Trinity-The Three Faces of God

1 My son, if you will receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, ² make your ear attentive to wisdom and incline your heart to understanding…then you will find the knowledge of God.

While pondering the Trinity, it occurred to me that their union might be viewed as three faces of God. The concept sounded familiar, so I did a search of “faces” on my Bible app, and this is what came up:

¹⁰ As for the form of their [angel’s] faces, each had the face of a man; all four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle. Ezekiel 1:10

In human terms, we might put characteristics with these faces. The face of a man might stand for intellect; the face of a lion might be courage and fierceness; the face of a bull might be strength; the face of an eagle might be all-seeing or awareness. Yet, in trying to explain them three-dimensionally as Ezekiel did, or metaphorically as we did, we know that it is more than that. We are talking extra-dimensional here!

The angels have four faces; the Trinity has three. But, there is one face that the Trinity wants to add: Us! WE are the fourth face! They want to include us in their fellowship. It’s what God the Father/Son/Spirit has been seeking to do ever since we ran away and hid (in the Garden of Eden–and in our own lives).

Let’s walk through a little bit of the OT beyond Adam and Eve and see how God the Father/Son/Spirit interacted with people:

1. Cain-God’s interaction with Cain was very relational. God tried to steer Cain to righteousness, but Cain wouldn’t have it. So, Cain walked away from the presence of God (Genesis 4:16).
2. Noah- God interacted with Noah in a big way. In fact, the Ark was a rescue operation of mankind!
3. Abraham-The account of the pre-incarnate Christ appearing to Abraham and Sarah is a classic example of God seeking relationship with us and including us in what He is doing.
4. Joseph-God’s interaction with Joseph was unique. Talking to him in dreams was new. It probably had a lot to do with Joseph’s ability to resist despair (I’ve always admired him for that).

We could name many more–and that’s before Jesus came! Jesus is the pièce de résistance, the most remarkable example of God reaching out to mankind to include him (us) in the Trinity. Think about it:

• God the Father orchestrates all of history to come to earth as a human;
• God the Son IS THAT human;
• Once God the Father has demonstrated His love for us by dying on the cross as God the Son, He sent us God the Holy Spirit so that we would be included in the Trinity. Simple, right?!

It’s mind-boggling, but a worthy topic of thought and discussion. For us, all we need to know is that God is love, and His love lives in us and includes us in the fellowship of the Trinity.

Abba, Your love knows no bounds. I stand with Paul in his description of Your love: That we would be rooted and established in love, and have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:17-19). Open our eyes, Lord, to the intimacy and fellowship of the Trinity. Prepare us for a New Awakening! Amen.