Eternal functional subordination
Flagged as a concern
The teaching that the Son is equal to the Father in nature but eternally submits to the Father's authority, apart from his incarnation.
Also called: Eternal Functional Subordination, EFS, eternal subordination of the Son, ESS, eternal relations of authority and submission
What it means
Eternal functional subordination (EFS), also called the eternal subordination of the Son, affirms that the Father, Son, and Spirit are equal in deity, power, and glory. It adds that within the Trinity there is an eternal order of authority and submission: the Father eternally commands, and the Son eternally obeys, not only as the incarnate Christ but before creation and forever. Those who hold it believe this explains passages where the Son is sent, does the Father's will, and is finally subjected to the Father.
EFS is held by people who sincerely confess the Nicene Creed, and it is not Arianism; it denies that the Son is a lesser being. That is why the site flags it as a concern, not a fail.
It is flagged for three reasons. First, the historic doctrine teaches that God has one will, belonging to the one divine nature. To say the Son eternally submits his will to the Father's seems to require two divine wills, one commanding and one obeying. Second, the historic doctrine distinguishes the persons by their eternal relations of origin (the Son is begotten, the Spirit proceeds), not by relations of authority. Passages about the Son's obedience the church has read as speaking of his human nature or his mission as the sent one. Third, the teaching has been used largely as an argument for the roles of men and women, which risks reshaping the doctrine of God to support a conclusion about something else.
What Scripture says
Jesus says that he and the Father are one.
The Son, being in the form of God, took the form of a servant and became obedient.
Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered, in his life on earth.
The Son will be made subject to the Father, the text EFS appeals to, read historically of the Son as mediator.
The Son does whatever the Father does, which shows one shared work, not only one following another.
The one and only Son, himself God, is at the Father's side and has made him known.
What is wrong with it
Scripture teaches the Son's obedience, but it locates that obedience in his incarnation and his mission: he "took the form of a servant" and "became obedient" (Philippians 2:7-8). Before that, he was "in the form of God" and equal with him. The Bible distinguishes the persons by their eternal relations, Father and Son, begetting and begotten, but nowhere teaches a chain of command within God's eternal life. Reading the Son's human obedience back into eternity confuses what he does as mediator with what he is as God.
How it undermines the truth
It strains the doctrine of God's one will. If the Father wills and the Son submits, there seem to be two wills in God, which edges toward three centers of authority rather than one God. It also blurs the Creator-creature distinction in a subtler way: submission is what creatures owe God, and placing an eternal rank inside God makes him look more like a human institution than the simple, undivided Lord.
How it can harm a church
The biblical case for male leadership in the home and church does not need this doctrine and is weakened by resting on it. When a church ties its teaching on gender to EFS, it invites the charge that it has bent the Trinity to fit an argument, and members may come away with a confused picture of God in which the Son is less than the Father in authority. Teaching on the Trinity should be drawn from what Scripture says about God, not from what we need it to illustrate.
This page describes a teaching, not the faith of any person who holds it.
Where it comes up
Confessions: Nicene Creed; WCF 2.3; LBCF 1689 2.3
On this site: Trinity
Related terms
TrinityHistoric orthodoxy
There is one God, eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each fully and equally God.
Nicene CreedHistoric orthodoxy
The creed of the councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381), confessing that the Son and the Spirit are fully God with the Father.
ArianismOutside historic orthodoxy
The ancient teaching that the Son of God is the first and greatest created being, not eternal and not fully God.
Divine simplicityHistoric orthodoxy
God is not made up of parts; his attributes are not pieces of him but are each the one undivided God.