Don Johnson

On “God is a God of authority. The Son and Holy Spirit are under the authority of the Father, and the result of being under that authority is that they always do the Father’s will. The reason this fact doesn’t offend the Son and Holy Spirit is because God is an infinite Fountain of goodness who uses authority for the ultimate good.”

It is true that all authority flows from God. It is true that the Word/Son became a person and was subordinate to God the Father while on earth. Howevver to read that back into the eternal relations in the Godhead is “making God in our image” something we are not to do as it is idolatrous. (P.S. We are are tempted to do this and so is something every believer should watch out for.)

The basic insight is that the Godhead is far beyond our understanding, so the Bible uses metaphors and similes so that we can have a glimpse of what is going on, else we would be totally baffled.

Look at the story near the Oaks of Mamre in Gen 18. This is an example of God talking to God. YHVH says “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?…” Does this SOUND like a command to functional subordinates or a discussion among equals?

An often missed metaphor for the Godhead is in the Patriarchs. Joseph is seen as a type of Jesus, rightly so. Much is made of Jacob’s sons bowing down to him and the fact that ALL of them needed to do it, when Benjamin is missing, Joseph asks for him to come. Benjamin then does this and many teachers just do not discuss the remainder of the 2nd dream, namely that Joseph’s mother and father ALSO will bow down to him.

But if Joseph is a type of the Son, then Jacob can be seen as a type of the Father in this part of the story. In other words, in this metaphor, the types demonstrate mutual submission in order for us to get a glimpse of what the Godhead is like.