The objection
According to 1. Corinthians 15,28, the Son submits to the Father even at the end. His subordination therefore cannot be limited only to the time before resurrection. Is he not thereby permanently less than God?
1. Paul describes the last Adam's victory
The chapter concerns resurrection and overcoming death. As death came through a human, resurrection comes through a human. Christ appears as the head of a new humanity. His dominion places enemies under his feet and reaches its goal in eliminating death.
This human representation is no incidental thought. It determines the respect in which Paul speaks of Christ's commission and its completion.
2. The Father does not become a subjected enemy
Paul connects the Messiah's dominion with Psalm 8's statement that everything is subjected to him. He then expressly explains that the one doing the subjecting remains excepted. This prevents a false inference from “everything”: Christ does not defeat the Father and take his place as a rival god.
The Son's ensuing submission brings the same order to its goal. The messianic king hands the completed kingdom to the Father. This is fulfillment of his mission, not his defeat.
3. Incarnation does not end at Easter
The answer indeed cannot be that all Jesus' obedience ends with his earthly humiliation. The risen Son remains human. Hebrews 7 describes his abiding priestly intercession; correspondingly, Frame also relates the final submission to the permanently human mediator.[1]
The person continues to be called “the Son,” even when a statement concerns him in his human mission. Paul's use of the personal name does not remove the Christological context. Otherwise the same name in “the Son died” could also mean only his divine nature.
4. Completion means no loss of divine dominion
Luke 1,33 promises an endless kingdom. The handing over in 1. Corinthians 15 must therefore be read not as dissolution of all Christ's dominion but as completion of the messianic task directed against the enemies. God's unchallenged rule is its goal.
The incarnate one's abiding obedience no more contradicts his deity than does his abiding humanity. It shows that our redemption ends in the perfect fellowship with God that Christ as the last Adam opens for us.
5. What do belonging and headship mean?
In 1. Corinthians 3,21–23 Paul removes pride in individual church leaders: Paul, Apollos and Cephas serve the church; the church belongs to Christ, Christ to God. This is an order of belonging, not a list of different kinds of beings. The apostles and church members themselves do not differ in their humanity through their relationship. Likewise, a created nature cannot be deduced from Christ's belonging to God without additional justification.[2]
1. Corinthians 11,3 designates God as Christ's head and man as woman's head. However the precise meaning of “head” is determined here, the relationship does not make the woman less human than the man. Nor may an order in Christ's case immediately become an inferior nature. His messianic relationship to the Father is real; but the text supplies no basis for three graded divine beings. Moreover, verses 11–12 emphasize mutual relatedness and the shared origin in God.[3]
Biblical texts in context
Sources and further study
- John M. Frame, The Doctrine of GodCh. 28, p. 683: abiding humanity and messianic subordination.
- 1. Corinthians 3,21–23Belonging to Christ and God in the context of overcoming factions.
- 1. Corinthians 11,3.11–12Headship relationships do not automatically distinguish higher and lower natures; man and woman remain related to one another.