God of Love

Ask 10 people who ‘God’ is and you will get 11 answers. Anything ranging from “the big guy upstairs” to “everything in nature”. Why is it that we come up with many variations of the same person? It’s because ‘God’, whichever way you define him, isn’t like us. As creator he inevitable stands apart from creation. The only way God can create is if he doesn’t need time, space or matter to exist. Thus, he exists in an entirely different way from us. The only kind of god we can fully understand is one made in our own image.

If God is totally different than anything we can understand, then he would be unknowable and impossible to relate to. Yet the claim of the bible is that though God is utterly unique and other, he is still completely involved and interwoven with creation. To better study this let’s look at 2 sets of verses in the bible. One that begins the Old Testament and another the New.

Genesis 1:1-2

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

John 1:1-3

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

These accounts of the beginning of time assume that God was there before the beginning, always in existence. Not created by anything but the creator of all. It’s difficult for our finite minds to grasp an infinite God who always was. In this pair of verses about the creation God is described in a unique way.

1. The God Creator (who created heaven and earth)

2. The Word (who was with God & was God & through whom all things were made)

3. The Spirit of God (hovering over the formless world)

All three describe the infinite God. All are with each other but described as separate from one another. This complex nature of God is detailed throughout the bible. Elsewhere in scripture the creator is given the title “Father”, the Word “Son/’Jesus Christ” and the Spirit “Holy Spirit”. They are all described as God but distinct from one another. This is where it starts to get tricky but track with me. There is a great significance to this 3-person nature of God. The biblical nature of God can be summarized in these 8 statements:

1. There is one God - (Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiah 44:6, 1Timothy 1:17)

2. The Father is God - (John 6:27, Titus 1:4, Matthew 6:9)

3. The Son is God- (Colossians 2:9, Hebrews 1:3, Titus 2:13)

4. The Holy Spirit is God- (Ephesians 4:30, 1Corinthians 3:16, Hebrews 9:14)

5. The Father is not the Son or Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:1-2, Matthew 9, Daniel 7:9-14)

6. The Son is not the Father or Holy Spirit ( " " ")

7. The Holy Spirit is not the Father or Son ( " " ")

8. There are not three gods - (refer to no. 1)

Indeed, God exists different from how any other member of creation exists. Before the beginning, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit were not alone but existed in relationship. Later in the book of John, The Son (Jesus) states the nature of this relationship in a prayer he makes to the Father.

John 17: 24

24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

The way they related before creation was in loving communion; ‘you loved me before the creation of the world’. This means that love wasn’t a created thing; it existed as long as God did. God did not create his 3-person nature; it’s how he always existed. Therefore, he always had someone to actively love. God never needed to create anything to be loving, he simply was. Instead, it was out of the overflow of his communal love that he created.

The triune (3-person) nature of God is a core distinction of Christianity from other monotheistic religions. It is often ignored yet it is the basis of a loving God existing. A biblical scholar Michael Reeves puts it this way in his book Delighting in The Trinity: “Such are the problems with non-triune gods and creation. Single-person gods, having spent eternity alone, are inevitably self-centered beings, and so it becomes hard to see why they would ever cause anything else to exist. Wouldn’t the existence of a universe be an irritating distraction for the god whose greatest pleasure is looking in a mirror? Creating just looks like a deeply unnatural thing for such a god to do. And if such gods do create, they always seem to do so out of an essential neediness or desire to use what they create merely for their own self-gratification. Everything changes when it comes to the Father, Son and Spirit. Here is a God who is not essentially lonely, but who has been loving for all eternity as the Father has loved the Son in the Spirit. Loving others is not a strange or novel thing for this God at all; it is at the root of who he is.”

Love is experienced one to another in the Trinity so much so that it could prompt an overflow into the created world; hence Genesis 1:1. Creation then seems not an essential thing for the triune God to do but a characteristic thing. Love gives of itself. God did not create because of power but out of love. A display of generosity and kindness is seen in the excessive beauty of nature. For single-person gods, power comes before love in creation. For the God of the bible love comes first and is the basis of creation. The universe is sustained by an eternal community of love.

If God exists in community and we were created in the image of God, then we are by nature communal. Creatures made to be fully known and fully loved. Love wasn’t our evolutionary creation but the character of an eternal God. It’s why we cannot exist in isolation. Should we want to know what it means to truly love and be loved by another we must refer to love’s source. By his definition love looks like 1 Corinthians 13.

Even in a fallen Eden we still experience the transcendent nature of love. Nowhere is this better seen than in the countless romantic songs telling of how couples will love each other for forever and a day. It’s not for nothing they sing this. Their love for each other in those beautiful moments does feel like it will go on and on (Titanic anyone?). Our love for each other, imperfect as it is, echoes to eternity. How much more a love we experience with the God eternal?

To view God as a trinity doesn’t stop at religious dogma. Part of God’s identity

is to invite others to share in the eternal love. In the renewed creation we are brought into this community of love. We were created to be fully known and fully loved. Eternity with God will be the culmination of this. (John 17:3)

Without the understanding of the trinity God appears cold and distant. Only a supreme ruler, creator and judge. One to fear and appease but certainly not love. But with the knowledge of the 3-person God comes the awakening of love. If all of creation is held by an eternal community of love what could be more blessed than joining it?

The biblical God is not one whom you make sense of with a mental map but rather a relational person you know. A beautiful fellowship of love to be experienced. God loves you and you have a choice to love him back. Will you?

Ephesians 3: 14-19

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

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For further study:

• Michael Reeves book, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith.

• The Bible Project's God video and God podcast series.

• The Gospel coalitions various wrtings on the Trinity.