Continued from Chapter 22a
My servant
There are a number of reasons why Jesus cannot be considered the servant. The phrase, “My servant,” presents a problem for the trinitarian doctrine: servant and master are two separate entities.
A servant by definition is always in an inferior position to his master. John’s Jesus acknowledges: “A slave is not greater than his master, neither one who is sent greater than the one who sent him” (John 13:16). The sending of Jesus would have taken place while the trinity trio supposedly were all equal. If Jesus is an incarnate member of a coequal triune deity he could not become less than equal to the other two parts and still be coequal and of one essence with them (cf. Philippians 2:5-11). Moreover, when is Jesus ever called directly “My servant”? In Matthew 12:18 the phrase appears as part of a prooftext, not as an appellative.
The supposed “two natures of Christ”
Jesus is the god that never was. Some Christians differentiate between what is called “the two natures of Christ.” It is claimed that Jesus was fully God and fully man at the same time, but mysteriously interwoven yet separate. Thus, it is said, Jesus could be knowledgeable about some things and ignorant about others. Jesus’ statement that “A slave is not greater than his master, neither one who is sent greater than the one who sent him” refutes consideration of this two nature doctrine. This statement says that a slave is of lower status than his master. Anyone sent on a mission by another person is of inferior status. In the case of Jesus, this would make his supposed supernatural nature inferior to that of God the Father even before becoming incarnate and even if done voluntarily. It would mean that there was a period of time when the coequality of the triune deity was reduced to a dyad. This state of inequality continues presently in that Jesus supposedly mediates between God the Father and mankind (1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrew 9:24), but it is God the Father who makes the final judgment not the “mediator.” This is not coequality.
Learning obedience
Did the author of Hebrews have Isaiah 53 in mind when he said that Jesus “learned obedience from the things which he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8)? Why did Jesus have to learn to be obedient if he is God? Whom did he have to obey? Can equals in any triune deity exercise dominance, one over the other? How can God’s servant be none other than one-third of Himself. Those who claim a preexistent supernatural being was incarnate in the form of Jesus cannot escape the question: Why did this incarnate being have to learn to be obedient through suffering if in both his humanity and divinity he was sinless to begin with and therefore was already obedient to God?
Continued