What Do You Think?

 

 

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

- A.W. Tozer

Is your view of God big enough? Just how amazed are you by Him? What do you really think of when you think about God? Our answers to these questions really do give others a glimpse into who we are. It will show people the reasons for why we do certain things, and why we don’t do other things. Do you believe that your thoughts on God really are the most important things about you? Do you understand the consequences of viewing God incorrectly? Or the joys of viewing Him correctly? It is of utmost importance for us to rightly view our God. I would even agree with Tozer that it is the most important thing about us. For from our thoughts about who God is will flow all else. 

Our God is first and foremost triune and eternal. Meaning that He is one God in three persons. These persons are the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. They are equal in essence, power, nature, action, and will. This triune God has existed forever. And has forever related to Himself. Our understanding of God in this way means everything to us because if it were not so then nothing in our world would exist and nothing in the Christian faith could be true. God being triune affects all of life, but I only wish to explore how each person in the Godhead has a specific role in salvation today. 

God, the Father’s role in salvation is that He appoints salvation. John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” What we see in this famous verse is that the Father willingly gives up His son. This has a mighty significance on how we view God, because if God “gives up” or as 1 John 4:14 says “sent” the son, it puts into perspective how we must view the Father. The Father is not reacting to Jesus leaving the throne room of heaven, He was not surprised by the need to give up His son, He planned to grant grace through His son. And in the incarnation of Jesus, we see that grace manifested. The Father appointed salvation to come through His Son. 

The Son’s role in salvation is that He accomplishes salvation. Why is it that all who believe in Jesus should not perish but have eternal life? Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us”. All of mankind has failed to perfectly uphold God’s law and therefore deserve the penalty (curse) of our lawbreaking. Yet Jesus never breaks God’s law, but instead dies and absorbs our penalty (curse) on our behalf. The only reason we can receive eternity is because this is so. Jesus accomplished salvation by absorbing our punishment. 

The Spirit’s role in salvation is that He applies salvation. In John 14 we see Jesus promise His disciples two things about the Spirit. We see that the Spirit will indwell in us forever and in His indwelling will “teach us all things and bring to our remembrance all that Jesus taught”. It is the role of the Spirit in salvation to help us grow into Christ-likeness. He does this by dwelling with us and applying all that God has taught us in the scriptures. The end result will be that we truly will reflect Jesus one day when we are finally with Him face to face. 

Knowing God is the most important thing to understand in order to go about our daily lives. Our thoughts about Him really are the most important thoughts we can have in this life. Our Triune God is of utmost importance if we are to live and interact with our world properly. All parts of the Godhead have a specific role they play in the salvation of people and God is more beautiful because of it. I implore you today to begin the never-ending search of knowing God completely because in it we really will find the beauty of our Trinity.