has been demonstrated by the eternal Son of God forever. It is His glory,
the glory of the Son as He relates to His Father.
In modern society, we tend to think that if you are a person who
has authority over another, that’s a good thing, but if you are the one
who has to submit to an authority, that’s a bad thing. But that is the
world’s viewpoint, and it is not true. Submission to a rightful author-
ity is a good and noble and wonderful thing, because it reflects the
interpersonal relationships within God Himself. We can say, then, that
a relationship of authority and submission between equals, with
mutual giving of honor, is the most fundamental and most glorious
interpersonal relationship in the universe. Such a relationship allows
there to be interpersonal differences without “better” or “worse,”
without “more important” and “less important.”
When we begin to dislike the very idea of authority and submission—
not distortions and abuses, but the very idea—we are tampering with
something very deep. We are beginning to dislike God Himself. This
truth about the Trinity creates a problem for egalitarians within the
church. They try to force people to choose between equality and
authority. They say, if you have male headship, then you can’t be equal.
Or if you are equal, then you can’t have male headship. And our
response is that you can have both: Just look at the Trinity. Within the
being of God, you have both equality and authority.
In reply to this, egalitarians should have said, “Okay, we agree on
this much. In God you can have equality and differences at the same
time.” In fact, some egalitarians have said this.^42 But some prominent
egalitarians have taken a different direction, one that is very troubling.
Both Gilbert Bilezikian and Stanley Grenz have now written that they
think there is “mutual submission” within the Trinity. They say that the
Father also submits to the Son.^43 This is their affirmation, though no
passage of Scripture affirms such a relationship and though this has
never been the orthodox teaching of the Christian church throughout
2,000 years. But so deep is their commitment to an egalitarian view of
men and women within marriage that they will modify the doctrine of
the Trinity, and remake the Trinity in the image of egalitarian marriage,
if it seems necessary in order to maintain their position.
62 BUILDINGSTRONGFAMILIES