Trinity: How you view God matters

What was God doing before the creation of the world?

In His book Delighting in the Trinity, Michael Reeves gives this question.

This question says a lot about how we view God.

Some will wrongly answer this question by saying he was only the uncaused cause and he was The Ruler and The Creator.

God certainly is our Creator and God certainly is the only one who is righteous to rule, but if we start our view of God as The Ruler and Creator only our faith in God develops as a toxic view of who God is.

Michael Reeves says this,

if God’s very identity is to be The Creator, The Ruler, then he needs a creation to rule in order to be who he is.

This immediately starts a slippery slope. One this view says that in order for God to be Ruler then he needs someone to RULE. (guess who drew the short straw pointing at myself) I now find my purpose in life as a person who is to be ruled by God.

Now to muddy the waters a little more and to help us understand our view of God as Father gets more unclear as a result of our Earthly fathers. We come to know our earthly father before coming to know God as Father.

For some, the very word Father might make your hair stand up or make you a little uneasy. As a result you might say I don’t mind calling him God but to call him Father it just doesn’t fit for me.

Why

This idea of Father is clouded by my earthly father. When I describe God as RULER you immediately identify with this because your earthly father was nothing more than a Ruler and often you felt as though your very existence or you was born so that your dad would have someone to tell what to do. He needed someone to make him feel better about himself and that is why I exist.

To help us develop our view of God I have this picture. This is a picture of my office.

Think about the idea of being called in to this office. If not this office then think back to your principles office. Some of you know more about your principles office than others (lol).

Thursday I sent Cameron a slack message and said I could use a few minutes with him. He comes in and sits down. I am very hard to read at times so I felt bad for him. I wanted some feedback. He did not know what I wanted. Its Thursday and he is tired and exhausted. I never asked him but I am sure in his mind he doesn’t know what I need. I am sure that there have been times where I have asked to talk to him and he thinks I hope I didn’t do something wrong. Just the thought of being asked to step into this office can bring anxiety.

Cameron trust me a lot so he came prepared with notebook in hand and we just talked. He said he was pretty tired and I said well see if you can wrap up some stuff early today and go home and rest. He said I might do that.

Now imagine with me what do you think it would be like if God the Father asked you to step into His office.

Come on now, you are walking down the hallway and God steps out and says hey (name some names in the crowd) would you step into my office?

How we view God in this moment has a lot to do with what we believe about God and who He is.

If God is simply ruler and creator, then our worldview is shaped from this viewpoint only.

Jesus says in John 14:6

John 14:6 HCSB

6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Michael Reeves

That is who God has revealed himself to be: not first and foremost Creator or Ruler, but Father.

It will help us to understand this further byAnswering the question of

What was God doing before the creation of the world?

John 17:24 answers this question for us.

John 17:24 HCSB

24 Father, I desire those You have given Me to be with Me where I am. Then they will see My glory, which You have given Me because You loved Me before the world’s foundation.

Reeves says,

And that is the God revealed by Jesus Christ. Before he ever created, before he ever ruled the world, before anything else, this God was a Father loving his Son.

How beautiful to begin at the place of God as Father.

Let me refer back to something I said earlier. Our view of God as Father is clouded or muddied because of our earthly father. Let me encourage you this morning that has you start with God as father that you don’t start at your earthly father and work your way to God.

Rather

Start at God. Discover what God means when He says he is Father. Understand that as father, God is relational and life giving. The better way is to look at scripture and discover God as Father then understand that man has been created in the image of God so some of our earthly father’s traits may reveal a small piece of God our Father.

Let’s take a look at this in scripture

Exodus 4:22 HCSB

22 Then you will say to Pharaoh: This is what Yahweh says: Israel is My firstborn son.

Jeremiah 31:9 HCSB

9 They will come weeping, but I will bring them back with consolation. I will lead them to wadis filled with water by a smooth way where they will not stumble, for I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is My firstborn.

as a father carries his son

Deuteronomy 1:31 HCSB

31 And you saw in the wilderness how the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son all along the way you traveled until you reached this place.

Deuteronomy 8:5 HCSB

5 Keep in mind that the Lord your God has been disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.

Psalm 103:13 HCSB

13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

Jeremiah 3:19 HCSB

19 I thought: How I long to make you My sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations. I thought: You will call Me, my Father, and never turn away from Me.

Jesus

John 20:17 HCSB

17 “Don’t cling to Me,” Jesus told her, “for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to My brothers and tell them that I am ascending to My Father and your Father—to My God and your God.”

Paul and Peter

Romans 15:6 HCSB

6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with a united mind and voice.

1 Peter 1:3 HCSB

3 Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

Paul

1 Corinthians 1:3 HCSB

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 8:6 HCSB

6 yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from Him, and we exist for Him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through Him, and we exist through Him.

Reeves says

Since God is , before all things, a Father, and not primarily Creator or Ruler, all his ways are beautifully fatherly. It is not that this God “does” being Father as a day job, only to kick back in the evenings as plain old “God.” It is not that he has a nice blob of fatherly icing on top. He is Father. All the way down. Thus all that he does he does as Father. That is who he is. He creates as a Father and he rules as Father; and that means the way he rules over creation is most unlike the way any other God would rule over creation.

This is a beautiful worldview shift to see God as Father first. We see God rules his creation as a kind and loving father.

As a kind and loving Father we can trust Him. We can trust in the toughest of circumstances that God is a kind, gentle, patient and loving Father.

God as eternally Father is outgoing and life giving. From eternity he has been life-giving. It is who He is!

You heard this last week

1 John 4:7–8 HCSB

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

You ever spent time with someone who just draws you in with their kindness and generosity? The time you spend with them just makes you a better person. They are little pictures or snippets of who God is. 1 John says that if you know God and his love it changes you. You simply cannot know God without yourself becoming loving.

Watch what 1 John says next

1 John 4:9 HCSB

9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

The God who is love is the Father who sends his Son. To be the Father, then means to love, to give out life, to beget the Son. Before anything else, for all eternity, this God was loving, giving life to and delighting in his Son.

A Father to be a Father must give out life. That is who he is. That is his most fundamental identity. Thus love is not something the Father has, merely one of his many moods. Rather, He is love.

Concluding thoughts

The reaction to our Lord on Palm Sunday

My office picture. Some may view this as a place of discipline, but let me tell you when my kids hit that door on a Sunday morning often it is with great delight! Kylie goes straight around the desk and gives me a hug. For Macy, it can be a place of refuge and for Colten it is a place for Him to create. You see to my kids on occasion this office is one of love and care.

God as Father invites us into “his office”. He invites us in as outgoing and life giving Father. He rules and creates as Father. Its who He is. It’s what he was doing before the creation of the World he is a Father loving His Son. He is love.

So when God invites you into the community of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit he does so as Father. He says come in and delight yourself in me. Settle in. I am your Father.