Who God Is: The Triune, Self-Sufficient, All-Glorious God

What this pulpit keeps returning to when the doctrine of God comes up — his aseity, his triunity, and the overflow of his eternal joy into everything he does.

One God — Infinite, Self-Sufficient, and Unalterable

Start here: there is only one true and living God, and he owes his existence to nothing outside himself. The confession puts it plainly — God is 'eternal, independent, and self-sufficient, having life in himself with no need for anyone or anything.' ^[SF] That is not a cold philosophical claim. It is the most liberating truth in the universe, because it means the God who made you is not depleted by giving, not worn down by working, not diminished by loving.

The name God gave Moses captures it exactly. 'I am that I am' — not 'I am what circumstances have made me,' not 'I am what I have become.' Alexander McLaren called him 'the fire that burns and is not burned out.' ^[9] The logic runs all the way through: 'He gives and is none the poor. He works and is never weary. He operates unspent. He loves and he loves forever.' ^[9] Every other being is, as McLaren says, a link — 'this is the staple from which they all hang. All other being derived and therefore limited and changeful. This being is underrived, absolute, self-dependent, and therefore unalterable forever.' ^[9] You do not have a God who is running out.

And because God is what he is — not a being measured against some external standard — whatever you and I know about love, justice, or goodness traces back to his nature, not to a standard he has to meet. 'God isn't responsible for measuring up to some external standard of love. God is love. And whatever we think we know about love either came from God or it came from a false God.' ^[4] G.K. Chesterton said it well: 'God is not a symbol of goodness. Goodness is a symbol of God.' ^[10]

Three Persons — One God, Gloriously Triune

The one true God 'eternally exists as three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — each person fully God, sharing the same deity, attributes, and essential nature, yet there is but one God.' ^[SF] This is not a theological technicality. It is the identity marker that separates the God of Scripture from every imitation. 'Our God is not the God of the Jehovah's Witnesses. He's not the God of Mormonism. He's not the God of Islam. Our God is gloriously Trinitarian. One God, three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit.' ^[14]

The Trinity was not a doctrine invented in church councils. It was revealed in history — specifically, in the events that fall between the last word of Malachi and the first word of Matthew. 'It was revealed in history. It took place in history. There was a particular time when Jesus was born in Bethlehem and there is a ministry that he undertook and there's a death, burial, and resurrection. Then there's Pentecost and there's outpouring the Holy Spirit... what you have in the New Testament is written by Trinitarians.' ^[2] John the Baptist experienced it in a single encounter — Jesus standing in front of him, the heavens torn open, the Father's voice audible, and the Spirit descending like a dove. ^[13] The baptism of Jesus is not a footnote. It is the Trinity going public.

Psalm 110 shows you how deep this runs in Scripture. Jesus quotes the Psalm, notes that David wrote it under the Spirit's influence, and the Psalm itself records the Father speaking to the Son: 'Yahweh said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand.' 'That's the Trinity. Here's what he says: vast significance in these words.' ^[15] When you open your Bible anywhere and read carefully, you are reading a Trinitarian book.

The Eternal Joy of the Trinity — Before Any of Us Existed

Here is something that should stop you cold: God was not lonely before creation. 'God in His triunity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, had a great time before any of us were ever around. There was mutual love, appreciation, respect, care. There was the happy association of the three... It was great. Everything was fine.' ^[11] Jonathan Edwards called it 'the happy association of the three,' and this church has returned to that phrase repeatedly because it anchors everything else. ^[11][18]

The love between the Father and the Son is unique in all the universe — and that is not pious overstatement. 'I don't think there's another love that exists in the universe that doesn't involve some level of overlooking or forbearance... There's one unique love in all of the universe, and it's the love the Father has for the Son and the love the Son has for the Father that requires no overlooking, no forbearance, no patience, just pure, unadulterated delight.' ^[6] The Father speaks of the Son only to say 'this is my Son, in whom I am well pleased' — honor, glory, and delight running in every direction. ^[5] 'The Father beholding and rejoicing and delighting in the Son for all eternity' — that is the primal reality, and 'God wants all of us, His adopted children, to experience that.' ^[18]

This is why Edwards argues that God's creation of us is itself an act of grace — 'How good is God that he has created man for this very end... to make man happy in the enjoyment of himself, the Almighty, who is happy from the days of eternity in himself.' ^[18] The triune joy did not need an audience. It overflowed anyway. 'Somehow that joy overflows into creating a people for himself.' ^[11]

The Trinity in Salvation and Sanctification

Ephesians 1 is the clearest window this pulpit has returned to again and again. The Father elects — 'he chose us in him before the foundation of the world' (Eph 1:4). The Son redeems. The Spirit seals — 'sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance' (Eph 1:13). And 'at the close of each one of those movements, in Ephesians 1, it always says, to the praise of His glorious grace. The Father saves you to the praise of His glorious grace. The Son saves you to the praise of His glorious grace. The Spirit seals you to the praise of His glorious grace.' ^[1] All three persons, one salvation, one end.

And it does not stop at the moment of conversion. The same Trinity that saves you is at work sanctifying you. 'Not only does the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work together to save us, but the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit also work together to sanctify us.' ^[1] In Ephesians 4, the Son teaches you (v. 20), the Father has created the new self in his likeness (v. 24), and the Spirit seals you for the day of redemption (v. 30). ^[1] You are not left to grow in holiness on your own. The whole Godhead is in it.

The ultimate goal of all of this Trinitarian activity is adoption. The praise going to Father, Son, and Spirit is not the end in itself — it is the frame around something breathtaking: 'Well, you know, all that's wonderful. And all of that actually just supports this penultimate secondary goal, which is to bring in his whole family to adopt children, to convert those who were once his enemies, not only into his friends, but to his sons and daughters.' ^[3] What John celebrates in 1 John 3:1 is that God 'has extended as if it were a kind of blanket... the love that he has for the Son to all who place their faith in Him.' ^[5] That is what you have been brought into.

God's Glory Is Not Something We Add To

The confession states that God 'reveals himself such that we can know him truly and personally' ^[SF] — and that revelation is always oriented toward one end: his glory. Creation, humanity as its pinnacle, the whole architecture of redemption — 'all of the universe are designed for one purpose, one purpose only: to glorify God, to draw attention to the object most worthy of attention.' ^[14] The glory of God is not an abstraction. It is 'God going public with His character and His holiness.' ^[14]

But here is what must be said carefully: we do not add to that glory. 'There can be this mistaken notion that by saying we want to be about God's glory and we want to glorify God... if we're really good at this, if we really latch on to this vision, then we're going to make God more glorious. We're going to add to His glory. That's not what's going on here.' ^[14] We reflect it. We announce it. We participate in it. We do not generate it.

'The Trinity is truth and beauty in community. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit existing in honor and love is truth and beauty in community.' ^[10] When this church gathers — when people forgive one another, defer to one another, delight in one another — it is being pulled toward that original pattern. 'We're integrating our vision as a local community into the ultimate community, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.' ^[10] The Puritans were right: 'All truth meets at the top.' ^[10]

The Cost of Triune Love at Calvary

If you want to feel the weight of what the Trinity means, stand at the cross. 'Triune, eternal, perfect love. All they have ever known is the perfect peace and love of the Trinity. Father for the Son, Son for the Father. The Spirit in the midst of it. All they've known is that. Never a hint of anger. Never a hint of disagreement. Never a hint of one wanting something different. No. Perfect unity. Perfect love for all eternity.' ^[12] That is the baseline. The eternal norm. The only thing the Father and Son have ever known together.

'And for you, for me, for us. The Son feels a break in that relationship. Father turns his face away.' ^[12] There is no more costly estrangement in the history of the universe than what happened at Calvary — because there was no deeper unity anywhere in the universe that could be broken. The reconciliation Christ accomplished was purchased at the price of the only perfectly pure love that has ever existed. That is what the cross cost. And that is what you have been given.

This page synthesizes what Chris Oswald has preached on theology proper at Providence Community Church. Every claim above traces to the cited sermons — follow any citation to read the full sermon, listen to the audio, and see the surrounding context. Minute marks are approximate, estimated from each sermon's transcript.