The Son of God
The Son of God
We are told that there is one God and that God exists in three Persons, namely, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are told that Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, is God. Yet we are also told this, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” (Mark 13:32, NASB 2020)
Jesus claimed to do nothing but what the Father told Him, and this passages tells us there is something He did not know. How is it then that we can say that the three Persons of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are co-equal. They are One God.
Though it is never expressed directly, this doctrine comes from the Scriptures. The things the Scriptures tell us about God point us toward this concept of God.
God is infinite.
There is no way for finite beings like us to fully understand God. This is the reason we talk about the Trinity in the way we do. It is simply the best way we have found to understand the infinite God.
Like many, I once wondered how we could say that the three Persons of the Trinity were equal when Jesus is often portrayed as being subject to God and submissive to the Father.
Jesus is the one and only Son of God. The only begotten Son. Jesus is the One "sent from" God. Jesus Himself pointed this out in John 8:42 "Jesus said to them, 'If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came forth from God and am here; for I have not even come on My own, but He sent Me.'" (NASB 2020)
God the Father sent God the Son as a finite human person by the work (in Mary) of God the Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each and all constitute God.
Jesus, coming as a finite human person as He did, set aside His prerogative as God. That means He limited Himself in all the same ways we are limited. He became finite. Hebrews 2:9 puts it this way, "But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of His suffering death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone." (NASB 2020)
Additionally, Colossians 1:19 and 2:9 tell us that all the fullness of Deity was (and is) in Jesus, yet we are also told “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5–8, NASB 2020)
So, God self-limited. This is the reason we find Jesus doing only what the Father tells Him (see John 12:49-50). It is also the reason He did not know the time of His second coming, the time of the end (see Mark 13:32). This is an example of the way in which He limited Himself, setting aside His prerogative as God, during His time as a finite human person.
Though Scripture is silent on the matter, I personally believe that in eternity, Jesus knows these things. The persons of the Trinity have a perfect Love relationship, and as such there are no secrets between them. This is the reason that the Scriptures portray one God, yet three Persons. Their union is perfect. We get a glimpse of this in (John 17:23, which reads, “I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and You loved them, just as You loved Me.” (NASB 2020)
We see some examples of this oneness in passages like Romans 8:9 "However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." (NASB 2020) Here, we see the third Person of the Trinity referred to as "the Spirit," "the Spirit of God," and "the Spirit of Christ." Elsewhere we are told that God is Spirit (John 4:24).
Everything is summed up in the Lord Jesus (see Romans 9:5, Ephesians 1:22, & Hebrews 2:8). He is God. He created all things (see John 1:3 & Colossians 1:16). and He is the Son of God, sent to save (or make whole) the world (see John 3:17).
He subjected Himself to living by faith, just as we must do, so that He could be the representative finite human person and serve the death sentence we were all under. To accomplish this, He subjected Himself to God the Father. He lived sinlessly as Jesus of Nazareth, a finite human person the son of man, yet God the Son. He was raised from the dead by the power of God the Holy Spirit (see Romans 1:4 & 8:11).
