The follow notes are from a talk that I gave at a New Year's Eve service in 2002. Because it touches upon the great truths of the Trinity, I'm posting them here praying that they will be edifying for you.
John Piper, in “The Pleasures of God”, wonderfully explains that God exists to glorify himself and enjoy himself forever. If God's ultimate joy and glory is found in anything outside of himself, then God himself would be guilty of worshipping and serving the created thing rather than the Creator. God exists to glorify himself and have joy in himself. If God existed to glorify anything else other than himself, then God himself would become an idolater. God gives glory to the greatest thing in the universe worthy of glory – which is himself. God delights and rejoices in the most enjoyable thing in the universe – which is himself.
When we speak of these things, we quickly realize that we are speaking of the great truth of the Trinity.
The Father rejoices and delights in his own glory as he beholds the Son, "for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Colossians 1.19) The Son is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Hebrews 1.3).
The Father beholds the Son. And the Son beholds the Father. And the Holy Spirit communicates and carries the glory of God from one back to the other from the other back to the one.
And they (and here I use this word very carefully) infinitely love one another. And they infinitely rejoice and delight and find joy in one another. At the center of all reality is love and joy. It is the love that God has for himself. It is the joy that God has in himself.
Love and joy are not peripheral concerns. They lie at the heart of all reality. 1 Peter 1.8 describes the essence of Christian experience, and it has everything to do with love and joy.
The implications of this for our lives are enormous. What a statement of great hope and joy for us! The very center of all existence is love and joy!
Consider how we fit into this picture. God determined that the greatest way to maximize the glory of his joyful love in himself was to cause creatures to come into being – and to bring fallen creatures into the circle of the experience of that same love and joy through a Redeemer.
You and I exist to bask in the refulgence of the glory of Trinity. Refulgance means “to shine brightly” or “a radiant or resplendent quality or state.” You and I exist to bask in the radiant, resplendent light of his inter-Trinitarian love and joy.
When the beams of his glory shine upon us, they gradually but powerfully transform us and by so doing we refund to Him His glory, love and joy.
God has redeemed you to draw you in to the circle of inter-Trinitarian love and joy. This is what John 17 is really all about, isn’t it? The is the ultimate design of our redemption.
Think about what heaven will be like. How long does it take to fully know the infinite love and joy of an infinite God? It takes an eternity. I believe that we will for all eternity continue to learn and delight in ever increasing personal knowledge of his love and joy. We will go from one degree of glory to another. Heaven is progressive joy. It never ends. And I can’t wait to begin.
Amazingly, in the gospel of Jesus we can begin that journey now. We can begin to taste heaven today as we experientially and covenantally enter into this union. What Isaac Walton said of Richard Sibbes at his funeral can also be true of us: “Heaven was in him before he was in heaven.” A primary way that God uses to accomplish this gospel work in the Christian’s hearst is the “means of grace”. The means of grace are God’s ordained, common ways of increasing his grace in the life of his redeemed child.
The means of grace (such as Bible reading, prayer, fellowship and the Sacraments) are the God-ordained pathways by which His glory, love and joy flow over and through our lives, just a strong current flows over the rocks on the riverbed.
Remove a rock from the riverbed, and it will soon dry up. Remove a Christian from the means of grace, and she will soon dry up. As we immerse ourselves steadily in the means of grace and as we diligently follow every teaching of Jesus in our lives, we begin to taste heaven in our hearts.
So do you see the picture?
You have been brought into existence so that God can shine the beams of his glory upon you – and change you – so that you refund that same glory and love and joy back to God. And you enter into the circle of Trinitarian delight.
When I gaze at the center of reality, I am amazed and delighted with what I find. I want to know it and taste it. Do you?
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