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Published on 27 Comments on Adjectives for God

Often when we use adjectives for God we reach for the big guns but find that they don't quite pack the punch we'd hoped.  We say 'Holy' and 'Glorious', 'Supreme' and 'Majestic' but the more we Capitalize the Words, The More People Just File Them Away In SPECIAL GOD-SPEAK files, never to consider them again.

I've been thinking - it's the little words, the more ordinary words that can slip under the radar and cause the most surprise.  Here are some I've been thinking of lately that have awoken in me genuine worship for a God who is always surprising.  

Kind

Selfless

Happy

Fierce

Patient

Communicative

Vulnerable

Committed

Jealous 

Friendly

Habitable

Hospitable

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What are your favourite adjectives for God?

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Published on Leave a comment on Kids Songs

I sometimes post up kids songs.  Here's a collection I've put together for my nephews and neices for Christmas.

(If you've downloaded my other songs, notice an old song not seen on the blog before - the Poison Cup.  I've also re-recorded Power and have done the Christmas round in a lower key at the end).

Anyway, here are:

Uncle Glen's Silly Songs

1.  Christmas Round - Good News of Great Joy

2.  The Jonah Song

3.  Moving - The Egypt Song

4.  John 3:16

5.  Shipwrecked (from the Holiday Club of the same name)

6.  Power - Romans 1:16-17

7.  The Secret Song - Philippians 4:13

8.  The Poison Cup (part of a Garden of Gethsemane assembly)

9.  Fake Plastic Trees - Country Hoedown

10.  Christmas Round (remix - in lower key)

11.  Christmas salutation

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Published on Leave a comment on All Age Carols Talk

Preached this last night at Carols by Candlelight.  (audio here)

Lots of kids (there was a nativity).  Readings were Matthew 2:1-12 (the Magi) and Philippians 2:5-11.

I think I managed to say at one point "There was never a time when Jesus and His Father existed."  Be assured I'm not a oneness Pentecostal.  I meant to say there was never a time when they didn't exist.  Hope people understood!

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Christmas is weird.  Do you ever think how weird Christmas is?

Wise men come from the east to see the Baby Jesus.  And what do you do when you see a baby? 

[SLIDE]

You say "A-wooga-booga-booga-booga, who's a beautiful brown eyed boy?"  That's what you do when you see a newborn baby.  But these wise men - you know what they did?  They got flat on their faces in the middle of a stable and worshipped a baby!

[SLIDE]

Wise men worshipping a baby.  WISE men. Dignified men.  Important men.  Intelligent men.  Bowing down to a baby who was wriggling around in a feeding trough.  Did you know that's what a manger is? 

[SLIDE]

A manger is a feeding trough that cows and sheep eat out of.  I'm sure they cleaned it up as best they could but nonetheless - a tiny baby, wriggling around in a feeding trough, and WISE MEN worshipped!

[SLIDE]

If you saw me worshipping a newborn baby you would not think that I was wise.  You would think that I'd been mulling a little too much wine.  And if you lived in bible times you would be shocked.  Because in the bible you worship nothing and noone except God Almighty.  And these WISE MEN worshipped the baby Jesus. 

That's weird right?

Well it get's weirder. 

Do you remember in our reading the wise men were coming from the east to find Jesus?  And King Herod was worried because they were talking about Jesus as a King.  And Herod wanted to find out where Jesus would be born.  So they consult the Bible - they go straight to the Old Testament.  And, clear as day, the Old Testament prophet Micah said the promised King would be born in Bethlehem.

Here's what the verse said:

2 "But you, Bethlehem... though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me One who will be Ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."

So that's how Herod knew God's King would be born in Bethlehem. 

But do you notice how the verse ends?  "His origins are from of old, from ancient times."

Micah says that God's promised King is very old.  In fact the word there for ancient times is the word for eternity.  So the verse is saying, God's promised King who's going to be born in Bethlehem, He is God's eternal King.  God and His King Jesus go WAY BACK.  And I mean WAY WAY WAY back.  Before there were any people or planets or protons - God and His eternal King Jesus existed.  And then 700 years after Micah, that Eternal King is born in the little town of Bethlehem.  So the Baby in the manger is Ancient - He's from eternity!!!  The Baby is ancient!

[SLIDE]

Is that weird or is that weird?  The Baby is ancient!  Jesus Christ is not 2000 years old.  He is MUCH more ancient than that.  He is God's Eternal King.  There has never been a time when Jesus did not exist with His Father. 

So on that first Christmas, the Baby wriggling in the manger is ancient - an eternal King.

I told you this was weird.  But if that's twisted your melon, now I'm going to turn up the weird factor to nuclear.

Because in our second reading for tonight we heard something so weird that it actually makes all of that seem perfectly natural.

In Philippians 2 we get to see the thought-life of the Ancient King Jesus.  In Philippians 2 we get to hear what Jesus was thinking long long before Christmas. 

Look with me at Philippians 2 from verse 5. The apostle Paul writes:

5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!

So this is an insight into the attitude of Christ.  Do you see that's how it begins in v5 - your attitude should be the same as Christ's attitude.  Well what's Christ's attitude?  From v6 it tells us.  Jesus is in very nature God.  He is completely equal to God His Father.  But, v6,  Jesus makes a consideration.  He thinks to Himself.   And He thinks - "Just because I'm equal with God, I'm not going to use that to serve myself.  I'm going to use that to serve others.  And so He chooses to get born.  Isn't that amazing?

[SLIDE]

Who here chose to get born??  You didn't decide to get born.  I'm guessing if you had been offered the chance to get born, you'd have taken it.  But Jesus is the Ancient Ruler, God's Eternal King - He's been around forever.  If He get's born into the human race it's only because He chooses to get born into the human race.  And that's what He did - He chose to get born.

But I promise you, if you were in His shoes, you'd never have chosen what He chose.  If you were in very nature God, if you were the Eternal King, surrounded by the worship of heaven, in the direct presence of Your Father who you adored with all your heart and had done forever - if you were in Jesus' shoes you would not have chosen what Jesus chose.  Because this is how Jesus considered things:  Being in very nature God, He chose not to grasp at His privileges or to exploit them.  Instead He chose total self-emptying.

Do you see that in v7?  It says 'He made Himself nothing'.  Literally it says 'He emptied Himself'.

Imagine the most enormous dam you can think of. 

[SLIDE]

Trillions and trillions and trillions of gallons of water, full to overflowing.  And then...

[SLIDE]

... that water pouring down, completely emptying itself. 

Jesus chose to completely pour Himself out for the world.

And He poured Himself out in service.  He took the very nature of a servant.

So Jesus the Eternal King, chose to be born.  Chose to empty Himself in service, He chose to take the form of a servant.  And verse 8 says 'He humbled Himself'.

He humbled Himself alright.  He left the riches of heaven to become poor.  He left the throne to become a servant.  He exchanged being Commander in Chief for, v8 becoming obedient - even to death on the cross. 

[SLIDE - cross]

You know when you see Jesus in the manger, it's like watching a man falling.  Because He's come from the highest heights.  And on Christmas morning you see Him heading down.  .....  Down, down, down all the way to death. 

And all of this happens - the crib and the cross happens - because, v6, Jesus made a decision.  He considered His options.  He weighed it up.  On the one hand He could stay in heaven and hold onto His divine privileges.  But Jesus thought No.  Because that would not show us the true nature of God.  Let me say that again because I think it's quite shocking - Staying on the throne would not show us the true nature of God.  The true nature of God is shown by climbing down off the throne, pouring Himself out as a servant, wriggling in the manger and writhing on the cross.  That's what shows us the very nature of God!  Not grasping but giving.  Not exploiting but emptying.  Not being served but serving.  Not domination but humility.

In the Times yesterday the front page has Robert Mugabe saying "I will never, never surrender.  Zimbabwe is mine."  The very opposite of how Jesus considered His power.  When we think about people in power, they never want to let go of their power.  The worst leaders don't - even the best leaders find it very difficult to let go of power.  We grasp at it.  We cling on. Jesus emptied Himself.  They say absolute power corrupts.  Well it might corrupt us, but it didn't corrupt Jesus.  He used His absolute power to serve.  Isn't that incredible?

Neil told a story this morning that I'm going to steal.  Imagine if you're slobbing around at home, the place is a tip and you get a knock at the door.  You answer the door in your dressing gown and it's only the Queen.  Your jaw is on the floor and she walks past you into your home and says, don't get up - I've come to do a spot of cleaning.  She takes off her pristine white gloves, puts on the marigolds and starts doing the housework.  What would you think?

Well friends, Jesus has come from far greater heights, and He's stooped down to far greater depths.  He has served you and me in the most incredible way.  That baby in the manger is the Lord of heaven stooping down to serve you.

Which shows us something very important.  It shows us that Jesus thinks we're in trouble.  He mounts a cosmic rescue mission - because He thinks we need it.  Jesus does not stay in heaven and simply call us up.  He knows that we can't do it.  He knows that we can't go up - He must come down.  So that's what Jesus does.  He comes from the heights and swoops down to meet us where we are - in the depths.  That's how Jesus uses His power, to stoop, to serve, to save.

Isn't that the most wonderful thing in the world, that He would do that for us?  God the Father thinks it's the greatest thing ever.

[SLIDE]

 Verse 9, when God the Father sees His Son pouring Himself out in service ...

9 Therefore God exalted [Jesus] to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father.

When God the Father sees His Son poured out as a humble servant and dying a hellish death - THEREFORE He exalts Jesus.  Because of the crib and the cross, the Father says "Have the crown."  Because the crib and the cross are the true expressions of God's crown. 

[SLIDE]

One day everyone will bow the knee to Jesus, the LORD, and they will do so because He poured out His life to death.  And when the Father sees that He says "YES!  That IS what it means to be LORD.  And He exalts Jesus to His right hand to tell the universe:  This Servant is LORD.  This is what it means to be in very nature God. 

And one day every person who has ever lived will bow before Jesus, the Divine Servant.  Whether they love Him or hate Him, EVERYONE will be flattened by the glory of the Servant King.

When He returns one day, still bearing the scars of His crucifixion, we will be overwhelmed.  Everyone in this room will bow to Jesus.  Whether gladly or reluctantly.  Everyone outside this room will bow to Jesus.  We won't be able to help ourselves.  The power of His Self-Emptying Majesty will force us down on our faces to confess that this - the Most Humble Servant there's ever been - is LORD of all. 

Well what do you think of the Wise Men now?  Do you understand their worship?  Or is it still weird to you?  Have you also looked inside the manger and seen the Glory of God?

[SLIDE]

Maybe even as I've been speaking you have begun to look differently at that Baby.  Maybe now for the first time you realise who He is.  You realise that He chose to come, chose to serve, chose even to die - and He did it for you.  Can you see what the Wise Men saw?

Maybe you've never worshipped Christ the LORD before.  That's what a Christian is - someone who worships Christ the LORD.  You might have always considered yourself a Christian but you've never worshipped Christ.  You've always thought the Wise Men were a bit over the top.  You've never, yourself, bent the knee to Jesus.  You've never confessed that He is the LORD, He is the One it's all about.

Well maybe tonight you realise: life's not about you, it's about Him.  He is worthy of worship.  And maybe you've realised God's not aloof.  He draws near.  And maybe you're feeling Him drawing near.  Perhaps in your heart right now you're beginning to worship Jesus.  If you are - you're becoming a Christian.  Come and talk to me or Neil afterwards, we'd love to help you in you're your first steps as a Christian.

But for all of us - do we see the divine humility of Jesus?  This Christmas - rejoice that God really is that good.  Don't think dark thoughts about God.  Don't wonder whether He loves, whether He cares, whether He's interested.  Christmas tells you He loves, He cares, He hears and He comes.  This Christmas let us worship Christ the LORD.

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Published on Leave a comment on Veiled in flesh?

What's your least favourite Christmas Carol line?

"The little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes" gives me heartburn.

But ironically my least favourite line comes from my favourite carol - Hark the Herald:

"Veiled in flesh the Godhead see."

Doesn't this communicate the terrible error that 'becoming flesh' obscures the divine glory rather than expresses it?  It seems to say that Christ's glory exists behind and apart from His flesh.  As though His humanity hides his divinity.

Or can we salvage the line?  Perhaps it's just like Luther's 'revealed in His hiddenness / hidden in His revealedness' type paradox?  Does the following line cover the error - "Hail the Incarnate Deity"?

What think you?

And are there other lines that bug you at Christmas?

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Published on Leave a comment on When were you saved?

Good question.  What's the best answer?

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A.  ...when I was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world

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B.  ...when Jesus, my Lamb and Priest, ascended to the right hand of the Father.

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C.  ...when I called on the name of Jesus x years ago.

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D. ... something else?

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Published on Leave a comment on Being in very nature God… He humbled Himself

6 Christ Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father.  (Phil 2:6-11)

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Divine humility.  Sounds contradictory?  You don't understand Christmas.

Jesus Christ, existing in the form of God, made a judgement.  That's right.  Before Christmas morning, Jesus took a decision.  (btw, v6 is proof that it's ok to call the pre-incarnate Son 'Jesus' - but that's for another time...)

Now you didn't decide to get born.  I'm guessing if you had been offered the chance to get born, you'd have taken it.  But Jesus had to choose to get born.  And I promise you, if you were in His shoes, you'd never have chosen what He chose.  If you were in very nature God, surrounded by the worship of heaven, able to do whatever you pleased, you would not have chosen what Jesus chose.  Because this is how Jesus considered things:  Being in very nature God, He chose not to grasp at His power or to exploit it.  Instead He chose total self-emptying.  He chose servanthood.  He chose to humble Himself.  He chose obedience.  He chose death.  He even chose the death of the cross - lifted up as an accursed thing.  That was Jesus' consideration - being the God that He was.

Question:  Would you have chosen that?

Answer:  No.  Every day I fail to give up even the smallest of comforts.  Let alone to give up my very life!  Let alone to suffer godforsaken hell - and that for enemies!  Would I have chosen this path?  No!

Question:  Well if Jesus did make this choice, did that stop Him from being in very nature God?

Answer:  By no means!  He is ongoingly, continually 'in very nature God'.

Question:  Well then, is Jesus' self-emptying a major detour from His glory in the form of God?

Answer:  No this is what equality with God actually looks like!  This is the very expression of the Father's glory - not exploiting but emptying.

Since He is in the form of God so He took to Himself the form of a slave!  And in this self-emptying He shows what true equality with God looks like.  It looks like the crib and the cross!

Christmas morning and Good Friday are not detours from the glory of God.  They show us that divine glory at full strength.  In eternity Jesus made this consideration.  He chose His history as the incarnate Servant to be that which truly expresses His equality with God.  And the Father affirms this choice - hyper-exalting He who hyper-humbled Himself.  And into all eternity we will gladly serve the Servant.  (And don't forget, He will serve us! Luke 12:37!)

Implication:  The baby in the manger, the victim on the cross - this is what it means to be in very nature God.

What is God's nature?  Don't simply look to the crown.  Look to the crib and to the cross.  God's nature is disclosed as one of utter self-giving.  Divine humility.

Glorious!

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 A sermon by Darrell Johnson on this passage (one of my favourite sermons ever!)

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Published on 7 Comments on Trinity and unity

Have you ever heard someone say:

"Ah yes you're emphasising the trinity.  That's well and good.  But let's not forget the unity of God."

And I say.... huh!?

The trinity is the unity of God!!  Trinity means tri-unity.  In that one word (that one doctrine) we have both the oneness and the threeness of God.  God is three Persons united.  That's what trinity means.  Trinity gives us everything we need to articulate the One and the Three.

But so often people say things like:

"Let's hold the trinity in tension with the one God."

The One God is the trinity.  The oneness of God is fully and without remainder the Three Persons in their mutually constituting relations.  Where else are you going to look to see God's oneness?  When you see the Persons so united in love that they are in One Another - there you see God's unity.  But to see that - what you're doing is studying the trinity.

I always feel cheated when people say they want to talk about unity as well as trinity.  In saying this they claim to honour the 'equal ultimacy of the One and the Three.'  Of course they are not honouring an equal ultimacy at all.  They are basically saying:

"Let's consider the tri-unity and the unity.  The three-in-one and the one."

No fair!  They get a double grab at the oneness bag!   But on the second grab they lay hold of a oneness that is not constituted by mutual relations.  This other oneness has not been defined in relational terms and all sorts of nonsense flows from this other unity of God.

For this point at greater length go here or here.

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Published on Leave a comment on Trinity sermon part 2

I'll get round to responding to comments soon.  Here's the second part of yesterday's trinity sermon

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Trinity Sermon part 2:  Galatians 4:4-6 (audio here)

...The trinity is the good news that God is love. 

 

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On the other hand: - the imaginary, solitary, self-centred god is nothing but bad news. 

 

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The difference between these two ideas of God comes out very clearly when we ask ourselves - how would I go about serving these gods? 

Let's think about the false, self-centred god first.  How would you serve such a god? 

Well if God was just one person and if he desires any kind of service, who's going to have to give it to him?  Well it has to be us.  There's no-one else to do it.

 

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So in terms of serving God, it's all about what I can offer God. 

This god might demand obedience and religious service and sacrifice and prayer and elaborate worship. But with this god, the only sacrifice is our sacrifice, the only obedience is our obedience, the only prayers are our prayers.  This is the way of all human religion.  There is some kind of deity who requires some kind of payment because 'they're worth it' - and religion is about us paying it to God.  Horrible!

But the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit has other ways of getting the job done.  Look with me at chapter 4, verse 4:

4 But when the time had fully come, God [the Father] sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

 At just the right time, Christmas time to be precise, the Father sends His Son and v4 says He is born of a woman. The eternal Son of God joins the human race.  He enters into our family tree and becomes our brother, one of us.

And as our strong older brother, Jesus sticks up for us.  He steps into our shoes and He does for us what we could never do.  V4 says He is 'born under law'.  That means that He put Himself under the obligations of God's commandments. So whatever God wants from human beings, the Son of God gives.   Jesus paid to His Father the debt that we owe...

All the worship, obedience, devotion, prayer, love and sacrifice which the Father demands, the Son performs.  God wants human obedience.  But our human obedience is paltry, pathetic, perverted.  So the Son comes born of a woman to do in our place what we should have done. 

And then v5 tells us He does this that we might receive the full rights of sons. Now we don't have any right to be treated as sons.  We don't have any rights to inherit the blessings of God.  But THE Son of God has that right.  And so He works His perfect obedience in our place and then gives us all the rights that belong to Him. 

 

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In the diagram you're meant to get the sense that the Son overshadows us.  We are in Him. (It worked better in Powerpoint).

Imagine today a champion runner, entering the London marathon under your name and running in your place.  And they win and suddenly all newspapers tomorrow go with 'Glen Scrivener wins marathon.'  And I receive a gigantic cheque and am hailed as a star athlete.   I'm not a star athlete, brushing my teeth is about as aerobic as I like to get.  But imagine the full rights of the winner are given to me because a champion ran in my place.  That's what this is like.  Someone has run the race of obedience in your place and then given you all the winnings.  

Chapter 3 verse 29 describes it as belonging to Christ - so that His vast inheritance becomes ours.  I like that image, but I like the image of chapter 3 verse 27 even better: I am clothed with Christ.  I am wrapped up in Jesus while He offers the perfect worship, obedience and sacrifice to the Father.  If you belong to Jesus, the Father looks on you and sees Jesus.  He looks on you as His beloved child and says 'here, have my fatherly love, have my verdict of 'holy', have the whole universe.  It belongs to Jesus and you belong to Him. 

Now if that weren't good enough, chapter 4 verse 6 tells us we don't only have the Son of God wrapped up around us, we also have the Spirit of God in us.

6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."

The Father sends the Spirit of the Son into any who belong to the Son.  Do you belong to Jesus, do you trust Him, then you have the Eternal Spirit of God living in you.  And the Spirit calls from within us 'Abba, Father'.  Abba is a very intimate term, it means something like 'daddy' or 'father dearest'.  It's something so intimate that only the Son of God could ever get to call the Father Almighty 'daddy'.  But now, if we belong to Jesus, we get to do what Jesus did and call the Most High God - Abba - Daddy. 

The Spirit sweeps us up into the Son's relationship with the Father.  If you're a Christian, the Spirit has swept you up into the Son's relationship with the Father.  Everything that the Son has by rights, you now have through Him.  Everything that the Father feels towards His Son, He feels towards you who are clothed in Him.  If you're a Christian, the Spirit has gathered you into the circle of divine love.  By the Holy Spirit, you know Jesus as your Brother and the Almighty Father as your 'Daddy'.  You now belong to Jesus, and He belongs to the very life of the Trinity.  Our privileges in Jesus couldn't be greater.  As 2 Peter chapter 1 says, we 'participate in the divine nature.'

I started with a mental test, let me give you one more.  Christians here, if I were to ask you 'how is your prayer life going?' How would you respond?  If you belong to Jesus, you can look me in the eye and tell me 'my prayer life is unimprovable'.  How's your prayer life? 'My prayer life is divine.'

I am clothed in the Son of God and His prayer-life is pretty darned good.  What's more, chapter 4 verse 6 tells me that His prayer to the Father is a prayer that is placed in me by the Spirit. The Spirit prays the perfect prayer of the Son in me and through me. I'm not just invited to pray, I am already caught up in the prayer life of God.

All our little prayers are the 'Amen' to Jesus' perfect prayer.  He's prayed the perfect prayer and we say 'Amen, Father.  What He said, Father.  My Brother Jesus couldn't have prayed it better. Amen, Father'  And as we go on in the Christian life, the Spirit of the Son will help our little prayers to become more child-like, so that we call out "Daddy" in reverent love.  That's so important because nothing kills a prayer life better than praying to God like you're a slave and He's a slave-master, like you're a soldier and He's a commanding officer.  Jesus didn't teach us to pray 'Our Sergeant-Major in Heaven' or 'Our Line Manager in Heaven'  - instead: Our Father in Heaven.  We need to be little children in prayer and thankfully the Spirit of the Son makes us exactly that and helps us to pray child-like prayers where we depend on our heavenly Dad.  Our own attempts at praying won't be very good but, wonderfully, the Spirit takes even our most rubbish efforts at prayer and wraps them up in the Son's perfect prayer and lifts them the to the Father.  

I hope you can see that the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit is unlike any god ever imagined.  He is the living, loving, working, worshipping God who invites us into His life of other-centred love. 

But, finally, if you don't belong to Jesus, you are shut out of this life.  And you cannot get in.  No amount of your own religious works and moral deeds will earn your acceptance into this divine family.  The only way in is through Jesus, who offers to be your older brother, who offers to clothe you in His righteousness, who offers to give you His inheritance.  Maybe today you need to say Yes to Jesus - to say 'I want in.  I don't want to live my solitary, self-centred life any more, I want in on your life Jesus.'  Maybe for some of us, today is the day we join the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their life of love.

 

Let's pray.

 Heavenly Father, thank You that we can call you Father.  Thank You that Your Son has become our Brother and so You have become our Father.  Thank You for inviting us into Your family.  Thank You for sending Your Spirit into our hearts. If we are Christians here, may each one of us know that we are clothed in Your Son and loved with an everlasting love.  For those who don't yet belong to Jesus, would you draw them, would you woo them, would you claim them as your own.  May we all live in your love, Generous Father, Gracious Son and Powerful Spirit.  Now and always, Amen.

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Published on 9 Comments on Trinity sermon

Trinity sermon (text below)

Seems like a few more people have stumbled onto the blog recently (thanks for the links Dave, Dan, Ed, Paul, others).

I thought I'd bring everyone up to speed with where I'm coming from.  This is a sermon I preached a couple of years ago.  It's about the trinity and grace.

I reckon between preaching, trinity and grace that's covered a good chunk of what I rant about here.

(By the way, I stumbled on this trinity sermon by Jurgen Moltmann yesterday.  I tell you - agree with him or not - no-one writes more beautifully on trinity than Moltmann.)

My sermon audio

Trinity Sermon: Galatians 4:4-6

Let me ask you a question and let's see where you mind goes. 'What was God doing before the creation of the world?'  What do you think God was up to when there was no universe to run, no people to care for.  Just God, nothing else. What was that like?

Well the wrong answer to that question is basically to think about one solitary god.

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God was not lonely before creation, He wasn't bored, He wasn't just itching to get on and create since He had only His thoughts for company!

No, what was God doing before creation?

They were enjoying one another. Who's they?

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

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Is that who you were thinking about when I asked my question? Or were you thinking about some other god - a god who is not Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

This morning we will learn that God is not, and never has been, lonely or aloof or self-centred or brooding or solitary or bored.  God is and always has been, loving and giving and other-centred and relational and sociable, companionable, friendly.  Because the real God is the relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Christians call this relationship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit the trinity (and I'll tell you why in a second).  And this God, the trinity, is the living and true God.

But that other, solitary, self-centred god is not really God at all.

That god is simply an imaginary idea that reflects our own culture and times.  Other people in other times have imagined - perhaps - lots of different gods and warring people have imagined warring gods. Sensual people have imagined sensual gods.  Intellectual people have imagined that God is 'an eternal mind'.  And touchy feely people have imagined God as 'pure energy which we tap into'.  None of this tells you about the real God - instead it tells you a lot about the people who offer their opinion.  It's like the heavens are a gigantic mirror, we look up but all we really see is ourselves.  God has to tell us about God.  And we just have to listen and discard all our own opinions on the matter.

I'm convinced that most of the problems people claim to have with the trinity, are because they want to have the trinity AND the god of philosophy, or the god of our popular imagination.  For most of us it's an attempt to MIX the trinity with the solitary, self-centred god.  And you just can't do it.

So let's allow God's Word - the Bible - to tell us who He really is.  And let's be prepared to let go of your own dearest ideas of god.  And be shaped again by God's Word

Have a look with me at Galatians chapter 4 and verse 6.

6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."

Now all three Persons are on show in this verse, that's why it's a good one to study.  Let's see who they are and how they relate to one another.

Look at who they are.  The One at the beginning of the verse called 'God' is also called at the end of the verse 'Father'.  And then there's the Spirit who God sends.  And there's the Son who (kind of ) owns the Spirit.  Three Persons.  Father, Spirit, Son.  And how do they relate?  Well the Father sends the Spirit.  And the Spirit calls out to the Father.  The Father is father of the Son and the Spirit belongs to the Son.  You don't have to get all of this, I just want us to see how inter-twined these Persons are?  The Father is father of the Son and sends the Spirit.  The Son is son of the Father and possesses the Spirit.  The Spirit is sent by the Father and belongs to the Son.

These three Persons - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit - are involved in inseparable, loving relationships which go back and forth.  Which is why the Bible can say 'God is love.'  It doesn't just say 'God is loving' which would be true.  But God IS love - He is who He is because of these love-relationships between the Father, Son and Spirit.

And that's what that we mean when we talk about the 'Trinity'.  It's simply the unity of these three - it's the three-unity, the tri-unity.  The Trinity.  So what's God like?  God is Three Persons united in love. That's what the trinity means: Three Persons united in love. Simple.

The trinity is not a maths problem: "How can three be one?" It's clear how the Father, Son and Spirit are one - they are bound together in love.  In the Bible that's how real one-ness comes - love.  In the Bible, when people get married they become one.  In the Bible, when a whole group of people get together and agree on a certain direction, they speak as one.  There's even an example of this kind of one-ness in our passage.  In chapter 3, v28 we see lots of different people Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, male and female but they are all one.  What does it mean that they're one? Have they all disolved into the one person, are they all thrown into a giant melting pot and all that's left is the single essence?  No, they are different people who are a community - united in love.  And God is different Persons, the Father, Son and Spirit, united in love.

But let me make something very clear - the trinity is a community far far superior to any other.  I could leave the community of St John's and somehow, you'd still get on without me.  You'd still be St John's and I'd still be me.  Gerri Halliwell can leave the Spice Girls and the Spice Girls, unfortunately, kept on going.  But with the Father, Son and Spirit - none of them are going to leave the band.  The Son is not going to split from these relationships and begin a solo career.  Why not?  Well think about who the Son is.  He is the Son because He has that relationship with the Father.  And the Father is the Father because He's always had His Son.  The members of this band don't have a solo career, they've never had one.  They don't just work as a team, they ARE this team.  There was never a point when the three Persons decided 'Hey, why don't we form a group!'  They have always been bound in loving relationships.  They were never solo artists in the first place and their band will never split up.  Their loving community is not just what they do - it's who they are and who they will be for all eternity.  God IS love.

So, to find the pulse of the universe (if you want to tap into the heart beat of reality) what do you find?  You find fierce, passionate, determined, life-giving love that flows between the Generous Father, His Beloved Son and the Life-Giving Spirit.

The life of these Persons, the relationships which they share IS the source of all true beauty, joy, goodness, holiness and love.  To belong to this God, to participate in this circle of divine friendship is the goal of all existence, it is the meaning of life.

The trinity is not a maths problem.  The trinity is the good news that God is love.

.... to be continued tomorrow...  part two here

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Published on Leave a comment on A Theology of Glory?

Stephen Murray alerts us to Tony Payne's reservations about Piper.

You can read John Piper's seven theses about God's glory here.

In response Payne wonders...

Is Piper's message so centred on God and his glory (and our enjoyment of God in his self-glorification) that Jesus has become a mechanism by which this takes place, rather than the central focus of the message? Where does the centrality of the Lordship of Christ fit into Piper's proclamation?

I share these reservations.

Here's a couple of paragraphs I've adapted from a post I wrote last year...

If someone says (as Piper does) "The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy displaying and magnifying his glory forever." we ought to ask, 'What does 'God' refer to in this sentence?'

It surely cannot refer to the trinitarian life of Father, Son and Spirit - that communion is the essence of self-giving.  The trinitarian glory is not self-centredness.  And it cannot be referring to the Father for He has committed all things into His Son’s hands (John 3:35).  It mustn’t be speaking of the Son, He only ever glorifies the Father. (John 4:34).  And it can’t be speaking of the Spirit, He simply takes from what is the Father’s and the Son’s and makes it known (John 16:15).  So what does "God" refer to in the sentence “God's chief end is to glorify Himself”?  Clearly this understanding of God is one abstracted from considerations of the trinitarian life.  Yet as my post here argues - the living God cannot for a second be abstracted from considerations of trinitarian self-giving.  The only God there is is the Trinity!  The One God is precisely and without remainder the Father, Son and Spirit united in sacrificial love.

When, for instance, the LORD says in Isaiah 42:8, “I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.” it is only because He has been glorifying His Servant for the last seven verses - “Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One in Whom I delight; I will put My Spirit on Him and He will bring justice to the nations…” (Isaiah 42:1ff)  The Father glorifies His Son and anoints Him with His Spirit.  Therefore He will not give that glory to another.  This is the very opposite of self-love.  Instead His other-centred glory requires that He be exclusively committed to His Son in holy love.

God is not self-centred.  A proper doctrine of the trinity guarantees it.  And wherever God is portrayed as self-centred you can guarantee that a defective trinity is lurking in the background.  And where trinity is deficient it's because our doctrine of God is not centred on Christ.

My main problem with Piper's theses is that Christ's Person and work are not foundational to the argument.  The theses appear more to be logical deductions derived from a notion of 'glory' at odds with the cruciform glory He reveals.

Now to defend Piper's position the following two points are usually made.

1) "Of course Christ is central to this discussion.  He's not been left out of the argument, He is fully this Glorious God."

Well let me suggest that we mustn't define 'God' first and then fit Christ onto this Procrustean bed.   Perhaps see this post, or this one or... well... everything I've written.

2) It is Christ's work and His work alone that brings us into an enjoyment of this glory.

Well good.  But the cross isn't the bridge to glory.  The cross is the divine glory.  There's quite a difference.

Anyway.  I love John Piper.  LOVE him.  I once spotted him unexpectedly at the back of church and got so star-struck I found the words "I'm your biggest fan" flying out of my mouth!  Can you believe it??  And the silence afterwards was hands down the most forehead-slapping embarassing moment of my life.  But few people have affected me as deeply in my Christian life as John Piper.  I'm a fan ok.  It's just that little old Glen with his two-bit blog sees problems that's all.  But what do I know.

Any thoughts?

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