Part 2: The Eternal God

Doc: Hey everyone! Iino, I’m so glad you’re back! Right, let’s make a start.

What has been the best human relationship you know?

Iino: I’m BFF with my older sister. We see eye-to-eye on everything!

Yoshiya: My brother’s just started dating someone. They seem really happy together.

Gō: I guess my family is pretty close. And I’m glad to have you as a friend, Yoshiya.

Was it perfect, or will it be perfect forever? If not, why not?

Gō: Hmm. As long as it’s a human relationship, I guess there will be fall-outs and so on, so it can’t be perfect.

Yoshiya: Yeah – plenty of people split up after dating. And in the end, everyone dies, so even the best relationship can’t go on forever.

Doc: That’s true.

How do you feel about the kind of relationship described in the booklet as one that we all long for?

Iino: “A relationship where we can be both fully known and fully accepted, a relationship that will never hurt or betray us.”

Iino: Well, that would be nice if there were such a relationship. The problem is that it doesn’t exist in reality.

Gō: Yeah, we agreed on that last time. But deep down, everyone wants this kind of relationship. I think people have that kind of deep desire.

Yoshiya: I agree. It’s an ideal relationship. The thing is, people know that this kind of relationship is just an ideal. And they’re troubled by the gap between the ideal and the reality.

Doc: As you see, the booklet uses the word “eternity”. To understand what that means, let’s read the beginning of the Old Testament. Iino, could you please read chapter 1, verse 1 of the Book of Genesis.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

Old Testament, Genesis 1:1

Doc: This expression “the heavens and the earth” means “everything”. So God created all things in the universe.

When was this “beginning”?

Iino: When everything was created. The beginning of the world.

What or who was there before the “beginning”?

Iino: Everything was created at that time, so there was nothing before that. Oh, wait a minute… God must have been there to create everything.

Doc: Yes, that’s right. This “everything” includes time and space. God created everything, and from that point on, time began and space came into existence. Before that, there was nothing except God. Only God is eternal, transcending both time and space.

Doc: Created things are called “creatures” and God, who made everything, is called the “Creator”, and there’s an eternal distinction between the Creator and his creatures. They’re infinitely different.

Gō: It’s hard to imagine a God who existed apart from time and space, isn’t it?

Yoshiya: For sure. If you try to express it in human terms, it’s just impossible, right?

Doc: That’s right. It’s a very important point. The God the Bible teaches us about is an eternal God.

Doc: And the Bible also teaches that the eternal God is himself the perfect relationship. We might say that God has “uchi inner fellowship” in himself. Let’s read two verses about this God from the New Testament.

There is one God. 

New Testament, 1 Timothy 2:5

God is love. 

New Testament, 1 John 4:16

How can God be both “one” and also “love”? 

Gō: You mean, how can God be said to be “love” when there was a time when there was nothing for him to love?

Doc: Right! That’s what I’m driving at.

Iino: Does it mean that he loved himself?

Yoshiya: It means that the object of God’s love was within himself. Because God is Trinity.

Doc: Mm-hmm. This may be a completely new idea to you, Iino, but the Bible reveals that God is Trinity. There is one God, but he exists eternally in three “Persons”: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The word “Trinity” was coined to express who this God is. [Note: In Japanese, the word for Trinity is 三位一体 sanmi-ittai. Although it was originally coined as a theological term, it’s pretty common in Japan and is used in other contexts when three things are brought together to form one. Most people will therefore probably have heard the word before. Unfortunately, this kind of common use can lead to confusion about what the Trinity actually is, which is not three (separate) Persons coming together to form one God, but one God who eternally exists as three Persons.]

Gō: So there was a relationship of love between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Doc: Yes. That’s what the booklet calls the ultimate “inner (uchi) fellowship”.

What do you think uchi inner fellowship in this God might be like?

Iino: So this was the eternal, ideal relationship?

Doc: The Bible says “God is love”. This doesn’t mean just that God acts lovingly, but that the essence of God is love. It also means that it is God alone who can define what love is. Without knowing this God, it is impossible to know what love is. This God wants to share his love. Not because he has to share it, but out of total freedom and overflowing goodness.

Doc: Yoshiya, could you read a verse from a letter written by a man named Paul in the first century A.D., when Christian churches were starting up all over the place.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

New Testament, 2 Corinthians 13:14

In this Bible verse, three “Persons” are named. Who are they?

Yoshiya: The Lord Jesus Christ, God and the Holy Spirit.

Doc: Yes. The Lord Jesus Christ is God the Son, and God the Father is “God” in this verse. And God the Holy Spirit.

What is said to be the particular property of each Person here?

Iino: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Gō: The love of God the Father.

Yoshiya: The fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

When the author (Paul) says, “be with you all”, what do you think he means?

Iino: In other words, “you all” can also have grace, love and fellowship?

Doc: Yes. By “you all” he means the Christians he’s writing to in a place called Corinth. Grace, love and fellowship are blessings that each Person brings. The blessings of God the Trinity are given to Christians. Christians can also enter the circle of God (uchi inner fellowship), which is why Paul says, “be with you all”.

It’s impossible for us really to get our heads around an “eternal” God! But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to know God at all. According to the Bible, we human beings are made with an attunement to eternity.

Gō, would you read the next words from the Bible, please?

He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Old Testament, Ecclesiastes 3:11

What can a human heart know about God? 

Iino: We can know what God does. And that it’s beautiful.

Gō: We also know that God is eternal, even though we may not exactly “understand” it.

And what can we not know?

Yoshiya: We cannot know everything about God. We can’t find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

Doc: Yes. This is the limitation we have as creatures. Man can know about the “works” that God does in time and space. And thereby we can also know God’s love. We can know, but we can’t comprehend everything. 

What about you? Do you ever think about eternity?

Iino: I used to think about what happens when I die. I wonder if that means thinking about eternity?

Yoshiya: I think so. The only eternal existence is God, so thinking about eternity is also thinking about God.

How do you feel about experiencing the grace, love, and fellowship of the eternal God’s uchi inner relationship?

Iino: It’s a bit scary, but I’d like to try it out.

Doc: Okay, thanks everyone. Next time, let’s think a bit more about God and human beings.

The ESV Bible. Crossway, 2001, www.esv.org/.