Altruism And The Trinity

When arguing for proofs of the existence of God, many people bring up the moral law. Yet an atheist might be able to explain the moral law away citing sociological conditions and other various explanations. However, when the issue of altruism comes up, atheists are at a lost to account for this total self giving of a person for the sake of another, without hope of any recompense or recognition. On the other hand, Theists, namely those who believe in a Triune God, have a simple explanation for this seemingly unexplainable phenomenon. The answer is the Trinity. The fact that God created us in His image and likeness is the key to understanding why altruism exists. God is love (1 Jn 4:8) and the bond that unites the Father and the Son in the Trinity is the Holy Spirit, Who is the total self-donation by which the Father pours out Himself in love to the Son and the Son to the Father. The self-donating love seen in the Trinity is the law of God’s covenant with us and we are called to imitate this love. We are to give our entire selves to each other out of charity and in so doing give our whole self back to God. This is what Christ did on the Cross for our salvation. He succeeded where Adam failed. The first Adam was unwilling to lay down his life for his bride and his Father. The second Adam willingly offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice and thereby gained redemption for us all. “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (Jn 15:13).