Living as we were Created to Be: The Trinity

The trinity is a crazy doctrine. It is sometimes hard to grasp the concept that our God is three in one. Not one with three parts. Not three with a common theme. But three in one, at the same time.

Recently through a sermon by Tim Keller my eyes were opened to how this characteristic of God bears a heavy weight on how we live.

God created us in his own image. Our character should reflect God’s because at our very nature that is how we were created to be. In the sermon he highlights how because God is a triune God he has been in relationships since the beginning of time. At the same time being one with the other members of the trinity they are also interacting and glorifying each other. We are created to be like Them/Him so we are created to be in deep, meaningful, other centered relationships.

Tasks and Anxiety:
Open your eyes and look at the people around you. They are task driven. Now look at your self, you are task driven.
Think about anxiety. It seems anxiety is always surrounding an unfinished task list or the completion of something we need to do. But Christ has done it all. No task need be done anymore for us to gain anything. Christ has restored our nature as it was intended to be. Because we no longer have the need to complete a task to establish our significance we are freed to return to a life oriented around relationships, relationship with God and relationships with other people. Task still need to be completed but they don’t hold the weight that creates anxiety any longer and they should be performed in the context of relationships. We were not created that way, we are meant to be relationships people. Because that is our creator’s character.


Desire to be in community:
Think about people who are sad. Think about how they are alone. Cubical job, living alone or with a roommate that they don’t engage with. Think about how we are encouraged as we grow up to appear in control in school and in the workplace. Now think about what people feel. They feel a desire to know people and be known by people. Often times people with jobs and lives that don’t have them engaging with people look to find this is other places. Facebook. Fantasy football. Going to the same restaurant every Tuesday for wing night. Sure they love playing Farmville, sure football is fun to watch and follow closely, and of course 35 cents wings is something to come together around. But these things are empty. Football season breeds temporal and shallow friendships and spicy wings don’t satisfy your heart. The problem is in these space filling relationships the context does not encourage or allow us to be open and known more fully. We continue to try to appear in control, appear knowledgeable so people respect us, we try to cover who we really are. The context of the Gospel is you can and should be open. @JDGreear this past Sunday commented on how many tv shows (the brady bunch), many families, and many churches are full of people being fake. They are covering up who they really are because they think if people really knew them that they would not accept them. And that is probably true. But… the Gospel allows us to bear ourselves completely; ugly, mean people who are still loved and changed by our relationships.

The reason it hurts so much to feel alone. The reason it feels so right to be laughing while playing catchphrase in a group of close friends is because that is who we were created to be. These feelings are a glimpse into the world in which God created us to live. With sin in our lives, just like Adam and Eve we attempt to cover ourselves and not have people see our nakedness. But Christ has clothed us in his righteousness. He has taken this glimpse of happiness and fulfilled it. People, this longing you have to be known by others in community is your desire to live as you were created to live. The fear you have of fully doing this is your attempt to cover what you know is true, you are sinful. Christ has made it so we don’t have to cover who we are in front of others. Christ restores us to our created nature. In relationships, fully known, and fully loved. Only through him can community be fulfilling.