The Trinity and Humanity Part Two - Made from Love, for Love, and to Love

1. We are made from love.

Genesis 1:26

And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

God created us to resemble him. The origin of humanity is love. The root of all creation is love.

Why did God create the world? – Christians have a clear answer.

God did not want or need someone to love.

Regardless of how nice this answer makes us feel, it must be wrong. If not, the Christian could not claim love as the origin of creation.

Any god that creates in order to know and share love must have been eternally alone. A god who is eternally alone before creating human beings intrinsically creates from self-centered or for selfish reasons.

This type of god might create humanity as servants or subjects, out of a desire for relationship or worship or even out of sheer boredom. But what would that say about the nature of this god? A god like that might have many reasons for creating people, but they wouldn't necessarily be clear or positive origins for humanity.

Love can only be the reason for creation if love existed before creation. Love can only exist within relationship. Since love can only exist in relationship, relationship had to exist before creation.

Almost all our problems with relating to God stem from a flawed view of his nature and character. So, how do we get a clear vision of who God is? The best way to think of God is to look at Jesus.

Colossians 1:15

He is the image of the invisible God.

Only Jesus the beloved Son make it possible for us to see the invisible God. All understanding of God begins with the Son, who reveals His image to us.

Before the creation of the world, the Father was loving the Son. The fact that Jesus is the Son reveals to us that God is the Father. Even the word son initially points to the existence of a father.

·          God as Father is understood throughout Scripture.

·         Israelites were the children of God.

·         Jesus addresses God as Our Father.

In order for God to be a father, He must be life giving. God can only be the eternal Father if there is an eternal Son. If there was a time when there was no son, then there was a time when God was not father and we return to the problem of an eternally lonely God without love before creation.

God knew perfect relationship before the creation of the world and was perfectly satisfied with no need to create anything else. The only motivation for creation was an overflow of this eternally perfect life-giving relationship enjoyed by God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Humanity was made from the eternal love of the father overflowing for Jesus through the Spirit.

2. We are made for love.

Genesis 1:27

So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

If all of creation is simply the overflow of God's great love within the Trinity, then we were created simply for the joy of sharing in the fellowship, community and love of our triune God. We were made for community. We are wired for relationship, and not just any relationship, but eternal, selfless relationship.

Our understanding and accepting love as the origin and purpose of humanity should radically redefine our identity and where we look for meaning.

Jesus’ incarnation demonstrates God’s love for humanity.

1 John 4:9-10

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 . . . This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

If we were made from love, for the sole purpose of sharing in love, this means we are born loved. There is nothing we must do, prove or achieve to earn or find our significance. We are loved and known by the triune God of love and our very existence is proof of it.

3. We are made to love.

We were made in a perfect world, but through Adam's Transgression and fall, sin came into the world and corrupted it. As a result, we lost the natural ability to love God and have a personal relationship with Him.

The problem with humanity is that although we are beloved by the one true lover of the universe, we lack the natural ability to love God back as a result of sin.

We have a natural longing for relationship.

In a way, it takes God to love God.

Our confidence in God the Father's eternal love and acceptance of us is rooted once again in the example of Jesus. Jesus came to demonstrate the significance and value God places on humanity. He came to remind us of the reason we were created, to show us our purpose for living and to invite us further into the Trinity unity of God.

We were made with this longing for love and to be loved, but, because of sin, we are by nature selfish beings who are unable to know or share love on our own.

Romans 5:5b

. . . God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Galatians 4:6

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

When we see the demonstration of God's great love through the Son on the cross, and receive His forgiveness, and then put faith in Jesus as the one true God, something supernatural takes place.

The Spirit enables us to enter into the Trinity unity from which we are created, thus empowering us to understand and fulfill the reason for our existence; to love and be loved.

As the Holy Spirit pours out more and more of God's love into our hearts, we are enabled to know and love God personally, and empowered to love others the way God loves us.