The Triune Heart of God
By Barry Adams
Genesis 1:26
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” NIV
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” NIV
There is one God revealed in three distinct persons. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Though completely united in the bond of love, the Father isn’t the Son, nor is the Son the Father. Yet Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15) and the exact representation of His being (Hebrews 1:3).
There are many times in the gospels where Jesus speaks of His union with His Father. He said… I and the Father are one. (John 10:30) If you have seen Me, you have seen My Father. (John 14:9-11) The Son can do nothing of Himself, He can only do what He sees His Father doing. (John 5;19-20) These verses are but a few of the Scriptures that reveal an inseparable union that exists beyond our limited human understanding.
Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of your Father (Matthew 10:18-20) and the Apostle Paul refers to the Third Person in the Trinity as the Spirit of the Son (Galatians 4:6-7). So in the very core of the Spirit’s being resides the heart of both Father and Son as well.
It was in this bond of eternal affection that the Triune God decided to create humanity in their own image (Genesis 1:26). The Father being the source of all things (1 Corinthians 8:6), The Son being the agent of all creation (Colossians 1:15-16; John 1:1-3) all the while the Spirit brooded over creation like a mother hen cares for her chicks (Genesis 1:2).
I love how King Solomon describes the creation process in Proverbs 8:28-31...
28 I was there when he set the clouds above, when he established springs deep in the earth.
29 I was there when he set the limits of the seas, so they would not spread beyond their boundaries.
And when he marked off the earth’s foundations, 30 I was the architect at his side. I was his constant delight, rejoicing always in his presence. 31 And how happy I was with the world he created;
how I rejoiced with the human family! NLT
It was in this community of love that the genesis of humanity was birthed (Genesis 1:27) and Adam became a son of God (Luke 3:38). Because the very nature of love necessitates freedom of choice or it would cease to be love, Adam and Eve were given a free will. And this freedom to choose was represented in two trees in the garden that they were empowered to oversee (Genesis 2:8-9).
The Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil represented independence from God, and the Tree of Life represented complete dependence in the very same source of life in which they were created. Believing a lie, they chose to be separated from the One who loved them by eating from the wrong tree (Genesis 3:1-7).
God had warned them that if they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil, they would die. Immediately the spiritual eyes of their hearts were closed and the eyes of their human reason and understanding were opened. And in that moment, their spiritual ability to commune with God died and their physical death would follow hundreds of years later.
While they ceased to walk in the heart of sonship to God from that moment onward, God never ceased to be their Father. For while creating is what God does, Father is who He is. The Old Testament is the story of a loving Father continually reaching out to His lost ones with the hopes that they would call Him, Father (Jeremiah 3:19-20) and yet the sad reality is that humanity continued to reject His invitation.
In the fullness of time, after sending many messengers, God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to be the visible Word of God to a fatherless world (Hebrews 1:1-2). Affirmed by the Father and filled with the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:13-17), Jesus being the perfect Son, made a way for all mankind to come home (John 14:6).
Even on the cross, when Jesus took upon Himself the weight of the world’s sin, the Father was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:18-20), making a way for the Holy Spirit to be poured out on all flesh (Acts 2:14-21).
Thus we see the fulfillment of the heart of Triune Love. The Father is drawing everyone to Jesus (John 6:44-45) and Jesus is in turn revealing the Father (Matthew 11:27). And the Holy Spirit who indwells the heart of every believer (1 Corinthians 6:19), is the vessel of God’s love (Romans 5:5), the One who bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:15-17).
This union is the fulfillment of Jesus' prayer in John 17:20-23...
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one-- 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. NIV
There are many times in the gospels where Jesus speaks of His union with His Father. He said… I and the Father are one. (John 10:30) If you have seen Me, you have seen My Father. (John 14:9-11) The Son can do nothing of Himself, He can only do what He sees His Father doing. (John 5;19-20) These verses are but a few of the Scriptures that reveal an inseparable union that exists beyond our limited human understanding.
Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of your Father (Matthew 10:18-20) and the Apostle Paul refers to the Third Person in the Trinity as the Spirit of the Son (Galatians 4:6-7). So in the very core of the Spirit’s being resides the heart of both Father and Son as well.
It was in this bond of eternal affection that the Triune God decided to create humanity in their own image (Genesis 1:26). The Father being the source of all things (1 Corinthians 8:6), The Son being the agent of all creation (Colossians 1:15-16; John 1:1-3) all the while the Spirit brooded over creation like a mother hen cares for her chicks (Genesis 1:2).
I love how King Solomon describes the creation process in Proverbs 8:28-31...
28 I was there when he set the clouds above, when he established springs deep in the earth.
29 I was there when he set the limits of the seas, so they would not spread beyond their boundaries.
And when he marked off the earth’s foundations, 30 I was the architect at his side. I was his constant delight, rejoicing always in his presence. 31 And how happy I was with the world he created;
how I rejoiced with the human family! NLT
It was in this community of love that the genesis of humanity was birthed (Genesis 1:27) and Adam became a son of God (Luke 3:38). Because the very nature of love necessitates freedom of choice or it would cease to be love, Adam and Eve were given a free will. And this freedom to choose was represented in two trees in the garden that they were empowered to oversee (Genesis 2:8-9).
The Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil represented independence from God, and the Tree of Life represented complete dependence in the very same source of life in which they were created. Believing a lie, they chose to be separated from the One who loved them by eating from the wrong tree (Genesis 3:1-7).
God had warned them that if they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil, they would die. Immediately the spiritual eyes of their hearts were closed and the eyes of their human reason and understanding were opened. And in that moment, their spiritual ability to commune with God died and their physical death would follow hundreds of years later.
While they ceased to walk in the heart of sonship to God from that moment onward, God never ceased to be their Father. For while creating is what God does, Father is who He is. The Old Testament is the story of a loving Father continually reaching out to His lost ones with the hopes that they would call Him, Father (Jeremiah 3:19-20) and yet the sad reality is that humanity continued to reject His invitation.
In the fullness of time, after sending many messengers, God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to be the visible Word of God to a fatherless world (Hebrews 1:1-2). Affirmed by the Father and filled with the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:13-17), Jesus being the perfect Son, made a way for all mankind to come home (John 14:6).
Even on the cross, when Jesus took upon Himself the weight of the world’s sin, the Father was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:18-20), making a way for the Holy Spirit to be poured out on all flesh (Acts 2:14-21).
Thus we see the fulfillment of the heart of Triune Love. The Father is drawing everyone to Jesus (John 6:44-45) and Jesus is in turn revealing the Father (Matthew 11:27). And the Holy Spirit who indwells the heart of every believer (1 Corinthians 6:19), is the vessel of God’s love (Romans 5:5), the One who bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:15-17).
This union is the fulfillment of Jesus' prayer in John 17:20-23...
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one-- 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. NIV