Do you view the Trinity as an inconvenient or confusing doctrine? If so, you are not alone. Christians often approach the Trinity as a logical problem to be solved, using well-intentioned yet faulty explanations. People offer analogies like an egg…or water…or…a three-leaf clover. Not only do these analogies contain false teachings, but they also treat the Trinity as a problem to be solved rather than a truth to be enjoyed. Today, I will review a book that helped me see how the Trinity is central to our enjoyment of God.
In Delighting in the Trinity, Michael Reeves explains how the doctrine of the Trinity stirs our hearts to love God. The Trinity makes Christianity unique from all other religions and it makes God delightful on a personal level. Far from being theological clutter or an annoying logical conundrum, the Trinity is the heartbeat of the Christian faith. Delighting in the Trinity is concise and straightforward, yet packed with rich theology. Whether you are unfamiliar with the Trinity or have already studied it thoroughly, this book will give you a fresh taste of the beauty of God. In this article, I will highlight what Reeves teaches about God, sin, salvation, and the Christian life – with the aim of persuading you to read Delighting in the Trinity for yourself.
God’s Character: Cold Ruler or Kind Father?
Reeves begins this book by laying out two approaches to thinking about God. The first is to begin with God as Creator and Ruler. We can reason that God is the original cause of all things, or as Aristotle put it, the Unmoved Mover. He has the power and right to rule his creation as he wishes. Is this where we should begin in our thinking of God? Well if God’s essential identity was Creator, then he would need creation in order to be who he is. And if we primarily view him as Ruler, he becomes a cosmic traffic cop. Our relationship with God becomes one where we are looking over our shoulder, hoping we are following all of his laws, and hoping he will not be too angry with us if we break those rules. Thus, if we begin with God as Creator and Ruler, we get a needy tyrant. This is a pitiful and bleak picture of God. It is no wonder that Atheists think of God in this way. If I viewed God as a needy tyrant, I would not want to trust or love him! I would rather believe that God does not exist at all!
The other option for us is to begin with Jesus. When Jesus is baptized at the beginning of his ministry, we see that Jesus is the Son in whom the Father delights. As evidence of this fatherly love, the Son is anointed with the Spirit of God. Thus when we begin with Jesus, we see God for who he truly is: a loving Father, a beloved Son, and a Spirit who is the very bond of love between them. This Trinitarian picture of God is essential, for otherwise we are left with God as simply a Creator and Ruler. As Reeves explains, “it is only when we see that God rules his creation as a kind and loving Father that we will be moved to delight in his providence. We might acknowledge that the rule of some heavenly policeman was just, but we could never take delight in his regime as we can delight in the tender care of a father.” (24) The Trinity moves us to delight in God as a loving father.
God and the Problem of Evil (a minor criticism)
On the topic of God’s character, I did struggle with Reeves’ explanation of the origin of evil. He argues that if God was a single, solitary person, then “surely evil must originate in himself. Above and before all things, he is the source of all things, both good and evil.” (59) Reeves then asserts that only a Triune God can allow for evil without being the author of evil, because He created children who could have real lives, and really share in God’s love and freedom. Allowing this, however, also “means allowing them to turn away from himself – and that is the origin of evil.” (59) This is essentially the free-will defense of evil, which is a classical Christian answer to the problem of evil. Now, I do not mind that Reeves uses free will to explain how God is not the author of evil. What I do find lacking is Reeves’ claim that only a Triune God could give his humans free will. Why couldn’t a single-person God give his creatures free will? I think Reeves did not quite connect the dots here. This section on evil is a small portion of the book and not central to his main argument, so overall this is a minor criticism. Let us return to the main highlights of the book.
The Fall: Twisted Love
Humans were made to love God and each other. This is the first and greatest commandment (Matthew 22:36-39). Our highest purpose is to delight in our relationship with the Triune God. But the first humans failed to fulfill this purpose when they sinned. What went wrong? What happened when Adam and Eve fell? Reeves writes, “It was not that Adam and Eve stopped loving. They were created as lovers in the image of God, and they could not undo that. Instead, their love turned.” (65) We remain lovers, but our love is twisted and perverted as “we turn to love ourselves and anything but God.” (65) Eve saw that the fruit was pleasing and desirable (Genesis 3:6), indicating that the problem lied beneath her outward actions of disobedience. Her disobedience was merely a manifestation of her heart. She desired the pleasure of forbidden fruit more than the pleasure of following God. Her love was twisted. If sin is fundamentally about twisted love, then salvation must strike deeper than our external actions. It must address our hearts, our loves. This is why the Father sent the Son and Spirit: to save our twisted hearts by sharing his perfect love with us.
Salvation: As loved as the Son
If we view God as mainly Creator and Ruler, we might view salvation merely as an eternal get-out-of-jail-free card. The Supreme Judge decides to not count our sins against us. He decides to declare us innocent instead of guilty. While this picture is technically true, it is woefully incomplete. According to Reeves, salvation is ultimately a union with the Triune God. When we are saved, the Son shares what is his – including his loving relationship with the Father. In Reeves’ words, “the Father sent the Son to make himself known – meaning not simply that he wanted to download some information about himself, but that the love the Father eternally had for the Son might be in those who believe in him, and that we might enjoy the Son as the Father always has.” (69) How much does God love us? As much as he loves his own Son! God wants to share his eternal delight and fellowship with us. He does not merely offer forgiveness; he offers for us to be enraptured in his Trinitarian bliss.
The Christian Life: The Spirit makes us beautiful
The Spirit is the Lord and Giver of Life. He is the oxygen of the Christian life, and day by day he conforms us to the beautiful image of the Son. How does this happen? Well, remember how sin is a twisting of our love? When we sin, we are loving ourselves or other things more than God. We exchange fellowship with the Triune God for futile fellowship with created things. As we defy our very purpose (to love God), we warp and twist ourselves. We become ugly. This is where the Spirit comes in. The Spirit untwists our love by pointing us to Jesus, who loves the Father as we ought to. As we love the Father more and more, we become more and more like the Son. We become untwisted. We become beautiful.
“What a life the Spirit gives! He gives us himself, opening up to us the lovely fellowship of Father, Son, and Spirit; and he wins out hearts to share their satisfaction and pleasure in each other. Who, knowing this, could ever prefer the “cleaner,” leaner idea of a single-person God? For, strip down God and make him lean and you must strip down salvation and make it mean. Instead of a life bursting with love, joy and fellowship, all you will be left with is the watery gruel of religion. Instead of a loving Father, a distant potentate; instead of fellowship, contract. No security in the beloved Son, no heart-change, no joy in God could that spirit bring. Far, far from theological clutter, God’s being Father, Son and Spirit is just what makes the Christian life beautiful.” (102)
Delighting in the Trinity teaches what makes Christianity unique and what makes the Christian God lovely. Michael Reeves funnels the vast doctrine of the Trinity into a simple book that you can read in an afternoon. His book is straightforward and free of academic clutter, making it an excellent introduction to the doctrine of the Trinity. Wherever you are in your journey of faith, I encourage you to read it, so that you might experience a deeper delight in the God of love.
