In last week’s blog – The Mystery of the Three-in-One – I spoke of the relationship shared among the Father, Son, and Spirit as a dance of self-giving, other-focused love. Their shared character of self-giving, servant love makes them one. The three live in unity rooted in their shared character.
Living out of their character of self-giving love, each is focused on the good of the other. They escape the trap we humans inherently experience, the trap of being self-focused and self-serving, i.e., being ego-centric. As I said last week, their dance of love is life-giving and joy-filled. It led to the creation of us humans in their divine likeness. We were created to live in relationship with the Trinity. We were created to participate in their life of self-giving love. We were created to possess their character of self-giving love as our own.
Each member of the Godhead has given their divine Self to bring us to the emotional-relational-spiritual maturity of possessing their divine character as our own. God the Father has chosen us to be holy and blameless, adopting us as beloved children, Ephesians 1:3-5. Through Jesus the Son, the Father’s plan for us becomes reality, Ephesians 1:7-12. We experience redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. Though dead in our trespasses and sins, God makes us alive again through Christ, Ephesians 2:1-5. We have been raised with Christ and are seated with him in the heavenly realms, Ephesians 2:6. We are Exhibit A of the greatness of God’s grace and mercy, Ephesians 2:7. As God’s beloved children, we receive an inheritance from God that consists of “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms, Ephesians 1:11, 3. We become God’s partners in God’s eternal redemptive purpose of restoring unity to all of creation under the Lordship of Jesus – “so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory”, Ephesians 1:12. The Spirit has given the divine Self to bring into reality all that the Father purposed and Jesus made possible, Ephesians 1:13-14. The Spirit marks us as beloved children of God and is the guarantee (the Greek term means down payment, earnest money) from the Godhead that before they are through, we will have been conformed to the likeness of Christ – “to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ,” Ephesians 4:13.
In short, we have been invited to join the dance of the Trinity – the dance of self-giving, other-centered love. We have been invited to share their life. We have been invited to experience their life-giving, joy-filled life as our own. We have been invited to be their partners in their eternal redemptive purpose. We have been invited to be the fourth member of the Trinity plus One.
The place we practice and perfect the Trinity’s dance of love is in spiritual community, i.e., the church. Like the Trinity, the church was created to live out of “unity in diversity, resulting in community.” In the spiritual community known as the church, every person has a place – after all, belonging is based on God’s grace and forgiveness, not on qualifying by measuring up to some prescribed standard of belief, behavior (morals), or church involvement. Every person has value. Every person has a contribution to make – at least, that’s what Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 12.
The key to dancing together in unity is growing into Christ-like maturity in which we love as Jesus loved, 1 Corinthians 13. As long as we live out of our ego-centric, self-focused, self-serving default nature, we will divide ourselves into us-them groups and miss the dance. Only the Spirit can empower us to dance in step together, living together in unity and oneness like the Godhead.
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” Ephesians 4:1-3 (emphasis added).
Come, let’s dance together in the unity of the Spirit. Let’s join the life-giving, joy-filled dance of the Trinity. Let’s do the dance of self-giving love – through the power of the Spirit!
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