Nearly all Christians are what scholars call “traditionalists” due to their belief that Jesus is God. The church doctrine of the Trinity says God is one essence existing as three co-equal and co-eternal Persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. But the New Testament (NT) repeatedly describes Jesus as subordinate to God to Father, which seems to conflict with them being equal, and scholars label it a paradox. Raymond E. Brown acknowledges that “even in the New Testament works that speak of Jesus as God, there are also passages that seem to militate against such a usage.”
This apparent conflict is most evident in the Gospel of John. Traditionalists and others believe this gospel identifies Jesus as God more than perhaps the rest of the Bible. Therefore, some New Testament scholars refer to this apparent conflict as “the Johannine riddle.” The Johannine Jesus admits to this subordination by claiming that the Father sends him, empowers him, and gives him all authority in heaven and earth, including raising the dead and judging them. The paramount question is whether the Fourth Gospel portrays Jesus as essentially subordinate or functionally subordinate to God the Father. According to the church doctrine of incarnation, Jesus could only have been the latter.
When the Johannine Jesus was accused of making himself equal with God (John 5.18, he vehemently denied it by revealing his essential subordination to the Father. He immediately said of himself, “the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner” (v. 19). And he adds, “I can do nothing on My own initiative” (v. 30). He was referring to his having just healed the paralytic (vv. 8-9).
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Author: Kermit Zarley
Keywords: Trinity, Triunity, Trinitarianism, Trinitarian, Arianism, Arian, Three in one, Three gods, Three gods one person, Arius, Arias, Nicene Creed, Nicaea, Nicea, Athanasian Creed, Athanasius, Triune, Three persons in one God, Jesus God, God the Son, Nicene, Nicean Creed, Council of Nicaea, Council of Nicea, homoiousios, Homoousios, Homoiousian, subordination, Jesus subordinate to the Father, subordinationism, Father greater than I, My father is greater than I
Bible reference(s): John 5:19, Joh 5:30, Joh 8:28, John 14:28, Acts 3:13, Act 4:27, Act 4:30, 1 Corinthians 3:23, 1 Cor 11:3, 1 Corinthians 15:24
Source: “Is Jesus God or Subordinate to God?”
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