Equal and Yet Subject

Start with a question Is Jesus equal with God? And if He is, how can He be sent by the Father, subject to the Father, and have a God? Many people feel they must choose between two: He's equal or He's subject. The Bible doesn't choose. It holds both together perfectly. Let's look at how.

What the Son received The name. "Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." (Hebrews 1:4) By inheritance. A son inherits. And we saw in Lesson 14 that the Father said of His Angel/Son: "my name is in him" (Exodus 23:21). In Scripture, a "name" means much more than a label. It signifies:

1. Nature (Genesis 5:2)
2. Character (Exodus 34:5–7)
3. Identity (Proverbs 30:4)
4. Reputation and glory (Proverbs 22:1)
5. Authority (John 5:43; Matthew 21:23)
6. Power (Luke 9:1; Acts 4:7)

To have the Father's name in Him means to bear His nature, character, authority, and power.

Life. "For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." (John 5:26) "For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." (John 5:21) The Father gave the Son life in Himself—the exact same kind of unborrowed, underived, immortal life the Father has. It is one of the clearest statements in Scripture that the Son is not a lesser or created being.

Fullness. "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." (Colossians 2:9) "For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell." (Colossians 1:19) Notice the second text: it was the Father's good pleasure. The Son's divine fullness is a gift, and a willing one.

Is He equal with God? Yes. The Bible says so plainly. "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." (Philippians 2:6) And the Jews understood it exactly that way: "Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him... but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God" (John 5:18). In John 10:33 they said, "thou, being a man, makest thyself God." Jesus' reply there (John 10:34–36) is worth noticing. He pointed to the scripture that calls human judges "gods" (Psalm 82:6), and asked why it should be blasphemy to say "I am the Son of God." He doesn't deny the claim of equality. But He anchors it directly in His Sonship. And the Father commands that the Son be honored equally: "That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." (John 5:23) "And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him." (Hebrews 1:6) "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me." (John 14:1)

What is His equality based on? Here is the question that separates the biblical view from the Trinitarian view.

1. Is the Son equal because He is "the second Person of a Trinity" (co-equal and co-eternal in being)?
2. Or is He equal because He is the literal Son, begotten of the Father and so having the Father's nature?

Read Hebrews 1: "But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever... therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee." (Hebrews 1:8–9) He is addressed as God because He is the Son: "unto the Son he saith." The passage is built entirely on Sonship. And it does something profound: in the exact same breath that the Son is called God, the Father is called His God.

Think back to the analogies in Lesson 20. A child is as much a human as his father, because he came from him. He inherits the father's nature. In the exact same way, the Son has the nature of the Father. He is equal in nature, as a son is equal to a father in nature.

And yet: the Father's sovereignty At the same time, the Bible gives the Father a unique, supreme place. Look at what the Father is:

1. The source of all things. "Of whom are all things" (1 Corinthians 8:6; Romans 11:36; Ephesians 3:14–15).
2. The God of Christ, both when He was on earth and after He rose (Matthew 27:46; John 20:17; Ephesians 1:3; Revelation 3:12).
3. The "Most High," while the Son is "Son of the Most High" (Mark 5:7; Luke 8:28).
4. Greater than all (John 10:29), and "greater than I" (John 14:28).
5. The head of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:3).
6. Above all (Ephesians 4:6).
7. Lord of heaven and earth (Matthew 11:25).

And the Son received from the Father:

1. His life (John 5:26)
2. His authority (Matthew 11:27; 28:18; John 5:22–27; 17:2)
3. His kingdom (Daniel 7:14; Luke 1:32)
4. His honor and worship (John 5:23; Philippians 2:9–11)
5. His name (Philippians 2:9; Hebrews 1:4)
6. All things (John 3:35; Hebrews 1:2)

Notice the verb: everything the Son has, He received.

Holding both together The Bible presents both:

1. Equality of nature: He is divine, has life in Himself, is worthy of worship.
2. Sovereignty of the Father: He is the source, the God of the Son, and the one to whom the Son will finally be subject.

Sonship is what holds the two together. It explains why the Son is equal (He has His Father's nature) and why the Father is sovereign (He is the source). My son is equal to me as a human being, and yet I am his father. The relationship is real, literal, and beautiful.

A fair response, and a test Trinitarians will often reply: "We also say the Son is subordinate to the Father. Many speak of the Son being 'subordinate in role, equal in being.' Isn't your view the same, only with different words?"

It is true that many Trinitarians affirm the Son's obedience and submission. So there is real overlap. But the difference lies in the source of the Son's divinity and in what "one God" means:

1. In the Trinitarian view, the Son is equal in being because the three Persons share one being, and none is "from" another in being. (Even though the creed says the Son is begotten, they redefine it as "eternal generation" to avoid a beginning).
2. In the biblical view, the Son is equal in nature because He is begotten of the Father's own substance, and the Father alone is "the only true God," the source.

Only one of these accounts for “of whom are all things,” “the God of Christ,” and “he gave to the Son to have life in himself”: the Son is equal because He is begotten of the Father’s own substance, and the Father is the source. Module 6 tests this against the hard texts.