If the Trinity is Who God Is, Then It Shapes How God Saves

You don't just understand God through the Trinity; you also understand the gospel through the Trinity.

Romans 1:1–4

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

When Paul lays out the gospel of our salvation to Rome, he starts with the Trinity.

• If you start with the wrong view of God, you're going to end up with the wrong view of salvation.

• If you see God as just a ruler, then you're going to relate to salvation through rules and performance.
• If you see God as just a judge, then salvation becomes about avoiding a bad judgment.
• If God is Father, Son, and Spirit — if God is love — then salvation has to be about that love.

What Went Wrong?

Genesis 3:1–7

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Eve doesn't just break a rule — her love shifts.

All sin is disordered love, love that's been twisted.

"Sin begins when the heart turns away from God… and curves in on itself." — Augustine of Hippo

The problem is not self love, the problem is when self becomes ultimate.

Matthew 22:36–39

"Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?" Jesus replied, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

"Sin is not merely breaking God's rules; it is putting yourself in God's place. It is a re-centering of life around the self, where your desires, your feelings, and your perspective become ultimate. But when the self becomes ultimate, everything else begins to unravel, because the self is not strong enough to hold the weight of that position." — Tim Keller

What went wrong? Love got disordered.

True Salvation Has to Go Deeper Than Behavior

True salvation has to reach the heart; it has to make you new.

2 Corinthians 5:17

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

At the cross, Jesus Christ steps into our place, and he takes both the penalty of our sin and the brokenness of what sin has done in us.

2 Corinthians 5:15

He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

You don't fix disordered love by just being told what to do. You fix disordered love by seeing something more beautiful.

The cross is the ultimate revelation of the beauty of God.

Romans 5:8

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The Work of Salvation Is the Work of the Triune God

• The Father sends the Son. (John 3:16)
• The Son comes willingly. (John 10)
• The Spirit applies it.

John 17:20

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.

John 17:23

That they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

The same love that has existed for all eternity — the love between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — is now directed toward us.

John 1:12

To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

How Does Disordered Love Actually Get Re-Oriented?

2 Corinthians 4:6

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Salvation is not just forgiveness — it's a miracle of heart-sight.

Salvation is not God telling you to love better; it's God bringing you into his love so you can see clearly and love rightly.

Jesus came so that the love he had could be shared with you.