God is nonstop love, beauty and glory!

As the Father and Son behold the infinite beauty and glory of the other they experience infinite, overflowing joy, and delight in, by, and through the Spirit. 

Each is the very heart and center of the others affections. We could say each is the unceasing, passionate "heartbeat" and central ¹focus of the beauty of the other. The proverbial apple of each others eye, if you will.

They are passionately moved to extol or glorify the ¹¹other and lazer focused on doing so. 

They have always delighted in each ¹¹other from all eternity past and will continue for all eternity future with or without us.

By beholding and loving the glory of the other and experiencing love and delight in that beholding, each member of our ⁶three person God participates in and experiences their ⁶greatest joy and glory (worth, significance, etc). 

Joy, love, and delight are the fruit of their beholding the infinite glory and beauty of the ¹¹other. 

Experiencing infinite delight, joy, and significance in beholding each other drives all their actions. Bringing greater joy and significance (glory) to the other (among and within the Father, Son, in, by, and through the Spirit first, but also ⁹overflowing to us as His image bearers) is their primary aim. This is what moves God to do everything He - they - do. 

To behold the perfection of the ¹¹other evokes infinite admiration, joy, delight, and love for the other in, by, and through the Spirit. 

So what does any of this have to do with us?

God calling us to love Him and our neighbor is simply an extension and reflection of what God is like, i.e., this is who God is, and He calls us to reflect Him as bearers of His image.

God is ⁸full because he already is - and has - perfect joy and infinite worth (glory) within Himself as the most significant (glorious) being of all. From Him everything else came and depends on Him for existence. 

Actually He is not just full but ⁹overflowing in infinite love. And this is because of the perfectly magnificent beauty, majesty, and infinite glory of each person within the Godhead. 

The Spirit is God, manifested by passionate love (breath) between the Father and Son. This is who God is. He is infinite, passionate love i.e. He is Spirit. 

The Spirit is the life (energy) and wind (power) of God. The Spirit is the very breath of God. Without breath, God - like us, no longer functions. To have breath is to live, and to live, we must breathe. So it is with God. Without the Spirit, there is no breath, and without breath there is no God.

The Spirit is central and vital to who God is. The Spirit's role is unique from the Father and the Son's role and vital to the relationship between them, as well as emanating from and manifested by that relationship.

With all these aspects of God's being combined means each person within the Godhead is continuously giving and receiving perfect love from the other, who is equally perfect in beauty and love, yet also unique in function. 

Each loves perfectly and evokes in the other perfect love and delight because of their unique and perfect beauty and glory. They are all God together, not separately. For God to be God, they all must be together in a perfect union of beauty, harmony, and delight. 

The Father and Son are a union, community, and fellowship of nonstop love and motion in, by, and through the Spirit. An overflowing, infinite, perpetual self-sustained love ⁷generator, if you will, that never stops "running" because of the infinite beauty and worth they each possess individually. This dynamic has always been from all eternity past, before creation ever came into existence. 

What about created things and persons?

Creation is an outward manifestation of who God is as infinite and perpetual love/Spirit. God does not need creation. Creation needs God. Creation exists only because God exists as the God of love. If there were no God, there would be no love or creation. Nothing else would be.

God is the "I AM" i.e., the self-existent One who has no beginning or end. He depends on no one or any created thing because He has and delights in Himself as Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit. Everything and everyone else comes from Him, exists by Him, and points back to him.

"For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.

To Him be the glory forever! Amen" - Rom 11:36

Because of this, God's love is other-oriented and focused, not self-focused. First between the Father, Son, and Spirit, but also out to others who are like him, i.e. us, who bear his image. 

In short, God is not selfish - as a community of 3, with each focused on the infinite beauty and glory of the other - but is full and overflowing. 

Our 3-person God is continuously engaged in giving, receiving, and overflowing in love within the community of Father and Son, in, by, and through the Spirit. God has never been alone (or lonely) from all eternity past, nor will He ever be. He is not moved to get or take but only to give because He already is all glorious, always receiving and overflowing with love from and for another. 

When a husband beholds the beauty (glory) of his wife and partakes of her love, and a wife partakes of and experiences the strength (glory) of her husband, it evokes within each a delight for the other. A delight so great that their union is like another person (as well as children who bear the image of the parents as well as God's image). They are no longer two separate individuals but a new and distinct union of love. 

So it is with God, who, unlike us, is perfectly beautiful, all glorious, infinitely strong, and continuously overflowing in love.

In God, all these qualities are perfection - nothing can be added to or taken away from God for Him to be all that He already is. 

All of this is without end, i.e., we can never reach the full height, breadth, or depth of our experience of the infinite God...ever. 

Throughout eternity, we will increasingly experience and participate in more of our infinitely glorious and beautiful God. 

In light of who God is, He must be and is the center of all things. He is the most valuable, worthy, significant, glorious, and lovely of all beings or things. 

Without God their would be no beauty, no delight, no joy, no love, no creation, no us... in short, no life, i.e., there would be no-thing. 

Everything else that is - other than God - is because of God. Nothing would be if He were not. 

The very existence of everything else is solely because of this dynamic, vibrant, nonstop overflowing God of love as Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit. 

This is why He is always calling us to glorify Him. It's not because He needs us, but because we need Him to participate in all He created us to be and experience i.e., we are created to experience Him in the fullness of His beauty-glory by participating in the glory and union of the Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit. We are designed to find our greatest glory and joy in experiencing His. 

His calling us to glorify Him is the most loving thing He can do for us - as well as the most honoring thing we can do for Himself. 

Our praises of him throughout eternity will be the spontaneous response to beholding him in all his majesty and glory. Just like the praises of the Father for the Son and the Son for the Father in, by, and through the Spirit. 

Life without God:

To live in order to take or get (vs give) is static and stagnant. It centers on and ends with those who ²seek to operate this way. It is like the dead end on a one-way street that ends with me (or anyone who operates without God's love moving them to love others). There is no flow through of traffic because the street does not connect to any others. It is a dead end.

To use another analogy, it is like the Dead Sea in Israel. There is no life in it because it's isolated with nothing flowing out. The opposite of the Sea of Galilee, which is full of life with a source and exit for that life to come and go.

Like the Sea of Galilee, God's life is also dynamic, not static, because of the infinite beauty of the persons within the Godhead. Each is infinitely beautiful and glorious; each captures and delights the heart of the other and is captivated by the other's infinite value and beauty. 

This results in love always flowing back and forth between, within, and among our Triune God - out to the other and continually received (reflected) back in admiration and delight. The infinite worth and glorious beauty of God is what drives and moves God Himself and everything else as a result.

God is life and love because he is the infinitely beautiful and glorious community of Father, Son, and Spirit.

What happens when you add us to this divine mix or dance of love and delight? The love and delight only increases (multiplies), not diminishes i.e. love flows among the Father and Son, in, by, and through the Spirit then out to us and back and forth between a greater number of others (who are in His image and as close to being like God as possible without actually being Him i.e. we are like Him in giving and receiving love but unlike Him, in that He is the Source of love and we are not i.e. we are the recipients and conduits of love not the cause).

We have the ³capacity to enter into this dance of divine love because we, ⁴like Christ, are like God himself... in His image. As His image bearers, we are valuable and infinitely valued because we can display God (who is of greatest worth) in a way nothing else can (except Christ Himself, who alone did and does honor His Father perfectly above all others). 

Our capacity to bring Him, who is infinitely valuable, to others makes us valuable. In Christ, we become the ⁵focus of God's infinite affection in addition to the love between the Father, Son, and Spirit.

Does bringing or adding more to this divine dance "thin out" God's love? No, it increases, expands, or multiplies it just like the love of parents can expand, increase, and multiply with each additional child. But unlike earthly parents, God is the infinite source of life, love, and all created things. 

And our love for each child is unique because of the uniqueness of that child and how they each can uniquely reflect back to the parents love and overflow that love and their image out to others in a way that other children can't.

The more children there are, the more facets of God's glory and affections are displayed, experienced, and enjoyed.

 

What is the beatific vision? Click here to find out more.

For more on the self-sufficiency (aseity) of God, click here. 

For more on Christ being the only begotten of the Father, click here. 

For more on how God is relationship, click here.  

For more on whether God is dependent or independent, click here. 

For more on the life, love, and Spirit of God, click here.  
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¹this is the model we build a Godly marriage on. Marriage best works as God designed it to, when each is focused on the other, vs on themselves... with God as the central and primary focus (vs the only focus) and the source of love to and for each.

²Which is all of us until our disconnection from God - the source of life and love - is repaired and we are fully restored to God's love.

³I say capacity because to enter into this Union, we first must be restored to God through Christ due to our rebellious and ongoing distrust and alienation between God and us, created by that distrust. 

This alienation must be resolved and removed so we can be fully restored and reconnected to the Source of life and love. Once it is and we are reconciled and restored, we become the full and perfectly qualified recipients of God's unobstructed perfect love as we were designed to be. 

As we come to embrace and rest in His perfect nonstop love, we are increasingly able to partake of that love in the same way the Father, Son, and Spirit do. This goes to the next level when we are glorified with God in ever-increasing glory for all eternity.

There is legally no longer any obstruction between God and us if we are "in Christ." It is gone forever. So much so that the very Spirit of God in all his holiness and infinite love now indwells us, i.e. We are the temple of God, and He now lives in us as perfectly restored and clean vessels. Without Christ legally purifying us, He could not and would not be restored and reconnected. 

However, practically - on our side of the union - a weak connection still exists because of our lack of perfect trust in the Father. Because of Christ, we have perfect access to all God is, but we must "plug in" by faith. Distrust is like a bad connection in a wire, causing it to regularly short-circuit and hinder the power from flowing freely and consistently through it to its intended end. But this is a separate matter. For more on this click here.

⁴The Father "beget" the Son from all eternity past, not at a point in time (like us), hence He is the "only begotten" Son. For a discussion of this click here.

⁵That infinite affection moves God to do whatever will best draw us closer to him, so we might experience more of Him and participate in more of His love. 

This often includes tests and trials, pain and suffering...but not always or forever. All pain is temporary if we are plugged back into God through Christ. 

When we gain from the pain what we need to (i.e. a greater humility and dependence on God), we rise above that pain. The circumstances causing our pain is often still present but it's sting is removed because we receive it as it truly is - i.e. from the loving hand of God for our ¹⁰increasing union practically for our highest good and His greatest glory. Similar to the pain we experience in a workout. It hurts at the time but we know the outcome is good i.e. increased strength. To use a familiar expression, "no pain no gain." 

To say God is love is to say God is dynamic passion or affections for another resulting in an outward focus and loving action toward others. As the Father beholds the glory and beauty of Son and the Son beholds the glory and beauty of the Father, their delight, joy and passion for each other manifests as the Spirit. The Spirit of love, joy, and delight between the Father and the Son is God for God is love and He is Spirit.

In the original Hebrew Spirit means breath (movement of air or wind) among other things i.e. the passionate and affectionate breathing of God for another who is infinitely glorious and beautiful.

Spirit (Greek)
Πνεῦμα (Pneuma)
Noun - Nominative Neuter Singular
Strong's 4151: Wind, breath, spirit.

The value of the Father, Son, and Spirit is so immense, and their delight in the other is so great that it moves them to bring joy to each other. 

⁶We could say that love and delight are so real and intense it tangibly manifests as the Holy Spirit - i.e., the holy passion of God - as the 3rd person of the Trinity. We could argue this is in fact the over all manifestion of God, who is both love and is Spirit. The very Spirit - passion/life - that binds the Triune God together.

⁷an analogy comparing God to a finite inanimate object - a generator - only gives a tiny sliver of truth, at best, in describing the infinitely overflowing God of perfect beauty, love, delight, and action. Clearly, God is infinitely greater than anything created. Even more so than something mechanical. He is the cause and Creator of everything that is not God. He must be greater, for without him nothing else would exist.

⁸our fullness, love, and fruitfulness as His children and bearers of His image is the overflow of beholding and participating in the beauty and glory of God in the same way He beholds and participates in the beauty and glory between and among the Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit.

⁹This resulted (and results) in an overflow of love and glory to others like Him, as well as to all the rest of creation.

¹⁰ vs legally, which is not changing but completed. Because of the work of Christ - and it being credited to us as a gift - we are seen by God as perfectly righteous. While at the same time we are becoming more righteous practically in our daily conduct, i.e. Our righteousness legally is complete while our righteousness practically is incomplete, ongoing, and increasing. Practical righteousness will not be completed but will continue until we are fully glorified in eternity.

¹¹Being other focused is central to who God is. This is only because God is 3 persons within one being. 

While God is only one being, the distinction of persons within the Trinity means God is other-focused versus self-centered. 

While one being consisting of 3 distinct persons is difficult to comprehend on one level, we see a picture of this in the family unit.

In a healthy marriage, each partner is focused on the other's benefit. The result of this loving union is children. When a married couple has a child, a primary part of their focus of care and affections is now on the child. While at the same time maintaining the main focus on their marriage partner i.e., each other. In order to be their best for the child, they must continue to be the best for each other first.

The analogy is limited and breaks down - i.e., it is not a perfect picture of our triune God - because the husband and wife are finite and must look outside themselves to participate in infinite love offered only by God, the Creator, who alone is infinite in love.

Why do the the Father and Son love each other?

What is it exactly that the Father loves about the Son and the Son about the Father?

The Father is the initiator, the first cause of all things, which makes Him the most valuable and worthy of highest regard, adoration, and praise over all beings. Nothing comes close to the infinite worth of God. All life depends on and comes from Him, all love, all beauty, all power, all knowledge - everything good and right is from God.

The Son is the means by which the Father reveals himself and acts out these qualities toward His creation – creation being everything that ¹comes from God that is not God. Without Christ, we would not know or see God as He truly is. To see Christ is the see the Father. And if we wish to see God we must see Christ. Christ “… is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation (copy or engraving) of his being...” (Heb 1:3a). The Father delights in being known so others might find life and joy in Him and therefore He delights in ²Christ making Him known.

Because the Son willingly and delightfully agreed(s) to be the means by which the Father reveals Himself -- in and through His incarnation, death, and resurrection -- the Father has utmost regard, adoration, delight, and praise for the Son. Because the Father initiates all of this, the Son has the utmost regard, adoration, delight, and praise for the Father.

And where does the Spirit fit into this triumvirate (threefold) relational dynamic? The Spirit is God or to say it as the bible does, God is Spirit. The life, love, Spirit of God is the essence of God as the ultimate relational being. The Spirit ties, units, and holds (or binds if you will) the triune community together. The love of the Father for the Son and the Son for the Father occurs in, by, and through the Spirit. 

The Spirit is the infinite manifestation of ³love and delight of this relationship between the Father and Son as well as the means by which this love and delight occurs, is revealed, overflows, and is poured out on others. Without the Spirit, there would be no God or love between the Father and Son. Without love and delight between the Father and Son, there is no Spirit, no God. 

For an extended discussion on the Spirit, click here. 

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Footnotes:

¹Christ also comes forth from God as the *only begotten of the Father. But this is not something that occurs at a point in time. The Son has always been - i.e. He is eternally begotten (He eternally issues forth) - and will always be the only eternally begotten of the Father - i.e. the Son is God and the only eternally begotten being who is.

Though He is not created, he is begotten i.e. as the creation issues forth from God, so does Christ but without a beginning. Christ has always (eternally) issued forth from the Father. 

The creation issues forth from the Father also but at a point in time. The creation also issues forth through the Son. Without the Son, there would be no creation. Neither would there be a direct and personal revelation of God.

*“only begotten” indicates his begetting is unique to all other beings or things that come from (are begotten by) the Father. That uniqueness of the Son’s begetting is that it is an eternal begetting, making the Son equal to the Father, not equal to creation, and distinct from creation as well. Christ is the means by which creation came to be.

Christ is begotten and eternal at the same time. This is significant since begetting implies a beginning. There is no beginning with Christ. He is eternal and has always been. 

This is why he is the only begotten Son. He is one of a kind. He is the God/man and the connection between God and man. He holds the Father's hand in one hand and our hand in the other, if you will. God and man unite by Him, through Him, and in Him. For these reasons also, the Father loves and delights in His Son. 

For a more extended discussion on "only begotten" click here. 

²The Father also delights in you and I showing forth and making Him known to others. We too are image-bearers of the Father but created, not eternal as the Son is (though we are everlasting). So we are like the Son - but without all the "Omni's" - omnipresent, omniscient etc... at least in our current state (we don't know what we shall be but when we see him we will be like him - which is why Christ is called our elder brother and the first fruits of all creation). 

Since we are now righteous in Christ and to the same degree as Christ - i.e. perfectly righteous - he views and addresses us only as sons and daughters of God, wholly cherished, only loved, never rejected or forsaken.

³We could also characterize this love and delight as passionate. It is so intense it issues forth as a distinct being who is the Spirit. 

Passion originally referred to the intense emotions that occur in suffering, hence the “passion of Christ.” I am using passion in a positive sense. But the intense and passionate love the Son has for the Father and the Father for the Son and the love they both have for us, His image-bearers, compelled Christ to take on the suffering He endured to restore us back to the Father. 

This delight/love/passion occurs as the Father and Son behold the beauty of the other. This has been referred to by past theologians (Jonathan Edwards particularly) as the “beatific vision.” This is the delight the Father and Son have in and for each other as they behold the beauty of the other. It is also the delight God calls us to participate in once we are restored to the Father in and through Christ. For a further discussion on beatific vision click here.

Other posts related to the beatific vision 

The importance and necessity of the Trinity 

The essence of God's life 

Thoughts on the Trinity 

Overview of Jonathan Edwards theology.

Some thoughts on the Trinity

The following is an attempt to summarize a discussion on the Trinity addressed in Kyle Strobel's book, "Jonathan Edwards's Theology: A Reinterpretation"

Edwards is considered by many to be the greatest theological mind produced in America. The above book is an overview and summary of Jonathan Edwards understanding of God as revealed in scripture. 

If you wish to read an excerpt from Strobel's book summarizing Edwards overview click here. It may help explain the comments that follow below. 

Because Strobel's book is not the easiest read I have summarized his thoughts below regarding the Trinity for greater clarity. Hopefully, you will find it helpful as well. 

Describing and attempting to grasp the infinite God with finite reasoning and words is limited at best but a task worth undertaking. 

There can be no greater pursuit than pursuing the beautifully mysterious, incomprehensible, infinitely glorious, majestic, all powerful, all wise God of love. To see and know him truly is to pursue him more fully. If you find the below helpful, you may wish to read Strobel's entire book.

You will note I use several words interchangeably and not always in the same order. This is deliberate in an attempt to better capture the fullness of meaning and nuances conveyed by the various words and different orders. I recommend you also read the footnotes after the article where I further clarify some of the main points. 

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·      The Son/Word (Logos Jn 1:1) is God's perfect [1]understanding of himself. 

An understanding so perfect and complete it issues forth (is begotten) into a separate person as God the Son of his Father (the begetter of the only eternally begotten Son Joh 1:14;1:18;3:16;3:18 ).

·      The Spirit is God's perfect love of himself. 

A love drawn out of the Father in perfect affections (as the Spirit) for the object of that love, which is the Logos, the perfect (complete) understanding of himself.

This drawing out of love involves God choosing what he has the greatest affections for and is most attracted to. He is attracted to what is most lovely/beautiful as he beholds the perfect understanding of himself i.e. The Logos/Word of God. 

How we are like God and not like God

We in turn, as his created image bearers, do the same i.e. we are attracted to and have affections for what we behold as most lovely/beautiful. In this way, loving and choosing (willing) are connected for both God as Creator, as well as us who are his created (vs eternal) image bearers. To love something is to have affections for it and be attracted or drawn to it. To be attracted to it versus attracted to something else is to choose (will/want) it over something else. 

[2]We only are able to see God as most lovely by the Spirit revealing his loveliness to us. The very same Spirit of love between the Father and the Son. This is due to our spiritual deadness caused by our turning away from God and cutting ourselves off from the very life of God. To see spiritual things we must have spiritual life which gives us spiritual eyes. 

In a similar way as the Son and Spirit, we are unique individuals with our own [3]understanding and will but as created image bearers (in contrast to the Logos who is the eternally begotten image bearer). Just as the Son and Spirit [4]issue forth from God so we too issue forth from God but as created persons; not as the eternal persons of Son and Spirit.
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[1] In a sense you can say Christ is God's "self-image." Of course unlike ours, which is warped and distorted by our brokenness, Gods " self-image" is perfect and complete. So much so that his issues forth into the person of his Son; the exact representation of his nature or being (Heb 1:3; Col 1:15) while also distinct from him in person. "... The Word (logos) was (equal to) God and the Word was with (distinct from) God..." Jn 1:1 i.e. The same while also distinct at the same time. The same in essence/nature/being, while distinct in person.

[2]The Holy Spirit is the holy breath or holy passion (emotion) of God. A passion between the Father and Son that issues forth in the distinct person of the Holy Spirit. 

Hebrew definition for spirit. 

spirit - H7307   רוּח  rûach

BDB (Brown-Drive-Briggs) Definition:

1) wind, breath, mind, spirit

1a) breath

1b) wind

1b1) of heaven

1b2) quarter (of wind), side

1b3) breath of air

1b4) air, gas

1b5) vain, empty thing

1c) spirit (as that which breathes quickly in animation or agitation)

1c1) spirit, animation, vivacity, vigour

1c2) courage

1c3) temper, anger

1c4) impatience, patience

1c5) spirit, disposition (as troubled, bitter, discontented)

1c6) disposition (of various kinds), unaccountable or uncontrollable impulse

1c7) prophetic spirit

1d) spirit (of the living, breathing being in man and animals)

1d1) as gift, preserved by God, God’s spirit, departing at death, disembodied being

1e) spirit (as seat of emotion)

1e1) desire

1e2) sorrow, trouble

1f) spirit

1f1) as seat or organ of mental acts

1f2) rarely of the will

1f3) as seat especially of moral character

1g) Spirit of God, the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son

1g1) as inspiring ecstatic state of prophecy

1g2) as impelling prophet to utter instruction or warning

1g3) imparting warlike energy and executive and administrative power

1g4) as endowing men with various gifts

1g5) as energy of life

1g6) as manifest in the Shekinah glory

1g7) never referred to as a depersonalized force

Part of Speech: noun feminine

A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: from H7306

The following is a list of some of the things implied by this definition. 

1. Spirit (or spirit) in the OT has the same general definition in every instance (see definition below). This general definition has no qualifiers such as "Holy Spirit" or "Spirit of God." When these qualifiers are applied, this determines a specific meaning outside its common use i.e. how do we know when this same word is referring to God versus man? When there are qualifiers such as "Holy", "of God" or "man's spirit..." 

2. Also note in the above definition, emotions themselves are common characteristics or attributes in defining "spirit." Unlike us, however, God doesn't have general emotions, such as anger, but only righteous or holy emotions. But they are still no less emotions. For example, the emotion of anger for God is a holy or righteous anger, not an unrighteous one.  

3. Lastly, it's worth noting that spirit in the OT is always in the feminine gender (and neutral in the NT). This may be significant since the Holy Spirit is the spirit of love (relationship) between the Father and Son.

It is also worth noting that generally (there are always exceptions), the emotional aspect of relationships is more a strength of the feminine gender than the masculine. This add's significance to the fact that "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Gen 1:27). Both feminine and masculine are rooted on God's nature. This may help explain the differences between the genders as men tend to be more cerebral and action/production driven or oriented and women more supportive, nurturing, emotionally and relationally oriented and driven; making neither gender superior (no more than Christ or the Spirit are inferior to the Father, though certainly different in role ...The Father sends, the Son is sent). Both are necessary to convey the full spectrum of God's nature and reflect unique aspects of each gender in God's makeup. 

The difference in gender is not a matter of value before God. Clearly, genders are equal in value and different only in role. This also corresponds with Edwards proposal of what constitutes a person i.e. understanding (reason) and will (emotion). Both genders have these attributes in various degrees and neither attribute is more important or significant than the other. Both are vital to personhood and male and female both being in God's image. 

[3] Edwards proposes that the two qualities of understanding and will are the essential characteristics of what comprises a person versus say, a body ("will" includes our affections. For more discussion click here). We, creatures, see ourselves as distinct because we have a body but God (prior to his incarnation) did not have a body, so his distinction lies (rests) elsewhere i.e. In having his own separate and distinct self-understanding (the Logos) and will (the Spirit).

We could say understanding and will correspond with knowing and feeling. What distinguishes one person from another is that each person has their own unique understanding (knowing) and will (choosing/feeling/affections). This too may be what distinguishes us as image bearers from other creatures not in God's image. 

As physical beings, we each have our own location but we can also know and choose God in a way other creatures can not and that knowing and choosing is our own, not those of *anyone else. 

*Maybe not even God himself in some mysterious fashion -- yet at the same time, all things are to, through and from him, just as the Logos and Spirit are distinct yet of the same essence as God. Only speculating of course. We may never know with certainty how these things work, at least not in this life. Then again for God to be God (infinite and unfathomable) we may never fully know since there is no "end" to him. He is truly distinct i.e. He is God. We are not.   

[4] Note: This would explain why the Bible speaks of God sending forth his Son and the Father and Son together sending forth the Spirit. John 17:3; 14:26; 15:26; 16:7. The Father first begets the Son -- not chronologically since God is eternal but in order of succession i.e. the Father initiates and begets the Son. The Son is begotten. By and through the eternal union/relationship/love of the Father and the Son/Logos/Word, they, in turn, beget/issue forth and send the Spirit.

      The Father gazes upon the Son and the Son gazes upon the Father in perfect delight. This beatific delight is so tangible and complete it issues forth (overflows) into the distinct person of the Holy Spirit; the very (and holy) affection/passion of God for himself as mirrored (imaged) back to himself in/by the Word/Logos of God, the perfect/complete understanding of himself.

Note: In order for the Spirit to be distinct and completely other, the Logos also had to be a distinct and completely other person; each person of the Trinity having their own unique and individual understanding and will.

Edwards himself -- as well as Strobel -- did not directly say the Son and Spirit had their own will and understanding. He simply says understanding and will are the qualities of distinct persons. I am suggesting they do based on Christ's prayer in the garden of Gethsemane "not my will but yours be done..." While at the same time the Son and Spirit's understanding and will were in absolute and perfect harmony with the Father's. 

The empowering of the Spirit

How does the Spirit empower us? He awakens ⁶our spirit by revealing to us His beauty, majesty, and glory, which arouses in us affections/love/longing for Him. 

This grows over time as more and more of God's glory (2Co 3:18) is revealed to us by His Spirit (Love). The more clearly we see Him in all His glory, the more our love, trust, and obedience grows i.e. the more we are moved/empowered by the Spirit of God's infinite love to pursue and follow Him. 

Why does our beholding God in his glory arouse affection?

Because God is all glorious (beautiful, majestic, and of infinite worth) and we are in His image, created to see and experience our own glory in seeing His. This, in large part, means we are relational beings just like God is, who from all eternity past has exchanged honor, adoration, and love between the Father and Son in, by, through the ¹Spirit.

But what does this have to do with our capacity for affection? To answer this, we must first know what God is like. 

We are told God is love. This begs the question of what exactly is love, and why is God this way?

Let's break it down.

Love is essentially valuing something to such an extent that it stirs up affection for that which is valued. We are attracted to what we value/adore/cherish most. The reason affections are stirred is that the object of our love/affections matches up with and meets in us our desire and need for being valued and loved. 

To be able to value something (God in this case) we must have the capacity to value it (Him). There must be a corresponding quality in us that matches who He is that enables us to enjoy his infinite glory/value i.e. our own sense of glory/value as bearers of His image - i.e. His likeness. 

This is true of us because it is true of God first, and we are in His image i.e. it all starts with God. We are the way we are because God is the way he is.

God is the most valuable, worthy, glorious, beautiful being over and above all other things or beings. In fact, everything beautiful comes from and is sustained by Him. Nothing that is, exists without God, including - and especially - you and I. 

The Son who emanates from this most beautiful God and Father is the Father's express (exact) image, Heb 1:3; Col 1:15; John 14:6-10. i.e. His only begotten -- eternally imaged forth -- Son. Throughout eternity, there has always been the Father and the perfect imaging forth (logos) of the Father's beauty, majesty, and worth - i.e. the Son - and the perfect affection of the Father for the Son and the Son for the Father, issuing forth as the Spirit (breath/passion/love) of God. 

This means the Son is equally valuable, worthy, glorious, and beautiful as the exact representation and perfect image of this all-beautiful God, who is also Father. To say it succinctly, Christ is God the Son. 

  

Now as the Father beholds this exact and ¹perfect image of himself, He gazes upon and delights in this image - i.e. His Son - and values Him above all else -- since God is most valuable and values Himself about all things -- there is no one else more beautiful, majestic and worth adoring than the majestic and glorious God, resulting in affections for His perfect image of Himself (i.e. Christ) who is equally most valuable, worthy, glorious, beautiful and equally God. 

God, being most valuable and worthy of adoration, loves the perfect image of Himself, his only begotten Son, resulting in praise, adoration, joy, and happiness by the Father of His Son as He beholds His Son's beauty, majesty, and glory. 

His Son, in turn, responds back to the Father, who is the most valuable, worthy, glorious, beautiful source of love and life, reflecting this love back to him.  

This is referred to by many past (and some present) theologians as the beatific vision of God i.e. a vision of delight in loving/valuing the most lovely/beautiful. This creates affections of joy, delight, pleasure, bliss, and happiness in beholding that which is most valuable/beautiful/ glorious, etc. Just think of the first time you "fell in love," except it only grows with time and a greater beholding. 

This beatific vision is so intense, passionate and "solid" that it issues forth into the distinct, separate, and eternal person of the Spirit (the eternal and holy passion/love/affection) of God (Jonathan Edwards addresses this possibly more than other past theologians). Each of these persons - Father, Son, and Spirit - is one in essence or being (i.e., as one God), yet ²distinct as persons in their function/role. 

The Spirit of God is the very Spirit of passion and love expressed between the Father and Son as they gaze upon and behold the beauty of the other, i.e., they experience a beautific vision of the other. The Spirit of God is the manifestation (passion) of this beholding and at the very heart of who God is. God is Spirit and He is love i.e. both. These characteristics or qualities are the very essence of God and are inseparably connected, if not synonymous (though they are distinct and separate at the same time, as mentioned above). God is Spirit (passionate love), and passionate love (the Spirit) is God.

For us to behold and enjoy this beautiful God, we too had to be like God with the ability to behold and enjoy him in all his glory in the same way the Father and the Son behold, love, and value each other. As God's created image-bearers (vs His Son, who is the only eternally begotten image-bearer), our sense of perfect value, worth, and glory is bound up in and dependent on beholding and participating in God's perfect value, glory, majesty, etc. In this way, we are exactly like God, i.e., we are beings whose very essence is to partake of, experience, and enjoy perfect, infinite love, i.e., God Himself.

Yet, we have a problem

Because we are designed for the infinite, all-glorious God, when we turned away in the garden -- and still do -- and stepped out in rebellious independence from God, we disconnected (broke away) from him, the very Source of life and love. This left an infinite void or vacuum within each of us. We died spiritually i.e. our beholding, receiving, participating in, and responding to the God of infinite love and beauty was severed and lost. 

We turned away from God. It was not God who turned away and rejected us. We rejected him (and still do), thereby cutting ourselves off from Him and our partaking of his infinite love, life, and beauty. We no longer experience the joy and bliss of participating in the unobstructed ³love and life of God. Our connection (relationship) was severed -- or more correctly, we pulled away and severed it (broke it...we died spiritually) by pulling away from God in rebellious independence -- attempting to be our own god (the lie of the serpent) and seeking to be our own self-sustainer if you will. 

But our capacity for enjoying love and life was not lost. In other words, we are still designed for, desire, and need infinite love. This is who we are; these desires/needs did not disappear. They still exist and are fully intact. This is evident by our constant effort to replace this missing love and fill it with something, usually anything "within our reach" other than God. 

Why? 

We can't control God -- He is God after all -- but we think we can control the creation, which includes our fellow creatures. We try to use the wonderful gifts of God to sustain ourselves and maintain our independence from God. We are rebels to Him and his original design of our being gloriously dependent on Him and in perfect union with Him. 

We can not function without a sense of value, love, relationship, meaning, purpose, etc. We are made for love (i.e. God) and therefore must have love. It is hard-wired into our makeup by God himself. To use a biblical description, we are made in his image...we are like God - who is the "first cause" of all things - that gives and receives love and extends it to others who are like Him. So much so that when someone feels totally worthless - or loses ⁴hope of experiencing a sense of value/meaning/love - they seek to end their life. 

Absent the true and lasting Source of life and love, we now seek to meet that need and desire in or through created things instead of the Creator of those things - we reject the Creator and no longer directly (consciously) receive love and life from the only One who is the true and only Source of love, life, and all things. We go for the next best thing, ⁵his creation (Rom 1:20-23). This includes our fellow image bearers. 

We now have an infinite (insatiable) void from the absence of infinite love, i.e., God himself -- which explains why we are ever seeking to fill it. All our efforts are now an attempt to replace the Source of this infinite love, now absent/missing (and missed), with whatever we can "get our hands on," i.e., creation, including other image bearers. Not just creation externally, but we use the gifts within us; our skills and talents, as well as the capacity (our 5 senses) to experience and enjoy the external joys and beauty of the creation all around us. We attempt to use anything and everything in creation, within and without, to fill the void of God's absence. 

Our longing for love is infinite because our capacity for love is infinite. And our capacity is infinite because the source - i.e. God - of that capacity designed to fill it, is infinite. 

So, back to the original question. How does the Spirit empower us? 

When the infinite love of God comes to dwell within us again as His Spirit, he reveals to us the beauty of God -- demonstrated in and through Christ, awakening and stirring up our love (affections) for Him again. We are fully and perfectly restored back to His infinite love through the work and the grace of Christ. The more the Spirit reveals God's beauty, the more we are stirred up and attracted to him. The more we are attracted, the more we desire him and are moved (empowered) to pursue him in faithful obedience, causing us to experience Him in his infinite love even more. This increases more and more as we draw nearer in increasingly greater faithful pursuit of him i.e. in loving, trusting obedience. And this, in turn, fills us - i.e. his love/Spirit fills us - so we desire others to have what we have. We want others to know this God and his infinite love, too. When filled with love, we are hard-wired to share it. This too is part of being in his image...the desire to pour forth love in the same way God does -- which we also do when we are filled with love - His Spirit.

 

In short, the love of God poured out in us by the Spirit of God moves (empowers) our faithful pursuit of God, who calls us to share His love with his other image-bearers as well as all of creation. 

 

For a discussion on being transformed by God's glory, click here. 

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¹ i.e. in, by, and through Love. God is Spirit and He is love. This is who He is, not what he does.  What he does flows forth from who he is. We could say God is passionate, spirited, love. 

 

²We too are in God's image. However, unlike Christ, who is the perfect and eternal image of God, we are created image-bearers. Nevertheless, just as God values the image of himself in Christ, so too he equally values his image in us. 

³So much so, I would argue they (the triune God) are distinct in their understanding and will (awareness of self as a distinct being and in their awareness of the others). Not having different or opposing wills and understanding, but simply their own. They are in perfect harmony regarding what they will because they are one and the same God. 

⁴Some argue that the life of God is the love of God and vice versa i.e. That which enlivens and moves God in all He is and does is his love. God's life consists of the love between the Father and Son, expressed and bound together by the Holy Spirit (the Holy Passion of God). 

This is also suggested in Christ's prayer in John 17 and particularly verses 1-5; glory being the manifest display of this love and life. 

⁵For a further discussion on hope, click here. 

⁶This includes our own created, God-given internal abilities to secure and utilize the external creation all around us in an effort to fill the void left by God's absence.

⁶What is the essence of our spirit? Our sense of value, dignity, and worth as God's image bearers? When we experience these, we come to life i.e. Our spirit becomes alive. It is revived.