Why is Jesus not inferior to God the Father?

There are Bible passages that say:

1.The Father is greater than Jesus.

2.Jesus was sent by the Father.

3.Jesus always does what His Father tells him to do.

4.Once God’s Son became man, he forever became subject to God the Father.

The Problem

John 14:28

You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.

John 4:34

Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”

John 6:38

"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

John 8:29

"He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.“

1 Corinthians 15:28

When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, help us to get a better understanding of the greatness of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen

1. There is a difference in saying one is equal to another in value but not in role.

Example:

Former President George H.W. Bush was subject to his son’s rule in office while he, George W. Bush, was President of the United States.

John 5:22

“The Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son.”

John 6:44

"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

John 10:29

My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.

John 13:14

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

2. The Scriptures teach us that the Father and Son interpenetrate and indwell each other in their relations.

John 17:21

That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.

The reason that the members of the Trinity can indwell each other is because they all share in the divine nature.

Though their roles in human history are different, still they share together in the glory of the Godhead.

Matthew 28:18-20

Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

2 Corinthians 13:14

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

3. Each of the members of the Trinity has a special role, and yet each one is just as important as the other.

The Father sent both the Son and the Holy Spirit to the earth for man’s sake.

The Son willingly became man, laid down his life and took it up again.

The Holy Spirit baptizes, leads and fills the church to prepare it for service for the glory of God.

John 14:26

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

John 10:18

No man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Philippians 2:5-8

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.

John 14:26

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

4. The roles of each member of the Trinity will merge into one in the end times.

1 Corinthians 15:28

When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

This will be true as well for the roles of mankind in the end times.

Galatians 3:28-29

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Now if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Jesus told the Pharisees that in heaven our roles as husbands and wives will no longer exist.

Matthew 22:28-30

"Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her."

Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.”

5. The major church creeds agree that Jesus is not inferior to God the Father but that their roles are different.

Nicene Creed

We believe… in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten of the Father before all ages, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, by Whom and for Whom all things were made.

Athanasian Creed

The Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the Glory equal, the majesty coeternal… So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty and the Holy Ghost almighty… So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord and the Holy Ghost Lord… And in this Trinity none is before, or after another. None is greater, or less than another… But the whole three Persons are coeternal and coequal.

The Athanasian Creed goes on to explain why in some verses God the Father is called greater than Jesus.

“Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching his Manhood.”

Augustine, the church Father, had this to say about any inequality between the Father and Son.

“…the Son is said to be sent because the Word was made flesh… He was not sent because of any inequality of power and substance, or anything in Him that was not equal to the Father.”

6. Though Jesus was humbled in his earthly trials, He is now our exalted Lord and worthy of our praise.

Philippians 2:9

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name…

We do not need to wait for Jesus to be glorified, for He sits now in Heaven and shares the authority of God’s throne with His Father.

Some wrongly teach that we should not now pray to Jesus but to God the Father in or by the name of Jesus.

“Jesus taught his followers to pray to our Father in heaven… The Scriptures direct us to offer our prayers through Jesus. For our prayers to be heard, we must pray only to Jehovah through his Son.”

― What Does the Bible Really Teach? (Brooklyn: Watchtower Bible and Tract

Society, 2005), 167-68.

John 14:14

If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

John 15:7

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

But what do the Scriptures say about addressing Jesus in prayer?

1 John 5:13-15

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, … that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. If we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

Jesus not only hears and answers our prayers, but He is also deserving of our worship as the Son of God.

Revelation 5:13

Every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: "Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!“

Conclusion

God the Son chose in eternity past to become man, Jesus Christ.

The working out of His choice, not a directive from His Father, involved pain and suffering that He might be our Lamb of God.

Today and forever He sits on the throne of God to receive our praises.