…the doctrine of the
Trinity says something that does not go beyond the first point but that
underlines and clarifies it. For it adds
the claim that as God has revealed himself in Christ, so he is in himself. What he does through his Son on earth reveals
what he is like from eternity to eternity.
His revelation in the gospel tells us the ultimate truth about God's
being and nature, or else it is not authentic revelation at all. The love of the Father sending, empowering,
guiding, and finally vindicating his Son, the love of the Son, coming, obeying,
suffering, dying, are particular historical expressions of the love that
eternally flows between Father and Son at the heart of the life of God. The complex of relationships between Father,
Son and Spirit are not just the means by which God communicates with us, they
are an essential part of the content of that communication. They are not just how he speaks, but part of
what he says. If these relationships are
not of eternal significance, then the gospel itself is not of eternal
significance. That God not only acts in
history as Father, Son and Spirit, but that he is in himself Father, Son and
Spirit is the doctrine of the immanent or essential Trinity.
Thomas Smail
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