The Lord has given us boundless imaginations.  Join me as I picture a moment with the Trinity.

I see them ion’s ago; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, sitting down at the far side of the universe to decide which one would interpret love to the soon coming human race.  Each one of equal worth, timeless entities in eternity, seated in perfect rest.  The topic of conversation is about to turn upon the problem of evil.

They speak in unison; “humans will be designed to worship us forever, but a black inky disease will spread to every one of them.”  The son sighs and speaks, “This most beautiful of all our creation must be able to see how much we love them.” The Father breathes out slowly.  The Spirit nods vigorously.  Then silence.  In one mind, they all speak: “Who of us will journey into time, and be created into the Second Adam?  For nothing short of our very life, will be able to free this race from the Great Usurper, Satan, and seal them into relationship with us.  This is sine qua non!”*  

Again, silence, surrounded by endless galaxies; stars falling, and worlds colliding. 

Then the Son stands up, stretches his arms around the blue globe spinning before them, kneels in poverty, and says, “I will abandon our perfect trinity in unity, and travel through the portal of mortality, and suffer as a man. I will become the disease, so that they may not have to suffer exhausting counterfeits.” The Father nods: the Spirit agrees.  With that, the Father and Spirit move toward the son and place their being upon his crown, a crown that has formed out of the sacrifice of his intention.  The King is appointed.  Jesus, the Second Adam!  Then they weep in perfect unity, for the ache is already felt in their hearts around the idea that they will be separated by the disease of death.

On eternity’s clock, Christ had already died during that meeting of the Trinity and descended into hell. Sin’s shame would be executed in the exchange of His life for ours.  If we ever doubt the efficacy of the cross remember the plan of the Trinity, and how the Son stepped forward to take the assignment.  Never in a million years could anyone devise such a scheme.  God’s heart for me, for you, for everyone to offer forgiveness and a place in heaven?  Amazing Grace. 

With eternity now placed in our hearts by God, we yearn for something outside of ourselves, transcendent, that speaks to our finite limitations. The Trinity saw all of this, and summoned the counsel, and Jesus stepped into the chasm. When He became human to become the Second Adam, it flattened the field of all other beliefs. In a single astonishing moment, three words changed everything; “it is finished,” bringing hope through Love’s sacrifice.  No longer would man have to live solely for himself. (2 Cor 5:15)

Our calling then is to follow Christ into the kind of suffering he suffered.  Yes, we carry our cross, and in the exchange of his life for ours, we inherit the same love he demonstrated for us. We now fall in love with Love.  We now sacrifice for others.  We now live as we were first created, and that is sine qua non!

Contemplation bases all of its work of transformation upon what Christ has done in our hearts, and in eternity.  It catches us up, so to speak, with how God see’s us, and what He is like, as we dwell with our minds, and our hearts upon a love relationship with the Word of God. 

*An essential condition, a thing that is absolutely necessary.