What does it mean that Jesus, the Son, is the second Person of the Trinity?

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The question of what it means that Jesus is "the second Person of the Trinity" touches the deepest mystery of the Christian faith: the nature of God Himself. Scripture reveals that God is one, yet existing eternally in three distinct Persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — each fully God, yet not three Gods but one. The Eternal Relationship of Father and Son The title "second Person" does not imply inferiority or a later origin. It speaks of an eternal relationship within the Godhead. The Son is not "second" in rank or importance, but in the order of the divine Persons as revealed in Scripture: the Father sends, the Son is sent, and the Spirit proceeds. Hamilton Smith lays out the foundation from John 1: "In the beginning was the Word." All created things, and every created being in the universe had a beginning, but the Word was in the beginning. At the beginning of all things the Word was there, without any beginning. "In the beginning was the Word," is the formal assertion of the eternal existence of the Word. Then we are told "the Word was with God." He was a distinct Person in the Godhead, for He was "with God." Furthermore we read "the Word was God." Though distinct in Person He was not different in nature, for He was God — a divine Person. Then we have the additional statement, "He was in the beginning with God." The mind of man might argue, and indeed has done so, that while it is true the Word is now a distinct Person, yet He was not always so. But this verse rebukes such a thought and tells us plainly that His distinct Personality is as eternal as His deity. Here then we have the solid foundation of our Christian faith — the glory of the Person of the Son — an eternal Person, a distinct Person, a Divine Person, and an eternally distinct Person. Hamilton Smith Three Persons, Yet One God — Not Three Gods A danger in thinking about the Trinity is drifting into "tritheism" — imagining three separate, independent Gods. R. Elliott addresses this with great precision in his pamphlet The Truth as to The Trinity: The threefold personality of God does not contradict His unity in any way: it shows the manner or condition of it. There are not three independent units side by side, on a level with each other, each almighty, each eternal, each finding in Himself the source of His own life. The unity of the three blessed Persons is not a similarity of character and qualities and powers … three Beings each of Whom is a God. It is true though inexpressible, unity of Three Persons … incapable of existence apart from one another. The life of all three is one and the same life, and it has but one source, not three. The very titles by which They are known to us, imply this. They are not proper names, like those of heathen divinities, but titles of relationship, which involve each other, and would be meaningless alone. Fatherhood is impossible without sonship, and sonship without fatherhood. R. Elliott The Son Is Not a Title Acquired at the Incarnation A crucial point: "the Son" was not a title Christ acquired when born of Mary. The relationship of Father and Son belongs to the very being of God from all eternity. Elliott insists: There never was a moment when He was not the "only begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father." Are we to suppose that the Son was never in the bosom of the Father until after He was in the bosom of Mary? Far be the thought. And pressing the logic further: When Scripture declares "The Father sent the Son," it means precisely what it says. It means we are to understand that the Son existed as such before He was sent. Just as it means the Spirit already existed before being "sent forth." Hebrews 1: The Son from Everlasting to Everlasting An article in The Bible Treasury (1877) traces the glory of the Son through Hebrews 1: In Hebrews 1–2, THE SON is remarkably brought before us; in chapter 1 as to His eternal Godhead, and in chapter 2 as to His manhood. Yet not exclusively so in either chapter, for how could this blessed One, who is both God and man in one person, be divided? The writer shows that the Son is presented "from everlasting to everlasting": He is truly "the First and the Last." Not only did He most truthfully say, "Before Abraham was I am," but He was before anything was which is made, for it is said of Him, "by whom also he made the worlds." We read elsewhere also that He had glory with the Father before the world was, and, father and son being relative terms, we find here His eternal Sonship most plainly revealed. J.N. Darby on the Pre-Existing Sonship J.N. Darby, commenting on John 17:5, observes that Christ's prayer to be glorified with the glory He had "before the world was" proves His eternal, personal Sonship: The glory is not spoken of as given. He is glorified as Man; but it is with glory which He had with the Father before the world was. It is not given glory at all here as to His Person … The glory of His Person was not given. He had it with the Father before the world was. This is a remarkable and blessed point. It proves the pre-existing Sonship. J.N. Darby Darby also notes the inseparable working of the three Persons: In truth the second Person of the Godhead is He in whom Jehovah is revealed … We may see how the three persons are closely connected all through the acts of Christ, even in the miracles — Christ as Son wrought the miracles; but it is said, "The Father that is in me, he doeth the works." And also, "If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God." So we see the three inseparably united, as in the resurrection of Christ also. This is a remarkable and blessed point. It proves the pre-existing Sonship. "Only Begotten" — A Unique Eternal Relationship Hamilton Smith explains the term "only begotten" as expressing not a birth with a beginning, but a unique, eternal relationship: While Scripture makes very plain that there are distinct Persons in the Godhead, it also shows that the Persons of the Godhead are not independent but related. And, as with Abraham and Isaac, so with Divine Persons, the expression "only-begotten" is used to set forth the unique relationship eternally existing between the Son and the Father. "We beheld," says the Apostle, "His glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father" (John 1:14); again we read of "the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father" — passages which bring before us the mutuality of divine and eternal affections between the Father and the Son. The Father delighting in the Son as an only-begotten; the Son in the bosom of the Father rejoicing in the Father's love. Hamilton Smith Each Person Has His Appropriate Place W. Kelly, commenting on Hebrews 10, shows how the three Persons each play a distinct role in salvation: We have had the will of God as the source of our salvation, and the Saviour's work as the efficacious means. There now follows the no less indispensable witness of the Holy Spirit as the unfailing power of bringing our souls into the possession and knowledge of the blessing. Thus each person of the Godhead has His appropriate place, and all contribute to this end as worthy of God as it is needed by man. W. Kelly Morrish's Bible Dictionary Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary gives a compact definition: Trinity. A word only used to convey the thought of a plurality of Persons in the Godhead. This was revealed at the baptism of the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit descended 'like a dove' and abode upon Him; and God the Father declared "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." … The three Persons are also named in the formula instituted by Christ in baptism. Matt. 28:19. Yet there is but one God. 1 Tim. 2:5. Synthesis To say that Jesus is "the second Person of the Trinity" is to affirm several truths at once: 1. He is eternally God. The Son did not come into existence at Bethlehem. He was in the beginning — without beginning — the Word who was with God and was God. 2. He is a distinct Person. He is not the Father, nor the Spirit. He was "with God" — a real, personal distinction within the one Godhead, not merely a different mode or role. 3. He stands in an eternal relationship of Sonship. The names Father and Son are not titles adopted in time for the purpose of redemption; they belong to the very being of God. Fatherhood is impossible without sonship — and both are from everlasting. 4. His place as "second" speaks of relationship, not rank. The Father is the source; the Son is the One who reveals, who is sent, who carries out the Father's will — not because He is lesser, but because this is the eternal order within the divine life itself. "As the Father has life in Himself, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself" (John 5:26). 5. The three Persons are inseparable. They are not three Gods working in cooperation, but one God whose inner life is a fellowship of Father, Son, and Spirit — each distinct, each fully God, yet incapable of existence apart from one another. The incarnation did not create the Son; it revealed Him. The One who lay in the manger was the same glorious Person who had glory with the Father before the world was.

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