Read the New Chapter Below
Watch the Video
Triperspectivalism: Part 4
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 Spirit’s Transforming Presence as Lord in Restoration
The Scriptures teach that God the Spirit, through his transforming presence as Lord, applies the redemptive work of the Son by restoring all things lost in humanity and creation because of the fall.
When Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father in Heaven, he and the Father poured out his Holy Spirit on his Church, to make God’s invisible kingdom visible on earth, not only in human hearts, but in every sphere of life until it reflects the order of heaven.
This is the good news that the Father’s creation, ruined by humanity’s sin, is being redeemed by Christ and restored by His Holy Spirit as the Kingdom of God on earth. Through God’s Spirit, God gives his new community, the Church, the forgiveness of sin, a new record of Christ’s righteousness, a new heart, and a new world when Jesus returns.
God will bring heaven down to earth. And God’s transforming presence that was lost in the garden will be regained in the new heaven and new earth. The Apostle John writes, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” (Rev 21: 3)
We call this the existential perspective through which we see the Spirit’s transforming presence as Lord in the restoration of all things.
Conclusion
Theologians use the Latin phrase Magnalia Dei in reference to these magnificent acts of God’s creation and redemption of all things as Father, Son, and Spirit.
The Apostle John summarizes these magnificent acts of God as a majestic display of his love for lost humanity and the world: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:9)
Likewise, the Apostle Paul begins his letter to the Ephesians with a heartfelt prayer of worship to the Triune God for blessing us with every spiritual blessing in Christ (1:1-3). Paul worships the Father for setting his love on us before he created the world (1:4-6), he worships the Son for redeeming us by his blood (1:7-12), and he worships the Spirit for sealing us as our guaranteed inheritance to the praise of God’s glory (1:13-14).
Triperspectivalism is deeply rooted in the ancient, biblical, and theological doctrines and practices of historic Trinitarian Christianity. And it’s a way of seeing God and all things that helps us better know, love, serve, and worship God as Triune Lord in all areas of life.
Sign up for the New
Perspectives Course!
