1/25/14 Julio about 30
Even
a grocery store can be a good place to talk theology. A young father named Julio, shopping with his
daughter, responded to my outreach questions about eternity by saying (en Espanol)
“Well, I believe in God, so I believe I’ll be in heaven.” As our conversation progressed he had several
theological questions and among them he wondered how Jesus could also be God
along with the Father. “I believe in
only one God” he said, “so I think Jesus was just God’s representative.” Time for me to do a little explaining about
the Holy Trinity. “You’ve heard of the
Trinity, right – Padre, Hijo, y Espiritu Santo?” Julio had grown up in a Catholic family and
knew about it but couldn’t comprehend or accept the concept of One God in three
Persons. Not that anyone can completely,
but there are analogies that help, such as St. Patrick’s use of the three-leaf
clover - one plant with three connected leafs - to represent God, or the idea
of water taking three forms – ice, liquid, gas – but since they can’t all
happen at the same time some have suggested the sun, sunlight, and the heat of
the sun as a better way to represent the Trinity. Telling how we can be one person with
different roles – father, son, husband, brother – might help, but doesn’t
explain how they could be in separate places at the same time.
Historically, the “Shield of the Trinity” is a
very helpful visual symbol that shows how the Father, Son, and Spirit are each
God but the Father is not the Son is not the Spirit, etc. Lately, I’ve been focusing on God’s perfect
unity, saying that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have different roles and
take different forms, but there is absolutely perfect trust, love, and unity
among them. They have and will always
exist in perfect harmony as to their purposes.
They are, in essence, perfectly One.
This is what Jesus meant when he said “I and the Father are one” (John
10:30) It might be a way of getting away
from earthly analogies with their limited value and a better way to understand who
God is and just what He has done on the cross.
He didn’t just sacrifice a created being of limited value like a sheep
or a goat. He didn’t just sacrifice a messenger
or a representative. He gave Himself in
the form of the Son - Creator, dying for His creation - and to fulfill His own
perfect love and justice, a perfect and infinitely worthy sacrifice. For what it’s worth, this made sense to Julio
there in the grocery store, so I thought I’d share it here too.
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