Dorothy was right. There’s no place like home!

Whisked away from the drab and dreary plains of Kansas into the lavish beauty of the Land of Oz, Dorothy desired nothing more than to return home. Pursuing the promise of help from the great Wizard, she embarked on her journey upon the yellow brick road. Along the way she was befriended by the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion.

At her quest’s end, after killing the Wicked Witch and experiencing disillusionment with the Wizard, she discovered that her deepest desire – to return home – had always been within her reach. During her entire adventure she had possessed the ability to return home. She simply had to tap the heels of her ruby slippers together and proclaim the passion that had sustained her during her entire ordeal, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.”

Home is where one experiences a deep sense of belonging, acceptance, and love. The lure of home does not reside in a particular piece of land or a physical building. Dorothy’s delight was not in the dull plains of Kansas or in her rickety farm house. Dorothy’s delight was in the people who inhabited the rickety farm house on the dull plains of Kansas. Her “home” was not a building but the deep experience of a sense of belonging. It was not a place as much as a personal relationship. As amazing as the Land of Oz had been, it was not where Dorothy belonged. She belonged with her loved ones.[1] When she was with them, she was home.

Even the best home is only a pale reflection of the perfect home: the shared life and love of Father, Son, and Spirit. The story of salvation can be understood in this way: God, our true home – the source and goal of all our longings – makes his home among us (John 1:1, 14) in order to make his home in us (John 14:23; cf. Eph. 3:17) and to make us a fit dwelling place of God (Eph. 2:22). God wants us to abide in him and welcome his abiding in us. God wants us to share his life and love. In short, God wants us to find our home, not just with him but in him.

God’s Home-Life

The shared life of eternal love between the Father, Son, and Spirit is the dance of eternity. It is the fundamental reality behind, before, and above all other realities. God is one being eternally existing in three persons. The essence of God – God’s very nature – is three persons in eternal loving communion. Two words capture the dynamics of the intratrinitarian experience: (1) circumincessio – the shared life of mutual indwelling, and (2) perichoresis – the shared love of mutual delight.

Circumincessio is the basis for the distinction between Father, Son, and Spirit. Father, Son, and Spirit share the divine life without the loss of their own distinct identity. Indeed, it is the mutual sharing of life that distinguishes them from one another. The Father is not Father without the Son; the Son is not Son apart from the Father. The Spirit is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ.

Circumincessio also describes the deep intimacy experienced between Father, Son, and Spirit. Each person of the Trinity wholly indwells the others. As such, each person is fully present in the others. Therefore, when we receive Jesus we also receive the Father and the Spirit. Likewise, when we participate in the life of the Spirit, we participate in the life of the Father and Son. It is for this reason that the Spirit is called the “Spirit of God” and “the Spirit of Christ.”

Perichoresis describes the shared love of mutual delight between Father, Son, and Spirit. Unlike circumincessio, which points to the Trinity’s shared life of mutual indwelling, perichoresis suggests dynamic activity and excitement within God’s being. The divine persons not only live in one another; they dance in one another’s presence! Each person experiences an eternal joyous movement toward the other. This joy is an expression of the love each feels for the other.

Amazingly, God desires that we share in his divine life (circumincessio) and divine love (perichoresis). This is the purpose for which we were created. This is our true home.

How can a mere human participate in this divine reality? The answer: through the God-man, Jesus Christ. God did not become flesh simply to die. Through the incarnation, God unites deity with humanity in order that humanity may eternally share in the life of deity. The Son did not become human for his sake, but for ours, that we might share in God’s mutual love and shared life – the dance of eternity.

Through Christ and in the Spirit we have access to God by faith (cf. Eph. 2:18). It is the continued humanity of Jesus that makes this possible. Jesus, the God-man, is the means through which God unites humanity and deity. In Christ, God completely assumed humanity into the life of the Trinity. Thus, through union with Christ by faith, we share in the life and love of God. “We are participants in Jesus’ home-life with his Father.”[2]

We participate in the life of Jesus through the work of God’s Spirit. It is the Spirit of God that gives us access to Jesus through whom we share in the life and love of the Triune God. Put simply, the Spirit unites us with Christ who brings us to the Father.

This profound truth is basic to our Christian profession. Indeed, it is explicitly announced in our baptism. Through baptism, we are plunged in – immersed in – the very reality of the divine name: God – Father, Son, and Spirit. “We are given the unspeakable privilege of entering into and participating in the Trinitarian community of love!”[3]

The essence of salvation is not simply a “personal relationship” with Jesus. The fullness of salvation consists of being a “person in relationship” with Father, Son, and Spirit. God’s relationship with us transcends God with us in Jesus. As Father, God is for us; as Son, God is with us; as Spirit, God is in us. By God’s grace, we have a significant relationship with each person of the Trinity.

God is our home. There is no other relationship in which we can experience a deeper sense of belonging, acceptance, and love. Because God is for, with, and in us, we are called to live life for, with, and in God. This week we will focus on life in God. In future sessions we will reflect on life with and for God.

To live in God is to make God our home and make our home in God. We are called to share the home life of God. What’s going on in the divine home? What is life like in the Trinity? What is going on within the circle of Father, Son, and Spirit? What are the dynamics of the Triune relationship that we share in Christ and by the Spirit? The better we understand the qualities that characterize the home-life of the Triune God, the better equipped we will be to truly experience the life of God in our own lives.

To this end, I want to highlight three qualities of the divine life that are shared between Father, Son, and Spirit: love, joy, and peace.

True Love

Within the divine life there abides an eternal relationship of self-giving, mutual, and shared love. Father, Son, and Spirit deeply and intimately know one another. There is no fear, shame, or insecurity in their knowledge of one another. Father and Son dwell in a face-to-face relationship with the Spirit as the bond of love that unites them. This relationship is so profoundly complete and pure that there is no other way to describe it than that they are in one another. This free, full, and overflowing love is the central quality of the home-life of God. This is the love we are called to share in the gospel.

We all need more love than we deserve and than we can give. We fail others. We fall short of our own good intentions. Even more, we miss God’s perfect will that calls us to love all people, all the time, in all places, regardless of whether they deserve or desire it.

Since we need more love than we deserve and than we can give, we cannot earn God’s love and we can never adequately return it. God’s love is always greater than our own. “We love, because God first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Like an infant who finds itself embraced by love, we awaken into a world where God’s love already exists. For this reason, our expressions of love will never equal God’s. The breadth, length, height, and depth of God’s love is immeasurable.

The staggering truth of our relationship with God is that the love we experience is no less than the eternal love shared between Father, Son, and Spirit. Through union with Christ in the Spirit we enter into this divine love. We participate in the home-life of the Triune God. We are home!

This absolutely perfect and pure love opens us up to a life of intimacy with God. God knows us completely. God knows the best about us and rewards us accordingly. God knows the worst about us – and loves us anyway! In the presence of such love, we have no reason to keep anything hidden. We do not have to fear that God will deceive us, manipulate us, or harm us. God’s love is pure, clean, and whole. “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

This kind of love – love that is more than we deserve or could possibly return – is the goal of all our longings.

All our longing is longing for this intimacy. We are all wired for intimacy. All our hungers are finally hunger for this; all our thirsts are ultimately thirsts for the passionate belongingness of God. The cry for intimacy that marks our time is unknowingly the cry for intimacy with God.[4]

In God, we know and are known. Because there is no possibility of rejection or harm, we can be completely open and vulnerable to God’s love. We can open our arms wide to receive God’s everlasting embrace. Put simply, we can truly be authentic and transparent before God.

Hip church folk often like to talk about authenticity (as if it did not exist prior to the seeker-sensitive or emergent church), and yet, in my experience, I’ve found that it is much easier to talk about than experience. We rarely accept one another as God in Christ has accepted us (cf. Romans 15:7). We remain suspicious of others and keep our hearts closed for fear of rejection or betrayal. We cling tightly to hot-button issues that rub us the wrong way and we use these issues to justify our unloving responses to those different than us.

For all our talk about authenticity and acceptance, no one of us can be fully open before another. We all have things we hide. All of us are misunderstood by others. No one is exempt from this. Frustrated, we resign ourselves to living in the darkness of our own shadows.

This does not characterize our home in God.

Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other. It is the place of confidence. It is the place where we tear off that mask of guarded and suspicious coldness which the world forces us to wear in self-defense, and where we pour out the unreserved communications of full and confiding hearts. It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out without any sensation of awkwardness and without any dread of ridicule.[5]

The home-life of the Triune God overflows with hospitality. A gracious host, God warmly invites us into his accepting presence. We are not rejected or ignored; we are welcomed and embraced. This divine welcome gives us freedom to express ourselves fully. It is life-giving and liberating.

God not only loves us; God likes us! Like all good families, our uniqueness is affirmed and embraced. We are appreciated, valued, cherished, prized, treasured, adored, and desired. We share fully in the love between Father and Son in the bond of the Spirit. We are called into this relationship. And when we enter it, we are home!

Lasting Joy

God’s eternal experience of love results in a constant state of joy. God is “the blessed God” (1 Timothy 6:15). This joy springs from God’s delight in the self-giving, mutual, shared love and life of Father, Son, and Spirit. How could such a relationship not bring joy?

As with his love, God invites us to share his joy. This joy was the constant experience of Jesus during his earthly ministry. In the face of certain doom, God’s joy sustained and carried him. On the night before his crucifixion, he called his disciples to share his joy – the divine joy: “Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love; just as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:9-11). In his high priestly prayer, he made this request to the Father, “But now I come to you; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.” (John 17:13)

As C. S. Lewis wrote, “Joy is the serious business of heaven.” God takes joy seriously. It is not a marginal experience for God. It is the passionate overflow of delight and desire between Father, Son, and Spirit.

Unlike happiness, joy is not rooted in circumstances. It is rooted in our relationship with God. In God, joy is an unchanging reality because the shared life and love between Father, Son, and Spirit never grows old or dies out. The eternal reality of divine love and life is the eternal basis for unending joy and delight: “Rejoice always” (1 Thessalonians 5:16); “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4)

The joy of God is not superficial, but deep. It is a joy that persists in the presence of trials, suffering, and even sorrow. These negative experiences come and go. Though difficult to endure, they do not remove or negate the glorious presence of God in our lives. As such, we continue to rejoice in spite of our suffering and sorrow. “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 1:6).

Perfect Peace

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27). The peace Jesus offers is a gift that accompanies the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). It is a safeguard against worries and fear. Because God’s peace is rooted in the divine home-life – our home in God – it is a peace unlike that offered by the world. Like joy (“my joy I give to you”), this peace is Jesus’ peace (“my peace I give to you”). This is the peace Jesus experiences as the God-man in the home-life of the Triune God.

Jesus is realistic about the peace he gives. It is not the absence of conflict or the removal of trials; it is peace in the midst of conflict and trials.[6] Jesus is surprisingly candid about the fact that our experience of his peace will take place in the context of perplexing difficulties. “These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Peace is found in Jesus, not circumstances. Jesus’ own circumstances were never more chaotic and cloudy than when he delivered these words. Because of the divine origin of this peace, its presence defies rational explanation. It is a peace that passes understanding because it has its source in the transcendent eternal reality of God’s life and love. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7). Because we have access to this peace “in Christ Jesus” we should be “anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Phil. 4:6)

A great part of our peace comes from resting in the divine will. When we remember that God’s purpose is sure and that nothing can ultimately hinder or thwart it, then we realize the greatness of our security in God. God’s grasp upon us is certain. Nothing can ultimately separate us from God, our peace. This awareness is at the heart of some of most beloved words in Scripture:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depths, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35, 37-39)

The peace of God remains ours in spite of the chaos of this world. Indeed, the cross has proved that no amount of evil, suffering, chaos, injustice, or defeat can possibly hinder God’s good intentions to bless the world. Thus, the peace of God is constant and eternal. This peace rules our home in God. It is ours to share as well.

At the center of the universe is peace. Not because the Triune God is unaware of the chaos in the world. Not because the Trinity is out of touch with the pain of the world. It is because the Trinity is never threatened by it all. The Trinity never panics. The Triune God is never immobilized by fear. Never worried that someone or something is going to thwart his purposes.[7]

Abiding in God

How can we nurture a greater awareness, enjoyment, and expression of Trinitarian love, joy, and peace? We do so by learning to live in God. One of the New Testament metaphors used to describe intimate participation in the life of God is “abide” (“remain” in the NIV).[8]

Abiding is an active stance of open and grateful reception to all God gives us. It involves both an active and a passive element. On one hand, it is active. It is an intentional clinging to God. It involves our conscious participation and active effort. We must be receptive to God and possess an open heart. We must actively seek God through sustained habits and constant discipline. Nurturing a relationship takes work.

On the other hand, abiding involves a passive dimension. To abide is to rest in the embrace of God. It calls us to reflection on the life of God and contemplation on our life in God.

Some Christians emphasize only the passive dimension and lose the active dimension of a thriving mutual relationship with God. Abiding in God does not obliterate our unique personality or distinct gifts. Instead, it fully transforms us to uniquely reflect God’s life and love. Abiding in God does not happen automatically; it demands our assent, receptivity, and active pursuit.

Other Christians emphasize only the active dimension of abiding. In their fervor to maintain disciplines and do good deeds they completely lose the contemplative dimensions of a relationship with God. They spend little time adoring, reflecting, and resting in God.

We need to be active contemplatives as well as contemplative activists. To lose either dimension results in an imbalanced and distorted Christian life. We need to be known by our contemplative reflection (times of quiet, rest, and receptivity) and active expression (words, deeds, and actions of faith).

The language of abiding not only positions us in a stance of active receptivity; it also points to a particular type of knowledge. Though evangelicals often argue for the primacy of intellectual and conceptual knowledge, this is not the kind of knowledge that the Bible primarily describes. True knowledge of God is participatory, experiential, and relational; it is not primarily logical, analytical, and propositional. As such, abiding draws attention to our personal participation in God with our whole being. It refuses to reduce our relationship with God to a few “right” facts in the head.

Abiding is an attitude of the whole person and not simply of the mind, will, or emotions. When we abide in God, we are completely engaged with the entirety of our being. Abiding encompasses our whole heart. Thus, withholding any aspect of ourselves results in a shaky hold on life and love – not because God’s embrace of us is shaky, but because our participation in God’s embrace is lackluster and half-hearted.

Just as in a healthy home, there is no place for half-heartedness. Sure, one can merely exist within a house in a relationship that provides little love or joy, but that does not qualify as a “home.” Home is a place where one abides; a place where the fullness of life is experienced, enjoyed, and shared.

Home Away From Home

Some say that “home is where the heart is.” This can be true, but not always. Sometimes this saying is merely sentimental schmaltz. More precisely, home is where we belong. This may be very different from where our heart is. The current focus of our heart may be miles away from God.

Everyone desires to experience home. This is why the word “home” is so precious to us. We all desire to belong to another and dwell in that belonging. No one wants to be “homeless.” The purpose of this article has been to argue that the shared life of Father, Son, and Spirit – the home-life of the Trinity – is the place where we truly belong. It offers us the fullest experience of the love, joy, and peace we all desire. It is our true home.

Perhaps the thing that keeps us from experiencing the love, joy, and peace of our true home is our constant attempt to find these things in a “home away from home.” Do we really believe that our heart’s deepest longings are fulfilled in God? Do we truly believe that our longings for home are ultimately satisfied in God? Do we know we have a home in God, or do we believe we are homeless?

C. Baxter Kruger suggests that the belief that we are homeless is behind our desperate attempts to find love, joy, and peace anywhere but in God.

Is this not the story of our lives – one confused attempt after another to find home for ourselves, to create it, manufacture it, conjure it up by our own resources? We try to find it in marriage, in friendships, in our children, in our pets, in our careers or work, in our glamour and glory, in our emotions and feelings, in sensuality and sex, in our noble causes and clubs, in our profound academics, in our athletics and recreation, in our material possessions, in our politics and power, in church or the Bible or our religious doings, in our chants and crystals. But the home-life of Jesus Christ with his Father is not in any of these.[9]

In spite of all our desperate attempts to create a home away from home, one significant problem always arises: any home other than God ultimately fails to satisfy our deepest longings for love, joy, and peace. The reason is simple: “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You” (Augustine). We have been created in such a way “that the only thing that finally fills us is the Triune God. And every human being has at least one thing in common with every other human being: we cheat ourselves. We try to fill ourselves with everything but the Triune God.”[10]

We must realize that we are not homeless. The truth is that we all have a home. We have been created out of the overflow of love between Father, Son, and Spirit. Home is not a place, but a relationship to which we belong.

Like Dorothy we have access to our true home whenever we desire by expressing the passion of our heart – “There’s no place like home” – and finding its fulfillment in the open, accepting presence of God. No matter how many yellow brick roads we pursue, the ability to return home is with us every step of the way. Home is where the heart is, if our heart is in the right place – in the loving hands of the living God.

© Richard J. Vincent, 2005

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