John describes the Son as living from all eternity in the "bosom of the Father" (Jn 1.18), an ancient metaphor for love and intimacy. Later in John's gospel, Jesus, the Son, describes the Spirit as living to "glorify" him (Jn 16.14). In turn, the Son glorifies the Father (Jn 17.4) and the Father, the Son (Jn 17.5). This has been going on for all eternity (Jn 17.5b).
Keller then defines "glorify" as praising, enjoying, and delighting in someone or something. That is to simply enjoy the object of glory for what it is, being in its presence is the reward. To glorify also implies to defer to or prefer. When one glorifies another our ultimate joy is the joy of the other.
With that as a backdrop, Keller uses the words of NT Wright to paint a picture of "the divine dance" in which the members of the trinity glorify each other.
The Father . . . Son . . . and Holy Spirit glorify each other. . . . At the center of the universe, self-giving love is the dynamic currency of the Trinitarian life of God. The persons within God exalt, commune with, and defer to one another. . . . When early Greek Christians spoke of perichoresis in God they meant that each divine person harbors the others at the center of his being. In constant movement of overture and acceptance each person envelops and encircles the others.
In Christianity God is not an impersonal thing nor a static thing - not even just one person - but a dynamic pulsating activity, a life, a kind of drama, almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. . . . [The] pattern of this three-personal life is . . . the great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality.
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