1 Jn. 4:7-17
Introduction
In the evangelical classic The Cross and the Switchblade, David Wilkerson tells the story of his ministry to a street gang in New York City and the dramatic conversion of Nicky Cruz, a knife-wielding teenage gang leader. About 20 years later Cruz himself wrote a book called The Magnificent Three in which he wrote, “Something has emerged in my walk with God that has become the most important element of my discipleship. It has become the thing that sustains me, that feeds me, that keeps me steady when I am shaky. I have come to see God, to know Him, to relate to Him as Three-in-One, God as Trinity.”
He continues, “God is a magnificent Father. God is a magnificent Savior, Jesus Christ. But if it were not for the magnificent Holy Spirit, I would still be a wretched, hateful sinner! It is not enough to have a Father-God who loves and provides for me. It is not enough even to have a Savior who died for my sins. For any of those blessings to make a difference in our lives, there must also be present in this world that Third Person of God, the Holy Spirit.”
We refer to the Trinity regularly. We confess our faith and are baptized and blessed in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but do you see this as magnificent?
The Text: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love…” (1 Jn. 4:7-17)
Summary of the Text
Christians are addressed as “beloved,” but given the context that is not merely a term of affection from the apostle, it is a title for those who are loved by God Himself (1 Jn. 4:7). We are the “beloved” because we are loved by an eternal, magnificent, Triune love. Because God is love, you cannot know God and not imitate His love (1 Jn. 4:8). His love is not some vague, sentimental feeling; it was manifested toward us in that God sent His only begotten Son into the world to be the propitiation for our sins (1 Jn. 4:9-10). “Propitiate” means to satisfy or turn away wrath. Christians are “beloved” because God Himself loved us by providing His own Son for us, who stood in our place and took the wrath we deserve for our sins, and so we ought to love one another like that (1 Jn. 4:11).
No one has seen God as He is in Himself (in all His infinite perfection and beauty), but when Christians love one another sacrificially, we are seeing God’s divine love at work, because it is only possible to love like God by being united to God by His Holy Spirit in us (1 Jn. 4:12-13). This is how we know that we are in God and God is in us because we have come to know Jesus Christ as our Savior (1 Jn. 4:14-15). To know God is to know His Triune love, and therefore to know true love is to know God, such that our love in this world is a true manifestation of God, so that we are even confident about the day of judgement (1 Jn. 4:16-17).
Why is the Trinity “Magnificent”?
The Trinity is magnificent because it reveals God as inherently full of this magnificent, sacrificial love. Paul says the same: “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:5-8). We are filled with the love of God by the Holy Spirit, and that love is the sacrificial love of the Trinity for ungodly sinners: “when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son” (Rom. 5:10) – the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Salvation is all of grace, which means it is all of God. Only God can satisfy God’s justice; only God can bring us fully to God – this is the magnificent work of the Trinity. Salvation is monergistic – only God can come for us, rescue us, and unite us to Himself. God does all of it. If some part of our salvation is left to us, to angels, to saints then our salvation is in some doubt. It is left to us to try, to strive, to hope, to work. This is why all non-Trinitarian religions must ultimately always result in a works-salvation and doubt and fear. To the extent that salvation is less than all grace, we do not understand the love of God and we do not understand the magnificence of the Trinity.
Five Practical Implications
Personalism: The Trinity is magnificent because it reveals that God is love (1 Jn. 4:8), and this love means that we can know God – that God is personal. If God were a solitary, transcendent, undifferentiated monad there would ultimately be nothing to know. But God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is Father, Lord, Creator; God is Son, Beloved, Savior; God is Spirit, Advocate, Presence. Do you know the Father?
Community: The Trinity is magnificent because it is the archetype of all our longing to belong, to be known, to share hospitality. God’s will to create the universe was absolutely gratuitous (God needed nothing), and therefore, it demonstrates an overflowing delight in the other, in selfless fellowship, true friendship, caring community. To know God is to be ushered into His fellowship and to share His fellowship with one another (1 Jn. 4:12-13).
Hierarchical Equality: The Trinity is magnificent because it is the archetype of covenant loyalty: love as strong as death (Song 8:6). But rather than top-down domination, Trinitarian love is a hierarchy of equalities. The Father is the Eternal Source of the Godhead, but the Son and the Spirit are co-equal with the Father. The husband is the head of the household, but his wife is equal in glory and grace. A magistrate is to be honored and obeyed, but the poorest peasant bears the image of God and God’s Word. This creates radically free, covenantal societies, a sort of Protestant feudalism, with free markets and private property – unity and diversity under God’s law.
Prayer: The Trinity is magnificent because it guarantees that God hears our prayers. “For through Him [Christ] we both have access by One Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:18). We know that God hears our prayers because God the Holy Spirit is Who causes us to pray to God as our Father (Rom. 8:15). And whatever we ask in Jesus’ name has the full authority of God, that the Father may be glorified in the Son (John 14:13). And Scripture is the Father’s Word to us (Christ) in the power of the Spirit.
Beauty: The Trinity is magnificent because it reveals the perfect harmony at the highest point of reality. “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD…” (Ps. 27:4). His creation reflects His beauty: music, food, sunsets, animals, mountains, waterfalls, oceans, art, people, poetry, worship, dancing, love. But it is all a distant echo of the most Beautiful Song, flakes of gold pointing to a Magnificent Mine – the Magnificent Trinity.
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