God the Son is the second Person of the Holy Trinity, the only visible member of the three Persons of God, who accepted the
burden of executing the plan of the Father. Ofcourse, as God He is unique, distinguished from mankind, but The Son is
also the unique Person of all eternity, even amoung His exaulted divine family, The Father and The Spirit, because He is
the only Person of God to enter into a personal and everlasting relationship with a man, called the "hypostatic union"
in theology proper.
This aspect of The Son's charactar is one of the most compelling manifestations of Him, in my relationship with Him,
because it illustrates the humility of God to me, and I want to underscore this trait for a moment.
Consider the fact that the Person we're dealing with here is The Almighty, Framer of the Universe, whose power is such
that He created the entire realm of material creation in mere seconds, yet He has consented to be joined together with
a lowly creature forever.
"And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross." (Phil 2:8)
I can't come up with a suitable analogy, out of hand, to express the magnitude of this noble act, but I can try. If you
were God, and you created a race of beings, say on the scale of an ant, how easy would it be for you to become
intimately joined in nature to that creature? How easy to restrict your glory to conform to the appearance and natural
ability of the ant? How easy would you find it to dwell, in mind, within this lowly ant person, in the company of other
ants and, untilmately, subject yourself to their slurs and insults?, and to do this with the intention of saving these ant
persons, knowing that they would ridicule you, judge you, and murder you in a gross and shameful manner?
I know, this sounds stupid, but in effect this is what The Son did, except His humility is about a million times greater,
because the creatures He saved were tainted with the stain of sin, and this is the most vile and repugnant thing
imaginable where God is concerned.
What impresses me about this divine act is the comparision I conjure up mentally to man, as we wield power, how we adjust
to vast wealth. Perhaps you've watched "The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" (A tv show)? or the PBS program about
American Castles? If you have any personal knowledge of how wealthy people squander their wealth on superficial and
gaudy material things, you get my drift here. Far be it from them to reduce their exaulted stations to that of a pauper,
of their own free will, to sacrifice that wealth and survive on handouts from others.
Yet, God the Son, for all of His glory, power and wealth beyond counting, has never once used that unimaginable power to
coerce one person to do the simplest of deeds, or so much as raise His voice in the face of slander and taunting of His
divine Person.
I don't know about you, but I give thanks every day that God is who He is, for if He were less than eternal righteousness
and justice He would make life worse than living hell for every one of us, impose an iron rule of tyranny upon us, and who
would stop Him? One errant thought and, zappo! He could cause you to disentigrate instantaneously! But this is not the case.
Instead, He established freedom, and He, Himself, treats us with the greatest possible respect as to our rights. He
gives us complete and total say as to how we live our lives, and even tolerates our blasphemy of His Person in silence.
How great is that?
As usual, I digress! I always get off on these tangents!
So, to get back to the subject at hand, The Son is the 2nd Person of The Trinity, and He is the unique celebrity of all
eternity because He has taken upon Himself the nature of a man, joined in intimate and inalterable union forever. Every
Christian should be well informed on this subject, the Hypostatic Union, because the parameters
of this relationship are critical to our complete understanding of The Son's work in time on our behalf.
I should also note that when we speak of The Son we are not including the man, Jesus, but only the divine Person. The
doctrines which involve Jesus embrace an exclusive body of doctrine related to the two natures, joined together, in one
Person. The Son is a subject which pertains exclusively to His diety.
The Son's role as the visible member of the Godhead is subordinate to The Father's authority as the planner of salvation
and human history. In this capacity, The Son is obedient to The Father's dictates, regardless of the fact that, as God,
He is co-equal to the other members of the Godhead. There are many principles in this dimension of God's Plan which
teach us a great deal about life, and the importance of authority to our blessing and happiness. Although God is not
vulnerable to the conditions and foibles I now speak of, He created authority as a guardian of human liberty and the
efficient function of the human race throughout history. Without this device man would have long ago self-destructed,
as evidence the fact that even with authority we do a pretty good job of screwing up.
Thus, man is consistent. We always distort divine provisions and dilute them with our stupid ideas and pseudo applications.
Today, which is an excellent venue for illustrating about every kind of foul up man is capable of, it is a popular
idea that a woman is demeaned if she submits to a man's authority. Nothing could be farther from the truth, although
admitedly, so many men abuse their God given authority. This, however, is no excuse, and does not abrogate the divine
provision of authority as the guardian of liberty and organized function of our kind on earth. As such, authority is
a management tool which God found necessary in controlling the history of corrupt creatures and perpetuating our
existence on this planet until the culmination of His Plan comes to pass.
Remember, we are applying principles here which were established by God, and acknowledged by Him in the provision of a
Savior. God honors His own management of humankind, and angels too, for that matter. As such, He did the work of Salvation
within the framework of His divine government. In other words, He observes, flawlessly, the principle of authority, even
in what He does in relationship to man.
The very fact that there are names for God which conform to His own arrangement of civilization is an act of revelation,
a means by which He gives us a deeper and more profound understanding of the divine mind. Let me explain.
God doesn't need authority to maintain a relationship between the 3 members of The Trinity. If the principle of
authority exists at all in the eternal existence of God, it is His own adherence to His attributes, but this isn't
authority in the strictest sense of the word, for authority is a device which is an invention that applies only to
creatures such as we are, in need of a high standard in order to survive. So, authority only becaomes an issue to
God when He creates living, prescient creatures.
The principle is, that we are utlimately under His authority, and the recognition of this fact is critical to our
existence, even to our salvation. To drive this point home, God has subjected His own Person to the same rules that He
demands we adhere to. You can't get fairer than that!
The bottom line, after all I've said here, is that the central theme of the Father/Son relationship which God established
between the 1st and 2nd Persons of The Trinity is the central theme of our existence. Although many facets of God are
involved in The Son's work and Person, authority is paramount.
Heb:1:3: Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things
by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Col:1:16: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him,
and for him:
Theime's Doctrinal Notes: Christology