An essay question I worked on today:
I am not sure how to connect the idea of sin and the Trinity. My initial thought is that there is no real connection, but putting that aside, let me try to define sin in a relational format: Sin is the loving of the lesser at the expense of the greater. If God is an eternal relationship and the ultimate object of correct love, sin is not only the rejection of God, the loving of something lesser than He as if it were the greater, but it is also the thing which God is not: In sin, we are unlike and alien to that eternal relationship which God invites us to partake in.
Defining salvation as regards relationship, my mind turns immediately to the parable of the sheep and the goats, where those at Christās right hand are those he knew. Similarly, I seem to remember the five foolish virgins being told, āI do not know you.ā And when asked if many are saved, Jesus answers that once the door is shut, the owner of the house will rebuff those outside as those he knows not. Salvation, then, is being one of those known of by God.
In much the same way that salvation is, when considered relationally, about being known of by God, so holiness seems the other side of the coin, the setting apart of oneself for the sake of that relationship. If my definition of sin stands, let us then, opposing sin and holiness, consider also that holiness is the act of loving, or the being in love with, God.
Finally, we were to consider Godās wrath as it relates to His trinitarian being. My initial thought is that Godās wrath is subsequently the passive result of His character when the object of wrath, sinful man, is outside of salvation, which is to say that Godās wrath is not so much an act of malice on His part toward an object, instead it is seen in the wrathful objectās state when in contrast to the state of being in relationship with Godāit is, in a sense, the logical outworking of being outside salvation.
Tale Told 