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. 

The essence of God's life (and therefore ours)

The below thoughts are inspired by Kyle Strobel's comments from an interview with Tony Reinke as Kyle reflects on insights from Jonathan Edwards. Direct quotes by Kyle Strobel are in "quotes" and italicized.

To listen to the full interview click here  

Beatific 

God's self-knowledge (Logos) is beatific. It is not a sterile, unattached, impersonal knowing of facts or simple information about Himself, it is personal and relational knowledge. It is a knowing that causes the one who knows to desire/long for - i.e. have affection for - the One beheld/known. 

This is because of the beauty of God. That which is infinitely beautiful can not be looked upon without stirring infinite affections. In short, God's life comprises beatific vision i.e. beholding and enjoying that which is infinitely beautiful i.e. Himself.

How?

Christ is God the Father's perfect self-knowledge/understanding. An understanding so exact and complete it manifests/generates — eternally begets — a distinct and separate person, with his own self-understanding and will (which is perfectly aligned with the Fathers), as the only (eternally) begotten Son. 

The Father delights in the beauty of the Son, who is the Father's exact and perfect self-understanding (Logos), and image of himself. 

and  

The Son delights in the Father and enjoys the Father's delight in Him. 

The Spirit

God's life (Spirit/Love/affectionate delight) springs forth out of this beatific vision between the Father and Son i.e. the beholding of the infinite beauty of the Son, the perfect self-understanding/ Logos of the Father, and the Son's response of mutual delight in and love (Spirit) for his Father. 

This love also flows (overflows) out (as the Spirit) to his creatures/creation, particularly his image-bearers (us) - who are most able to take part in and enjoy this mutual delight in the beauty of God. 

The Father generates — eternally and continuesly begets i.e. without beginning or end — the only begotten Son. The Son and Father gazing upon one another in love, generates (eternally) and continuously the Spirit as love.

Perfect, continuous, infinite knowledge and partaking of the beauty of God produces perfect and infinite love/affections as (in the form of) the Spirit.

God's life is religious affection (generated from within between the Father and the Son) and pure act (flowing out to others via the Spirit).

The Son is the perfect (exact) image of God, and the Spirit illuminates (reveals, displays, glorifys) that image.

God's life comprises (is) 

Perfect, continuous, infinite knowledge/truth (understanding/Logos) manifested as the Son.

and  

Perfect, continuous, infinite 

love/affection 

(will/spirit) 
manifested as the Spirit.

We are like God

All perfect knowledge of God is affectionate knowledge, i.e. A kind of knowledge that always produces affections, joy, desires, and longings. It is true of God and therefore, as bearers of his image (i.e. those like God) must also be true of us.

"The knowledge he has in his own life governs how we know him as well."

"Religious affection is seeing God in his true beauty and thereby knowing God and having your affections inclined towards him."

"The only way for us to know God is through God's self-revealing."

I would add this is only by the Spirit revealing to us the true nature of the Son as the eternal Logos of God.

"You can't have true knowledge of God without having your heart inclined towards him because all knowledge of God is affectionate."

"Because this is true in God's life, it has to be true in our life."

We are partakers of God's very own nature

"The sight of the Father Christ has by nature, we are given by grace."

2Pe 1:3-4  His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of ¹sinful desire. 

...His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness... 

How? ...through the knowledge of him. i.e. God has given us (it is by grace) everything we need to take part in and experience life and godliness.

...he has granted to us his precious and very great promises... 

How? By his own glory and excellence, i.e. By his infinite worth and perfect action/conduct

Why? So that through them (by faith in those promises) you may become partakers of the divine nature.

Beholding God by faith is a darkened (dim...because it is not direct but indirect [i.e. it is by faith not sight] and therefore not perfectly clear) version of the beatific vision. I Cor 13:12, I John 3:2


Beholding God now and in the future

We behold God now by faith (i.e. not directly or face to face) and will behold him in eternity by sight. The common denominator is beholding him i.e. being caught up and participating in the beatific vision (the eternal delight of the Father gazing upon his Son and his Sons response of joy/delight). 

In both cases (now by faith and in eternity by sight) this beholding is progressive. As we see God now by faith we are changed as our faith increases. 

As we see God in eternity by direct sight we will also be changed as our understanding/ view/experience of him in all his glory, majesty and beauty grow fuller/clearer. 

It grows not because we don't have direct sight but because God is infinite and seeing all that he is will never come to an end but is always increasing/expanding i.e. we will never reach the end of our partaking of God's beauty, majesty, wonder and glory, for there is no end to God. We will continually experience the height, width, length and depth of God but never reach their end.

The process of our progress in eternity has nothing to do with sinfulness, for Christ himself increased in faithfulness (learned obedience through the things he suffered). His learning had nothing to do with being sinful but with being incarnated as a finite man i.e. as a perfect yet finite man, his relationship with (faith toward) his Father was tested and thereby progressed/grew. Sin - i.e. unbelief - wasn't the reason for change, his being finite - during his incarnation - was. He was always obedient (i.e. without sin) but he went from untested to tested faith-obedience. 

As finite creatures, we too will constantly be growing in our relationship and understanding (and joy) of the infinite i.e. God. The reason is that there is no end to the infinite i.e. God. Therefore we will never reach the "end", "width", "bottom", or "top" of God.

God has created us like himself with the capacity to take part in the Infinite. Our beholding him will increase by virtue of him being infinite and our being finite i.e. We will always be expanding since we will never arrive i.e. we will never be infinite in our knowing and seeing since only God is infinite (though we are eternal i.e. have no end and therefore will increase in our experience of God - and delight in Him - throughout eternity).

Yet at the same time, there will never be a moment we do not feel fully and infinitely loved. So much so that songs of praise will forever be on our lips and in our hearts. What changes throughout eternity is our capacity to receive that love...it is always increasing since there is no end to God and His beauty-glory.

Beauty

Primary beauty is God's life of love i.e. The life of love that transpires between the Father and Son in, by and through the Spirit. 

All knowledge of God is first visual, it is beholding his beauty. Not a physical but a spiritual beauty and beholding. 

Why is it when we see something beautiful it "takes our breath away?" Because beholding God (the most beautiful/glorious) is an affectionate knowledge. 

Beauty and beholding begins with God. All beholdings of beauty (i.e. any other beauty) is an extension and faint reflection of this ultimate beholding of our most beautiful God. 

We are drawn to (we move toward) and have affection for that which is beautiful. Why? Because we were ultimately made for God who is infinite and primary beauty and the cause of everything else which is beautiful. 

Everything else is secondary beauty and a glimmer or manifestation of God, who is the Creator of all things (i.e. all secondary beauty). All beauty other than God's is meant to point us to Him who is primary beauty. 

Spiritual vs physical beauty

Since God is not physical the beauty of God is also not physical but relational (he took on human form in Christ but he is not "human form." It is not the essence of his being (i.e. human form is not part of his essential nature). The beauty of God is not something we physically behold but something we see displayed in relationship. 

Harmony is a quality of relationship that characterizes the beauty within God.

What is relational beauty? It is harmony within ²diversity -- e.g. Christ is equally God and man. God reveals himself to us most fully as a #man. The diversity of the finite and infinite unite (harmonize) in one being, the God/Man Jesus. It is when things which are very different from each other work in harmony -- united and driven by and due to love. Such as the love/harmony between man and women, who are wired differently emotionally and physically. It is also how God exists/relates to himself as the triune God; Father, Son, and Spirit, as well as to us his image-bearers. 

#God does so because we are human and he values "humanness" i.e. humanity. When he finished creating he proclaimed over his physical creation as "very good." 

Things you would normally consider not working together, work because of love. This is the essence of beauty and what makes something beautiful.   

Physical beauty is secondary beauty. Relational beauty is primary beauty. 

Primary beauty is God's own life as a being of relationship in, by and through the Father, Son and Spirit. 

God is beautiful because God is love and life. All of this makes God glorious. 

The way problems are solved is by God's presence. Since God is life and all problems are a manifestation of the absence of life, God's presence is the solution. And this is because the essence of life is love/value/glory. Because we were made for love/value/glory we are most complete when we take part in these i.e. When we take part in God himself and his life...when he is most present with us and we with him.  

A thorough discussion of the ideas that inspired the above comments is discussed extensively in Kyle Strobel's book "Jonathan Edward's Theology: A Reinterpretation"

For related thoughts to the above, starting with the basics and progressing to the more technical...

Click on

Trinity-its importance and necessity. 

Some thoughts on the trinity and 

here.

For a thorough discussion by Kyle Strobel of the beatific vision click here. 

For a more concise  discussion on the love, life, Spirit and essence of God click here

________________________________________Footnotes:

¹How are we freed from sinful desire? By finding a superior desire that is more satisfying than the one we seek to be freed from. If you wish to lose your appetite for cold, stale fast food (which is better then nothing if you are starving and nothing else is available), eat freshly prepared organic gourmet cooking...or better yet, find a gourmet cook that delights in preparing tasty, health sustaining meals you personally prefer. 

²Though God is one, in essence, he is distinct in persons. Each person (Father, Son, and Spirit) having their own self-understanding and will. Edwards roots this definition of person in the Father who characterizes the Son as the perfect self-understanding of God and the Spirit as the perfect willing/affections/choosing

/passion of God.

Though much of what Edwards says is not directly stated in scripture it is implied and woven throughout the Bible. I encourage you to look for these things in your study of scripture. As you do they may start to jump off the pages. John 17 is a good place to start.

This link touches on this more.

Is God self centered or humble?

God appears to be self-centered and in one sense ¹he is. However, due to the nature of his being three persons while also only one God, there is an "otherness" within the very being of God; he is outward and other focused and oriented - i.e. he is not inward focused or selfish.

And his other orientation is rooted in that other person being perfect, ²exactly as he is perfect. For God to be infinitely attracted to another, that "other" person must be ⁵like him...infinitely and equally perfect and beautiful. 

God is the ³greatest, most perfect, infinitely beautiful, and attractive being of all. To behold Him as He is, is to be filled with wonder and awe. 

God can not admire something infinitely that is not of infinite beauty, value, and worthy of infinite admiration. He alone is most worthy of infinite and eternal admiration. For Him to admire another equally, that other person must be equally beautiful and glorious as Himself. 

With Christ, he is the co-eternal, exact, and perfect representation (image -"other") of the Father. 

And what makes God so ³attractive, admirable, beautiful, and glorious? Certainly, the common things we recognize, such as love, wisdom, power, majesty, creativity but also His humility, an often overlooked but central part of his very being.

The greatest being in the universe is also the most humble and experienced the greatest ⁴humility of any other being. Not only did Christ go to the lowest of any being, but he also came from the greatest heights to do so. You could say the distance Christ traveled - from the "penthouse to the outhouse" of his existence - was infinitely greater than anyone had or will ever travel by virtue of His greatness and the height he came from to go to the depth he went to. No one is higher than the eternal Son of God and no one has ever gone lower or "traveled" farther - or ever will. Part of what makes Christ so great is that he went so low and He did so for others i.e. for both His Father and for us. As a result, he will be exalted above all others for all eternity. To Him be the glory, honor, and praise! AMEN!

Humility is and will always be a central quality he possesses that will evoke our adoration for him throughout eternity. His is not a humbling he experienced and took part in for its own sake but the sake of others, i.e. for His Father first (to honor and draw attention to Him) but also for you and I. 

In and through Christ, God not only knows humility, but is humble. Christ is not only the lion; but also the lamb of God. It is hard to grasp how the greatest being in the universe (the Creator and ongoing Sustainer of everything that exists) experienced the greatest humility of all and is, in fact, the most humble of all beings. 

For this and other reasons, God loves it when he sees humility in us. It is when we are most like His Son.

For a further discussion of the humility of Christ click here. 

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¹God is the cause of all things, through which everything issues forth, on which everything depends, and by which all things continue. He is, therefore, the greatest and most valuable being i.e. the beginning, middle, and end of all things. To say it another way, he is the center of attention because he is the highest being of all; not just for all things He created but for himself as well. And because he is, he is complete within himself. He needs no one and nothing but himself; everything and everyone else needs him. 

However, being the center — the Creator and Sustainer — of all things, and keeping that to oneself - i.e. being "self-centered" (selfish) - are not the same thing but two different things. God desires to overflow His love to others. He is the opposite of selfish. This was demonstrated by the Father - out of love for us - sending His Son and the Son emptying himself of His "Godness" for us. 

²It is interesting and worth noting that we are called to be perfect as God is perfect; not in the fullest sense of God's incommunicable attributes such as being all-knowing, all-powerful, and everywhere present but regarding His communicable ones i.e. things that are a part of God's character that can also be a part of ours, such as love and humility. 

This adds new meaning to the truth that a great leader (King) will never ask you to do what they aren't willing to or have not done themselves. They lead by example. (A true king earns the right to be king. To have it simply bestowed on them is not being a true king. Christ was not only born the King of kings and Lord of lords but he earned the right to be fully recognized as such by his example of humility).

If we resist humility, submission, and suffering it is good and helpful to remember he did not, and that for our sake. 

Hebrews 12:2  looking to Jesus, the founder, and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

³A great part of what makes the Son so great, glorious, beautiful, etc - and the Father via the Son - is humility. We are all attracted to someone humble? Why? In part, because they aren't about themselves, but about others. When we meet someone truly humble, we aren't impressed with their humility but their interest in us (and others). It is far more enjoyable talking to someone who wants to get to know us or share things that might help us, rather than someone who talks about themselves, is it not? 

⁴Rooted in the essence of God's nature is the quality that enabled Christ to humble himself. However, this was not a character quality acted out and experienced to the fullest extent of its potential. We are told Christ learned obedience (humble submission and reverential trust) through the things he suffered. Christ entered into and experienced humility in a way he had not before the incarnation. 

How is it possible for the all-knowing God to learn? This is a mystery and likely had something to do with Christ's humanity. John Piper offers the following... His learning obedience was not Christ going from disobedience to obedience but from untested to tested obedience. The inclination to submit and obey the Father was inherent in the nature of Christ (God), otherwise, he would have never submitted when He was put to the test. Christ's trust in and love for the Father as a man was genuinely put to task, for the first time in a new and unique way. And in facing the most daunting suffering imaginable, he held fast and came out the other side victorious as the Lord of Lords and rightful King over all things. He is the Alpha (the Creator) and the Omega. He was raised from death to life!! This was not a hypothetical theory but as real as it gets. 

⁵The more that other person is like him the more attracted he is. Christ is the exact representation of the Father. The perfect image of God. Therefore he is most attracted to Christ. 

However, we are also in God's image, and therefore, he is also attracted to us. We are as close to being like God-Christ as possible without being Him.