Something every human wants, is to be loved. No matter how messed up someone has been in life, no matter how discouraged and depressed, that person still wants -- needs, is desperate for -- real love. Love without prior conditions, love without judging first, love that is not taken back when they do something wrong. And theology -- the study of God -- is first and foremost about
love. Did you know that? Please continue reading!
Last Sunday we celebrated Pentecost, which reminds us of the arrival of the Holy Spirit given by the Father through Jesus, and the birthday of the church. We say in the creeds that God is one in being yet three in person, which sounds like bad math but is basic theology. A lot of Christians never study, on its own merits, the doctrine of the Trinity, but that study tells us why God is love, and that all love comes from him (1 John 4:7-8). Let's look very briefly.
The Father is recognized as the Source of all things. In John 1:2 we read that God created everything through the Word, and in v. 14, that the Word (Jesus Christ) is the "only begotten of the Father." Even the eternally-existent Son of God is somehow "begotten" of the Father. The Son came into the world to save us (John 3:16), on his unique mission from the Father, doing the Father's will.
Jesus described how the Holy Spirit would come to us:
"when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me" (John 15:26). People who make a career of studying this, say that the Holy Spirit "proceeds" from the Father, as compared to the Son, who is "begotten" of the Father. OK, so what do those two words mean exactly? I'll tell you: we don't know!
But what these words, and other verses, tell us is this: God is only one God, but exists in three "Persons," each of whom is God; each of whom has the same mind and will, and their eternal existence could only be described as "love." So we say God is love, and God loves us in Jesus, the Father loves you because you are in Jesus (not because you did something good today). Did you get that? God loves you, and that love is absolutely secure because love is "who" God actually is.
I'll let you meditate on that for now. It's about all I can handle, anyway, for one day.
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