Glory and the Trinity

If you get a chance to read the book God The Holy Trinity, edited by Timothy George, make sure you read the last essay or sermon, Deep Wisdom by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. It is about glory and Trinity and it is worth the price of the book. I was deeply moved by it. I imagine that it was final sermon preached at the conference on the Trinity held at Beeson Divinity School. It does not strike me that the president of Calvin Theological Seminary would be such a eloquent preacher. I would expect scholarly and erudite. But I found just reading it breath taking. Maybe I was in the right mood.

I have had an interest in the subject of glory since I first read the Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis. It intrigues me and yet I don’t understand it. Who can? Yet Paul wrote that we will receive glory. 2 Corinthians 4:17 “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” (NASB) In this sermon, Plantinga focuses on events in the Gospel of John. He shows that contrary to human concepts of glory, God’s glory is found in the most unexpected places. I found the following quote surprising, I hope you can figure out what he referring to by his words. If not, just read the Gospel of John.

“Glory is everywhere in the Gospel, and it has nothing to do with competition or making a splash. The glory is in wine and blood. It is in bread and bathwater. It where we are not looking, but it is certainly where Jesus is, and God is also mixed in the glory because the Son just does what what his Father does. He just says what the Father says. The Son is his Father all over again.” page 152.