So I'm on a personal and ministerial project of writing a handbook with the intention of producing a material for a formal study on Christology. I was encouraged and tasked by our pastor in Bible college to do so and it was a delight for me to put into it all my effort, for the sake of being able to help others understand something so complex and more often read in resources reserved only for the scholarly and privileged (being that we are in a 3rd world country). My primary goal here in writing this book project is to glorify God with the gift that He has given me by producing a material that would be accessible to everyone without compromising its research value. My aim is to put into one effective material the fundamental & foundational information that every believer needs to know (if he or she ever desires to be a true disciple) about our Lord & Savior Jesus.
Starting this month, I'll be uploading snippets of what I've been writing on this original, for the benefit of everyone who would like to grow once & for all in their compact understanding of who Jesus was & is, and what the Lord stood for as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Logos of God based on the divinely inspired Word of God (cf. Matthew 16:16; Mark 8:29; Luke 9:20 & John 20:31)
Taken from Shroud.com
I. The Sonship of Christ
In studying who Christ is, we must start with a presupposition of what God is -that God is One being with 3 persons: Father, Son & Holy Spirit (cf. Is. 63:7-10). This is an essential Christian teaching concerning a non-moral attribute of God that is unique only to Him. And within the Trinity of God there is a distinction of roles and responsibilities. Accordingly, Dr. Norman Geisler defined the Son as the Means, Sent One and Achiever of Salvation while the Father is presented in Scripture as the Source, Sender and Planner. In Jesus however, as the 2nd person of God, 3 preliminary positions are given to us:
1. Jesus is pre-incarnate and eternally submissive to the Father –Heb. 10: 7-10
2. In His earthly state, Jesus was always one with the Father –Jn. 15:10 3. In the eternity to come, Jesus will submit to the Father –1 Cor. 15: 24-28 God the Father is the giver and ground of all things while God the Son is God Himself entering into this sphere to declare the primordial love of God and make known God’s Word to us and God the Spirit empowers the fulfillment of the divine purpose in redemption (cf. Gregory of Nyssa, On the Baptism of Christ). For the early church father Tertullian (AD. 155-240) this reveals a distinction or a distribution between the three manifestations of the One God, not a division or separation. A helpful analogy, though imperfect, commonly used by Justin Martyr (AD. 100-165) and Tatian (AD. 120-172), is the impossibility of separating the light rays from its source (e.g. sun). Neither the rays of the sun or the sun itself can exist without the other nor can the sun be divided into parts, though quantifiable in theory. In refreshing your understanding of the Trinity, defining the 2 branches of its study could help you put into perspective the person of Jesus as the Son and His atoning work:
Ontological Trinity – Deals with what God is; Jesus is eternally begotten of the father.
Economic Trinity – Deals with what God does; God the Father planned and God the Son accomplished the plan.
We must not deny the mystery behind the trinity but we must also understand that it is not contradictory. We may not be able to exhaustively comprehend what God is, but we can apprehend a significant portion of such divine knowledge. It may be beyond our human minds to fully comprehend the Tri-unity of God but it is not beyond acknowledgement of its truthfulness.
In preparation to what God does through the Son, it is established for us in Holy Scripture that Jesus of Nazareth is the incarnate Son of God, eternally pre-existing and united in submission to the Father. This relationship that the Son has with the Father, coming from the ontological to the economic, is what we call: Functional Subordination. Functional Subordination is the view that within the Trinity, Jesus Christ the Son voluntarily submitted himself to the will of God the Father and carried out this will in being subordinate to the Father but without ceasing to be coequal with the Father (ref. West. Dict. Of Theo. Terms). In here we find two types of orthodox thoughts regarding Christ’s subordination springing forth from the early creeds (e.g. Nicene, AD. 325) of Christianity: 1. Eternal Subordination – Teaches that Christ as the eternal Son of the Father in the Trinity, is also eternally subordinate of the Father while remaining equal and same in essence and being (i.e. Consubstantial). According to Dr. Norman Geisler: All members of the Trinity are equal in essence, but they do not have the same roles. Eternal Subordination is different from Ontological Subordination, in that the latter teaches there is inferiority in essence between the Trinity. Eternal Subordination of the Son (or ESS) means that within the Trinitarian essence of unity there is a distinction between their functions and roles and that some functions are subordinate to others and we can see this in Christ’s willingness to be the Redeemer of mankind by His earthly, yet vicarious death –even death on a cross (cf. Lk. 22:39; Phil. 2). Being subordinate to the Father in function again does not mean that Christ is in anyway inferior or undeserving of equal honor because the Son has never been less than the Father by being eternally obedient to the Father's will. In fact this concept is not so distant from our daily interactions within society. In the ideal sense, we are all human beings with equal rights & value but not everyone in the workforce has the same job or title. This is also presumed in the Church as the one body of Christ with diverse gifts and calling, all working together for the same goal. 2. Temporal Subordination – Sometimes called the Equivalence view, it teaches that the Father, Son & Holy Spirit are eternally equal not just in essence or nature but also in authority. That a temporary functional subordination of the Son and the Holy Spirit to the Father has been established for the purpose of carrying out a particular mission (i.e. redemption of man) and that after it is accomplished, the equality of authority within the Trinity will resume. Temporal Subordination of the Son (or TFS) also believes that when the Bible refers to the superiority of the Father to the Son and the Holy Spirit, or when the Son does the will of the Father, it is mentioned in relation to the temporary functional & missional subordination, accidental to the redemption of mankind. Taken from Dr. Millard Erickson’s book Who’s Tampering with the Trinity? An Assessment of the Subordination Debate published by Grand Rapids: Kregel back in 2009, a standard argument has been presented: If the authority over the Son is an essential, not an accidental (effect of something, e.g. redemption), attribute of the Son, then something significant follows. Authority is part of the Father’s essence and each attribute is not part of the essence of the other persons. That means that the essence of the Son is different from the essence of the Father. What he is simply saying is that if it’s necessary for the Father to be authoritative of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, then there is no equality in the Trinity, for there is a distinct attribute found in no one else except in the Father. The debate between the two views has been going on for ages, and while there are credible scholars and evangelical personalities from both sides, we must not forget that there are things about the relationship of the Persons within the Tri-unity, just like the doctrine of the Trinity, are beyond our finite minds. Nevertheless for the sake of our study, we can conclude that both understandings of the Economic Trinity and the relationship between the Persons should maintain its balance on Scripture. The position held by ESS, affirms the subordination of the Son and the Holy Spirit to the Father based on both being begotten and proceeds from the Father. To which the TSS, correctly ascribes as an indirect implication of inequality within the Persons. One way to resolve this is to affirm both with the understanding that the authority of the Father and the subordination of the Son & the Spirit, are not because they are generated by or proceeds from the Father, for we speak of both as outside of time and spatial constraints (i.e. in eternity), but rather it is because of the divine unity of essence (i.e. 1 God) and will. That for the Son and the Spirit to be willfully subordinate to the Father, and for the Father to be in the place of authority over the Son and the Spirit; especially in the being of a perfect & holy God, can only mean that a consensual agreement from eternity past has been made by all Persons involved. God is a holy and perfect being with 3 Persons that are all united yet distinct from each other, and can eternally function in an internal hierarchy, composed as one God without imposing essential authority over the other Persons. It is true that the functional subordination of the Son and the Spirit are explicitly magnified in the redemptive mission however, we also see that it is extended even unto the eternal future in the surrendering of the Kingdom to God the Father (1 Corinthians 15:24-28):
Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him that God may be all in all.
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