Reeves - Delighting in the Trinity: an introduction to the Christian faith

Conversion of Paravas by Francis Xavier in 1542: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Conversion_of_Paravas_by_Francis_Xavier_in_1542.jpg.

Icon of St. Athanasius: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wiki media.org/ wiki/ File:Athanasius_I.jpg.

The Baptism of Christ by Master E. S.: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Die_Taufe_Christi.png.

Richard of St. Victor in an illustration from Dantes Paradiso: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Dante_Pd10_BL_Yates_Thompson_36_f147.jpg.

Ordination of St. Hilarius (Hilary of Poitiers): Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Hilaryofpoitiers.jpg.

Marduk: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Marduk_and_pet.jpg.

Aristotle: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Aristotle.jpg.

Hell by the Master of Catherine of Cleves: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Hellmouth.jpg.

Richard Sibbes: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:RichardSibbes.jpg.

Creation of Eve: Scan courtesy of the author.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Johann_Sebastian_Bach.jpg.

Adam and Eve in The Seven Deadly Sins, an illustration in Giovanni Boccaccios De claris mulieribus (On Famous Women) : Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:De_claris_mulieribus_001.jpg.

Conversion of Augustine by Benozzo Gozzoli: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:TolleLege.jpg.

Illustration of the high priest offering a sacrifice of a goat on the Day of Atonement, from Treasures of the Bible by Henry Davenport Northrop: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:High_Priest_Offering_Sacrifice_of_a_Goat.jpg.

Illustration of the consecration of Aaron and his sons from the Holman Bible of 1890: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Holman_Consecration_of_Aaron_and_His_Sons.jpg.

Martin Luther as a monk: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Luther_with_tonsure.gif.

Illustration of St. Matthew from the 9th century, writing his Gospel: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File: Saint_Matthew2.jpg.

William Tyndale portrait from Foxes Book of Martyrs: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:William_Tyndale.jpg.

John Calvin: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:John_Calvin_03.jpg.

Cardinal Sadoleto: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Cardinal_Sadoleto.jpg.

Moses showing the Ten Commandments, by Gustave Dor: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Moses_radiant.jpg.

Woodcut of the return of the prodigal son: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Schnorr_von_Carolsfeld_Bibel_in_Bildern_1860_198.png.

John Owen: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:JohnOwenFrontispiece.jpg.

Thomas Chalmers: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Thomas_Chalmers_-_Project_Gutenberg_13103.jpg.

Friedrich Schleiermacher: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wiki media.org/ wiki/ File:Friedrich_Daniel_Ernst_Schleiermacher.jpg.

Thor: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Christmas_throughout_Christendom_-_Thor.png.

Creation of light by Gustave Dor : Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:Creation_of_Light.png.

Christ as the true light by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1526: Wikimedia Commons http://www.wikipaintings.org/ en/ hans-holbein-the-younger/ christ-as-the-true-light. p. 125

Woodcut of Ezekiel 1 by Lucas Cranach the Younger: Scan courtesy of the author.

Crucifixion scene from the New Testament in Swedish, 1526: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/ File:NT_1526_004.png.

Note: All images from Wikimedia Commons are in the public domain.

1

What Was God Doing Before Creation?

The Dark Path and the Bright Lane

There are two very different ways or approaches to thinking about God. The first way is like a slippery, sloping cliff-top goat path. On a stormy, moonless night. During an earthquake. It is the path of trying to work God out by our own brainpower. I look around at the world and sense it must have all come from somewhere. Someone or something caused it to be, and that someone I will call God. God, then, is the one who brings everything else into existence, but who is not himself brought into being by anything. He is the uncaused cause. That is who he is. God is, essentially, The Creator, The One in Charge.

It all sounds very reasonable and unobjectionable, but if I do start there, with that as my basic view of God, I will find every inch of my Christianity covered and wasted by the nastiest toxic fallout. First of all, if Gods very identity is to be The Creator, The Ruler, then he needs a creation to rule in order to be who he is . For all his cosmic power, then, this God turns out to be pitifully weak: he needs us. And yet youd struggle to find the pity in you, given what hes like. In the aftermath of World War II, the twentieth-century Swiss theologian Karl Barth put it starkly:

Perhaps you recall how, when Hitler used to speak about God, he called Him the Almighty. But it is not the Almighty who is God; we cannot understand from the standpoint of a supreme concept of power, who God is. And the man who calls the Almighty God misses God in the most terrible way. For the Almighty is bad, as power in itself is bad. The Almighty means Chaos, Evil, the Devil. We could not better describe and define the Devil than

Now Barth was absolutely not denying that God is Almighty; but he wanted to make very clear that mere might is not who God is.

The problems dont stop there, though: if Gods very identity is to be The Ruler, what kind of salvation can he offer me (if hes even prepared to offer such a thing)? If God is The Ruler and the problem is that I have broken the rules, the only salvation he can offer is to forgive me and treat me as if I had kept the rules.

But if that is how God is, my relationship with him can be little better than my relationship with any traffic cop (meaning no offense to any readers in the police force). Let me put it like this: if, as never happens, some fine cop were to catch me speeding and so breaking the rules, I would be punished; if, as never happens, he failed to spot me or I managed to shake him off after an exciting car chase, I would be relieved. But in neither case would I love him. And even if, like God, he chose to let me off the hook for my law-breaking, I still would not love him. I might feel grateful, and that gratitude might be deep, but that is not at all the same thing as love. And so it is with the divine policeman: if salvation simply means him letting me off and counting me as a law-abiding citizen, then gratitude (not love) is all I have. In other words, I can never really love the God who is essentially just The Ruler. And that, ironically, means I can never keep the greatest command: to love the Lord my God. Such is the cold and gloomy place to which the dark goat path takes us.

The other way to think about God is lamp-lit and evenly paved: it is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is, in fact, The Way. It is a lane that ends happily in a very different place, with a very different sort of God. How? Well, just the fact that Jesus is the Son really says it all. Being a Son means he has a Father. The God he reveals is, first and foremost, a Father. I am the way and the truth and the life, he says. No one comes to the Father except through me (Jn 14:6). That is who God has revealed himself to be: not first and foremost Creator or Ruler, but Father.