The Divine Abundance: Part Two

In the next section, Hart discusses the fellowship enjoyed within the Godhead. To say God is love, which we must, we automatically make certain tangential assumptions, which, when flushed out, show that our God is unique in being love. If God is love, and we take our former point that we are unnecessary for God to be who He is, then we are saying that God is love with or without us. Before the creation of time, God was God and He was love. But love, biblically understood, must have an object. It is not just a good feeling. Love must be directed outward. If God is love before the creation of the world, His love must have been directed at Himself. This leads us to the triune nature of our God. This is why no other god can be love. Allah certainly can’t. He is a monopod, and cannot show love before the creation of objects. There is only self-love, which is no real love at all, just another phrase for self-gratification, and self-service.
But our God is Love, true outward love, from before the beginnings of time. This outward love can be understood as selfless love, or rather, a giving love. The Father gives to the Son, and the Son gives to the Father, and Spirit gives to the Father and the Son. They are eternally concerned with the other. This is how it plays out in history. The Father, Son and Spirit together, as the One creating God, made the world. The world falls into sin. The Father gives to the world His Son, conquering. The Son gives to the world His Spirit, enlivening. The Spirit gives back to the Son, the world, transformed. The Son gives back to the Father, the world, robed in righteousness. There is no ‘keeping for self’ in this picture of God’s glorious drama.
Another way of describing this divine fellowship, is to touch on the presence of Speaker and Spoken. We cannot deny the unity of God, “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.” But throughout Scripture God speaks, and at the same time is spoken and spoken to. Take for instance the baptism of Christ in the Jordan. Jesus, the fullness of God, Immanuel, rises from the water, and is blessed by His Father, in a voice from Heaven. This voice is accompanied by a dove, descending. The Father speaks, the Spirit is Spoken, and the Son is Spoken to. This reveals that God does not only give, but also receives. Love must give, but love must also receive, and respond. Jesus immediately goes out into the desert, following this baptism, to complete the initiation of His ministry. He has heard His Father, and knows He must respond. He does not simply accept, but acts. Love is not given to the other for the other to have good feelings, but for the other to be equipped for action. Our love towards others must be so minded. God loved us, not simply to save us from sin, which He did, but to transform us into the image of Christ, which in God’s glory requires our action, or obedience. We do not simply accept salvation, and nothing else. We accept love with the purpose of responding accordingly.
What does this mean for our discussion of the Christian Aesthetic? Let’s first define our premises. Premise number one: God is the ultimate Beauty. If beauty (or anything for that matter) dwelt outside of God, His Godness would be immediately destroyed, and the world would spin helplessly into meaningless oblivion. Premise number two: God’s character and attributes are the standards by which we judge beauty. In other words, we look at the world, and can objectively say that something is or is not beautiful based on how well it reflects God’s nature. Hence we can call sexual fidelity in marriage a good reflection, and rape a bad reflection. Giving a thirsty man a glass of water is beautiful. Charging him for it is ugly.
If these assumptions are true, then beauty must necessarily consist of selfless love. This selfless love also must be given with the purpose of equipping. The result of this love, is a worldview which sees God’s love to us in everything, and leaves us therefore, with no excuse to sit on our duffs and watch it pass by. God’s love necessarily calls us to action. Whether that be translating the Word in Africa, or sipping scotch with a brother on a back porch, love requires action, and direction. In this worldview, life will be lived to the glory of God, and will necessarily be filled with the beauty of His Holiness.
This takes time to understand, let alone bearing fruit in our lives. Not just time either. It takes the Spirit’s gift of transformation. It is this gift by which all is understood, and life is completely and fully enjoyed.