As the grandfather of nature, the sun, with much love and admiration, has shined upon the world with great joy since its beginning. He has studied and marveled upon the people, animals and trees that he has sustained with his life-giving rays. His compassion growing hotter and hotter as he witnessed the increased misery and turmoil among nature and his children.
“I need to be with them,” he thought to himself. “But my immense glory will completely and utterly destroy everything if I get to close. There must be away, I must make a way.” So, he sat. Thinking and contemplating, rattling the far corners of his mind. Decades turning to centuries, centuries to millennia. Until one day it dawned on him.
“For me to visit my people, my fires true desire, I must put aside all my glory. I must hide and cloak myself and take their form upon myself. This is the only way I can walk among them; the only way I can personally help them. But if I were to leave my place in the sky everything would die. So, from the dirt of the ground I must mold a being and place all that I am inside of it.”
And that is what he did. He began working the soil of the earth as clay until a person was formed. He placed his very fire, his very nature, his very character, all that he ever has been and all he has ever been into this vessel he birthed.
He began walking and talking with the people. His love for them grew ever greater. Joy swelled each part of his being as he saw new life, new hope, new purpose arise in the people he was with. As the years passed his body began to decay. He was worried that when he was gone all the life, peace and joy he spread would die with him. So, he came up with another plan.
“I must put myself into the people. It’s not enough for me to be here with them because I will soon die. If I put myself in them, I can live on, in their hearts from now until the last generation.” With those he cherished the most by his side as he took his last breath, he told them, “Wait for me. I will return to you, you children and your children’s children and all those who believe I am who I say I am.”
With that, his body died, and he returned to his glory, enthroned in the heavens. As he promised, he rained the very source of his existence- his spirit if you will, upon the people. They were instantly transformed; born again you could say with the very life of the sun within them.
To the critical theologian let me say, I know. It’s not a perfect illustration but I challenge you then to create a story to better explain the trinity. The most common explanation I have heard is the comparison of the trinity to water. Water is water, no matter the form it takes- water, ice or steam. Three distinct things but all still water.
Let’s take a second and meditate on the grandeur of God.
- He measures the oceans in the palms of His hands. With His hands He measures the heavens. – Isaiah 40:12
- He is an all-consuming fire. – Deuteronomy 4:24
- God is spirit. – John 4:24
- He lives in unapproachable light, and no one has nor can see him. – 1 Timothy 6:16
- He is eternal. – 1 Timothy 1:17
God, the father, is infinitely bigger, much more majestic, and beyond our comprehension of holy than we can understand. His name alone is too great for us to bear. The fullness of His glory, which shines hotter than any sun in the universe, would instantaneously disintegrate our being if we encountered it (hence my comparison to the sun). How could a Being such as this ever have face to face fellowship with humanity?
Why would He want to, you may ask.
God is love. His very make up is love. And love is an action making it necessary for there to be a recipient of it. For someone to receive something from someone else there must be a personal experience. As much as He is love He is also good and just. It’s His nature to redeem and restore all things. To right the wrongs of the past. To work all things for good.
God also knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). He knew before He set the universe and existence as we know it into being that He would not only have to, but want to be personally, face to face in our life. He knew man would screw everything up causing mankind to be separated from Him. And He knew the only way that that could be restored was if He made away for humanity to be one with Him.
So, as my story suggested, God had to lay aside all his divine and intangible attributes to be able to walk among us (Philippians 2:6-8). You can see this all throughout scripture, even before the birth of Jesus. He would walk with Adam in the garden. The angel of the Lord (the old testaments title and identity for Jesus) had a face-to-face conversation with Abraham (Genesis 18) and even got into a wrestling match with Jacob (Genesis 32). The “angel of the Lord” would take main stage and be finally revealed to the world through his miraculous birth and be given the name above every name, Jesus.
Jesus knew His plan and purpose to restore life to the world by his death on the cross. He also knew it was better for Him to go back to Heaven so that the Holy Spirit could come to us. For God to remain true to Himself, He had to restore everything that was lost during the fall.
It was His creation that fell apart. His children that rebelled. He took full responsibility and did everything needed, Himself, to rectify the situation. So, God died on the cross to remove our separation from him and rose from the grave so that all who believe He is who He says He is could have fellowship with Him and be restored to oneness with Him by God making man His new dwelling place.
You can also see throughout scripture that the Holy Spirit has been active in the world since the beginning of time. Time and time again we see the Holy Spirit resting upon individuals to be used for specific reasons. Samson (Judges 14:6), David (1 Samuel 16:13), Gideon (Judges 6:34), Joshua (Numbers 27:8), and Elisha (2 Kings 3:15) just to name a few. The Holy Spirit was even present during creation (Genesis 1:2).
Again, knowing the end from the beginning, He knew this is what would need to happen. And being perfectly self-aware, He knew He would need to exist in three forms (trinity) all for the purpose of having fellowship with us. So, since the beginning of His eternal existence He has existed in three forms (trinity), Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Trinity references: Matthew 28:19, John 10:30, 2 Corinthians 13:14, John 1:1-5, 1 John 5:7-8, Matthew 3:16-17, 2 Corinthians 3:17, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Colossians 2:9, Luke 1:35, John 14:16-17, Deuteronomy 6:4.
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