So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” (John 5:19, ESV)
If you have golfed long enough, it has happened to you. You can still recall the perfect balance, resonance and frequency in your grip of what the shot felt like; you can still feel the satisfaction of pulling off the shot. This was the result of mind imagery, swing motion, and trajectory all meeting in one sweet triad of perfection. The rarity of such an occasion makes it a truly prized gift and one of the most enjoyable parts of the game.
What is the harmony of the Trinity like? This golf analogy surely fails to express the beauty and glory of our Lord and I would fail at tackling this marvel if I did not mention some of the titanic theologians who have had better success at painting God’s portrait.
St. Augustine, 354-430 AD, in his work Confessions, provided a philosophically keen view into the immutability of God: “You are immutably, you know immutably, you will immutably. Your essence knows and wills immutably. Your knowledge is and knows immutably. Your will is and knows immutably.”
Jonathan Edwards, an 18th century theologian, used creation as a canvas: “The Father is as the substance of the Sun. The Son is as the brightness and glory of the disk of the Sun or that bright and glorious form under which it appears to our eyes. The Holy Ghost is the action of the Sun which is within the Sun in its intestine heat, and, being diffusive, enlightens, warms, enlivens and comforts the world.”
And C.S. Lewis, a 20th Century Christian apologist, wrote in Mere Christianity: “God is not an impersonal thing nor a static thing—not even just one person—but a dynamic pulsating activity, a life, a kind of drama, almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance.” This is perhaps closest to an athletic narrative, and your headache from the previous citations can now give way to merrily dancing and swinging!
God has existed immutably and in a perfect love relationship since before creation, in three persons, with the same essence (homoousios). In fact, who has ever given to God, that he should repay him (Job 41:11)? “He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). God doesn’t “need” us. It seems nice and kind of romantic on the surface to be “needed,” but the burden that comes in the work of completing or appeasing any being, never mind Almighty God, is an unbearable yoke in its reality. Christ came to set us free from such weight; we have been bought with a perfectly selfless love. This unilateral, counter-conditional giving causes many a sinner’s heart to draw near to him.
What are your thoughts on the Trinity? How is your affection to the Father? How did you gain a relationship to the Son? Did not the Father send the Son? How did you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit? Is there anything that the Father decrees that the Son fails to achieve and that the Holy Spirit does not accomplish? Your answers might just shed light onto untapped resources of joy and love from God!
The Trinity’s perfect accord will forever remain. Today we have only a glimpse of this holy resonance of joy in our hearts. The great hope of Christians is that there will be a joining of the dance one day and forevermore. Next time you feel the sweet sound of harmony between clubhead and ball, mind picture and trajectory, may the Spirit reveal to you the deeper lasting riches of eternity that await you in Christ, by the will of the Father.
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Isabelle Beisiegel
February 13, 2014
Copyright 2014 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.