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Triperspectivalism: Part 2
The good news is that the Father’s creation, ruined by the Fall, is being redeemed by Christ and restored by the Holy Spirit as the Kingdom of God on earth. This revelation of God’s Triune Lordship in the gospel is not just a set of theological beliefs. It’s also a way of seeing God and all things, a biblical worldview, so we will know, love, serve, and worship God as Triune Lord in all areas of life.
This is the good news that our God reigns over all things through the Lord Jesus Christ and by his Holy Spirit. It’s the good news that our Triune God is Lord. The Bible associates three ideas with God’s Lordship: authority, control, and presence. These lordship attributes are unique reflections of God’s attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence, through which God reveals to us who he is and what he does.
In the biblical history of God’s mission for the world, he reveals unique aspects of his Triune Lordship in his person and work as Creator, Redeemer, and Restorer:
• God the Father reveals his supreme authority as Lord in his creation of all things.
• God the Son reveals his sovereign control as Lord in his redemption of all things.
• God the Spirit reveals his transforming presence as Lord in his restoration of all things.
Although we are identifying particular lordship attributes of individual members of the Trinity, it’s important to see these attributes as forming a unit, not as separate from one another. Remember that God is “simple” in a theological sense, meaning he is one and not made up of parts. So there is a sense in which all of God’s attributes involve one another, including these three lordship attributes.
This revelation of God’s Triune Lordship in the gospel gives us a way of seeing God and all things we call Triperspectivalism. We define Triperspectivalism as multiple perspectives rooted in the biblical doctrine of the Trinity that apply God’s revelation in Scripture to all areas of life.
Triperspectivalism sees the revelation of God’s Triune Lordship in the gospel – the good news of who God is and what God does as Triune Lord in creation, redemption and restoration of fallen humanity and the world.
See the Father’s Supreme Authority as Lord in Creation
The Scriptures teach that God the Father, by the authority of his word, called the galaxies into being. As the Lord of creation, he has supreme authority to establish God’s plan and will for everything he creates, visible and invisible.
Although God the Son and God the Spirit are equal in power and authority with God the Father, the Bible presents the Son as carrying out the Father’s will and the Spirit empowering it. There is no authority in the universe greater than our all-knowing God the Father. “No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord” (Prov 21:29).
Jesus honors the supreme authority of the Father through his complete submission and obedience to his will in all things. Jesus describes the purpose of his life and ministry saying, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” (John 4:34) “Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.” (Heb 10:7) “I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.” (John 14:31)
To behold the Father’s supreme authority as Lord in the creation of all things means that we join with Jesus and submit to God’s Word as our supreme authority in all things. We believe that God has given us in his word, the Bible, a “norm” and a standard of moral absolutes we are to obey in an age of tolerance.
We call this the normative perspective through which we see the Father’s supreme authority as Lord in the creation of all things.
And we understand that such obedience to God’s supreme authority always requires suffering, as it did with Jesus: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” (Heb 5:8)
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