Rating
8/10 – This book is a phenomenal primer for a wide audience, and yet I wish it still possessed slightly more depth. The writing style is also slightly choppy, yet the tone is candid and gentle.
Observation
In the introduction, Reeves claims that much of our quarrels, misinformation, and conceptions of the Trinity stem from hidden presuppositions. He proposes that developing and internalizing a more robust view of the Trinity yields a grasp of ‘vital oxygen of Christian life and joy.’1 In his first chapter, Reeves discusses how God’s incontingency on anything is extremely important, and how that helps us identify Him as the familial Father who begets the Son, in love by the Spirit. In his second chapter, Reeves establishes that God’s very being is rooted in His self-giving. “It was his overflowing love for His Son that motivated the Father to create. […] And so the Son is not only the motivating origin of Creation: he is the goal.”2 Building on this in chapter three, Reeves discusses a few common misconceptions about the nature of Salvation in light of the Trinity. He touches on the reality that when salvation or grace is tokenized, the entire point of the gospel is missed. A self-loving, self-giving triune God seeks to invite the rest of Creation into the divine love. A singular-person god would be uninterested in doing so, because such a god would have no capacity for love unless he had to create (This would make such a god contingent on his Creation.). Therefore, salvation does not stop at the grace of God. Rather, salvation is God. Per Reeves, this is because the Father recognizes that the greatest gift he could give his Son is the love he has for them, and the outpouring of this love is the Creation of the world. Likewise, the Father also recognizes that the greatest gift he could bestow upon his Creation is his Son. Likewise, the Son shares his knowledge of the Father.3 . Reeves continues in the fourth chapter by highlighting how the Holy Spirit ignites the Christian life, ultimately empowering and leading his people to the Son. The more the Spirit stirs a person, the more move from being self-bent to Christ-obsessed.4 Lastly, Reeves highlights in the final chapter how God’s holiness is also an outpouring of his triune nature.
Reflection
Reading this book has cultivated within me a newfound significance of the doctrine of the Trinity insofar as how it shapes and molds my entire worldview. I appreciate this book because of how candid, yet gentle Reeves is, and how he unapologetically dispells presumptions about God which are made within the broader evangelical church. I am grateful that I read this because Reeves has equipped me with a communicable way to process and share sentiments that I have been feeling for a few years. Some examples of that include how God created as an outpouring of his love for his son. Even how union with Christ is impossible without a triune God in many facets. Additionally, it was refreshing to see how many amazing stories he included regarding historical figures in church history, and God used them for his kingdom. If he were to publish those little side-tidbits into a short volume alone, I’d buy it. All in all, this book reads like a breath of fresh air, and I would recommend it to any person who has been churched for years but is a lay person, is a faithful Christian, and is searching for a more robust foundation of their view of the Trinity.
χάριτος καἰ εἰρήνη,
(grace and peace)
- Carson