The Nature of Our One God In Trinity Is Perichoretic, Immanent, and MC Trấn Thànhscendent Each Person of The Triune Godhead Encompasses and Interpenetrates One Another Fully . We Are Invited to Have Our Father, Jesus, And the Holy Spirit Come Abide In Our Hearts, To Receive Indwelling Divine Love. We Are Also Invited To Be In Jesus, In the Spirit, and In Our Father God Forever! In John’s gospel we read that the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father (17:21-23), that the Son and Father are one (10:30). Writing in the eighth century, John of Damascus called this mutual indwelling or interpenetration, this intimacy, between the Father and the Son, perichoresis. Traditionally this indwelling has been viewed as fellowship. But John, who was influential in developing this doctrine, described it as a “cleaving together.” Such is the relationship in the Godhead… that the Father and the Son not only embrace each other, but they also enter into each other, permeate each other, and dwell in each other. One in being, they are always one in the intimacy of their relationship. The doctrine of perichoresis expresses the divine unity in the distinction of the persons of the Trinity. Polkinghorne comments that there exists a “perichoretic exchange between the Persons of the Holy Trinity.” Perichoresis should not be confused with coinherence. The doctrine of the incarnation emphasizes that Jesus’ two natures fully “coinhere” in one person (hypostasis); Jesus is both fully divine and fully human. The Nicene Creed established that the Triune God is one ousia in three hypostases. Perichoresis describes the mutual interpenetration of the hypostases of the Trinity who are individually and together of one ousia, while coinherence focuses on two ousia being present in one person. To describe the Trinitarian perichoresis in terms of coinherence risks implying that the persons of the Trinity are of separate ousia (natures), which the Nicene Creed explicitly denies. As used currently, perichoresis “highlights the unity of purpose, fellowship, communion…self-deference, or just simply the love among Father, Son, and Spirit,” the “unity of will, purpose, action, and love.” “Indivisibility can be understood perichoretically, in the sense that the divine persons are volitionally undivided in purpose, life, and love.” God will always be in his essential nature kenotic, perichoretic agape. But God chose to share himself beyond the intraTrinitarian relationships, with his creation, in order to draw that creation in to the delight of this all encompassing, extravagant agape. How incredible it will be when we meet God face to face and understand who He is! In the meantime, to a large degree, His fullness is a mystery to us. He has revealed enough of His nature to humanity, to know that we will never understand all of Him. Another way to state this, is to say that it will take eternity to know our infinite God! The more any believer learns about Him, the more they realize how little they know. God has been personally active in the world since its creation and yet He is also set apart from it, superior in nature. Thus, we have the mystery of God’s immanence and transcendence. God’s immanence and transcendence relate to His relationship with the created world. They do not refer to His specific actions, but to His relationship with the world. The definition of immanence is, the pervading presence of God in His creation, and the definition of the transcendence of God is to be above and independent of the physical universe . These two attributes are opposite but complimentary, and should be kept in the proper balance to understand God. He is both superior to, and absent from, His creation - and yet very present and active within the universe. The immanence of God is seen in His presence and activity within nature, with humans, and in history. There are numerous references to God’s immanence in Scripture. His activity within nature is seen in Psalm 65:9-13: You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it. You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing. God’s presence with man is noted in Job 33:4: The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life. And His activity in history is recorded in Isaiah 63:11: Then his people recalled the days of old, the days of Moses and his people– where is he who brought them through the sea, with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who set his Holy Spirit among them. These are but a few of the examples of God’s immanence in the world. Two of the attributes that exemplify God’s immanence are His omnipotence and omnipresence. He has an all-pervading presence and power within the world. There are also some important implications of God’s immanence. He can, for instance, work indirectly to accomplish His purposes. Another implication of God’s immanence is that we should appreciate all of creation since God created it. We can also learn something about God from His creation. Lastly, and most importantly, unbelievers are offered by God a point of contact with Him through His creation, primarily and through their own conscience, which continue to reflect, though dimly, some level of understanding right from wrong. Believers who have His indwelling Spirit, and have also been somehow supernaturally place into an ongoing, growing experience of His Presence by being “in Jesus” and “in the Spirit “. The other important implication of His immanence, especially seen in His omnipotence and omnipresence, is that God is infinite. He is not limited to a certain spot within nature, He is beyond nature. There is nowhere that He cannot be found. He is infinite in relation to time, for He is timeless. By being timeless, or beyond time, He is always present or in all times always, just as He is infinitely all there everywhere. God does not have to develop or grow. His understanding and wisdom are immeasurable. His power is unlimited and He is completely free of external influences. God is unlimited and unlimit-able, unlike anything we experience. Thus, we see God’s transcendence even within His immanence. In the following passages, both God’s immanence and transcendence are found: For this is what the high and lofty One says– he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. (Isaiah 57:15) “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. `For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, `We are his offspring.’ (Acts 17:24, 28) God is not only personal, and dwells within humans, He is also exalted above all creation. He is active and present in our world, and yet superior, absent and removed from it. Although some define God as a supreme being, unlimited in scope, He is not a being as humans are. We are finite beings, God is not. He says in Isaiah 55:8-9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. He is self-consciousness and has a will. He not only is capable of feeling and choosing but of having a reciprocal relationship with other persons. He has names, which demonstrates that he is not an abstract, unknowable being, or a nameless force. It is impossible to define God. He is in all things, but not equated with all that is. He can never be fully grasped with our finite minds and experiences. Isaiah speaks of this when he writes, Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor? To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you compare him to? (Isaiah 40:13, 18). God is a spirit; He is not composed of matter and does not possess a physical nature. Therefore, He is considered transcendent to His creation, angelic, human, biological, chemical, and material. God is, nonetheless, alive. He is characterized by life and is the vital force, the very basis of life. John writes, For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. (John 5:26,). He does not derive his life from any external source. He can continue to exist independently of everything else, and, as a matter of fact, there was never a time when He did not exist. He is eternal, even named the Eternal God in Genesis 21:33. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End of all time. In His eternal nature there has never been any quantitative or qualitative change in Him. God said in Malachi 3:6, I the LORD do not change. He is infinite in relationship to time and He is infinite in terms of space. He is omnipresent, there is nowhere where He is not found. That concept is impossible for humans, who are localized to particular places at particular times, to understand. The psalmist reflects on this trait in Psalm 139: Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. (Psalm 139:7-12) God is unlimited in time and power. He is able to do all things. God reveals this aspect about Himself in His question to Abraham, Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son” (Gen 18:14). The comparison between man’s and God’s plans is clearly seen: Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails (Prov 19:21.). Jesus teaches about God’s Almighty power by comparing God’s power to humankind’s power in Matthew 19:26, Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” In Luke 1:37 it is emphatically stated, For nothing is impossible with God. Because there is no limit to God’s power, His plans always come to pass. The Bible says, Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him (Psalm 115:3). His power is directly related to His sovereignty. God’s will is never frustrated! What He chooses, He accomplishes. The Psalmist refers to this in Psalm 33:11, But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. Although God can accomplish anything that He desires, He cannot and will not act against His nature. He is morally pure and will not do anything that corrupts His holiness. God is untouched and unstained by the evil in the world. He is absolutely pure and good. Job says of God, So listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong (Job 34:10). Holiness also means separation in regard to persons or things. God in His holiness is removed from the world: God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne. (Ps 47:8) Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain. (Ps 48:1) For this is what the high and lofty One says– he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, (Isaiah 57:15) His holiness can be conveyed to people, places, and things that are associated with Him. The Holy Place in the Temple was holy because of God’s presence. Moses stood in God’s holiness in Exodus 3 during his burning bush experience. When God’s holiness of applied to his relationships with others, He is righteous. The law of God is righteous because His actions are in accord with the law which he himself has established. The Bible shows the relationship between God’s perfection, and His justice: He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. (Deuteronomy 32:4) For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face. (Ps 11:7) God’s justice is his official righteousness. Psalm 50:4 says, He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that he may judge his people. According to His nature, He is utterly fair in the administration of his law. He does not show favoritism or partiality, Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism (Acts 10:34). God judges each person according to what he has done (Romans 2:6). Anyone who has done wrong will be repaid for his wrong (Colossians 3:25). For those who confess their sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive them of their sins and purify them from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). For it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another (Ps 75:7). A believer can be sure that God will be righteous in His judgment because of His integrity. He is the genuine God because He represents things as they really are. He proves true because of His faithfulness. God keeps all his promises. His faithfulness is a function of his unlimited power and capability. He was faithful in the Old Testament to His promises, Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled (Joshua 21:45) God continued to be faithful in the New Testament because, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself (2 Timothy 2:13). Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:24, The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. God can do anything and will stay faithful because of the unlimited power that He has. The last two transcendent characteristics are God’s love and grace. In the OT, God is love is focused on His chosen people of Israel. His love is seen as He initiates a relationship with humans. It is shown in His willingness to allow humans to have the freedom of choice. The full scope and meaning of God’s love is revealed in the New Testament. His love reaches out to all people, not only to the Israelites. His unselfish love was shown when He sent His one and only Son to die on the cross to redeem the lost. John writes, This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him (I Jn 4:9). It was His agape love that compelled His act of self-sacrifice. God’s love for man initiates His grace towards man. He does not deal with people on the basis of their own merit or worthiness or what they deserve, but deals with them according to their deepest need. His grace is exemplified in Romans 5:6, 8: You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God deals with people on the basis of His goodness and generosity. He supplies us with His undeserved favors, requiring nothing from us in return. And, He is persistent, yet patient, in His love. His desire is for everyone to come to know Him and to experience His love (2 Peter 3:9). There are some implications for man in understanding God’s transcendence. The most obvious one is that He is a superior being that will never be totally understood. Without a doubt, there will always be a difference between God and humankind. Because of His superiority, people need to remember that any revelation of God comes from Him. He alone is the one who condescends to meet humans in a way that any of us could possibly understand. Our own salvation is not our achievement, but God’s initiative. Any shortcomings in our understanding of God’s nature are because of our finite minds and understanding. Coming in contact with the transcendent God should produce the same reaction as Isaiah had when He entered God’s throne room and saw God’s majesty: “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty” (Isaiah 6:5) A glimpse of God’s glory produces a reverent fear, a silence, an awe of His presence, and an attitude of worship. This sense of awe and clean fear of the Lord then brings incredible freedom, joy, and personal submission to our King and God, as we are invited to humbly come closer toward Him and into His full embrace. The manner in which we come to a transcendent God is through prayer and worship, as well as loving and serving others, seeing Jesus as the least of them, and being the outreaching arms of Jesus’ love by the Holy Spirit through us. God is personal and does reveal Himself to people, but to communicate with a transcendent God, an increased trust and faith and dependence on the supernatural is needed. Often it cannot be explained as to how our prayers make a difference, but it is evident that somehow prayer certainly does makes a difference, both by God’s transforming us in His intimate Presence, and partnering with us to bring His will to pass in more and more circumstances. The deeper a person’s prayer, worship, and loving surrendered service life, the more intimate the relationship with God, and the more in tune we become to obey and experience being in Him. His complete and absolute love for each of us and His overwhelming holiness is our standard for our Christ-like character development and our motivation for obedience to God. All of His commands are right, for He is right and therefore obedience to God’s Word will have a positive effect upon the believer. And, He expects us to pursue holiness, but not our own or in ourselves, only in Him and by Him and through Him in us. Our conduct was of concern both in the Old Testament, Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: “Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2) It was equally important in the New Testament, Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). This intimacy with our transcendent God should motivate each believer to become more completely obedient to God’s will, yet more fully also coming to know that we cannot do this alone in our own strength – we are drawn into Him further to receive direction, correction, and completion. For a finite being to know a transcendent God is impossible. But, God in His perfect balance has made Himself active and present in our lives so that we can develop a relationship with Him. Though we never completely know and understand Him, we can spend a lifetime growing closer to Him. The apostle Paul, in the introduction of his letter to the Ephesians, also introduces us to the phrase that we see throughout Pauls letters, but especially here -- in Christ. In the first 14 verses of this Letter, the phrase (or its equivalent) occurs 11 times: 1. The faithful in Christ Jesus (vs. 1) 2. Every spiritual blessing in Christ (vs. 3) 3. Chose us in him (vs. 4) 4. Freely given us in the One he loves (vs. 6) 5. In him we have redemption (vs. 7) 6. Which he purposed in Christ (vs. 9) 7. To gather up all things in him (vs. 10) 8. In him we were also chosen (vs. 11) 9. The first to hope in Christ (vs. 12) 10. Included in Christ (vs. 13a) 11. Marked in him with a seal (vs. 13b) Elsewhere in Ephesians it is found at 1:20; 2:6-7, 10, 13; 3:6, 11, 21; and 4:32. The common Greek preposition en seems to be used in one of two senses in the phrase in Christ as found in Ephesians: 1. Local (locative): in close association with.7 Often the phrase seems to carry the idea of incorporation into Christ.8 2. Instrumental: Marker introducing means or instrument, with, by means of. The preposition is used both ways in Ephesians, but the local idea of incorporation into Christ, applies to most of the verses in this passage, especially in verse 11 where it talks about all creation being summed up in Christ as head. Likewise, in chapter 2 there are a remarkable number of compound verbs carrying the idea together with, such as made alive with Christ (2:5), raised ... with Christ (2:6a), seated with him (2:6b), etc. We are all in Christ, part of him and he part of us. The primary idea of Ephesians is not Christ as the means by whom all these things come (though, of course, he is the means). Rather the primary idea is how we are joined with him in a spiritual sense. Our whole life is in Christ. (See also Romans 5:12-19; 8:1; and 1 John 5:11-12.) The ultimate, total reality of our Father, His Eternal Son, our Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, living as One forever interpenetrating Three together as a whole, and then, within historical time, sharing the divine unified transcendence through immanent, omnipresent intimacy with all those who are God’s redeemed children, is most magnificently expressed in Jesus’ own High Priestly Prayer, at the end of His Upper Room Discourse, which concluded with an amazing summary and a pledge. ( John 17:25-26 ) Having looked ahead to the glory of heaven, Jesus returns to the present situation, though he sees it from his eternal perspective. Jesus summarizes the results of his ministry thus far: both his rejection by the world and his acceptance by the disciples. All the verbs in verse 25 are in the aorist tense, which, in the form used here, usually refers to the past. Jesus begins with the bad news: the world did not know, or recognize, the Father. In contrast (though, kai), the good news is Jesus knew the Father and his disciples knew that the Father sent the Son. In contrast with the worlds ignorance of the Father is not the disciples knowledge of the Father, but their knowledge of the Son as sent by the Father. Again we see the primacy of Jesus role. It is precisely in and through the Son that they know the Father, for the Son has made known (egnorisa, aorist) to them the Fathers name (v. 26). Earlier in the prayer (vv. 6, 11-12) the name was an expression for the revelation brought by the Son that actually brings contact with God and not just information about him. Jesus then pledges to continue to make the Fathers name known to his disciples in the future. On one important level he refers here to his imminent Passion and resurrection, for these events are the climax of his revelation of the Father, which shows most clearly the love of God. On another level he is speaking of his continued presence among the believers and his continued revelation of the Father to them after his ascension. He is repeating his promise to be with them in his resurrection appearances (14:18-20) and beyond (14:21). His continued revelation parallels the activity of the Paraclete (16:12-15, 25). The purpose of Jesus making Gods name known to them is not that they would have information about God, but that they would have intimacy in order that the love you have (egapesas, another aorist) for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them (v. 26). In his ministry he revealed the Fathers love for them (v. 23), and in the future he will continue to help his disciples actually receive this love within each of them and amongst them as a community. But again, he himself is the point of contact. It is precisely by his being in them that they will receive the love of the Father, for it is the Fathers love for the Son that they are enabled to share. The Sons coming to earth brought the presence of Gods love, and his coming into the lives of believers also brings that love, for God is love. Our relationship with the Father will always be mediated through the Son, even in eternity. Meditation on such truths begins to give us a faint glimpse of the Fathers glorifying the Son and the Sons glorifying the Father (v. 1). It also helps us understand why, in this final section of the prayer, Jesus addresses his Father as righteous (v. 25). All that Jesus has done and all that he will continue to do are in response to Gods righteous will. He is righteous because he is truth itself and does only what is right. His purposes are perfect, reflecting his own characteristic life and light and love . In Revelation 21, eternal fellowship with God and redeemed humanity is shown as living within the shining light of the Presence of God, bathing fully in the rays of the Holy Spirit as He emanates forth from our Father God, and God the Son, our Lord Jesus, penetrating and sustaining our entire beings, our renewed souls, spirits, and glorified bodies forever and ever!
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 17:21:19 +0000