I have been doing a lot of Trinitarian study lately, and in God’s divine providence as I was studying recently, the book I was in (Bruce Ware’s “Father, Son & Holy Spirit”) was talking about submission. In the book he proves that submission is fully Trinitarian and when I read what he wrote I almost fell out of my chair!! By submitting to authority we are not simply honoring God but we are imaging our maker as well! Dr. Ware has this to say;
As P.T. Forsyth writes, the beauty of the Son’s simultaneous equality with and obedience to the father expresses the willing service God intends his people to render. Forsyth asserts that, “subordinating is not inferiority, and it is Godlike. The principle is imbedded in the very cohesion of the eternal trinity and it is inseparable from the unity, fraternity and true equality of men. It is not a mark of inferiority to be subordinate, to be under authority, to obey. It is divine.”
And here, one of the lessons of the trinity is that God loves what we despise; namely, God loves, exercises, and embraces rightful authority-submission relationships. God loves this authority-submission structure because God embodies this very structure in his Trinitarian relation of persons. The Trinity works in perfect harmony with each other, though equal the Son willingly submits to the Father. If we have difficulty embracing authority and submission, we can be helped by two things: 1) recall that it is our own sinful urge for independence that leads us to despise authority and want our own way; and 2) reflect on the fact that in the very eternal relations that are true of the persons of the trinity, authority and submission are lived out with love and joy. We must learn to embrace what is eternally true in God, and this means, among other things, embracing rightful authority and rightful submission. When we are submitting to our earthly authority we are embodying the Imago Dei, we are reflecting the glorious nature of the Trinity!
