Session 24 · Galatians 4:4-7
The Trinity as Good News
A personal God who draws you into the family
Book reading: Book Four, Chapter 2 (The Three-Personal God)
The word Trinity can sound like a puzzle for experts. In Book Four, Chapter 2, Lewis argues the opposite: the Christian God is personal, not an impersonal force, and the Trinity is practical, with real benefits for people. He also says personal character helps or hinders our knowledge of God.
Galatians 4 shows what "practical" can look like. Paul writes: "God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." That's the Father sending the Son. Then comes the next step: "because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" The Father sends the Son, and the Father sends the Spirit. All three are at work in a single act of rescue.
Notice how personal this is. Paul isn't describing a cosmic energy. He describes a Father who sends, a Son who is born into a human family and takes on the law's weight, and a Spirit who enters our hearts and cries out. An impersonal force cannot adopt anyone. Adoption needs a someone doing the adopting, and someone receiving.
"Abba" is a word of closeness, the kind a child uses for a father. The surprising part is who is crying it. Paul says the Spirit cries it "in our hearts." Your ability to speak to God as Father is not only your own effort; the Spirit does that with you. When prayer feels stiff or forced, this is good news. You are joining a conversation that is already going on.
The passage ends with a contrast: "you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God." A slave works to stay in the house. A son belongs there. The Trinity is practical because it tells you how this belonging was secured: the Father planned it, the Son accomplished it, and the Spirit makes it real in you.
What about Lewis's point that character shapes our knowledge of God? Scripture agrees that knowing God is not just about information. Jesus says the pure in heart will see God (Matthew 5:8). Your habits and attitudes can make you more or less ready to recognize him. That is a reason to pay attention to how you are living, and not only to what you are thinking.
So if God has felt distant or abstract, start here. The God of the Bible has moved toward you, in three persons, to bring you in.
Key idea
The Trinity is good news because a personal God, Father, Son and Spirit, acts together to bring you into his family as a child and heir.
Questions to consider
- When you picture God, is he closer to a distant force or to a personal Father? What in Galatians 4:4-7 challenges or confirms that picture?
- Lewis says personal character helps or hinders knowing God. What attitude or habit of yours might be getting in the way right now?
Journal prompt
Write a short prayer that begins with the word "Father" and tells him honestly where you are today.
Practice
1. Once a day for six days, pause for one minute and pray the single word "Abba" or "Father," then say one sentence to God about your day. 2. At the end of the week, write down one way this made God feel more personal.