What does it mean that the Father is the first Person of the Trinity?

God the Father. As we have just said, it is the Father's name which is ever upon our Lord's lips, and this does not mean merely the relationship of God to the Lord Jesus as we speak of His relationship to ourselves, but it means specifically the first person of the Trinity revealed as Father, the One who declares His good pleasure in His Son.

No. If someone refers to Father, Son and Spirit as ‘first’, ‘second’ and ‘third’ persons of the godhead this is not a rank order but simply an enumeration (perhaps this way of speaking should be avoided to avoid misunderstandings?).

We are accustomed to speak of the first, second and third Persons of the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Doubtless the formula for baptism has led to this order, and the wisdom of it can be easily seen. But we must be very careful not to place the Persons in our minds as in order of importance. There have been some of late who have put dishonour on our blessed Lord by declaring that He, the Son, was in the nature of things inferior to His Father, and that in face of the Scripture, “That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father” (John 5:23).

A document may have to be signed by three persons. They must of necessity be placed in order of first, second and third. But that does not mean necessarily that first, second and third in order of importance. We might illustrate it by a chandelier with three arms at equal distances. If it were necessary to distinguish one from the other, how would we begin? They are alike in appearance and use. They are equally distant from each other. How would we begin? We should be obliged to number them one, two and three. But that certainly would not designate any difference in importance.

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are equally God. The order in which the names are put in Matthew 28:19 does not indicate any difference in status, but is casual: the Father sent the Son; the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

Here it would be well to give a word of warning. We might be inclined to look upon the Father as first in importance; the Son as second in importance; the Holy Spirit as third in importance. But this would be an utterly wrong thought. If the Father is God, He is supreme, and none higher. If the Son is God, He is supreme, and none higher. If the Holy Spirit is God, He is supreme, and none higher.

A first suggests not only pre-eminence, but authorship. As the First, our God has brought into being the whole universe of material and spiritual existence. The first excludes from its own domain a second, and yet there would be nothing with which to compare it were there no second. All that follows, therefore, is in that sense in subordination to Him that is first.

Now, as an ordinal number, the first, the beginning: He who is in true active energy the beginning, is Creator, Life-giver, Father; counsel and election connect with it; and sovereignty is implied in all of this.

Will the reader notice that the apostle Paul does not stop at God, neither does the passage run "one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." We should have expected either one or the other. But the statement is, "To us there is but one God, the Father." Nor is it here as simply the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is neither God in unity, nor God in the full revelation of the Trinity. But the stupendous truth is asserted as to the place and position of the Father. Because what can be said of Him could not be said of either of the other Persons in the Trinity, and that is why they are not mentioned.

Scripture also reveals the fact that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are pleased to assume different offices and fulfil different functions, if one may employ human language to express these varied activities. "The Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son … and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man." Here we see there is something the Father does not do: while on the other hand, He is the source of all and gives authority to all. It is He Who commits all judgment to the Son. Contrariwise there are matters He keeps in His own power. "But of that day and that hour knows no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father" (Mark 13:32). And again, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has put in His own power" (Acts 1:7).

To God the Father belongs initiative. All purpose, counsel, direction, are His. To God the Son belongs administration — the execution of the Divine purpose whether in creation, redemption, or judgment. To God the Holy Ghost belongs the energy all-pervading that, acting always in perfect harmony with the Father's counsels and the Son's administration, produces the desired effects whether upon matter in creation, or upon the souls and ultimately the bodies of saints in connection with redemption.