Another Look at the Trinity

[Cal]

I wanted to share some more insights I've gotten into the Trinity. In particular, this insight is the best idea I've heard of how God can be three, yet one. Thanks to Jonathan Edwards, John Piper and C.S Lewis for some of the ideas here. Edwards, particularly, expounded on this here.

Note: I realize that this is speculation to some extent. The Bible reveals really no more than the following:

God is Three Persons.
All Three are God.
There is one God.

Yet, it is not unreasonable to want to have some understanding of how this can be and what it means. I thinks Edwards was onto something.


In the Beginning there was God. One God. This God is perfect. He knows he's perfect, and he delights in his perfection. In short, God delights in and loves himself completely and perfectly. God has a perfect relationship with himself, and he sees himself completely and perfectly. This view of himself is his self-image. His self-image is so complete and perfect it is another Person in God. This Self-image God has of himself is God the Son. He is the image of the invisible God.

This is why you can't see God the Father. Because he is God in himself. In order to see him you must, by definition, see God as he sees himself, because that is all he can express.

God the Father and God the Son love each other completely. This love flowing between them is so real, so perfect, that it is also another Person. This is God the Holy Spirit. God the Spirit is the love relationship between the Father and the Son.

So God the Father is God in himself, God the Son is God's idea or view of himself, and God the Spirit is the love between the Father and the Son.

One God. Three Persons. In perfection forever.

Not convinced? Just think of yourself. You have you in yourself, and you have the you which you can objectively observe and have a relationship with, even talk to--your self-image. Are these two or one? On the one hand they are definitely one. But on the other hand, how can you have a relationship with yourself if there is not, in some sense, two? Further, the relationship you have with yourself is in some sense a third entity, and yet it is also you.

This a faint shadow of God, but it does give, I believe, some idea of what goes on in the Godhead.

Now, for me, this view of the Trinity gives better insight into how the one can be three and the three can be one than I've ever heard. Yet it is not modalism. Modalism says that each person is a role God plays (it also says that the roles do not co-exist.) However, Self, Self-image and Relationship between Self and Self-image are more that just roles. They are intrinsic hypostases that always exist--must exist--in sentient persons.

Again, we experience a faint shadow of this reality in ourselves. Do you ever talk to yourself? We all do, at least in thoughts. Who are you talking to and why do you do you need to talk to yourself? Who is talking and who is listening? Are they one or two? You have to say both. You know you are one person, and yet you must in some sense be two, or you wouldn't need to have a relationship with yourself.

So besides you and your self image, there is the relationship you have with yourself. This the "flow" of life and love, if you are healthy, between you and yourself. Or it can be a flow of loathing and mistreatment if you are not healthy. In God's case this flow is completely loving and healthy. It is the communication of life and love between God and Himself, the Father and the Son. This is why fellowship is "of the Spirit."

This also shows why the Spirit never "bears witness of himself" but always points to the others. The relationship between persons exists for the persons, not for itself. Likewise the Spirit. He is reality of the Father and the Son, yet he is not about himself, but them. This also gives a clue as to why neither the Father nor the Son ever say they love the Spirit. Although they surely do, they surely appreciate their relationship as a thing in itself, like most people in love they are more interested in talking directly about their love for each other.


So, from this we can see that Lee had something of a point when he said "the Son is the Father" and "The Son is the Spirit." And yet you can also see why pushing that too far or taking it too directly eliminates the relationship between the two. You are in a sense your self-image. Yet, the two continue to co-exist and continue to have a relationship. It is a built-in reality of sentience.