Trinity || Confidence in God
.
‘Nature/ Substance/ Being’
• What’s one in God
• What God is
‘Person’
• What’s three in God
• Who God is | Oneness
1. Gen 1 :1 - 2:3 / TW 09-08-20
◘ Trinity: incomprehensible
- cannot fully get your head around it
• Ps 145: a sense of wonder / infinite / unique
• Isaiah 40
This tendency to compare God to other things but He is not like anything else (10 Commandments / idolatry) - this distorts & thus detracts from who He is
◘ God created the heavens & earth
The Creator & His creation
Everything ‘from top to bottom’
Generous | Genesis - 'I give you everything'
Why it’s good news... One God with no rivals; able to bring about his promises & plan for the world
Genesis: The world was created out of peace & harmony,
God declares over & over that it is good
Not born out of conflict & violence (eg: 'Gilgamesh or Greek myths)
Hope & confidence in peace, unity & harmony
= both where it came from & where it’s going
The more we dwell on who God is, the more [...] it'll help us to see the world & the issues we face - which are difficult & complex - with more hopeful lenses. It's one of the many reasons why Christianity is good news ... There is hope that conflict is not forever.
• Ps 115 | • 2 Cor 3
Concept: You become like what which you worship ...
If we worship a God of peace, harmony, beauty ... just think what we will become as individuals & a church family. Not the way of power but the way of peace.
___________________________
2. John 17 / TW 16-08-20
Who am I? : Who is God? (Jn 9)
Creator Created → Jesus | The Father | The Spirit
“We are one”
• John 16:5 - (para.) 'Anything that belongs to the Father, belongs to the Son'
“In the Name of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit” - singular; unity
• Gal 4 ~ God sent forth his Son
• Phil 2 ~ Jesus took on human likeness
• Luke 1 ~ The Holy Spirit came upon Mary
- Each of these could sound like individual actions pertaining to each part but rather, instead, one God in terms of Unity, Name & Action
The Father & the Son:
• Exist in communion
• Generosity displayed
God can give the Son everything, & never run out, because He is infinite
Glory | Authority | People | Everything | Name
v.10 The Son shares with the Father
Ch.16 Holy Spirit - generosity of giving & receiving
2b. The Three are distinct
Ch.5 “Life in himself” | perfect in wisdom, power
... Eternal Generation / begetting
• The Father & Son are completely equal in power &, in authority
• The Father grants life to the Son
Athenasia Bish:
“The Son is everything the Father is except the Father
Each Person’s relations are unique
- Why is this good news?
We are made for perfect, generous love.
Richard of St Victor:
Because of the Trinity, with unity -
God is perfect, generous love.
God as one Person: might be lonely & need to create in order to love
God/Jesus as 2: could be insular
Because he is 3, 2 share love for Spirit & 2 share love for the Son
Love will have the last word in the end; not violence, not power, not wealth. Going to serve, echoing the very heart of God.
"Transformed in his likeness"
We are made with personal values
* Gift from God
* God makes space, values the others even in His own Being
* A God who is united without dissolving his own personal distinctions
* We are made for community, unity ... but never the kind of good which sacrifices the individual. We all matter.
We are created for worship
You don't want a God whom we can (fully) understand, you want a God who's bigger than you. A God who's only as big as our minds can imagine wouldn't make us feel very confident. ... Looking at the problems of the world, I want a God beyond my imagination.
Gregory Nazianzen, Orations 40.41
“No sooner do I conceive of the one than I am illumined by the splendor of the three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the one. When I think of anyone of the three I think of him as the whole, & my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking escapes me. I cannot grasp the greatness of that one so as to attribute a greater greatness to the rest. When I contemplate the three together, I see but one torch, & cannot divide or measure out the undivided light.”
‘Nature/ Substance/ Being’
• What’s one in God
• What God is
‘Person’
• What’s three in God
• Who God is | Oneness
1. Gen 1 :1 - 2:3 / TW 09-08-20
◘ Trinity: incomprehensible
- cannot fully get your head around it
• Ps 145: a sense of wonder / infinite / unique
• Isaiah 40
This tendency to compare God to other things but He is not like anything else (10 Commandments / idolatry) - this distorts & thus detracts from who He is
◘ God created the heavens & earth
The Creator & His creation
Everything ‘from top to bottom’
Generous | Genesis - 'I give you everything'
Why it’s good news... One God with no rivals; able to bring about his promises & plan for the world
Genesis: The world was created out of peace & harmony,
God declares over & over that it is good
Not born out of conflict & violence (eg: 'Gilgamesh or Greek myths)
Hope & confidence in peace, unity & harmony
= both where it came from & where it’s going
The more we dwell on who God is, the more [...] it'll help us to see the world & the issues we face - which are difficult & complex - with more hopeful lenses. It's one of the many reasons why Christianity is good news ... There is hope that conflict is not forever.
• Ps 115 | • 2 Cor 3
Concept: You become like what which you worship ...
If we worship a God of peace, harmony, beauty ... just think what we will become as individuals & a church family. Not the way of power but the way of peace.
___________________________
2. John 17 / TW 16-08-20
Who am I? : Who is God? (Jn 9)
Creator Created → Jesus | The Father | The Spirit
“We are one”
• John 16:5 - (para.) 'Anything that belongs to the Father, belongs to the Son'
“In the Name of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit” - singular; unity
• Gal 4 ~ God sent forth his Son
• Phil 2 ~ Jesus took on human likeness
• Luke 1 ~ The Holy Spirit came upon Mary
- Each of these could sound like individual actions pertaining to each part but rather, instead, one God in terms of Unity, Name & Action
The Father & the Son:
• Exist in communion
• Generosity displayed
God can give the Son everything, & never run out, because He is infinite
Glory | Authority | People | Everything | Name
v.10 The Son shares with the Father
Ch.16 Holy Spirit - generosity of giving & receiving
2b. The Three are distinct
Ch.5 “Life in himself” | perfect in wisdom, power
... Eternal Generation / begetting
• The Father & Son are completely equal in power &, in authority
• The Father grants life to the Son
Athenasia Bish:
“The Son is everything the Father is except the Father
Each Person’s relations are unique
- Why is this good news?
We are made for perfect, generous love.
Richard of St Victor:
Because of the Trinity, with unity -
God is perfect, generous love.
God as one Person: might be lonely & need to create in order to love
God/Jesus as 2: could be insular
Because he is 3, 2 share love for Spirit & 2 share love for the Son
Love will have the last word in the end; not violence, not power, not wealth. Going to serve, echoing the very heart of God.
"Transformed in his likeness"
We are made with personal values
* Gift from God
* God makes space, values the others even in His own Being
* A God who is united without dissolving his own personal distinctions
* We are made for community, unity ... but never the kind of good which sacrifices the individual. We all matter.
We are created for worship
You don't want a God whom we can (fully) understand, you want a God who's bigger than you. A God who's only as big as our minds can imagine wouldn't make us feel very confident. ... Looking at the problems of the world, I want a God beyond my imagination.
Gregory Nazianzen, Orations 40.41
“No sooner do I conceive of the one than I am illumined by the splendor of the three; no sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the one. When I think of anyone of the three I think of him as the whole, & my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I am thinking escapes me. I cannot grasp the greatness of that one so as to attribute a greater greatness to the rest. When I contemplate the three together, I see but one torch, & cannot divide or measure out the undivided light.”