Is Jesus Subordinate to God?
This is an issue that I was not directly aware of until recently. I had been reading some blogs written and commented on by some very thoughtful and well-educated individuals. One of the comments that was made and agreed to was something to the effect that ‘Jesus was subordinate to God, surely we can all agree on that.’ Well, in typical Mcfashion, I could not, but my being responded more adamantly and thoroughly than my mind. In fact I could understand their statement rationally, but not accept it nor refute it. So over the last few weeks I have held the statement in my thoughts, mulling it over while continuing my routine of studying the Gospel of John.
God has always been difficult to define. Naming Itself with the verb ‘to be’, Yahweh, and from the first interactions with a plural, Elohim, we can determine little but mystery from God’s revelation. From the interaction of God with humanity again we are met with mystery. Destruction, argument, terrifying strength and majesty, execution, pestilence, and legalism are tempered by tender songs, passionate commitment, impossible promises kept, and ultimate care given to those who would follow God.
Knowing God and honoring God was sanctioned by the learned. Education was a strictly managed commodity that split the community into those few that had, and the many that had not. The educated keepers of the law were the elite, allowed access to knowledge and approval of the historical God that could not be had by all. These elite were the judges, the mediators, the ones who approved of whether a human lived, married, worked, was killed or cast out of society, and was given their approval to congregate in worship, sacrifice, and offering with God.
There were always those that took another path to God – prophets and individuals who met God personally and wildly. But these individuals were few.
When Jesus came, He came differently than God’s previous revelations of Itself. He can subtly, from within, rather than in fire and brimstone from on high. He came armed with words of truth, knowledge superseding the ordinary and even the learned, and a desire to connect not with the kings and teachers, but with the ordinary, sin-seeped people. He came that they might worship God as God intended, in spirit and truth.
God has always been difficult to define. Naming Itself with the verb ‘to be’, Yahweh, and from the first interactions with a plural, Elohim, we can determine little but mystery from God’s revelation. From the interaction of God with humanity again we are met with mystery. Destruction, argument, terrifying strength and majesty, execution, pestilence, and legalism are tempered by tender songs, passionate commitment, impossible promises kept, and ultimate care given to those who would follow God.
Knowing God and honoring God was sanctioned by the learned. Education was a strictly managed commodity that split the community into those few that had, and the many that had not. The educated keepers of the law were the elite, allowed access to knowledge and approval of the historical God that could not be had by all. These elite were the judges, the mediators, the ones who approved of whether a human lived, married, worked, was killed or cast out of society, and was given their approval to congregate in worship, sacrifice, and offering with God.
There were always those that took another path to God – prophets and individuals who met God personally and wildly. But these individuals were few.
When Jesus came, He came differently than God’s previous revelations of Itself. He can subtly, from within, rather than in fire and brimstone from on high. He came armed with words of truth, knowledge superseding the ordinary and even the learned, and a desire to connect not with the kings and teachers, but with the ordinary, sin-seeped people. He came that they might worship God as God intended, in spirit and truth.
The Gospel of John describes as follows:
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
(The Hebrew is Denar – the same means both word and deed. Symbol, Articulation, Action all three in one.)1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
And from later in the first chapter of John:
16 From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.
17 For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.
God had been historically segregated from ordinary people; God’s relationship was not known or understood by a personal connection with them. Rather God was connected to the people by rigid lines drawn through laws and obedience and mediated by the legalistic religious rulers-such as the Pharisees. In Jesus, God became recognizable as genuine and personal, a God committed to each who reach to embrace God.
So is Jesus subordinate? No. Jesus entered into the medium of the world in a way God had not previously. Jesus completed a mission of living among people reaching out to them where they were, in the moments of their lives that He intersected, and calling them forth to Truth. Was Jesus fully human? No. If you believe, then you already know that none of us are. Was Jesus fully God? Yes. God in the medium of the world is Jesus. God in this medium demonstrated ‘unfailing love and faithfulness’. Is that subordinate? I think not.
No comments:
Post a Comment