Trinity and Humanity

Yes, I believe (along with many others!) that God the Father, Son and Spirit does love us more than He loves Himself! I am asked this question with shock and doubt a bit,  and probably because I try to end each Gospel Message proclamation with the words “I offer up to you this Good News in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit Who not only Loves you more than He loves Himself as the One true God, but Who also likes you, and I really do mean you [insert any name], very, very much!”

Surprise, shock and doubt are understandable in trying to receive such a Truth because, ultimately God the Trinity IS Love Himself, and cannot be completely understood or grasped! That is one of the first things to know as we “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of Christ” – Ephesians 3:18b-19 (NIV).

I believe that God the Father, Son and Spirit loves us more than He loves Himself because Jesus Reveals (through the Holy  Spirit and the Holy scriptures in His Church) , that God is a relational being of Father, Son and Spirit – One God in Three Persons – and that this God is completely and supremely joyful and at peace in His Being-In-Relationship. Indeed, He has need of nothing and cannot be added to or subtracted from in His Love and Life as the Relational God! This means that if nothing in creation, including humanity, existed, God the Father, Son and Spirit would be as happy and complete as they have always been!

Therefore, WHATEVER GOD THE FATHER, SON AND SPIRIT DOES FOR CREATION IS STRICTLY AND STUNNINGLY ONLY FOR THE SAKE OF CREATION, NOT FOR HIS SAKE AT ALL! IN LOVE GOD  THOUGHT, SPOKE AND BROUGHT CREATION (you, me and all other creaturely things invisible and visible!) INTO EXISTENCE THAT WE MAY SHARE FULLY IN GOD’S ACTUAL LOVE AND LIFE AND ITS BLESSEDNESS!

So, God the Father, Son and Spirit, in Jesus, AS COMPLETELY OTHER-CENTERED LOVE:  LIVED. SUFFERED, DIED, RESURRECTED, ASCENDED, AND IS COMING AGAIN, IN REAL HUMAN FLESH, for OUR sake alone, concretely:

“HE LIVED”: God, as Love in the Person of Jesus Christ, has done something NEW, and added REAL human FLESH to Himself, limiting Himself to an incredible degree! He has creatively added creatureliness and our humanity to Himself forever! Check out this link to the word “flesh” about Jesus, and take it seriously. He became dependent upon sinful people to feed, clothe and bathe Him as a baby! God labored and sweated out smells in his work clothing in hot Jerusalem for years. Did they have toothbrushes and deodorant back then?? HaHaHa Come on, you can crack a smile for the potentially  musty, yellow-toothed human Jesus! 🙂

“HE SUFFERED”: God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, purposefully sweated drops of blood out of his human body in anxiety over undeserved punishment. He suffered human vulnerability by openly exposing himself to hard-headed people, who hated him, in his wish to still embrace them as a hen embraces her chicks! He was misunderstood and forsaken by his family, friends and disciples – everyone! Instead of  talking back and defending himself he kept quiet!

“HE DIED”: God,  in the Person of Jesus Christ, purposefully subjected Himself to our broken religious and political systems and let us plot his torture and death and kill him by hanging him on a tree with large nails, all while being mocked. Killing God is the worst thing created beings can attempt and as far in the dark as we can go. At this great cost to Himself in flesh Jesus subjected Himself to it!

“HE RESURRECTED”: God,  in the Person of Jesus Christ, purposefully raised flesh back up in a more powerful and glorified forever way shortly after having it buried in a tomb! Flesh that could still eat and enjoy human food! Yummy! This is also the Best Most Loving Human Being in the world giving Himself to everyone, being rejected by everyone, and then saying “WALLA! Here I am…still intent to be the Best Most Loving Human Being in the world to you, and you can’t stop me from being that for you and with you, as one of you! You  creatures ARE going to share in my life and love despite and in spite of yourselves! Na-NaNa-BooBoo!” HaHaHa….shewowsa!

“HE ASCENDED”: God,  in the Person of Jesus Christ, purposefully took glorified human flesh to a hidden place at God’s “right hand”, where He is  STILL SO HUMAN in His human nature that He does not know when His Father is going to send Him back AND from where He yet prays for us as one of us!

“HE IS COMING AGAIN”: God,  in the Person of Jesus Christ, will return in glorified human flesh, where He will live with us operating out of a human/godly headquarters in the New Jerusalem coming down here out of the heavens! The Truly and Fully Human leader we are all looking for (and voting for even when we don’t vote!) IS coming!

Finally, as you read the above, did you remember that God the Father, Son and Spirit did and is doing  all of this ON PURPOSE AND FOR OUR SAKE ALONE, and that Who Jesus is  as the God/Man adds nothing to, nor subtracts from, His complete Being of Happiness  in Love as God?

If you did then I would think that you would be compelled to think of God more as One Who Loves us More than He Loves Himself! The Incarnation was/is the complete God in REAL LOVE and REAL RISK in our humanity in the Son, trusting and obeying His Father! In Jesus God resisted the full depth of evil from within our fallen human nature and the opposition of His entire creation, submitting to horrifying, torturous death! In Jesus God was/is fully responsive to the Holy Spirit  that we might share, however unparticipative, in His Love, Life and Relationship, even if we self-condemn ourselves from it in unbelief forever! He did not love Himself too much, but LOVED US SO MUCH MORE THAN HIMSELF that at great cost to Himself He took on this limitation and self-denial in Other-centered, Self-giving, Trinitarian Love, FOREVER, SOLELY FOR OUR SAKE!

P.S. Because of who God is and who you are in Him, you might be compelled to worship Him RIGHT NOW in some demonstrative way, but be careful if you are driving or at work cuz you’re only human and you don’t want to hurt yourself and others in His shared self-giving! Heehee…

*photo courtesy of Wikipedia