God as Trinity and our Humanity Penultimate

Trinitarian Thought: The Limitations of the Application

All wrongdoing is sin (1 John 5:17), but in Christ there is no sin (1 John 3:5). This aptitude to sin means that although there is clear continuity between human and divine personhood, there is also a clear discontinuity.[1] If we say we have no sin, ‘we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’ (1 John 1:8). A Christ-centred Trinitarian community will still sin. We will always be limited to analogy between ourselves and the Trinity in this regard. We still groan eagerly awaiting our adoption as sons (Rom 8:23).

Colin Gunton warns that there is a real danger in making Jesus Christ into ‘a world principle at the expense of Jesus of Nazareth’, turning his cross ‘as a focus of the suffering of God rather than the centre of that history in which God overcomes sin and evil’.[2] Any disconnection of the Trinity from the cross is therefore incorrect in its application and promotes pantheism over God’s desire to redeem his people from sin and reconcile them to himself.

In essence, the missionary context of God is missed (the Father sends the Son who sends his Spirit to us to draw us to himself). Gunton therefore promotes a strong doctrine of creation which he says detracts from any connection between creator and creature, and in its distinction gives the ground of being and autonomy for the world.[3] The solution to the world’s problems is therefore not merely modelling the Trinitarian life. Only following Christ as Saviour and Lord is the solution, and even then the world will only truly be made perfect on the last day.

[1] Edward Russell, ‘Reconsidering Relational Anthropology: A Critical Assessment of John Zizioulas’ Theological Anthropology’, in International Journal of Systematic Theology 5:2 (July 2003): 185.
[2] Gunton, The Promise of Trinitarian Theology, xx.
[3] Gunton, The Promise of Trinitarian Theology, 72.