Trinity and Humanity

What is it, exactly, that God has done in the cross and resurrection of Christ? One very beautiful way to understand salvation is to see that God has opened his own self to include humanity in his life. The cross and the resurrection are what the opening of the Triune Life looks like when expressed in time and space.

Reaching back to some of the most ancient theology of the Church (from the Second Century), Miroslav Volf paints an image of what has happened in the passion and resurrection which we are celebrating during this Easter season:

When the Trinity turns toward the world, the Son and the Spirit become, in Irenaeus’s beautiful image, the two arms of God by which humanity was made and taken into God’s embrace (see Against Heresies 5.6.1.). That same love that sustains nonself-enclosed identities in the Trinity seeks to make space “in God” for humanity. Humanity is, however, not just the other of God, but the beloved other who has become an enemy. When God sets out to embrace the enemy, the result is the cross. On the cross the dancing circle of self-giving and mutually indwelling divine persons opens up for the enemy; in the agony of the passion the movement stops for a brief moment and a fissure appears so that sinful humanity can join in. We, the others – we, the enemies – are embraced by the divine persons who love us with the same love with which they love each other and therefore make space for us within their own eternal embrace. ~ Exclusion and Embrace, Abingdon Press: 1996. pp. 128-129

In light of this amazing opening of God’s life to her enemies, we are stunned to realize that the one who says “love your enemies” has, herself, gone ahead of us in this task. God does not call us to love our enemies while she carries on hating hers. God invites us to believe in the possibility of a new world where we and those whom we hate can be reconciled. That’s why we call it the good news (gospel) of God.

~ Jonathan Stepp