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Study Section 8: Subjection

8.1 Connect.

The Jehovah’s Witness will use verses to show you that Jehovah is greater than Jesus, thus
Jesus holds a lesser position among heavenly beings. They will argue that Jesus was subject
to his Father, that He himself said that the Father was greater, and that He did not know the
hour when He was returning in the future. After all, if Jesus was God, He would know all
things and would not be inferior in any way to his Father. Today, we will look at the verses
that will be presented to you as proof texts to back their positions.

8.2 Objectives:

1. The student should be able to discuss and fully understand the relationship of Jesus to the
Father while He was on earth.

2. The student should be able to describe why these verses indicate that Jesus was subject but
not inferior to His father.

3. In Isaiah 9:6, a prophecy about Jesus, He is called Eternal Father. The student should be able to
clarify what that means.

8.3 Verses about Jesus being in subjection to His Father….

9. I Cor. 15:28

28When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything
under him, so that God may be all in all.

NWT “But when all things will have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also
subject himself to the One who subjected all things to him, that God may be all things to everyone.

JWs say this verse proves beyond any doubt that Jesus is not equal to the Father and IS NOT God
Almighty. If Christ were God Almighty, He would not be in subjection to anyone.

The word, “subject” does not refer to Christ’s essential nature or being, but rather to Christ’s functional
subject to God the Father as the God-man and Mediator in the outworking of the plan of salvation. As
perfect man, Christ had to be obedient to His Father and thus fulfill God’s plan to redeem humanity.
Jesus voluntarily submitted to the plan, to God the Father, in order to save humanity from eternal
separation from God.

Even today, Christ is still in full retention of His human nature. He was raised in the very same body in
which He died. For all eternity we will see the nail prints in his hands and feet. When Christ returns, He
will return with the same body as the “Son of Man” --- God in flesh. Because Christ still possesses His
human nature, then, Christ is still in submission to the Father. But in no way does this make Jesus lesser
than the Father or inferior to the Father. In his humanity, Jesus is lesser than the Father but, in his
divinity, He is forever equal to the Father.

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