THE SIMPLE GOSPEL: JESUS AND OUR INCLUSIVE UNION WITH THE TRINITY - By Joel Pollard

When we think of the Gospel, many things may come to mind but I believe the Holy Spirit comes to remind us once again how simple the Gospel really is. I want to suggest to you that the Gospel did not start in Adam but rather when God made us. Genesis 1:27 says in The Message, “God spoke: Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature.” God wanted us to exist so that He could pour out His love on us as we were created to love and to live in union with the Trinity. We were the plan in God’s heart from the very beginning for He has always loved us. Jesus didn’t come into this world as a reaction to what Adam did, for Jesus was the perfect Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, before anything was ever created; the answer was already in place (1 Peter 1:20). And when Jesus came, he came as 100% God/100% man, what theologians call hypostatic union. This is why Jesus understands the human experience. He’s right here with us - Emmanuel, God with us. God doesn’t sit in judgment over us, He sits in solidarity with us for wherever we are in life, God is present in the moment with us. We cannot chase away His love or His grace, for we are in the very grasp of His grace!! 2 Cor 5:19 in the NLT says, “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.” God doesn’t count our sins against us anymore. Jesus dealt with it and conquered it! In Romans 6, it says that when He was crucified, we were crucified; when He died, we died; when He was buried, we were buried; when He rose, we rose; when He ascended, we ascended with Him and  that is why we are seated together with Him in heavenly places at the right hand of the Father (Eph. 2:6). The God who has invested Himself in us is so committed to our freedom because our freedom equals His freedom. He sees Himself FULLY alive in us. What God wants to communicate to us is so enormous that definitions of words will never do it. Jesus was that Tree of Life that we were meant to partake from. God has come and taken the fruit from the Tree of Life and He has crushed it and the juice of the Wine of the New Covenant becomes our opportunity to partake again from the Tree of Life. Trinity means that God is a relationship of love. Love cannot exist in isolation. God was love before He created anything because God from the very beginning wasn’t singular or alone. He was the God who within Himself had the distinction of the Father, Son and Spirit. There is a creative process and dynamic flow between them. We were created to love and to live in union with the Trinity. In the Greek, there is a word, perichoresis. Peri means “around”; chorein means “to give away, to make room (divine choreography), translated “to dance around”. You and I were created in this dynamic, this circle of love of moving in inner harmony and sync with Them. Trinitarian theology expresses the mutual indwelling and containment among the persons of the Holy Trinity – Their presence in each other, in which each contains the other. We have been brought into this circle through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Living, moving and having our being forever in this union will make us more distinctly, more truly and more fully, ourselves. I believe The Magnificent Trinity is coming to remind us in asking, “May We have this dance, please?” They are reminding us of our inclusivity with Them from the very beginning, one that encompasses divine harmony and divine choreography that IS love.