Unity or Subordinationism

Jan 5

Two verses are the backbone of this blog: Deut. 6:4 "Hear Oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one," and Genesis 2:24 "For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."

In this post I'm going to explore the relationship between these two verses and the reason I chose them for this blog, and some other related concepts.

The reason I chose these two verses to represent this blog is because I believe they say something important about the nature of God, the nature of marriage, and how marriage is to be a picture of God's relationship with the church. These beliefs are not just based on these two verses, but based on an examination of the whole of Scripture, which is what this blog is all about. These two verses nicely sum up the relationship

Deut. 6:4 or the Shema, is a verse that is the foundation to the understanding of God's nature in Judaism. It is the belief in the absolute oneness of God.

The word translated "one" is the Hebrew word "echad."

The reason that some Jews reject Christianity is because they reject the concept of the Trinity. They say that God said he is one, not multiple beings wrapped into one. They say that the word "echad" is often used in the Bible to denote absolute oneness.

For example:
Exodus 9:7 "not one of the cattle of the Israelites."
2 Samuel 13:30 "Absolam has slain all of the king's sons, there is not one of them left."

Christians counter that there are other places in the Bible where the word echad is used for two being one, such as Gen. 2:24, "the two shall be one (echad) flesh." Therefore, they say, the verse supports the concept of the Trinity.

The Trinity is based on various degrees of subordinationism. The doctrine of subordinationism is the belief that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are subordinate in nature and being to God. It is the belief that they are ontologically inferior to God.

In most Christian churches, subordinationism is considered heresy, but some Christians still believe that Jesus is subordinate to God in function, yet equal in being.

Subordinationism leads to the idea that God can be one way in the Old Testament, with a character and a set of laws that are different from Jesus in the New Testament, who has a different character and frees us from God's laws.

Subordinationism leads to a rejection of the Torah by Christians who believe that Jesus came to free them from God's laws.

Subordinationism leads to a rejection of the Messiah by Jews who can't reconcile a God of absolute oneness with a God who has aspects of his being who each reject the foundation of the other's character.

I believe that Yeshua (Jesus) was God's spirit in a human body (John 1:1-14). God is one AND he came to earth in a physical form AND he has a spiritual form who dwells within us (Ephesians 1:13). The God who gave us his commands for how we will live when we love him, is the same God who came in human form to provide us a means of grace for when we fall short (Hebrews 13:8, Malachi 3:6, Revelation 22:13, Isaiah 41:4). He is both the Mark we strive to hit and the Way we get there.

God is Echad. Husband and wife are to be Echad. Man and woman were one before God separated them and made them two. Marriage is a picture of the two becoming one again, just as the church is to be in unity with God, and will be in the end.

Is it a perfect picture? No. No metaphor ever is. Right from the beginning God gave Adam and Eve individual free will. When they chose unity with the serpent and each other over unity with God, the result was the fall. The result was a continual trend of disunity either with God or within the marriage that continues today. We get to chose whether we want to live out the picture of unity (Echad) or the picture of the fall (unity with each other, without God) or the results of the fall (Patriarchy).

Does this mean husband and wife will always agree if they are seeking unity? No, of course not. But if we are both seeking to be in unity with God, then we will move closer to unity with each other. Which is why hierarchical authority in marriage is not only unBiblical, but impractical in a marriage of believers. If husband and wife are not in unity, they need to go back to God and pray for him to show one of them, maybe both, what he wants them to do.

Prayer is seeking God's will. Knowing God's will and acting on it out of obligation or fear is compliance. Knowing God's will and acting on it out of love and trust is obedience. Being so in tune with God's will that it is as if his Spirit is working through us- that's the kind of unity I believe he wants with the church. That's the kind of unity with God and with each other, that husband and wife can seek to show the world, as a picture of God's desired relationship with the church.