How can Jesus be divine and yet “subordinate to the Father in rank,” as your Statement of Faith says?

The Bible teaches both. As our Statement of Faith also reads, “The phrase ‘only begotten Son of the Father’ reveals two complimentary truths about Jesus Christ: 1) His inherent, essential nature and 2) His position within the Godhead” (This We Believe, p. 22). The deity of Christ and His order in the Godhead need not be seen as contradictory.

As is implicit in the title, God the Father is the “head of Christ” and greater in position or rank (1 Corinthians 11:3; John 14:28), but not in essence and nature, as John’s Gospel declares: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (14:9; cf. 1:1; 20:28). It is wrong to assume that if one is greater in one way, one must also be greater in another way. When the Bible speaks of the Godhead, it is speaking of the divine essence, or nature, of God (Acts 17:29; Romans 1:20; Colossians 2:9). There is equality of essence and nature in the Father and the Son; neither is inferior to the other. Yet their roles and rank within the Godhead are distinct. Divine nature is not compromised by subordinate order.

Since God exalts and bestows authority to Jesus (Matthew 28:18; Philippians 2:9-11), some assume He cannot be God. However, the error is in assuming the bestowal extends to the nature and essence of the Father and Son. Notably, both exaltation texts have in view the Son in His incarnate humanity.

Regarding the full divinity of Christ, our Statement of Faith reads as follows: 

The unique nature and identity of Jesus Christ is further seen in Scripture by the fact that several divine names are used in reference both to the Father and the Son. . . . Jesus shares not only the names of God but also His nature: “Who [Jesus], being in very nature God . . .” (Philippians 2:6). “He is the image of the invisible God . . . For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him. . . . For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 1:15-19; 2:9). “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being . . .” (Hebrews 1:3) (TWB, pp. 18, 20).

Regarding His subordination to the Father, Christ is called God’s Son. He is the begotten, while the Father is unbegotten. Again, the title Son implies their shared nature and likeness, as well as an eternal order on the part of the Son to the Father. Unlike earthly fathers and sons, this order is not temporal (in time) but eternal, as God’s nature is eternal. Yet just as earthly fathers can be greater in authority than their sons without implying an inferiority of being, the Father giving authority to His Son in no way implies that the latter is not God or is an inferior being (John 5:19, 20; 8:42).

First Corinthians 15:28 says, “Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” In short, the Father and the Son share the unity of essence and nature in equality, and the Son willingly submits to the authority of the Father in rank once He has conquered all enemies of God, including death. Subordination is in rank only, not in the divine nature.

— Elder Chip Hinds