Grace in the Context of the Trinity

"Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God...[Let] the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord our God, and He will have mercy upon him and abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." Isaiah 55:5-9

The mystery of grace sneaks up on us now and again. That the Holy Almighty pardons guilty sinners is a truth that is oft given mouth service in our minds, but if we ever seriously considered its implications we would fall on our faces as one dead. The glory of God's trinitarian nature of Holiness and Love is that He has made it to where He can separate the sinner from Sin and bind the former to Himself in whole communion and cast the latter into outer darkness. The mystery of grace is that it is the fullest expression of God's holiness and love. It is a matter of grace that not only are we saved, but also that Sin is destroyed, never to plague us again. That God's immutable character did not produce our utter destruction (either by annihilation or leaving us to our own vices and devices), but rather our utter salvation through the redemption wrought by God in Christ, such a fact should boggle our minds into thunderous worship, for grace is truly amazing.

"Mysterious grace, mysterious ways

The sweetest song that turns

Unworthy wretches into

Sons and daughters of God..."

-Jon Vowell

Wrath in the Context of the Trinity

"For a small moment, I have forsaken thee; but with great mercies, I will gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting loving-kindness, I will have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer." Isaiah 54:7, 8

Juxtaposed next to God's love is another immutable quality of His character: holiness. Holiness is defined as "moral perfection," perfection is defined as "completeness" or "wholeness." Within God's character, there is no deficiency, defect, or divide. In can be said that, because God is perfect, that His holiness is a perfect holiness, a whole moral wholeness, i.e., a moral wholeness that is constant. He is not morally whole sometimes and morally unwhole other times; He is in a constant state of moral wholeness. He is 'wholly holy,' so to speak. Likewise, if God is perfect, then His love is perfect as well, i.e., His communion is complete and whole; there is no shadow of severance within God's communal nature. Thus within the Trinity, we see two factors played out: perfect holiness and love, perfect wholeness and communion. It is the picture of absolutely immutable unity.

Whereas the Trinity carries with it the sense of absolute immutable unity, Sin carries with it the sense of absolute immutable separation, separation between God and man, man and man, man and creation, and man and himself. Sin divides; the Trinity unites. Those who are bound to Sin by Adam (and continue therein) are bound (and continue to bind themselves) to division, and the Trinity has no part in them; likewise, those who are bound to the Trinity by Christ are bound to unity, and Sin has no part in them. The Trinity is the fulfillment of communion, while Sin is communion's dissolvement. The two are oil and water: the one displaces the other. The wages of Sin, the natural consequence of being bound to Sin, is separation from God, and separation from God is death (and thus the further separations of man result). To be separated from God, from the Trinity, from absolute and perfect moral wholeness and personal communion, is to be separated from true life, and thus it is death.

The space-time realities of God's wrath upon the peoples of earth must be viewed within the context of God as absolute immutable unity and Sin as absolute immutable separation. When once you bind yourself to Sin, "the death sentence is at work in you," as Mr. Chambers would say. It is at work because what indeed is the natural consequence of turning from God, absolute unity, the source of life? The only other ground to run to is absolute separation, the source of death. When people Sin against God, when they cling to death and separation over life and unity, life and unity withdraws itself from us (for what fellowship has unity with separation?), and we are left to the consequences.

Thus, within the context of the Trinity, we see God is Love, and thus is Savior: He desires communion with us, because it is His nature to desire communion with others. We also see, however, that God is Holy, and thus is Judge: His very presence is the destruction of separation, because it is His nature to be whole and complete. Let no man say that God desires separation, that He desires the death of the wicked; He does not. His holiness demands separation Sin; His love demands communion with us.

"Holiness and Love

Burning forever

In Divine Dance.

Sweep us up into such Joy..."

-Jon Vowell

The Gospel in the Context of the Trinity

"For thy Maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer [is] the Holy One of Israel, The God of the whole earth shall He be called. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God." Isaiah 54:5, 6

The idea of God as a romantic (in a relational and not literary sense) strikes many as unconventional, especially men (God is my husband?). Imagery aside, however, the thing to grasp here is that God desires communion with you: to love, to have and to hold. Regardless of gender, all people desire to be desired; whether for beauty or strength, all people long to be wanted by another. The desire for communion with others is a fundamental element of humanity, and the Bible tells us the shocking truth that the terrible and glorious Almighty desires to commune with us.

Now, there is a difference between desire and need. God desires communion with us, but He does not need it. Existing as the Trinity, God is in an eternal, perfect communion and society within Himself; He needs nothing more. The flip side of all this is that the truth of God existing as the Trinity is the fundamental reality behind the oft over quoted and misquoted phrase, "God is love," i.e., God's very nature is bound up in communion with others. Thus, we see two facts that emerge from God existing as a Trinity: He does not need to commune with us, for He is in perfect communion always; He does desire to commune with us because it is His very nature to commune with others. Note that the reason God desires communion with us has everything to do with Him, not us. There is nothing in us that merits God's desire; His desire springs from His own nature and nowhere else. Though we are unlovable, God loved us; while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Of course, Christ is the fullest expression and proof of God's love for us (Romans 5:8), and He came to 'make us lovable,' i.e., make us so that we can commune with God. That God desires to commune and whether or not He can commune are two different things. God cannot commune with Sin (for Sin is the rejection of and separation from God), and we are all sinners (Romans 3:23). Thus, unless something drastically changes within us, we cannot commune with God, but are destined to stay separate from Him forever, which is the true meaning of Hell (Matthew 7:23 & 25:41; notice the use by multiple translations of the word "depart"). At the Cross of Christ, however, a transaction was made. Christ, who was and is God, took our Sin upon Himself and in return gave us His righteousness, i.e., God's righteousness (II Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, Christ has (through the Cross) made a way for us to be made lovable, by making us a way to become like Love Himself. Having been 'made lovable,' (i.e., saved) by Christ, commune with God is now possible, but only if we (1) believe that Christ is the only way to be 'made lovable,' and (2) accept such a salvation (for a gift is not yours until you accept it).

Thus, by accepting the salvation found only in Christ, that which separates us from God (i.e., Sin) is done away with, and our communion with Him is restored. It is restored becomes Sin (that which absolutely separates) has been removed, and Love (that which absolutely unites) has replaced it. Therefore, the gospel is about love, romance, about God desiring us and making a way for us to commune with Him. We can reject such communion if we wish, but we do so at our own peril.

"All consuming Love and Passion,

Holy Fire of pain and pleasure,

Draw us deeper still

Into the Light of Your Glory and Grace..."

-Jon Vowell

The Knowing that Glorifies

"[Every]one that is called by my name...I have created Him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.... Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant who I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am He. Before me, there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me." Isaiah 43:7, 10

The purpose of our existence is the knowledge of God; and through that knowledge, we glorify Him. By "knowledge," I do not mean the accumulation of facts, but the idea of intimate communion. The "knowledge" of God is trinitarian: it is the complete enmeshing of one person with another. Intimate communion is the way to know a person; abstract reasoning can only take you so far. God was meant to be known, not studied.
By "glorify," I do not mean mere worship or evangelism. I also mean that, in intimate communion with God, you are drawn more and more into Him; and by that drawing in, you become more and more like Him. Thus, the knowledge of God glorifies God because the more we partake in intimate communion with Him, the more we disappear and the more He remains. By this, we become a living channel of His presence, and therefore His glory.

"To know You and be known,
Me in You and You in I,
Wed to Fire that burns and soothes.
Oh the agony and the ecstasy..."
-Jon Vowell

"He is Lord..."

"I am the Lord; that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." Isaiah 42:8

It is perhaps safe to say that the vast majority of people (if they believe in a God at all) are quite ready and willing to accept Him as the Creator; they may even be open to accepting Him as a miracle-worker (there is nothing cooler than God going out of His way to fix your problems, right?). Very few, however, (even amongst the Church) are will to accept Him as Lord, the penetrating, overruling, passionate motive, focus, and ideal of our lives. We are more often offend at the idea: "God made me, and is involved in my life, but I will decide where and when and how I shall be used and shall serve." In Acts 17, I'm pretty sure that Paul's audience at Mar's Hill was right with him when he said that God "made the world and all things therein," but got he lost them when he said God was "Lord of heaven and earth." In the end, while some believed, others mocked (vs. 32, 34).
We must not be fooled into thinking that any ideal or focus other than God will be "bad." Some of the greatest wrong ideas in the world were really wonderful ideas. Many false gospels all ring of beauty and wonderfulness: feeding and educating the poor and hungry is noble; making more money is logical; being freed from oppressors is beautiful. They are all good things in and of themselves. However, they cannot become the thing; God alone is to be the thing in our lives. Anything that becomes our focus, no matter how noble, logical, or beautiful it is, no matter how good (from our perspective) it is, if it is not God (not merely of Him, but Him Himself), then it is a graven image, and will lead us to perdition. God will have absolutely no competition; even that which is good must fall before He who is the Good.
That, of course, is the key to responding to those who claim that God is selfish and egocentric for demanding some much attention. First of all, God cannot be "selfish" because He lacks nothing (including glory or self-esteem). Second of all, God's very nature (i.e., the Trinity) is not one of egocentrism, but of love, a continual giving over of the self to and for another. Finally, God is the Good in the universe, the one and only thing we need in order to be happy, healthy, and whole. God smacking us on the head so that we look unto Him is anything but selfish or egocentric; it is a great act of love, for instead of leaving us to flounder about in a million side eddys, He draws us unto Himself for the good of our souls (because He is the Good of our souls).
God is not lord and master in the way we commonly associate the word, i.e., a tyrannical, self-consuming egocentrist, who benefits by every person that subjects to him. God (being all-sufficient), cannot be "benefited" by anything; therefore, our (willful) subjection to Him is wholly beneficial to us. That is the difference between God and tyrants, between the lords of earth and the Lord of heaven and earth.

"Take my life and let it be,
Only, ever lost in Thee.
Let Thy Glory, and Thy Goodness,
And Thy Love lead me only to You..."
-Jon Vowell

Love and Forgiveness

"...Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back." Isaiah 38:17

How seriously do we really take the love of God? Do we honestly believe that it aves to the uttermost, that it goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell? Our salvation could have been simple in execution: God could have saved us out of duty or obligation, or out of a demonstration of sheer power. Instead, however, He did it out of love, a love that sent His only Son through the horrors of death and the gates of Hell itself. Elongated stays in the pit of corruption can turn love into a farce. We must recapture the wonder of a love, "for love is strong as death; jealousy as cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame." (Song of Solomon 8:6b) Have we forgotten that God's very nature is bound up in love (i.e., "God is love"), that He is the very essence of intimate experiential knowledge of another founded on intimate communion with that other? Or have we lost that truth behind the mysterious veil that is the word "Trinity"?
How serious do we really take the forgiveness of God? There are two misconceptions that we must do away with. First, God's love cannot be the grounds for His forgiveness. It can be a motive, but not grounds. His love will find a way to forgive, but it is not the reason He forgive us. Get it through your heads and never forget it: God can forgive us because Christ died, and nothing else. Second, God does not forgive like we forgive. That God "forgives" does not mean that he merely overlooks. God's forgiveness is not ignorance, but absolution. In His forgiveness, sin is done away with in its entirety, and we are made before God as though we never sinned. It is an absolute finality, a finality that God's love sought for us and that Christ's death bought for us. God's love and forgiveness are not matters of sentiment. They are heavy things, matters of "deep magic," and yet we carelessly throw them about as worship buzzwords, or live agnostically towards them in practical experience.
Ask yourself: What would happen if you truly lived the weighty reality of God's love and forgiveness? How would your days change if during those abysmal moments you were thunderously struck with the heavy, rugged clarity of this truth: "God loves me, and I am forgiven"? How many strongholds of the enemy would fade like chaff in the wind if we let that truth envelope us everyday? If we let ourselves soak in any of the great truths of God, would we dare stay the same?

"Love takes Eternity in its embrace;
Forgiveness, in its comprehension.
Dare I treat them less than they are...?"
-Jon Vowell

I Tremble at the Thought...

"...the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this." Isaiah 37:32b

Most people get befuddled by the relationship between God's sovereignty and man's freewill, but I find the relationship between His sovereignty and His zeal to be more interesting (and scandalous in its implications). Ask yourself: If God knows all and is in control of all, why is He zealous about anything? Why is He zealous to defend His city and His people? Surely He knows that the Assyrians cannot win against Him? That they cannot take one step without Him? You would think a God with completely control and power would yawn at the flagrant claims of Sennacherib, or any other king. Why, then, does the Bible say that He laughs (Psalm 2:1-4)? What's so funny about things going according to plan? In short, if God is sovereign over all, then on what grounds does He interact with this world with life and energy and zeal? Even shorter: why do we not have the God of the deists? The plan will go as He set it; why such zealous involvement? Why any involvement at all?
I know that there may be deep, theological answers to such queries that a scholar could easily give you. I am not a scholar, and will not try to attempt such answers. I do have two thoughts, however. First of all, God's zeal should be a wondrous reminder to us that God is a person and not a machine. The premium mobile has a heart; the first cause has love and passionate zeal. We do not communion with mere brain.
That communion is the second thought. God is intimate. There is no aloofness, no ivory tower. He is with us always (whether we want Him or not). For some reason, God felt that overarching sovereignty was not enough, that it would make Him (dare we say it?) incomplete. He could not be merely in control of all things; He had to be with all things. Not that He needed to be with all things (for He needs nothing), but that His very nature implies not only all-encompassing sovereignty, but also intimate communion with all that is from Him and of Him. He is paradoxically enmeshed with and independent from His creation; it is not Him, and He is not it, and yet they are one.
If you think such an intimate relationship (one, yet separate) is impossible, you are a blatant liar (or an ignorant fool). Such a unity is known to humanity on its concrete plane, known in a form that only lovers or poets can utter with any clarity. Can it be that the human act hailed as the most animal is in fact the most sacred? Is that so called (and vulgarly called) "biological function" humanity's fullest imitation, on the physical plane, of the very nature of God Himself? I believe it is.
Furthermore (and I tremble at the thought), could it be that this unity (one, yet separate) that is the nature of God, which humans share with each other (how amazing the idea!), is the same basis by which God relates to us? Again, I believe it is, and again, I tremble at the thought; not out of fear, but of wonder. We (through Christ) are made one with God as a lover is one with a lover? Scandalous; yet, apparently, the truth.

"Your Love is Extravagant.
Your Friendship, it is Intimate..."
(from Casting Crowns)
-Jon Vowell