The following is Part II of the teaching series, What Good is the Church? A complete audio file of the below selection can be found here.
A hallmark Christian confession is this: God is Trinity. Apart from the Trinity, there is no Christianity. Apart from the Trinity, there is no salvation. Apart from the Trinity, there is no church.
Father, Son, and Spirit all demonstrating that our salvation is a gift of God. When we say God, we understand we mean the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What difference will it make in our understanding of the church if we begin with God as Trinity? Remember, God is essential to the church. Take God away, and there is no church. The Trinity tells us that God has eternally existed as three persons – Father, Son, and Spirit. There are not three Gods but three persons in one God. Whatever it means to be God, the Father, Son and Spirit possess equally. There has been and always will be an eternal fellowship between Father, Son, and Spirit. The three persons dwell in unity, hence Trinity, literally, tri-unity. Within the Trinity, there is unity and diversity. The Father is not the Son or the Spirit. The Son is not the Father or the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Father or the Son. Father, Spirit, and Son are God. Each member of the Trinity dwelling together in love.
God desires to share himself with us and to have us share in his fellowship. The Father sends the Son to accomplish salvation – that act whereby God turns towards us – and then the Spirit is sent to seal the salvation the Father sent the Son to accomplish. More specifically, according to Ephesians 1, the Father elects, he chooses us, in the Beloved Son by the Holy Spirit. Election says the God who created a trillion stars and endless galaxies knows you by name.
Ephesians 1:1-14 is filled with plural language -, we and us. From this, we learn, the church is both communal and relational. God made us for God. The substance of our relationship is love. 1 John 4:8 tells us, God is love. Because God loves, he gave. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (Jn. 3:16)
The Trinity is the right place for us to begin as we set our minds to understand the church. Because we come to church, or we think of the church in so many different ways due to our experience, we often begin with what we do instead of who we are. Unless we start with who we are, we will never appreciate all we have been called to do.
When we understand God in love has called us to enjoy him and glorify Him forever, our missions is fueled not by our efforts but by his powerful steadfast, ever reaching, all-encompassing love. You and I are created to have fellowship with God. Communion with God shapes everything.
The key phrase there is fellowship. We take this to heart. As John says, If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4:20–21)
We should continue by saying if we are not good at loving our brothers and sisters who we can see, how can we love those whom we can’t see? Remember election, God knows who are his. God has a harvest. God intends to save lost ones. As God loves, so we as his people share in God’s love through the power of the Spirit. We share that power in the way we love one another and the way we love the other. As God desires to bring exiles and strangers home to make them sons and daughters, as he seeks and saves lost ones, we too must love one another and desire to express love towards others.
Do you love God? Do you find yourself loving? A lover of God will be loving.
