The Trinity Series: The Question Of Subordination

The term “Trinity” does not appear in Scripture.

However, the word is used by theologians to describe what the Scriptures reveal about who and what God is, namely, it describes God as being three co-equal, co-infinite and co-eternal persons with each sharing the same divine essence.

It means that in the one God (1 Corinthians 8:4) there are three persons-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So there is one God and in God there are three persons.

They describe themselves in Scripture as Father, Son and Spirit and each of whom is identified in Scripture as God.

The Father, Son and Spirit are identical in being.

No one person is of higher or lesser status than any other.

One of the problems which theologians have wrestled with in the past and continue to wrestle with today is that of the nature of the relations of the members of the Trinity.

Specifically, the issue is with regards to whether or not the Son and the Spirit are subordinate to the Father.

First of all, the Scriptures reject any idea that the Son or Spirit is subordinate “in essence” to the Father.

Orthodox believers of all denominations and fellowships of churches affirm that all three persons of the Trinity are perfectly equal as to substance or essence.

Some argue that the subordination of the Son and the Spirit to the Father was for a limited period of time meaning that it lasted only during the period of the First Advent of Jesus Christ.

Other theologians have argued that the Son is eternally subordinate in role to the Father and the Spirit is eternally subordinate to the Father as well as the Son.

That the Son and the Spirit are subordinate to the Father with regards to the redemption of sinful mankind is clearly taught in the Scriptures as we have pointed out in our studies of each member of the Trinity and their work on behalf of sinners.

However, the Scriptures do teach that there is also an order in the eternal relations of the persons of the Trinity in the sense that the Son and the Spirit are eternally subordinate to the Father as indicated by their names Father, Son and Spirit.

The Scriptures teach that the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-Man is subordinate to the Father even though He is co-infinite, co-equal and co-eternal with both the Father and the Spirit.

Hebrews 10:5-7 records God the Son voluntarily subordinating Himself to the Father’s will by becoming a human being.

Hebrews 10:5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.’” (NIV)

So before He became a human being the Scriptures teach that the Son subordinated Himself to His Father’s will.

Of course, the Scriptures also teach that as a human being, the Son subordinated Himself to His Father’s will as well.

Luke 22:39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (NIV)

The Scriptures teach that the Son’s subordination to His Father’s will before He became a human being and as a human being does not indicate inferiority to the Father or that He is less than the Father or deity because of doing so.

David MacLeod writes “The Scriptural evidence for the eternality of the Son’s subordination to the Father is as follows: (1) Christ’s Sonship is eternal. The Son was ‘sent’ into the world, and only one already existing could be sent [Gal. 4:4; cf. John 3:16–17]. That there is rank or role involved is indicated by the fact that it is the Son and not the Father who was sent. (2) The Son came to do the will of the Father, ‘the will of Him who sent Me’ [John 4:34; cf. Luke 2:49; John 6:38–40; 17:4; Heb. 10:7–9]. (3) The Son is the Father’s agent in creation. All things were created ‘through Him’ [John 1:3] and ‘by Him’ [Col. 1:16]. In 1 Corinthians 8:6 the Father is said to be the originator of all things and Christ is His agent. The Father and the Son are united in being, but they are ‘ranked in function’ (4) In the pre-temporal councils of God the Father is singled out as the member of the Godhead who elects His people. Ephesians 1:3–6 certainly teaches functional distinctions within the Godhead. (5) In 1 Corinthians 15:58 Paul indicates that in eternity future the Son will be subordinate to the Father. (Paul Rainbow, “Orthodox Trinitarianism and Evangelical Feminism” [unpublished ms.]); Stephen D. Kovach and Peter R. Schemm, Jr., “A Defense of the Doctrine of the Eternal Subordination of the Son,” JETS 42 (Sept., 1999): 470-72. Both of these articles have impressive discussions of the history of this doctrine that clearly demonstrate that it is the historical view of orthodoxy.”

In the pages of Scripture, God has clearly revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

These are not just temporary labels adopted for redemptive history bur rather they tell us who God is eternally and antecedently in Himself.

Robert Letham writes “If God’s self-revelation in human history was simply a convention designed only for our salvation we could not know Him truly.”

In the first century, Ignatius (35-107) offers the best description of the unity between the Father, Son and Spirit in chapter two of his Epistle to the Philippians.

He was the bishop of Antioch and wrote a number of letters to churches in Asia Minor as well as one to Rome, where he was martyred by Emperor Trajan.

His letters reveal several developments in Christian theology from the apostolic period to the second century a.d.

Ignatius writes “There is then one God and Father, and not two or three; One who is; and there is no other besides Him, the only true [God]. For ‘the Lord thy God,’ saith [the Scripture], ‘is one Lord.’ And again, ‘Hath not one God created us? Have we not all one Father? And there is also one Son, God the Word. For “the only-begotten Son,’ saith [the Scripture], ‘who is in the bosom of the Father.’ And again, ‘One Lord Jesus Christ.’ And in another place, ‘What is His name, or what His Son’s name, that we may know?’ And there is also one Paraclete. For ‘there is also,’ saith [the Scripture], ‘one Spirit,’ since ‘we have been called in one hope of our calling.’ And again, ‘We have drunk of one Spirit,’ with what follows. And it is manifest that all these gifts [possessed by believers] ‘worketh one and the self-same Spirit.’ There are not then either three Fathers, or three Sons, or three Paracletes, but one Father, and one Son, and one Paraclete. Wherefore also the Lord, when He sent forth the apostles to make disciples of all nations, commanded them to ‘baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,’ not unto one [person] having three names, nor into three [persons] who became incarnate, but into three possessed of equal honour.”

One of the more famous of the early fathers of the church was Athanasius (297-373).

He was the archbishop of Alexandria and was exiled five times.

Athanasius taught that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit can never be separated.

He taught that the Trinity is indivisible in the sense that wherever the Father is mentioned, the Son is also understood and wherever the Son is, the Holy Spirit is also in the Son.

The Son is the image of the Father and the Holy Spirit is the image of the Son.

The Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son and the Holy Spirit is in the Son and the Son is in the Holy Spirit.

Athanasius writes “There is, then, a triad, holy and complete, confessed to be God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit…The Father does all things through the Word in the Holy Spirit. Thus, the unity of the holy Triad is preserved…It is a Triad no only in name…but in truth and actuality. For as the Father is he that is, so also his Word is one that is and God over all. And the Holy Spirit is not without actual existence, but exists and has true being. Less than these (persons) the catholic Church does not hold.”[1]

The creed from the First Council of Constantinople said the following: “We believe in one only God, Father Almighty, Creator of things visible and invisible; and in the Lord Jesus Christ, for he is the Word of God, God of God, Light of Light, life of life, his only Son, the first-born of all creatures, begotten of the Father before all time, by whom also everything was created, who became flesh for our redemption, who lived and suffered amongst men, rose again the third day, returned to the Father, and will come again one day in his glory to judge the quick and the dead. We believe also in the Holy Ghost. We believe that each of these three is and subsists; the Father truly as Father, the Son truly as Son, the Holy Ghost truly as Holy Ghost; as our Lord also said, when he sent his disciples to preach: Go and teach all nations, and baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

[1] Serapion, 1.27-28; PG 26:593-96