The Upside-down Glory of the Trinity

Listening to: Nothing

'The glory of God' is the bottom line in theology for many of us today. The 'young, restless, Reformed' types following in the footsteps of Piper have made this the pillar of their outlook, and books like 'The Pleasures of God' and 'God's Pursuit of His Glory' are the handbooks. As somebody who has been especially taught and helped by Piper, and as somebody who has recommended his books and preaching to many others, I certainly agree with this thrust.

There is, however, a massive question over all of Piper's work (and the work of others in this vein) in the minds of many people. Does this turn God into a self-centred ego at the centre of the universe?

Ben Witherington, for example, has said in response to Tom Schreiner's New Testament Theology,

I suppose we should not be surprised that in a culture and age of narcissism, we would recreate God in our own self-centered image, but it is surprising when we find orthodox Christians, and even careful scholars doing this.

Piper's answer to this question is to show that God has so designed reality that his glory is bound-up in human joy, thus 'God's passion for his glory is the measure of his commitment to our joy'. Borrowing from Edwards, Piper says that since God is the most excellent being in the universe, it would be wrong of him not to be delighted in himself; and it would be foolish of us to look for our joy and fulfillment in anything else; and so God's glory and our joy are bound-up together. You can read Piper's response to Witherington on this here.

While the truth of this continues to be an important part of my theology, I think that there is still more to be said about the subject- and I'm only just beginning to think about it. But I'm sure that there is a deeper and far more serious answer to that big question: How do we rescue God's concern for His own glory from narcissism?

The Missing Brick
I think Piper's biggest and best defence is one he's not using: Trinitarian theology. If he were more explicitly Trinitarian, all of his work on God's pursuit of His own glory would be far stronger. Trinitarian theology is the missing brick in Piper's theology. While he does mention Trinity, I think he's perhaps missed the centrality of it to understanding God's pursuit of His own glory. Here's how it works.

 God is fundamentally Father, Son, and Spirit loving each other in a mutually constitutive love. He is not one big divine being who wants all the glory for himself (i.e. Allah). He is not a monad who has existed for eternity alone with nobody to love but himself; He is three Persons in one God. As the Athanaisan Creed says, we worship 'one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity.' God is a loving community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three Persons love one another (as is clear from Scripture), and it is this love that makes them one; the love of the three Persons of the Godhead is their unity. God's oneness is his love. 'God is love' (1 John 4v8).

Love is always other-centred. Self-love is no love at all; so the Persons of the Trinity love one another. God's love is by its very natrure other-centred.


The Love of the Trinity
How would we expect the Father to be? He is the Creator of everything. His Son is obedient to Him, and He sends-out His Spirit to do His work. In everything the Trinity does, the Father is the initiator. We might expect Him to hoard all power and glory, loving Himself as the greatest being in the universe. But instead, He is happy to have another like Him, distinct from Himself as the 'stamp' of Himself (Hebrews 1v3): His Son. The Father loves the Son, and executes His work through Him (Colossians 1v15-20) and has made Him the heir of all things (Hebrews 1v2). Rather than loving Himself, the Father finds His hypostasis (His essential being) in loving the Son.

The Son has been given authority over all things, and is worshipped and praised by angels (Hebrews 1v6). We might expect Him to hoard power and glory to Himself. Instead, the Son is obedient to His Father, coming to earth- subjecting Himself to flesh and mortality (Philippians 2v5-11). The Son became a mere man in oder to do glorify His Father (John 17v4), and can do nothing except that which the Father does (John 5v19). The Son finds His hypostasis in being the Father's Son.

The Holy Spirit alone knows the thoughts of God (1 Corinthians 2v11), the Spirit is the one who empowers the Son for His work (Genesis 1v1, Mark 1v10, Luke 14v8), and the one who gives birth to the Church and empowers her for her work (Exodus 31v3, Zechariah 4v6, Galatians 5v22). The Spirit is the one through whom the Word of God is mediated to us. We might expect Him to hoard power and glory to Himself. Instead the Spirit is sent out by the Father and the Son (John 14v16, 1 Peter 1v11), and His work is to glorify the Son (John 14v16). The Spirit is dedicated to being the Helper, Comforter, and Counsellor of the people of God. The Spirit finds His hypostasis in being the Spirit of the Father and of Christ.

So the three Persons of the Trinity continually love and bow to one another. Their eternal relationship to one another is love: they all find their hypostases in ecastasis (going out from themselves to the others)- in loving each other. And so everything the Trinity does is together, in unity, and out of love. This is beautifully demonstrated in creation as the Father initiates the work, speaking a creative Word in His Son who is his agent in creation, and the Word is anointed by the Spirit as it goes out (see Genesis 1v1, Colossians 1v15). It is shown in revelation, as the Father is revealed to us by the Son, through the Spirit-breathed word of Christ in Scripture (Matthew 11v7, 2 Timothy 3v16).

The glory of God is in His inter-Trinitarian love
And so God the Trinity glorifies Himself as the three Persons of the Godhead eternally love one another and have unity in purpose and activity. Rather than a monad who wants glory and power for himself, we have a picture of a loving community who find their hypostases in ecstasis: three Persons who are who they are because they are 'persons'- relational with one another (in contrast to being 'individuals' who can be divided off from others), they love one another. This picture surely wipes-out Witherington's objections to Schreiner, and all our questions for Piper. By being explicity Trinitarian, we rescue God's pursuit for His own glory from narcissism and selfishness. I would love to see Piper explore Trinitarian theology some more!

Of course, it is this loving community of three Persons that would create a good world for people to enjoy- so that their self-giving love could be known by many more persons. It is this loving God that would conspire together within Himself to send the Son empowered by the Spirit to bear the Father's judgement for sinful human beings. It is this loving Trinity that delights to reveal Himself to men and women in order to share similarly loving relationship and selfless giving with them (John 17v23). To the human mind, the glory of the Trinity is upside-down: it is in self-giving, and self-sacrifice. That is why Luther could say 'The cross is our theology': the cross is a totally illogical, irrational glory that supremely reflects the love of God as the eternally pre-eminent Son dies at the hands of His sinful creation. Like the cross, the glory of the Trinity seems foolish to us since everything in us cries-out for our own power, glory, and recognition. But the fame of God lies in His giving of Himself in the person of His Son to die. The power of God lies in a foolish message of the cross where God appears weak and helpless. The glory of God is in His love that gives, and spreads, looks outwards, and enfolds the Church into His loving relationship within Himself.

UPDATE 1/1/08:
Dave K has pointed out a very thought-provoking post from Wink at the Parableman blog on why he is 'no longer a Piperite' becuase 'ultimately, the Glory of God model that Piper works with is not Trinitarian enough'. Someone wrote about this before I did, obviously! Well worth a read, as he goes into other aspects of Christian Hedonism he's uncomfortable with.

Dave K has also written a post that responds to/questions mine, and I'm going to attempt a response here soon (my initial comment on his blog got a bit too long!).