God’s Triune Lordship in All Things (Perspectives in Theology, Part 6)
Series: Perspectives in Theology (Part 6)
Authors: Drs. John M. Frame and Steven L. Childers
Title: God’s Triune Lordship in All Things
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.
We call this way of seeing God and all things through the revelation of God’s Triune Lordship 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 everything through 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. So every event of nature, history, and the biblical narrative may be understood in three ways, as we seek to relate each event to the persons of the Trinity.
Therefore, everything in the world is an aspect of the Father’s creation, the Son’s redemption, and the Spirit’s restoration. So creation, redemption, and restoration are perspectives, through which we can better understand everything that happens. Rooted in the doctrine of the Trinity, these perspectives help us know, love, and serve God as our Triune Lord in all areas of life.
To help us do that, let’s lift up our eyes and open our hearts to see: 1) the Father’s supreme authority as Lord in creation, 2) the Son’s sovereign control as Lord in redemption, and 3) the Spirit’s transforming presence in restoration.
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.
See the Son’s Sovereign Control as Lord in Redemption
The Scriptures teach that God the Son, through his sovereign control as Lord, accomplishes the Father’s plan to redeem all things lost in creation because of the fall of humanity into sin. As the Lord of redemption, Jesus sovereignly executes the Father’s plan to redeem all things through his birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and promised return to make all things new.
Jesus stands at the center of the biblical story proclaiming good news about God restoring his sovereign rule as Lord over all of fallen humanity and creation through him. And he executes his sovereign control in the redemption of all things under the supreme authority of the Father’s will and by the Spirit’s transforming presence.
The Apostle Paul writes, “For God was pleased … through (Christ) to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” (Col 1:20) When Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father in heaven, he was enthroned as Sovereign Lord to carry out God’s cosmic rescue mission to redeem fallen humanity and creation as far as the curse is found. This is the good news we bring to the world, that our God reigns (Is 52:7, Rom 10:15 ) over all things through the Lord Jesus Christ.
We call this the situational perspective through which we see God the Son’s sovereign control as Lord in the redemption of all things.
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.
