I received this question in the mail last week.
QUESTION
Some Christian apologists question how Allah could be a God of love if he is absolute oneness or monadic. Who could he love before creation? In contrast, the Christian God is triune. Thus, the persons in the Trinity can love one another. This led me to reflect on another attribute of God, that is, his mercy. How does our triune God have mercy since no one within the triune Godhead needs mercy?
MY ANSWER
To your question whether the triune God had MERCY before creation – the answer is YES. God’s mercy is manifested in the Triune Covenant of Redemption.
First let me affirm your initial proposition that love is found in the triune God. Augustine, the great Christian philosopher in 5C AD shares an amazing insight which helps us grasp fully what the bible means in declaring that God is love (1 John 4:16). He explains how love is a trinity. If God is love, then there must be in him a Lover, a Beloved, and a Spirit of love; for no love is conceivable without a Lover and a Beloved. The conception of love itself always involves a trinity because it always proceeds from the Lover; it always moves forward to the Beloved; it always intertwines the two together through the common Spirit of union; “Where love is there is trinity” (Ubi amor, ibi trinitas. Augustine). In short, the Father is the lover, the Son the Beloved, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love.
In truth, genuine love entails an Other to be loved. Otherwise one could only love oneself and this would be narcissism. Unlike the monadic God of Islam, the triune God does not need to create the world in order to be a God of love. It would be instructive to see how Islamic theologians, with their great philosophical tradition would explain how a monadic God could be a God of love.
Second, the trinitarian framework within which the question is raised already points to the affirmative answer to your question. God’s mercy is evident in the Trinity’s eternal counsel not to destroy but to save the rebellious human race when it fell into sin. Before the foundation of the world, God the Father, through the Son (Jesus Christ) and in the presence of the Holy Spirit, planned and provided a way for sinners to be reconciled to him and to be blessed with eternal life and fellowship with God (Ephesians 1:1-14) – note the phrase “before the foundation of the world” in Ephesians 1:4). God the Father, and the Son who eternally shares the Father’s glory, foreseeing the fall of man, together made a covenant which provides a way to reconcile sinners to God and to bless them with eternal life and fellowship with God (Ephesians 1:1-14). In the Covenant of Redemption, the Father commissions the Son and promises him an elect people, and grants him authority over all creation (Psalm 2:7–8; John 3:16; 5: 36; 10:17–18; 17:2, 4, 6, 9, 24); the Son loves the Father, delights to do his will, (John 5:19; 17:5; Hebrews 10:7).
** Here is the answer to your question. This pre-temporal, pre-creation plan of salvation to save humans who do not deserve fellowship with God since they are both finite and fallen is an expression of the abundant and overflowing love and MERCY of the Triune God.
[Added: To the more philosophically discerning, notice that my answer redirects the focus from God’s essential attributes to his work of salvation of man. Love is an essential attribute of God. Mercy which withholds punishment from those who deserve punishment is an expression of God’s love; it is a form of relation between God and man. Conversely, wrath is an expression of the holiness of God which can tolerate no evil. God does not change in his essential nature or essential attributes, but he can change or acquire new forms of relation with his creatures].
Third, God’s pre-temporal plan of salvation gains more depth and concreteness when it is set within the teaching of God’s eternal counsel of redemption or the doctrine of the Covenant of Redemption, also called the pactum salutis (counsel of peace). It is called a “covenant” as the plan involves two or more parties, that is, among the persons of the Godhead, specifically between the Father and the Son. Louis Berkhof defines the Covenant of Redemption “as the agreement between the Father giving the Son as Head and Redeemer of all the elect and the Son voluntarily taking the place of those whom the Father has given Him.” 1Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Eerdmans, 1941. 1984 reprint), p. 271.
Note some of the prominent features of the Covenant of Redemption:
The Covenant of Redemption is a promise. Among Charles Hodge’s list of eight promises which the Father gave to the Son in the covenant of redemption are: 2) God would give the Spirit to Him without measure. 4) God would deliver Him from the power of death, and exalt Him to his own right hand in heaven; and that all power in heaven and earth should be committed to Him. (5) That Christ, as the Theanthropos (God-man) and head of the Church, should have the Holy Spirit to send to whom He willed, to renew their hearts, to satisfy and comfort them, and to qualify them for his service and kingdom. (6) That all given to Him by the Father should come to Him, and be kept by Him, so that none of them should be lost. (8) That through Christ, in Him, and in his ransomed Church, there should be made the highest manifestation of the divine perfections to all orders of holy intelligences throughout eternity.2Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (Hendrickson, 2008 reprint), vol.2 p. 362.
Fulfilment of covenantal obligation brings reward. The Son accepts his mission to be sent into the world by the Father to earn the salvation of his people by becoming the one Mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. His substitutionary death which satisfies the holiness and justice of God provides a surety or guarantee for the salvation of the elect.
However, the Son is not coerced to undertake his mission as he willingly lays aside temporarily the eternal glory which he shares with the Father to bring salvation to mankind. The Son who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men…And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8).
As a result, Christ became heir of the Father’s promise to give him an elect people (John 6: 37-40; John 10: 29; 17: 6-12, 24). Furthermore, “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2: 10-11). Christ becomes the head of the redeemed people, and God is glorified.
Show us Your mercy, Lord,
And grant us Your salvation.
Mercy and truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed. (Psalm 85: 7, 10)
I was similarly asked: “How can your Triune God be a forgiving God before creation, since no one within the Triune Godhead needs to be forgiven? Therefore, your Triune God’s forgiving nature is dependent on sin.”
Here was my layman response:
The Triune God’s nature is fundamentally love, which serves as the primary cause of His attributes. God’s merciful and forgiving qualities flow from this love, not the other way around.
God forgives because He loves. His love is the source, and forgiveness is an expression of that love.
God is merciful because He is loving. Mercy is not the foundation of His love; rather, His love enables His mercy.
To illustrate:
God’s love is like the Earth being round—an inherent, unchanging reality.
Forgiving and showing mercy are like sailing around the Earth—a possible action enabled by its roundness.
Just as the Earth remains round whether or not someone sails around it, God remains loving whether or not there is an occasion to forgive or show mercy. The existence of sin or the need for forgiveness does not define God’s loving nature. Instead, God’s love is eternal and self-existent within the Triune Godhead, and His capacity to forgive and show mercy flows from this love, not from the presence of sin.
Thus, God’s forgiving nature is not dependent on sin but is an extension of His eternal, unchanging love.