Equal in Essence; Different in Function (pt.4)

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TRINITY AND COMPLEMENTARIANSM

The Different Roles of the Trinity

The question that is left to answer is, “How does the Trinity relate to the marital relationship of husband and wife?” This question can first be answered by asserting that, as has been seen above, the persons of the Trinity have different primary functions, or roles, in relating to the world. These roles have sometimes been referred to as “the economy of the Trinity,” which simply means the different ways the three persons act as they relate to the world and to each other for all eternity.[1]

The first time these different roles are seen is in Genesis, as already discussed above, during creation. Grudem states it best when he writes, “God the Father spoke the creative words to bring the universe into being. But it was God the Son, the eternal Word of God, who carried out these creative decrees.”[2] Jesus is not often thought of as being the agent of creation but John 1 as well as Colossians 1 clearly testifies to this role of the Son. The Holy Spirit also had a role in creation as he was hovering over the face of the waters, “apparently sustaining and manifesting God’s immediate presence in his creation.”[3] It is interesting to note that the Spirit also manifests God’s presence in believers’ lives by being with them as Jesus promised in the gospels.

As Augustine alluded, the Trinity is also at work in different ways through the work of redemption. God the

Father sent His Son to die for our sins. The Son obeyed the Father and came to the earth. When Jesus ascended

back into heaven, the Holy Spirit was likewise sent by the Father and the Son to apply redemption to us.[4]

These role differences are not to be confused with the heresy that is subordinationism which teaches that the Son

was eternal and divine, but still not equal to the Father in being or attributes, but likewise is inferior or

“subordinate” to God the Father.[5] As has been stated throughout this paper, there is no difference in being for

the three persons of the Trinity.

The Different Roles of Men and Women

Just as the persons of the Trinity are equal yet different, likewise the same can be said for men and women. Just as God the Father has authority over the Son, by sending Him to die for the sins of mankind, so does the husband have authority over the wife, although they are equal in the essence of personhood. Grudem correctly asserts, “in this case, the man’s role is like that of God the Father, and the woman’s role is parallel to that of God the Son.”[6] As Ephesians 5 mentions, the husband is the head of the wife and the wife should submit to his leadership.

However, evangelical feminists would consider the Trinitarian view one of inequality because God sent Christ, therefore God, being the “leader of the relationship,” would become more important then Jesus. Because of this, Evangelical feminists have “rejected the Bible’s own and traditional theology’s predominantly masculine language for God as a rejection of the Trinity itself and, as such, the imposition of a different faith.”[7] Peter Schemm states that theological feminism has four main problems at its core: (1) it has a biblical problem in that by replacing words such as “Father” with phrases such as “Father/Mother” theological feminism “divests the paternal biblical language of its grammatico-historical meaning,”[8] (2) it has a theological problem in that it denies the primacy of God the Father in Triune relations,[9] (3) it has a confessional problem in that it “intentionally divorces itself from the orthodoxy of the creeds and confessions of the church”[10] and (4) it has a doxological problem in that it “defrauds God the Father of the worship due His name.”[11] By rejecting the language of the Bible concerning the Trinity, egalitarians have stumbled upon a different form of Christianity and likewise given men and women the same function in the marital relationship when God ordained different roles for each.

We now revisit the question of what it means to be made in the image of God. Because we are made in the image of God we should live in a way that glorifies Him. Ware states, “Our goal is to fulfill and obey his word. Male and female, while equal as in the image of God, are nonetheless distinct in the manner of their possession of the image of God.”[12] Yet again, men and women are created equal yet different, just as the three persons of the Trinity are equal yet different. Ware adds “the female’s becoming the image of God through the male indicates a God-intended sense of her reliance upon him, as particularly manifest in the home and community of faith.”[13] Thus men should act as the spiritual leaders in the family as well as the church, just as God acts as the leader in the relationship with Jesus and the Spirit as seen in the Trinity. The man is the leader of the church and the home and evangelical feminists who confirm the authority of Scripture are forced to change the language of God as well as the inner-relationships of the persons of the Trinity.

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[1] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, 248.

[2] Ibid., 249.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid., 245.

[6] Ibid., 461.

[7] Bruce A. Ware, “Tampering With the Trinity: Does the Son Submit to His Father?” Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood 6/1 (Spring 2001): 4.

[8] Peter R. Schemm, “Taxis or Praxis? Why Trinitarians Do Not Make Good Feminists,” Faith and Mission 22/1 (Spring 2005): 25.

[9] Ibid., 26.

[10] Ibid., 27.

[11] Ibid., 28.

[12] Bruce A. Ware, “Male and Female Complementarity and the Image of God,” Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood 7/1 (Spring 2002): 23.

[13] Ibid.