Chapter 9: The Love of God in the Trinity
Love at the Center
We talk about God’s love as if it started with us. We say, “God loved us enough to send Jesus.” We say, “God loves the world.”
All true.
But before there was a world, before there was an us, there was love.
Not because God was lonely.
Not because He needed us to feel complete. But because love is who He is.
“God is love.” (1 John 4:8)
The Father loved the Son in the Spirit — perfectly, eternally, fully.
You were not created to complete His love. You were created to share in it.
Love Before Time
Before the mountains were formed, before the stars were lit, the Father delighted in the Son.
The Son delighted in the Father. The Spirit delighted in them both.
“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am… because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24)
This love was not needy — it was overflowing.
So God made a world to display His glory and pour out His love.
Love in Creation
When God said, “Let us make man in our image”, He wasn’t just making individuals —
He was making a family,
capable of knowing Him and knowing each other.
We are wired for relationship because God Himself is a relationship — Father, Son, and Spirit.
We long to be loved because we were made in the image of Love Himself.
Love Rejected
But in the garden, humanity rejected that love. We distrusted the Father’s heart,
disobeyed the Son’s word,
and grieved the Spirit’s presence.
Yet even then, the love of the Trinity did not withdraw. God clothed Adam and Eve.
He promised a redeemer.
He kept pursuing us — because His love does not fail.
Love in the Incarnation
When the Son came into the world,
it was not because the Father demanded it or because the Spirit forced it.
It was the joyful plan of the Trinity to bring us back.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son…” (John 3:16) The Father sent.
The Son came.
The Spirit conceived and empowered Him.
Every step Jesus took was a step of love — reflecting the love of His Father,
filled with the Spirit,
pouring Himself out for others.
Love at the Cross
At the cross, we see love most clearly — but not just the love of Jesus.
The Father gave His beloved Son. The Son willingly laid down His life.
The Spirit sustained Him through the agony and raised Him in victory.
The cross was not divine child abuse, as some critics say. It was divine love —
the united love of the Trinity acting to save what was lost.
Love in the Church
That same love now fills the Church.
We are not just a group of individuals who happen to believe the same things. We are the family of God —
adopted by the Father, redeemed by the Son, filled by the Spirit.
“…the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit…” (Romans 5:5)
The Spirit makes us able to love one another — not just tolerate each other,
but love with the very love of God.
Love That Will Not Let Go
Even now, the Trinity’s love sustains you. The Father keeps you as His child.
The Son intercedes for you as your brother. The Spirit assures you as your comforter.
And one day, in the final garden, we will see the Father’s face, walk with the Son,
and be filled with the Spirit —
fully alive in the love that made us and saved us.
Why It Matters
Why does it matter to know the love of the Trinity? Because this is the love you were made for.
Because without it, you will chase counterfeit loves — and still feel empty. Because this love is not just for you — but through you to others.
And because this is the story we are living:
In the Garden of Eden, we turned from the God of love.
On the cross, the love of the Trinity embraced us again.
In the final garden, that love will flood the earth, and we will dwell in it forever.
To know the love of the Trinity now is to start living heaven on earth.
Reflection
The love of God is not fragile.
It is not based on your performance.
It is not divided between the Father, Son, and Spirit — it is perfect, united, and unstoppable.
You were created to join in that eternal fellowship of love.
You don’t have to earn it. You just have to receive it —
and let it flow through you to the world.
Questions to Consider
✦ How have you thought about God’s love — as individual or as shared by the Trinity?
✦ How does knowing you were made to join in that eternal love change how you see yourself?
✦ Where are you still chasing counterfeit loves instead of resting in His?
✦ How does the garden-to-garden story help you see the love of God as your true home?
Prayer
Father, Son, and Spirit —
Thank You for loving me before I knew You. Thank You for creating me to share in Your joy.
Forgive me for looking for love in the wrong places.
Pour Your love into my heart, and let it overflow to others.
Until the day I walk with You in the final garden, keep me rooted in the love that never ends.
Amen.
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