Mario Bravo-Lamas, April 20, 2025
1. The Triune God: Eternal Love that Creates, Saves, and Dwells
Christian spirituality is born from the deepest mystery of our faith: God is Triune. We do not believe in a lonely and distant god, but in a God who is a community of eternal love: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not an abstract idea, but a living reality that transforms everything.
As 1 John 4:8 says, “God is love.” He does not simply possess love or act lovingly; he is love in his very essence. The Father eternally loves the Son in the communion of the Spirit. This perfect and overflowing love is what gives rise to creation and sustains the story of redemption. We were not created out of necessity, but out of grace: to participate in the Trinitarian love that existed “before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24). In other words, God did not need to create us in order to learn to love; rather, he created us to share his love.
The Trinity is not a secondary doctrine; it is the very heart of Christian faith. The Father creates us, the Son redeems us, and the Spirit indwells us. In the Trinity we discover that God is not distant, but radically near. We are not spectators in God’s plan, but participants in his life. As William Willimon puts it, there is something about this Triune God that keeps moving toward us—even when we are not looking for him.
The Trinity is the foundation of our spirituality, our salvation, our prayer, and our formation. Kevin Vanhoozer puts it beautifully: the drama of salvation is Trinitarian from beginning to end. The Father is the author of the story, the Son its climax, and the Spirit the one who incorporates us into it. This Triune God does not simply give us commands but invites us to take part in his story—not merely as spectators, but as beloved sons and daughters. That is why all true Christian spirituality is grounded in the God who is love, communion, and mission.
2. Jesus Christ: The Center of Our Faith and Formation
Christian spirituality cannot be understood apart from Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus Christ is the visible face of the invisible God. In him, the eternal love of the Father becomes flesh—visible, close, and personal. He is not merely our teacher or spiritual guide; he is the incarnate Son of God, the Savior who reconciles us, and the model of our redeemed humanity.
Jesus reveals who God is and who we are called to be. As Colossians 1:15 says, he is “the image of the invisible God,” and according to Romans 8:29, we were created to be conformed to his image. That is why our spirituality does not revolve around vague principles or fleeting experiences but around a living relationship with Christ.
His life, death, and resurrection are the climax of the divine drama. On the cross, we see love that gives itself to the very end; in the resurrection, the victory of love over death. As Dallas Willard states in the Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, Christian spirituality is not about accumulating information about Jesus, but about being transformed by him.
Jesus not only saves us—he also forms us. The Holy Spirit unites us to Christ, transforms us from within (Galatians 5:22–23), and sends us as his witnesses (Acts 1:8). In him we find not only salvation, but meaning, identity, and purpose. Any spirituality that displaces Jesus from the center—even if it speaks of God or uses Christian language—loses its essence.
3. The Story of Salvation: Participating in God’s Redemptive Drama
The Christian faith is a story: a grand narrative that envelops us, shapes us, and sends us out. It is not merely a collection of doctrinal statements, but an invitation to enter the story of the God who creates, redeems, and restores.
It all begins with an act of love: God creates humanity in his image, to live in communion with him and with creation. Sin broke that communion but did not cancel God’s love. Since then, the biblical story reveals a God who seeks, calls, liberates, and transforms.
In Jesus, that story reaches its climax. He rescues us from sin, restores our humanity, and incorporates us into his mission. This salvation is not just a memory of the past or a future hope—it is a living reality in the present. As William Willimon writes in This We Believe, “salvation denotes our relationship with God in Jesus Christ here and now.”
And this story does not end with us. It points to the new creation: new heavens and a new earth where God will dwell with his people and every tear will be wiped away (Revelation 21). As we await that fullness, we actively participate in his work: as the community of the Kingdom, as the body of Christ, as witnesses of hope.
Kaz Yamazaki-Ransom outlines the story of salvation in seven movements:
A. Creation
B. The Origin of Evil
C. People of God (Israel)
X. Jesus
C’. Renewed People of God (Church)
B’. Defeat of Evil
A’. Renewed Creation
Todd Billings reminds us that the Bible is the means through which the Triune God forms us into the image of Christ, in the power of the Spirit. Reading Scripture, praying, living in community, and acting with mercy are concrete ways of embodying this story. Spiritual formation, then, is not a technique but a way of inhabiting God’s redemptive narrative day by day: a story of eternal love that reaches us, transforms us, and sends us.
In Summary
What we believe is not a set of abstract ideas, but a living and transformative reality:
• The Triune God loves us eternally,
• Jesus Christ reconciles and forms us,
• And the Spirit incorporates us into the drama of salvation that renews all things.
This is the firm foundation of all authentic Christian spirituality and the heart of Christoform formation: to live in communion with God, being transformed by his love, so we may joyfully participate in his redemptive story.
