Humiliation and exaltation

This week's questions

Wherein did Christ's humiliation consist? Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.

Question 27

Wherein consisteth Christ's exaltation? Christ's exaltation consisteth in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day.

Question 28

Last week named Christ's offices. These two answers, the last on the Redeemer (Questions 20 to 28), follow the road on which he carried them out, the steps the creeds confess and every church believes. Next week the catechism turns to how his Spirit makes them ours.

All the way down

Paul's hymn in Philippians 2 shapes both answers. The Son, "existing in the form of God … emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:6-7), and went lower still:

And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:8

These are Christ's two estates, humiliation and exaltation; each step has its text. He was born low: Mary "laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7). He was "born under the law, to redeem those under the law" (Galatians 4:4-5). The first proof text foresees his miseries: "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3). The next hears the wrath of God in his cry: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46). The death was cursed, for "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). Then he was buried (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). The English minister Matthew Henry writes that "the lowest step was his dying the death of the cross, the death of a malefactor and a slave" Matthew Henry. The London preacher Charles Spurgeon bids his hearers see "an incarnate God upon the cross; a substitute atoning for mortal guilt" Spurgeon, Christ Crucified.

The Apostles' Creed in its received form adds after "buried" that "he descended into hell". The catechism reads it as "continuing under the power of death for a time", as the Larger Catechism, from the same Assembly, says outright: he continued "in the state of the dead, and under the power of death till the third day; which hath been otherwise expressed in these words, he descended into hell" Larger Catechism, Q. 50. For John Calvin the clause names the unseen part of Christ's suffering: in his soul he endured what the condemned deserve Institutes 2.16.10. The Heidelberg Catechism, of the continental Reformed churches, bids the tempted rest in this: by the anguish he suffered "in his soul on the cross and before", he "has redeemed me from the anguish and torment of hell" Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 44. Lutherans, who follow Martin Luther, confess that after the burial the one person who is God and man descended into hell as victor, overthrowing the devil and destroying hell's power; how, they add, is to be believed, not searched out Formula of Concord, art. 9. Catholic and Orthodox Christians teach that he went down to the dead and brought out the righteous of the ages before him, reading 1 Peter 3:18-20, 4:6 and Ephesians 4:8-10. All confess that he truly died and that death could not hold him (Where was Jesus during the three days?).

Raised, seated, coming

The exaltation begins at the grave: "He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:4). As he ascended, the angels promised: "This same Jesus … will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11). One proof text here, Mark 16:19, belongs to the longer ending of Mark, which the oldest manuscripts lack; Luke 24:51 and Acts 1:9-11 teach the same ascension. Paul writes of God's power:

which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms

Ephesians 1:20

The right hand is a place of rule and of prayer. There he "doth gather and defend his church, and subdue their enemies" and "maketh intercession for them" Larger Catechism, Q. 54. The Reformed confess that his human body is now in heaven, while "according to his Godhead, majesty, grace, and Spirit, he is at no time absent from us" Q. 47; Lutherans take the right hand of God to mean God's power, present everywhere, rather than a place, and teach that Christ's human nature shares in it Formula of Concord, art. 8.

Last, he will come to judge. God "has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed" (Acts 17:31), and the one "unjustly judged and condemned by wicked men" will judge in righteousness Q. 56. The doctrine course teaches these in The resurrection, The ascension and Christ's reign and Christ's return; see also Did Jesus really rise from the dead?, Will Jesus come again? and What is the last judgment?

To ponder this week

He went so low and was raised so high for us: what lowliness can you bear this week in his steps? "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5). When you are passed over, or serve where no one sees, remember the manger and the throne, and consider him who endured, "so that you will not grow weary and lose heart" (Hebrews 12:3).

Practice