How can there be subordination in the Trinity?

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This is one of the most delicate questions in the Christian faith: if the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all equally God, how can Scripture speak of the Son being "sent" by the Father, being "subject" to the Father, and saying "My Father is greater than I"? The key distinction, drawn consistently across these writings, is between what the Son is essentially and what He became voluntarily. There is no subordination in the Godhead as to nature or deity — but there is a willing, voluntary taking of distinct roles within the one divine purpose. Essential Equality — No Subordination in Deity William Kelly addresses this head-on in his lectures on the Church of God: I do not however admire the expression "second" or "third" person; and for this reason, that it tends to bring in a subordination in the Godhead where scripture does not. You cannot have a secondary God. You may bring human reasonings into the subject, and talk about a son, and his subjection to his father; but therein is the very thing which is so dangerous, and of which, to my mind, the devil has taken great advantage. The scripture shows that the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Ghost is God; that they are one and all equally Jehovah. Subordination in respect of Deity is only a means of undermining the proper Godhead of the Son and the Spirit. The notion of subordination is true only when we look at the place of manhood the Son deigned to take, or at the office the blessed Holy Ghost is now filling to the glory of the Son, just as the Son served and will yet reign to the glory of God the Father. William Kelly W.J. Hocking reinforces this with great precision, showing that the Son's obedience during His earthly life must not be misread as implying inferiority in the Godhead: But, as if to guard against any carnal conclusion that this obedience of the Son implies His subordination in the Godhead, the Son added, "What things soever He (the Father) does, these also does the Son likewise" (John 5:19). There is, therefore, in essential Being and essential Doing, perfect equality between the Father and the Son. W.J. Hocking And further: There was no subordination in the Deity, but in the work of creation the Son was Principal as well as Agent, acting in His own proper personal right, while acting also in absolute co-operation with the Father. As the Son said, "My Father works hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17), intimating, as the Jews to whom He was speaking understood, that He was equal with, not subordinate to God. perfect equality between the Father and the Son. Voluntary, Not Essential — The Critical Distinction F.B. Hole draws this out with a memorable illustration: In the business world we sometimes see a father take his sons into an equal partnership and yet retain himself a controlling voice in matters of high policy and finance. The sons are on absolute equality with their father and far more active than he in executing the firm's transactions, yet subordinated to his ripe judgment and wisdom. Let this illustration show how amongst men these two things may be present together in perfect consistency with each other. F.B. Hole His conclusion is precise: We distinguish, therefore, between what the Lord Jesus was and is essentially — equal with God, and what He became relatively — subordinate to the Father's will. He explains that "My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28) refers not to any deficiency in the Son's deity but to the position He voluntarily assumed: The Lord Jesus was the sent One of the Father, "sanctified [i.e. set apart] and sent into the world" (John 10:36), and as such He became the Servant of the Father's glory and of man's blessing — the true Hebrew servant of Exodus 21:2-6. The incarnate Son, therefore, became subject to the Father, moving and acting in reference to Him instead of acting on His own initiative. "Apparent" Subordination — Distinct Persons, One Purpose E.C. Hadley puts it with particular care: So if the Son takes a place of apparent subordination to the Father and the Spirit takes a place of apparent subordination to the Son, yet it is apparent only, for in fact, each is willingly doing His own part in conjunction and concert with the other two in carrying out one common purpose and will. All three are coequal in deity, essential in being and nature, but distinct in personality and in eternal unchanging relationship to the other and each having His own part and activity which He willingly does in carrying out one divine plan and purpose. Understand it we cannot, speculate on it we dare not, believe it we must, or else we make the divinely inspired Word of God a lie. E.C. Hadley Functional Differences — Not Inferiority W.E. Hoste argues that the error lies in denying all personal distinctions between the divine Persons: The root error of all this defective "theology" is the failure to recognize the functional differences between the Persons of the Trinity. "There is but one God, the Father" (1 Cor. 8:6). To Him belongs origination: "of whom are all things, and we in Him": election, "according to His own foreknowledge," "and times and seasons" (Acts 1:7), etc. W.E. Hoste And concerning the Son: To the Son belongs execution and administration "by whom are all things and we in Him," He carries out the Divine purposes; He is the agent in Creation and Redemption. He does not send or give the Father, but the Father Him, and that "from heaven." The Spirit likewise, "though co-equal with the Father and the Son, was sent forth by them" (John 14:26; 16:7). Being sent does not make a divine Person inferior — it reflects the eternal mode of the Trinity's operation. The Son "Subject" — 1 Corinthians 15:28 J.N. Darby addresses the climactic passage where Paul says the Son Himself will be "subject" to the Father when all things are subdued: When He has put all His enemies under His feet, and has given back the kingdom to His Father … then the Son Himself is subject to Him who has put all things under Him, in order that God may be all in all. The reader should observe, that it is the counsels of God with regard to the government of all things which is here spoken of, and not His nature; and moreover it is the Son, as man, of whom these things are said. J.N. Darby And crucially: He does not cease to be one with the Father, even as He was so while living in humiliation on the earth, although saying at the same time "Before Abraham was, I am." But the mediatorial government of man has disappeared — is absorbed in the supremacy of God, to which there is no longer any opposition. Christ will take His eternal place, a Man, the Head of the whole redeemed family, being at the same time God blessed for ever, one with the Father. The reader should observe, that it is the counsels of God with regard to the government of all things which is here spoken of, and not His nature; and moreover it is the Son, as man, of whom these things are said. Philippians 2 — Not Robbery to Be Equal with God A.J. Westcott draws from Philippians 2 to show that the Son's humiliation was not an ascent from a lower position, but a descent from absolute equality: He was not in an inferior or subordinate position, like Lucifer or like Adam, to look up and crave after Godhead honours through lust of possession. No; being already in the Form of God, and possessed of the Godhead glories we have been considering, He could not crave after being what He was already. The Heir-apparent to the Throne of England does not lust after being the Prince of Wales, nor seek by ambition and robbery to attain that status. He is Prince of Wales by virtue of his family position. To Christ it was no robbery nor object of robbery to be equal with God. **To humble Himself was possible; to exalt Himself to a higher level was not. A.J. Westcott Synthesis The testimony across these writers is remarkably consistent: there is no subordination in the Trinity as to essential being, nature, or deity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are coequal, co-eternal, and one God. What Scripture reveals is not a hierarchy of essence but a voluntary distinction of roles — the Father originates and purposes, the Son executes and reveals, the Spirit empowers and applies. When the Son says "My Father is greater than I," He speaks from the position of manhood He willingly assumed, not from any inferiority of divine nature. The subordination is relational and voluntary, not ontological**. The Son was not less than the Father and reaching upward; He was equal with the Father and chose to take the servant's place. Even in the age to come, when the Son delivers up the kingdom and is Himself "subject" (1 Cor. 15:28), it is as man, Head of the redeemed family — never ceasing to be what He eternally is: God blessed for ever.

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