“In Christianity God is not a static thing but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of dance. The Father eternally begets the Son; the Son eternally exists in the Father; and the Holy Ghost is the eternal love and life flowing between them…The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us — each one of us has to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance.” ~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14
The entire Bible demonstrates the breathtaking account of how far each Person of the Godhead went in order to draw us into the eternal fellowship of love that has existed since before the foundation of the world. As I have been studying what it actually cost each Person of the Trinity to make this invitation possible, I find myself completely humbled in thankfulness. My prayer is that by the time you finish reading today, you will be, too!
The Bible opens with four words: “In the beginning God.” Before anything existed, God was already present—already in relationship, already moving in that great eternal dance C.S. Lewis described. Genesis gives us this glimpse:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” Genesis 1:1–3
All three Persons of the Trinity are visible right here—the Father speaking creation, the Spirit hovering with the attentiveness of a mother bird over her nest, and the Son, the living Word, bursting over the thick darkness. Creation was never a cold, mechanical act of raw power. It was the overflow of a relationship that had always existed and had always been gloriously, perfectly good—the same dynamic life of the Trinity that Lewis said was almost too alive to be called anything less than a dance. But who gives each member of humanity this impressive invitation? Ah, none less than the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! Let’s explore all three.
The Heavenly Father: I want to pause here, because I know that for some people, the word “father” carries more pain than comfort. Maybe your father was absent. Maybe he was harsh, cold, or unpredictable. Maybe he was present in the house but emotionally unreachable. Maybe he stayed. Maybe he stayed but made you feel like you were never quite enough. If any of this is true for you, I need you to hear this carefully: Our Heavenly Father is not a magnified version of the wounded, limited, or broken man who may have held that title in your life. He is everything that an earthly father was supposed to be—and infinitely more. Jesus addressed this gap directly. He said that even deeply imperfect, flawed human fathers know how to give good things to their children:
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:11
How much more. Every tender, protective, selfless impulse you ever witnessed in a good father—or longed to witness and never did—finds its perfect, undiminished, inexhaustible inception in our Heavenly Father. And He does not love us because we are lovable or because we have something to offer. He loves us because love is not merely something He does; it is the very fabric of WHO He is: “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:8
This is not conditional, performance-based approval that so many of us grew up trying desperately to earn. This is a love that existed before you drew your first breath, that saw every failure you would ever commit, and moved toward you anyway. And the moment we step through the door of salvation, a permanent, legal and glorious change happens:
“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’” Romans 8:15
Abba. This is not a formal, careful, keep-your-distance word. It is the most intimate word a small child has for their father—the Aramaic equivalent of “Daddy” or Papa. Jesus used it Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane in the darkest moment of His earthly life. (Mark 14:36) The Father is our Abba. He moved toward us first by offering His only Son—not after we cleaned ourselves up, not after we demonstrated sufficient remorse, but at our absolute worst:
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:7–8
That is the behavior of a Father who is fiercely, relentlessly, and irrevocably for us—the kind of Father Jesus painted so vividly in the parable of the prodigal son, who spotted his child still far down the road and broke into a run, arms wide open, tears falling, dignity completely forgotten. (Luke 15:20)
If you have spent your life bracing for the moment when God finally decides you are too much trouble and walks away, look at this running father and understand something. That is who God is. He is not the father who left. He is not the father who ignored you because you didn’t measure up. He is the Father who has been running toward you since before you ever turned around.
The Son: Before the Incarnation, Jesus existed as the eternal Word—boundless, fully Spirit, co-equal with the Father, moving in that same eternal Dance. Paul’s description should shape the way we think about Jesus:
“…who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:6–8
Charles Spurgeon once tried to help his congregation feel the staggering weight of the moment Christ came to earth. He said: “He laid aside his crown…He strips himself of his bright vest of glory to dress himself in the simple garment of clay.” Jesus did not take on a sanitized, comfortable version of human existence. He entered all of it—the hunger, the bone-deep weariness, the pressure of a body that bleeds and a heart that breaks—with the full knowledge that the cross was waiting at the end of the road. And the Bible gives us compelling evidence that He never stepped back out of the incarnation. He rose bodily. He ascended bodily. The angels standing at the ascension declared it plainly:
“This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11
He is coming back with FEET that will stand on the Mount of Olives and split it in two. (Zechariah 14:4) He is coming back with WOUNDS that every EYE will recognize. (Revelation 1:7) He is coming back as the Son of MAN—the same yesterday, today, and forever. And our resurrection will be modeled after His glorified BODY:
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” Philippians 3:20–21
The evidence is striking and deeply moving that Jesus may have permanently woven His divine nature together with our humanity—becoming one of us so thoroughly and completely that He now even shares HIS inheritance with us, as one of us:
“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Romans 8:16–17
The nail prints on Jesus are not a forgotten memorial of a finished transaction; they are the eternal, visible signature of everything it cost Jesus to invite us to the Greatest Dance.
The Spirit: Throughout the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon specific people, for specific purposes, and for specific seasons, and He could depart. David knew this terror firsthand after his devastating sin with Bathsheba. His most desperate cry was not just for forgiveness alone: “Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” Psalm 51:11
That was the fragile reality of the old covenant. But the prophets saw something coming that must have seemed almost impossible to the people who first heard it. Joel declared God’s sweeping promise: “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on ALL flesh.” (Joel 2:28) All flesh? Everyone who believes?
Yes. Every born-again believer.
That promise was fulfilled on the day Jesus died, when the thick temple veil was torn from top to bottom. The barrier between a holy God and sinful humanity was gone. And fifty days after the resurrection, at Pentecost, the Spirit was poured out on all who believed. A glorious new age had begun. The eternal love and life flowing between the Trinity was now being poured into human souls.
Jesus prepared His disciples for exactly this. He called the Spirit our Paraclete—one called alongside:
“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:16–17
Another Helper—the Greek word is allos, meaning another of the exact same kind. Not a lesser substitute for Jesus, but the continued, deeply personal presence of God living within us. He makes God’s Word come alive in ways our natural minds could never access on their own. He intercedes for us when we are too broken and overwhelmed to find words. (Romans 8:26–27) And He transforms us from the inside out, producing in the surrendered life what no amount of self-discipline could ever manufacture. For example:
“But the FRUIT of the SPIRIT is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Galatians 5:22–23
The same Spirit who danced over the dark, formless, empty waters at the very beginning of creation now makes His home inside every born-again believer. We are never alone. We are never without intercession. We are never beyond transformation. He has invited us to the Greatest Dance.
The invitation to salvation has never been limited to a particular era of history or a particular group of people. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness thousands of years before the cross. (Genesis 15:6) The prophet Isaiah heard the Father’s voice calling out across the centuries with the same urgent, wide-open tenderness:
“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live.” Isaiah 55:1–3
Everyone who thirsts. Come. The Dance has never been exclusive. The circle has always been meant to be wide. Job accepted the invitation thousands of years before Jesus came and gratefully proclaimed:
“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God.” Job 19:25–26
In my flesh, I shall see God. The Dance that has pulsed with life since before the foundation of the world is not slowing down. It is expanding—and you and I have been extravagantly invited in. And the Bible closes with that same open invitation to salvation:
“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:17
God is not standing at that door with a ledger of your failures or an impatient foot. He is standing there with the same relentless, dignified, tender persistence that has characterized everything He has done since before the foundation of the world.
All that remains is for you to open the door.
Prayer:
Father, I am undone by the cost of this invitation. You purposed it before the foundation of the world. Your Son permanently wove Himself into humanity to bring me home. Your Spirit tore the veil and moved inside me so I would never be alone or without help again. Forgive me for treating this relationship as ordinary. Let the full weight of this relationship produce in me a thankfulness so deep and so steady that it shapes everything about the way I live today. I don’t want to just know about You. I want to know You. I want to take my place in the Dance. Draw me deeper. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
