit applies that for which the Father sent the Son to accomplish.” Rarely do people answer this question from the ontological perspective. Why don’t they? Because John himself emphasizes the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history in the verses that follow. 1 John 4:8-11 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. • It is evident from the context that John is thinking of the person of the Father when he says that “God is love.” John says that “God sent his only Son into the world.” So clearly John is mainly thinking about the statement “God is love” from an economic perspective, that is, from the perspective of the love of the Father as it is manifested within the history of redemption. Question: But does this mean that before the Father sent his only Son into the world he was not love? Absolutely not. This leads us to the Ontological Trinity. 2. The Ontological Trinity – When we consider the Trinity ontologically, we are concerned with God as he is in himself. In the economic Trinity we are concerned with the redemptive activity of God. In the ontological Trinity we are concerned with the eternal character of God antecedent to all history. • In the 12th century Richard of St. Victor, a Scot living in France, helped clarify the church’s thinking on the doctrine of the Trinity. 1 Corinthians 13 was huge for him. “Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way” (verses 4-5). Richard of St. Victor essentially reasoned in thus: If Scriptural love is never self-centered, if it is never turned in upon itself, but is always turned out upon another in self-giving and others-benefiting, and Scripture teaches that the Father is love, then the Father could never have been a solitary person. He could never have been isolated or lonely within himself. Question: When we look at “the Father is love” from the ontological perspective, what do we learn? First, we learn that from all eternity the Father has overflowed with perfect love to the Son, and the Son from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Father poured out upon him. Second, we learn that from all eternity the Son overflowed with perfect love to the Father, and the Father from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Son poured out upon Him. Third, Scripture teaches that from all eternity the Spirit has been and continues to be the mutual love and the bond of love between the Father and the Son (2 Corinthians 13:14, “communion of the Holy Spirit”). • This is what the church has historically referred to the Trinity as the Communion of Love. From all eternity perfect love has perpetually flowed among the persons of the Trinity. So we see that the Triune God’s movement outward at creation was not a new thing. The Triune God has always moved outward within himself as the Tri-personal God. It is out of this eternal outward movement of love within himself that God chose to make a world and place his Tri-personal image in man in order that man might share, might participate in the eternal riches of the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is. Enter the problem… B. God’s Grace (2 Corinthians 8) 1. As we know, at the Fall man forfeited the blessing of sharing in the love which from all eternity has flowed perpetually between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man suddenly found himself in utter poverty as he no longer enjoyed the privilege of participating in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. Man who was created in the image of God suddenly found himself cut off from the river of love that unendingly flows among the three persons of the Trinity. But even as we know this, Paul says that we: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. • Is the wealth of Jesus to which Paul refers financial wealth? No, it was the wealth of the communion of love which he eternally enjoyed with the Father. Question: What was Jesus’ poverty? Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" • He became utterly poor at the cross when his eternal communion with the Father was broken. Notice the purpose for which Jesus became poor: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. Question: What do you think our wealth is to which Paul refers here? “The gospel…concerns the triune God’s self-communication for the purpose of enlarging the circle of communion. The gospel proclaims a new possibility, namely, that of becoming a ‘communicant’ in the life of God…The gospel is ultimately unintelligible apart from Trinitarian theology. Only the doctrine of the Trinity adequately accounts for how those who are not God come to share in the fellowship of Father and Son through the Spirit” (The Drama of Doctrine, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, 43). Galatians 4:4-6 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. [6] And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" • God sent his Son into the world to give us the status of sonship. He sent his Spirit into our hearts to give us the experience of that sonship, that is, to give us the experience of the Communion of Love that the Son has eternally enjoyed with the Father! And at the center of this great text is the redemptive work of Christ. This becomes clear when you read Galatians 4:4-5 and Galatians 3:13-14 side by side. Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Galatians 3:13-14 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"— [14] so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith (the one whom God sends into our hearts to give us the experience of sonship which is the experience of the Communion of Love!). • So it is because of the cross that we are given to share in the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is! • Consider 2 Corinthians 13:14 in the light of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 8:9. 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (what is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? That he became poor at the cross that we might become rich) and the love of God (what is the love of God? That he sent His son to bear our sin and die in our place) and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (what is the fellowship of the Spirit? It is the communion of love between the Father and the Son! May this grace, this love, this communion, Paul says,) be with you all. • So what is each local church called to be? A community that actively participates in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. This means that Emmanuel Bible Church is to be a communion of persons that together experiences the mutual love between the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit and in that experience of love moves outward in self-sacrificial love toward each other and those outside these walls. Consider again 1 John 4:7-12. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Conclusion: I close with these words from my favorite Trinitarian theologian… "To know this God, who both condescends to share all that we are and makes us share in all that He is in Jesus Christ, is to be lifted up in His Spirit to share in God's own self-knowing and self-loving until we are enabled to apprehend Him in some real measure in Himself beyond anything that we are capable of in ourselves. It is to be lifted out of ourselves, as it were, into God, until we know Him and love Him and enjoy Him in His eternal Reality as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in such a way that the Trinity enters into the fundamental fabric of our thinking of Him and constitutes the basic grammar of our worship and knowledge of the One God (T.F. Torrance, The Ground and Grammar of Theology, 155). ____________________________ Dan Cruver Sermon presented in Pittsburgh, PA

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perichoresis was the word used by the fathers of the church). The Spirit is the bond of communion between the Father and the Son and between God and ourselves. The Spirit is God giving God's self love. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are equally God (autotheoi). But there is differentiation within God - personal distinctions in the Godhead. There is unity, diversity and perfect harmony. It is this triune God who has being-in-communion, in love, who has created us as male and female in that image to be "co-lovers" (condiligentes in Duns Scotus's expressive word), to share in the triune love and to love one another in perichoretic unity. "Then God said, 'let us make man in our image, in our likeness.' ...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them" (Gen 1:26-27). These purposes of God in creation find their fulfillment in redemption. Therefore, to understand what it means to be in the image of God, one must look at Christ and the new creation in him. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). This does not mean that it does not matter, therefore, whether we are male or female. We do not become unisex. If so, what would be the difference between heterosexuality and homosexuality? There is unity, diversity and harmony which should be reflected in the church. The gospel does not eliminate our gender identity. But as men and women we find our masculine and feminine identity and fulfillment in Christ, our true being in mutual communion." - James B. Torrance, Worship, Community & the Triune God of Grace, (IVP, 1996), 104-105. (HT: Michael Pailthorpe" >Gender and the Image of God
The Trinity
1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Introduction: 1. Notice that on the surface there are essentially two movements of love spoken of in these verses: Christian-to-Christian and God-to-man. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves (another) has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love (another) does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 2. Notice, secondly, that the Christian-to-Christian movement of love is predicated upon the God-to-man movement of love. 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God…[10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins [summarize/restate observation #2]. 3. So even though there is a strong emphasis in these verses upon the movement of love between Christians, John is careful to show that this Christian-to-Christian love is ultimately grounded in the movement of God’s love to man as seen in the work of redemption. Now as important as it is for us to observe these two movements, if that is as far as we go in our understanding of this text’s emphasis on love, we have not gone nearly far enough. ILLUS: The difference between looking at a galaxy through the Hubble Telescope versus journeying into the galaxy itself to explore it. 4. Key Verse for entering the galaxy of love: 1 John 4:8 1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God (referring to the Father), because God (the Father) is love. 5. John’s statement: God the Father is love. Orals Examination Question: How does the doctrine of the Trinity help us understand John’s statement that God the Father is love? 6. Sermon Objective: What I want us to do is to consider the love of the Father not primarily as it relates to man but as it relates to who the Father is in himself, that is, as it relates to who the Father is in His Triune relationships. And then we will make some applications as it relates to love among Christians. ILLUS: Compare the Trinity to an ocean as deep and wide as 10 trillion universes combined So I say with T.F. Torrance, “the truth of the Holy Trinity is more to be adored than expressed” (The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being, Three Persons, ix). I. The Trinity at Creation A. “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1) 1. What does Scripture tell us about this God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth? Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. • This God is one, not two, not three. He is one. And yet from the NT we know that this one God who was at the beginning is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Matthew 28 we have these words of Jesus: Matthew 28:18-19 And Jesus came and said to [his disciples], "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. • Here we have the incarnate second person of the Trinity commanding his disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not in the names. So very clearly, the God who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth was and is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 2. Scripture does not just give us the knowledge that the God who in the beginning created all things is Triune, it also tells us how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were involved in creation in the beginning. a. The Father – 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist Psalm 148:1-5 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! [2] Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! [3] Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! [4] Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! [5] Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. Ephesians 3:9 [God gave Paul grace] to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, Revelation 4:11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." • It is the Father who was the direct creator of the heavens and the earth; and it is by the Father’s will that all things exist and were created. And yet notice what Scripture says about the second person of the Trinity, the Son. b. The Son – John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was [now connect this with Genesis 1:1] in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. Colossians 1:16 For by him [that is, Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him [and verse 17 goes on to say that not only were all things created through Christ but also] [17] …in him all things hold together. • Thus far the biblical data tells us that the Father created the heavens and the earth through the Son. So what about the Spirit? c. The Spirit – Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. [2] The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Question: What was the purpose of this hovering? Why was the Spirit hovering over the face of the waters? • Listen to the words of Psalm 104:30. Psalm 104:30 When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. (see Grenz 62) • What is significant here is that the activity of God at work within and upon creation is attributed to the Spirit of God. While there is only one creative activity of God and not three, from the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit, it is the special work of the Spirit to bring the life-giving power of God to bear upon the creature. It is the Spirit of God who is the life of the creature. Micah 3:8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, Isaiah 31:3 The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. 3. Now one of the key thoughts that I want you to keep central in your thinking right now is that at the beginning the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—moved outward and in that outward movement created all that now is. It was not just God the Father who moved outward. It was not just God the Father and God the Son that moved outward. It was God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that moved outward as one God and three persons to create all things in heaven and earth. B. “Let us make man…” (Genesis 1:26) Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let us [plural] make man in our image [plural], after our likeness [plural]. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." [27] So God [singular] created man in his own image, in the image of God [singular] he created him; male and female he created them. 1. The climax of God’s creative activity a. As you know, man was created on the sixth day. On each previous day, including His filling the earth with animals earlier on the sixth day, God formed and filled the created order by saying, “Let there be…Let there be…Let there be…” But when it came time to create man, God did not say, “Let there be man, male and female.” Rather, He said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” and then He formed man from the dust of the ground. What this signifies is that man is the climax of God’s creative activity. It is in man that God’s creative activity comes to its intended goal. But what is the intended goal that is reached in the creation of man? In his theology of the Old Testament, Gustav Oehler answers our question: “In all His creating God approves the works of His hands; but still the creating God does not reach the goal of His creation until He has set over against Him His image in man. From this last fact it is plain that the self-revelation of God, the unveiling of His being, is the final end of the creation of the world; or, to express it more generally, that the whole world serves to reveal the divine glory, and is thereby the object of divine joy” (Old Testament Theology, 121). b. Now what Oehler is saying is that in bringing His creative activity to its climax by creating man in His image, God is demonstrating that the unveiling of His being is the final and joyful end for which He created the world. And in placing His image in man God was graciously granting man the privilege of participating and sharing in His divine joy! 2. The Trinitarian significance of verses 26 and 27 and the image of God a. I want to raise a question at this point: If it is true that the God who created all things is Triune, if it is true that in creation the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit moved outward, don’t we have reason to believe that the Triune God moved outward in the creation of man? • I agree with OT scholar Derek Kidner when he says that the use of the plural here is “the plural of fullness…and this fullness, glimpsed in the Old Testament, was to be unfolded as tri-unity” (Genesis, 51-52). • So when we read the words “Let us make man in our image,” what we have once again is the Triune God—not just the Father, not just the Son, not just the Spirit—moving outward in creative activity. a. So what might the image of God in man be? Let me begin answering that question by saying what it is not. The image of God in man is not the image of the Father. It is not the image of the pre-incarnate Son. It is not the image of the Spirit. Rather, it is the image (singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In other words, the image of God is the image of the Triune God. • I believe that Genesis 1:26-27 holds the key to understanding what is the heart of the image of God in man, and what is to be the distinctive feature of our lives as God’s representatives within the created order. • If you recall, creation itself is the result of the Triune God’s movement outward. Creation is not just the result of the Father moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Son moving outward in creative activity. It is not just the result of the Spirit moving outward in creative activity. It is the result of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Tri-personal God moving outward in the work of creation. So when we read that the Father, Son, and Spirit agreed together to make man in their image, we have, once again, the Tri-personal God moving outward in creative activity, this time in the creation of man and the placing of his Tri-personal image in man. b. Is it any wonder then that humanity is not just male but male and female? Man was not created just to be one. That’s why God said that it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). Man was created for relationship. The image of God in man cannot truly be understood apart from relationship between persons. As Colin Gunton says, “Just as to be God is not to be an individual but three persons inextricably interrelated as being in communion, so to be man…is to be created for life in community…To be in the image of God is therefore to be in necessary relation to others so made” (The Triune Creator: A Historical and Systematic Study, 208). • At the heart of the image of God in man is the communion of persons. The God who said, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness” is himself an eternal communion of persons. Therefore, to be in the image of God is to be made to live in communion with other persons. 3. Now that we’ve considered the Trinity at creation when the Tri-personal God moved outward in creative activity culminating in the placing of his Triune image in man, let’s back up in time and consider the Trinity before creation. II. The Trinity before Creation A. God’s Essence 1. The Economic Trinity – Theologians have traditionally looked at the Trinity in two ways. This is not to say that there is more than one Trinity, but that there are two ways at looking at the same reality. We can look at the Trinity economically, that’s one way; and we can look at the Trinity ontologically, that’s the other way. What are these two ways at looking at the Trinity? • When we consider the Trinity economically, we are concerned with the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history. We are seeking to answer this question, “What is the particular function of each person of the Godhead in the accomplishment of redemption?” • This brings us back to our question regarding John’s words in 1 John 4:8. “How does the Holy Trinity help us understand John’s words in 1 John 4:8 that God is love?” Most people by far answer this question from the economic perspective. “Well,” they say, “The Father so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And the Son accomplished that for which the Father sent him, namely, redemption. And the Spirit applies that for which the Father sent the Son to accomplish.” Rarely do people answer this question from the ontological perspective. Why don’t they? Because John himself emphasizes the work of the Trinity within redemptive-history in the verses that follow. 1 John 4:8-11 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. • It is evident from the context that John is thinking of the person of the Father when he says that “God is love.” John says that “God sent his only Son into the world.” So clearly John is mainly thinking about the statement “God is love” from an economic perspective, that is, from the perspective of the love of the Father as it is manifested within the history of redemption. Question: But does this mean that before the Father sent his only Son into the world he was not love? Absolutely not. This leads us to the Ontological Trinity. 2. The Ontological Trinity – When we consider the Trinity ontologically, we are concerned with God as he is in himself. In the economic Trinity we are concerned with the redemptive activity of God. In the ontological Trinity we are concerned with the eternal character of God antecedent to all history. • In the 12th century Richard of St. Victor, a Scot living in France, helped clarify the church’s thinking on the doctrine of the Trinity. 1 Corinthians 13 was huge for him. “Love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way” (verses 4-5). Richard of St. Victor essentially reasoned in thus: If Scriptural love is never self-centered, if it is never turned in upon itself, but is always turned out upon another in self-giving and others-benefiting, and Scripture teaches that the Father is love, then the Father could never have been a solitary person. He could never have been isolated or lonely within himself. Question: When we look at “the Father is love” from the ontological perspective, what do we learn? First, we learn that from all eternity the Father has overflowed with perfect love to the Son, and the Son from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Father poured out upon him. Second, we learn that from all eternity the Son overflowed with perfect love to the Father, and the Father from all eternity joyfully received the love which the Son poured out upon Him. Third, Scripture teaches that from all eternity the Spirit has been and continues to be the mutual love and the bond of love between the Father and the Son (2 Corinthians 13:14, “communion of the Holy Spirit”). • This is what the church has historically referred to the Trinity as the Communion of Love. From all eternity perfect love has perpetually flowed among the persons of the Trinity. So we see that the Triune God’s movement outward at creation was not a new thing. The Triune God has always moved outward within himself as the Tri-personal God. It is out of this eternal outward movement of love within himself that God chose to make a world and place his Tri-personal image in man in order that man might share, might participate in the eternal riches of the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is. Enter the problem… B. God’s Grace (2 Corinthians 8) 1. As we know, at the Fall man forfeited the blessing of sharing in the love which from all eternity has flowed perpetually between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man suddenly found himself in utter poverty as he no longer enjoyed the privilege of participating in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. Man who was created in the image of God suddenly found himself cut off from the river of love that unendingly flows among the three persons of the Trinity. But even as we know this, Paul says that we: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. • Is the wealth of Jesus to which Paul refers financial wealth? No, it was the wealth of the communion of love which he eternally enjoyed with the Father. Question: What was Jesus’ poverty? Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" • He became utterly poor at the cross when his eternal communion with the Father was broken. Notice the purpose for which Jesus became poor: 2 Corinthians 8:9 … know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. Question: What do you think our wealth is to which Paul refers here? “The gospel…concerns the triune God’s self-communication for the purpose of enlarging the circle of communion. The gospel proclaims a new possibility, namely, that of becoming a ‘communicant’ in the life of God…The gospel is ultimately unintelligible apart from Trinitarian theology. Only the doctrine of the Trinity adequately accounts for how those who are not God come to share in the fellowship of Father and Son through the Spirit” (The Drama of Doctrine, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, 43). Galatians 4:4-6 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. [6] And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" • God sent his Son into the world to give us the status of sonship. He sent his Spirit into our hearts to give us the experience of that sonship, that is, to give us the experience of the Communion of Love that the Son has eternally enjoyed with the Father! And at the center of this great text is the redemptive work of Christ. This becomes clear when you read Galatians 4:4-5 and Galatians 3:13-14 side by side. Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. Galatians 3:13-14 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"— [14] so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith (the one whom God sends into our hearts to give us the experience of sonship which is the experience of the Communion of Love!). • So it is because of the cross that we are given to share in the Communion of Love which the Holy Trinity is! • Consider 2 Corinthians 13:14 in the light of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 8:9. 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (what is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? That he became poor at the cross that we might become rich) and the love of God (what is the love of God? That he sent His son to bear our sin and die in our place) and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (what is the fellowship of the Spirit? It is the communion of love between the Father and the Son! May this grace, this love, this communion, Paul says,) be with you all. • So what is each local church called to be? A community that actively participates in the Trinity’s Communion of Love. This means that Emmanuel Bible Church is to be a communion of persons that together experiences the mutual love between the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit and in that experience of love moves outward in self-sacrificial love toward each other and those outside these walls. Consider again 1 John 4:7-12. 1 John 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God (referring to God the Father), and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] Anyone who does not love does not know God (the Father), because God (the Father) is love. [9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God (the Father) sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Conclusion: I close with these words from my favorite Trinitarian theologian… "To know this God, who both condescends to share all that we are and makes us share in all that He is in Jesus Christ, is to be lifted up in His Spirit to share in God's own self-knowing and self-loving until we are enabled to apprehend Him in some real measure in Himself beyond anything that we are capable of in ourselves. It is to be lifted out of ourselves, as it were, into God, until we know Him and love Him and enjoy Him in His eternal Reality as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in such a way that the Trinity enters into the fundamental fabric of our thinking of Him and constitutes the basic grammar of our worship and knowledge of the One God (T.F. Torrance, The Ground and Grammar of Theology, 155). ____________________________ Dan Cruver Sermon presented in Pittsburgh, PA

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