Life in Fellowship With The Trinity

Your heart really can, in real time, be reclined and at rest, in relationship with a fascinating God, untroubled in another realm - a realm where nothing is impossible, and you are seen, known, and well and rightly loved.

Another way of putting it, is you really can, in real time, be “seated in heavenly places with Christ.” Ephesians 2:6

In the midst of a pandemic, in walking out an exhausting journey of a father’s health decline, falls, rehab (in COVID times), hospice, and eventually death, in the midst of upheaval untold, my day-to-day reality is one of more peace and creative inspiration than ever.

How? By immersion in the doctrine of the Trinity. The Trinity teaches me that God is intensely and personally relevant. He is not a Biblical concept, He is more than an awe-inspiring Diety to be studied, He is a friend to be loved. He is an omniscient, enthusiastic coach, teaching me what my strengths are (basically, everything Christ paid for me to have) and developing every facet of my life, and is to be obeyed without hesitation.

I’m studying the doctrine of the Trinity. See, I used to think that the doctrines of grace were foundational - and they are. But now, I think I am finding that the doctrine of the Trinity even undergirds ones understanding of the grace of God and the Finished Work of Jesus.

If it all sounds heady and high minded, it isn’t. These things are as intensely practical (and necessary) as being well-stocked with toilet paper when your whole country is sick and riots are breaking out everywhere.

Here’s the truth: a vague, hazy understanding of the plan and finished work of the very human, vicarious man, the God-with-us-AS-us JESUS, can only lead to profound confusion and depression. Put bluntly: it leads to wrong thoughts, strained relationships, and very bad days.

Said another way: where there is despair, there is always a vague, hazy view of the vicarious finished, yet ongoing work - what Jesus did FOR us AS us, and what Jesus is presently doing FOR us AS us (as a human) in the community of the Godhead.

We are so complete in Him. We are so included in heavenly plans and places - right now! In real time! (“What’s next, Abba?!?”). Knowing this, deep in the marrow, increases satisfaction, it buries your “contentment meter” into the red zone. Knowing this unlocks creativity, because Jesus is a real human, with a real body, and yet is also Spirit and loves being in my studio with me.

Rock solid, yours is a justified, exciting human existence. Your time on this planet is just the establishment of your eternal position and reward. It is 80 or so years of the barest beginning of a life that lasts forever...AS a human with a body glorified! God the Father, God the human, vicarious man Jesus, and God the Spirit have conspired together to put you into the circle of their creative lives. In real time. As in….today. Right now.

What are you going to do next? They love to live life with you, through you, AS you; they love to direct and inspire and comfort and teach. This was their plan from before the foundation of the world - to connect you, to enfold you, to adopt you, through Jesus.

This aspect of Trinitarian doctrine has been all but lost in our day. Its recovery is profoundly critical. It is also quite practical in terms of what kind of day you will have, if your understanding becomes clear.