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nltvrmBe*.e,Love Git to do With It?

I want to start bY Posing a question:in our meditations on God are wesufftciently Trinitarian? I do not mean"do we you believe in the Trinity?" or,"do we confess the Trinity?." Many ofus would happily check the doctrinebox "Trinity: Yes." Having confessedit, many of us quite frankly do notknow what difference the TrinitYmakes.

First, let me say, we believe in theTrinity because it is a truth revealedin Scripture. God is triune: He is oneGod who has for all eternity exlstedin three disiinct persons. God is onein His essence but distinct in personsso that there is eternal fellowshipbetween the Father, the Son, andthe Holy Spirlt. Like all doctrine,we believe it because it is true. Butdoes the truth of the TrinitY shaPeyour worship of God? Does it shaPehow you think about your relation-ship with God? We are talking aboutwho God is-and who He is shouldimpact how we worship, glorifY, andgive thanks to Him.

Consider this examPle: I am ln lovewith my wife, but I do not divorce mYlove of my wife from fundamentaltruths about her character and per-sonality. If I love my spouse I have tolove her for who she is. Love is nota mystical feeling that floats unwedfrom the person. And Yet, this isprecisely the disconnect that I thinkis far too common in the evangelicalworld. Simply put: we do not knowwhat to do with the Trinity. We fallto conceive it as a highly applicabledoctrine

-as all good doctrine is in

the end.In this study; I would like to offer

one signpost for the directlon weneed to go in thinking about theTrinity. We all recognize that God islove (1 John 4:B). If love is a funda-mental attribute of God and God istriune then our exPerience of Godwill be an experience of one love

God's love for us will manifest itselfalong Trinitarian lines not becauselove is god but because the God rvholoves us is triune and thus will manifest love in a manner consistent withHis belng and persons.

Using Galatians 4:4-7, we will drawthis out in three Points. We shouldnote that, while "love" and "Trinity"are not mentioned in these verses, itis clear from the whole of Scripturethat what God is described as doingin these three verses is grounded inGod's love. Also, this Passage doesnot work

unless God is a Trinity. in otherwords, we cannot conceive of theacLions undertaken by God in rhispassage apart from God being triune.

First, the love of God wasaccomplished by sending theSon. The love of God is an actlve1ove. As the old saying goes "loveis a verb." It is something that youactively express for someone. Godthe Father accomplishes His love bythe sending of the Son. Notice theunderlined words here:

But when the fullness of timehad come, God sent forth hisSon, born of woman, born underthe law, to redeem those whowere under the law. so that wemight receive adoption as sons.

-Galatians 4:4 (ESV)There are two aspects of God

sending His Son. First is that Godthe Father and God the Son

be born of the woman; not only this,but He comes as a Jewish child underthe Old Covenant law of God.

Jesus Christ, the eternal Son ofGod, came to be our Redeemer. Hedied on the cross to bear the curseol sin thar the Law proclaims oneveryone who disobeys God (Ga1.3:13). Jesus died on the cross so thatwe can be set free from sin. This isthe love of God flowing to us fromthe Father and from the Son. So Godthe Father loved us and sent His Sonfor us (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9-10),but the Son also loved us and gaveHimself for us (Galatians 2:20).Thus, there is no conflict between theFather and the Son in this p1an. Jesusobeyed the Father's wili, but Jesusalso loved us and did not balk-"do Ihave to do this?".

been poured into our heartsthrough the Holy Spirit who hasbeen given fo as.

-Romans 5:5

Every believer in the Lord JesusChrist has the Holy Spirit. God's lovecame into the world when God sentChrist, but God's love came into ourhearls when the Hoiy Spirit regener-ated us with new life. "But when thegoodness and lovingkindness of God ourSavior appeared, he saved us, not becauseof works done by us in righteousness,but according to his own mercy, by thewashing of regeneration and renewalof the Holy Spirit, whom he poured outon us richly through Jesus Christ ourSavior."

-Titus 3:4-6

existed together in heaven from alleternity past. There is no point ineternity when the Son did not ex-

ist and enjoy fellowship withthe Father. Second, there is

a ooint in time when theSon is actually sent. It isin the fullness of time.At a point in time, the

Son who existed fromall eternity is sent

so that He would

Second, the love of God isapplied by sending the HolySpirit. The Bible tells us that theHoly Spirlt is pouring God's love intoour hearts by virtue of His presencein us. We in turn carr cry out in lovingcommunion with God because of theHoly Spirit in us:

And because you are sons, Godhas sent the Spirit of his Soninto our hearts, crying, "Abba!Father!"

-Galatians4:6... and hope does not put us toshame, because God's love has

We find here that we are unrigh-teous and fi1thy in our sin with noth-ing good residing in us. But what didGod do? He cleansed us. He renewedour hearts by the Holy Spirlt. Hegave us new birth by the Holy Spirit.He poured out the Holy Spirit richlyupon us. He did this all through thework of Christ. This means the com-ing of the Holy Spirit for theapplication of redemption is directlytied to the accomplishments of JesusChrist on the cross. Unity is funda-mental to their working because theyare unified in their essence.

So God the Father sends the HolySpirit, but He is the Spirit of the Sonbecause, (a) Jesus had a perfect spiritual experience with the Holy Spiritin His earthly life, and (b) Jesus is the

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Tfinity (continued from page 5)One who went back to heaven so thatthe Holy Spirit could be sent. He, too, isinvolved in the sending. But how doesthe Holy Spirit help you grasp the loveof God? Here are at least four ways:

1. We would not believe thegospel if it were not for theenlivening power of the HolySpirit. You and I need regen-eration if we are to believe. Imust be made alive; I must bemade to see if I am to believe.

2. We will not love God unlessGod first put His love in ourhearts. This is the work of theHoly Spirit.

3. The Holy Spirit seals us. Youcannot be cut off from Christbecause the Holy Spirit residesin you- in the same waY thatJesus Christ has communionwith the Holy Spirit and can-not be cut off from God theFather.

4. The Holy Spirit causes us tocry out to God as your Father.It should never cease to amazeus that the most intimateaddress'Abba" is now some-thing which, by our adoption,we experience in our commu-nion with God.

-Romans B:14-15

Third, the love of God is experi-enced by us in our adoption.God's love for us is shown in all Hisworking on our behalf by each of thethree persons that results in our adop-tion into His family. You become afull heir of the inheritance that Christ

T imothy B ertol et p astor sPocono Mountain BibleFellowship Church,Mt. Pocono, PA.

has won and the will of the Father hasgranted to the Son by His divine plea-sure. (Galatians 4:6-7)

We should immediately note thatour sonship by adoption is not same asJesus' Sonship. We do not share in theessence of the Godhead. Jesus is theeternal Son. He is perfect, ho1y, and hasalways been the Son. We were addedinto the inheritance. We have the privi-leges but we do not, nor will we ever,exist as God.

Yet, God's love in our adoption bringsus a new status. We are in the familYnow. We share communion with theFather, the Son and the Holy Spirit in amanner analogous to their communion.We commune with God as unequals andas creatures. The Trinity communes asequals in their divinity. Nevertheless,do not miss the grace of God in this-we have been raised to a privilege thatin eternity passed was experienced onlywithin the Trinity.

The love of the three persons functionsin perfect unity. One God accomplishingone salvation-for one people of God.There is a line in a song "looking for love

an eternal love, He cannot'accomplish this love. God'snot fai1. Since only the 1perfect, only God's loveus. When we grasp this, wesweet communion withthe Almighty one, Father,Holy Spirit. ft;