“…God is that being who exists as the triune love of the Father for the Son in the unity of the Spirit. The boundless life that God lives in himself, at home, within the happy land of the Trinity above all worlds, is perfect. It is complete, inexhaustibly full, and infinitely blessed.” –Fred Sanders

Thanks for joining me these last few weeks as we’ve explored the Trinity. As we approach the end of our discussion, I’ll ask: Has anything that we’ve talked about stood out to you? For me, it has been the idea that salvation is “simply” participating in the life of God.

I put “simply” in quotation marks because, while the concept seems simple on its face, the reality of it is profound and far-reaching and requires focused attention and reflection on our part. We must think deeply about what the life of our Trinitarian God really looks like and what that means for us.

How do you answer those questions? What does “the life of God” look like to you? Do you, as Mr. Sanders says above, see the life of God as boundless, as completely open and relaxed as one is in a home that is safe, as happy, as perfect, as complete, as inexhaustibly full, as infinitely blessed, as utterly and completely infused and sustained in perfect love? And then, when you examine your life, does it reflect an abiding participation in that kind of abundant life?

My honest answer today is no, my life doesn’t, at least not as much as I would like. Maybe yours doesn’t, either. But as I always say, the joy in any new awareness is recognizing God’s invitation to move in a different direction. By God’s grace, we can begin to think differently.

In some ways, I believe the idea of participating in the life of God sums up what I am always trying to say here as we walk along this Emmaus Way together, which is probably why it has so captured my attention. I long for all of us to know and live from the infinite abundance of the life of God, which is love. As we conclude, I will leave you with two more quotes from Mr. Sanders to think deeply about. I pray that we will all move ever more fully into the life of God. 

“True religion is a divine life, and by definition divine life is something found in the living God. Our salvation and our existence as Christians come from and consist in the union of that divine life with what we are in ourselves.”

“[God] does not dispense blessing, but himself.”

-Lori Duncan