How can there be subordination in the Trinity?
The Bible names three divine Persons — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — yet it also shows the Son sent, obeying, and saying that the Father is greater than He. So does that language put the Son and the Spirit on a lower rung, or is something else being described?
Equal in nature, distinct in Person
The starting point for the writers is that Scripture never grades the divine Persons by rank or worth.
W. W. FeredayScripture is most plain, whatever unbelief may say, that there are three distinct Persons in the Godhead, equal in power, majesty, and glory, each taking His own part in all that is done, whether in creation or redemption, yet always acting in perfect unity and communion.
"The Father is greater than I"
This is the sentence most often used to argue for inequality. The commentators read it as a statement about where the Son then stood, not about what He is.
F. B. HoleThe last words of this verse, "the Father is greater than I," have been made into an occasion of stumbling to some. But here we have the Word made flesh speaking, and He speaks as the lowly Man on earth. So in position or station the Father was greater than He, while as to being and nature He and the Father were one.
There is a further turn. On any ordinary lips the comparison would be pointless — which is why the saying itself argues for who He is.
William KellyWhere would be the sense of any other man (and man He surely was and is) saying, "My Father is greater than I"? A strange piece of information in the mouth of a Moses or a Daniel, a Peter or a Paul; but in Him, how fitting and even necessary — yet only so because He was truly God and equal with the Father, as He was man, the sent One, and so the Father was greater than He.
Subjection is not inferiority
Obedience does not measure worth. And in the Son's case the obedience was itself an act of His own will.
William John HockingWhile the Incarnate Son continuously showed absolute subjection to the will of the Father, this sacred service was equally the exercise of His own will, the same will in Deity and in manhood. But this unique glory of the obedience of the Son is at once dimmed by the bold assumption that He was inferior to the Father, whether in essential nature or in relationship. Even among people, a son is not always the lesser. Could it be said that Abraham was inferior to Terah? or Moses to Amram? or David to Jesse?
What He gave up, and what He could not
Philippians 2 says the Son "emptied Himself." Writers are careful about what that emptying could and could not touch.
James BoydThis emptying of Himself was in no way the giving up of Godhead, which could not be, but the giving up of the whole position that belonged to Godhead, and the becoming a servant to the Godhead for the Godhead's glory. This was not done by the Father, who remains in His eternal status and position unchanged. It is true of the Son only, who came to do the Father's will, and who did it at all cost to Himself.
One purpose, different parts
Seen from inside the Godhead, the ordering is not a chain of command but a shared plan.
E. C. HadleySo if the Son takes a place of apparent subordination to the Father, and the Spirit takes a place of apparent subordination to the Son, it is apparent only. In fact each is willingly doing His own part together 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 each other.
The same pattern shows up in the Spirit, who is sent and who does not speak on His own.
Michael HardtThe persons of the Godhead act in unison of counsel (they are of the same mind and they work together) but undertake different tasks and activities in fulfilling a common objective. The Spirit voluntarily takes the subject place of being sent (as does the Son). Yet there is no question of inferiority, and both are absolutely on the same level ("coequal") with the Father.
The Son subject at the end
Paul writes that the Son Himself will be subjected to God, that God may be all in all. The kingdom in view is one He received, not one He always held.
J. N. DarbyAnyone acquainted with Scripture must see that there is a kingdom given to Christ as Man, distinct from His personal glory as God… This is clearly given to man, put under Him as Man, and not yet put under Him; it is a matter of dispensation, which does not affect any question of Godhead. This He gives up, and it no more affects the question of His being God than it did before He received it.
Where writers differ
Some have tied the subject place to Sonship itself. Others resist that link.
F. B. HoleIt is true, of course, that in coming into the world the Son took a subject place. But why attribute that subjection to His Sonship?
Summary
- Equal — Father, Son and Spirit are three distinct Persons, equal in power, majesty and glory; no rank divides them.
- Position — "The Father is greater than I" speaks of station, not of nature; what changed at the incarnation was where the Son stood, not who He is.
- Willing — His subjection was the exercise of His own will; nothing was imposed on Him, and nothing of Godhead was surrendered.
- Shared — the Spirit likewise takes the sent, subject place, so all three carry out one purpose with different parts.
- Handed back — the kingdom the Son gives up at the end was given to Him as Man, so returning it settles nothing about His Godhead.