I've been thinking a great deal about the Trinity as of late. It is such a seemingly abstract thing isn't it? How can one be three and three be one?
The Trinity is one of the most central tenants of Christian theology, and yet many find it at best confusing and at worse unimportant. But I truly think it is one of the most beautiful things in all the world.
And here is why:
God, who is one, yet is also three in person: bound in unity of love, character, power, nature and will; self existent, without origin and eternal, chose to create something that by nature is apart from his perfect self sustaining union. Think about that: a perfect, faultess relationship. Nothing but love. Nothing but joy. Nothing but harmony.
And we might ask why would God create? So as to share in his glory and love. And so the world was born with a word and man was formed with a breath. We were created to partake in this relationship with our origin: a perfect and triune God.
Man is the lopsided, malformed, evil-hearted son that, regardless of condition, is invited by his father to partake of his love. We are invited into the perfection of the Trinity to share in his love and revel in the glory of God. And this invitation is only made possible by Christ, because for us to engage in a relationship with his holiness would be an inexcusable affront to his union. And surely this is what happened: we, in our disunity, hatred, and pride spit in the face of our unified, loving, and glorious father by being less than him, yet attempting to live apart from him. We turned away from union, from love, and from our existence in him. So Christ, in order to show his love and desire for us to be united with his father, became incarnate and bound himself to humanity. We talk of Jesus in terms of the hypostatic union that is, Jesus was fully God and fully man: the perfect image of humanity being united with our Creator. Funny how concepts as seemingly abstract as the Trinity and hypostatic union have such incredible and wondrous implications in their application. So Christ came to show us how he had bought us back from our disunity with God (for surely anything not bound to God is dead, anything operating outside his rule is sin) and brought us back to the fold of his love. But then, in order that we might be truly unified to him, he sends his holy spirit to dwell in us. Talk about a union with God! We are found to be in Christ, bound to God, and living with guys spirit. In this way we are invited to once again partake in the fullness of the Trinity.
But this union with God not only means we are bound to him, but we are unified through him to one another: sharing together in Trinitarian live and peace. The whole corpus of the people of God, his children, are now bound - permanently - in the Trinity through the blood of Christ.
It is now wonder then that we are charged with such things as keeping the unity, extending peace, and sharing in love: the love of God.
