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Pastor's Blog February 6, 2020
"The Triune God"
{Scroll over scripture reference to read the scripture or reference.
Did you know that Ellen talks about the triune God early on in "Steps to Christ"? It's an interesting passage that shows up in her chapter on our sinfulness and simultaneous need of a Savior. This is the core thought in Ellen's reflection on who God is: "The heart of God yearns over His earthly children with a love stronger than death" (10; 1977 edition). It is the love of God that motivates every divine action, and it is the love of God that gets manifested in what the persons of the triune God do in order to save us.
The loving work of the Father for our salvation is seen in his very act of "giving up His Son" to become incarnate so that he could die on a cross - and it's in this very act of giving Jesus up for us that the Father "has poured out to us all heaven in one gift" (10). The loving work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is shown in his act of securing our salvation. Jesus lives his life for us, then offers his life in death on our behalf, and rises from the dead that he might ever intercede for us and give us assurance of the salvation he has already won (10). And the loving work of the Holy Spirit for our salvation is demonstrated in "the pleading of the Spirit," a pleading that persists when we fall short and continually seeks to connect us to the Father and Jesus (10). It is the love of the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, these three who are the one God, that informs and animates all their redemptive powers.
It is the reason why they provide so many celestial promises: "the exceeding rewards for right-doing, the enjoyment of heaven, the society of the angels, the communion and love of God and His Son, the elevation and extension of all our powers throughout eternal ages" (10). God's love is also the reason why our final rejection of him has such ominous consequences: "the judgments of God pronounced against sin, the inevitable retribution, the degradation of our character, and the final destruction" - all are meant to show us that our sin leads away from happiness with God and only to everlasting ruin (10-11).
Since it is God, not our sin or the devil, who desires our well being and wants to spend eternity in perpetual, loving relationship with us, let us cast ourselves upon the mercy and love of God and think long on "Him who has loved us with amazing love" (11).
(*) Steps to Christ 1977 edition; Chapter 2, “The Sinner’s Need of Christ”
God Bless.
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
