God is love. (I Jn 4:8)
‘Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. (Mk 10:7-8)
Paul, an apostle — not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead … (Gal 1:1)
God, I praise you not just because you are beyond my understanding but because your mystery helps me understand other mysteries.
We’ve been talking about the Trinity — the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit. All three are unique persons, and all three are one God. I have tried to give some help understanding the Trinity, but today I want to talk about how the Trinity helps us understand other aspects of Christian theology. The Trinity may be a mystery, but it is a mystery that has explanatory power.
Let’s begin with love. Scripture says that God is love (I Jn 4:7-8), but love requires more than one person. I can love my wife and kids. I can love my friends. I can even love my enemies. But I cannot love a void. One person living alone cannot be love. In order to love, he needs someone to love. But God is love from eternity. He did not just begin loving when He created the human race. God does not need the creation in order to love. Rather, His love for you and me is rooted in His very nature. The Father loves the Son from eternity, and the Son loves the Father, and the Spirit the same. Love is the nature of a Trinitarian God in a way that it cannot be with Allah.
Similarly, the Trinity explains why God is relational, for He is so by nature. Relationship is grounded in His Trinitarian character. God has never been lonely. He never sat in the sky moping for the right person to come along. He did not create people because He needed relationship. He had perfect relationship from eternity. He did not need us, but He did want us. In addition, our human desire for relationship finds its source in the nature of God. The Trinity provides the foundation for the human hunger for meaningful relationships. We enjoy relationship because God does, and He made us in His image.
The Trinity models the Biblical concept of equality with submission. Jesus considered Himself equal with God (Jn 10:30; 14:9). Yet Jesus delighted to do the will of His Father (Jn 4:34; 6:38; Heb 10:5-9). Normally, we think that equality and submission cannot coexist, but Biblically, they are sometimes friends. On Earth, Jesus willingly submitted to His Father, yet His submission was not a statement of inequality but an expression of His love, and a picture of His role. His submission does not deny His equality with the Father. This fact sheds much light on what God says about marriage, for Scripture clearly says that men and women are equal in God’s sight (Gen 1:27; Gal 3:28), yet Scripture also calls wives to submit to the leadership of their husbands (Eph 5:22-4; Col 3:18; I Pet 4:1-6). If you are not a Christian, then the comparison of the Trinity to a marriage may make no sense to you. You may say that they both are bunk. But if you are a Christian, then you accept the equality of the Father and the Son, and you also accept the submission of the Son to the Father. And you know that the submission and the equality stand together. Submission does not nullify equality. You accept this. Well. If you can accept this with the Trinity, why can’t you accept the same thing within marriage? Submission within marriage is not what most Western people think it is.
The Trinity models Biblical marriage. When a man and woman marry, are they two or are they one? Of course, when you count heads, you see two, but to God they are one flesh (Gen 2:24). How can this be? Is “one flesh” just a metaphor for sex? Sex is part of it, but it is so much more. Paul says that when a man loves his wife, he loves his own body (Eph 5:28-31), and this body-love is more than just sex. It is that a husband and wife are one in a sense in which Scripture can say that she is part of his own body. When a man loves his wife, he actually loves himself. The Trinity helps illustrate this, for just as God is three distinct persons in one God, so is a marriage two distinct persons in one flesh.
Finally, the Trinity helps explain how God can die for our sins and yet remain alive. When Jesus died on the Cross, God died. Consequently, His death becomes a punishment that pays infinitely. Yet the Father did not die, so in that sense, God did not die. The Father raised Jesus from the dead (Gal 1:1; Eph 1:17, 20). The Trinity helps explain the Resurrection of Jesus.
We could perhaps go on, but what I want you to see is that Biblical theology is interconnected. Your view of God affects your view of many other things like marriage, relationships, and the Resurrection.
