Humiliation and exaltation

Down and then up

Paul sings the whole path of Christ in one hymn, and at its centre stands a ‘therefore’:

And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names

Philippians 2:8–9

The risen Jesus said the same to the two on the road to Emmaus: "Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then to enter His glory?" (Luke 24:26). Matthew Henry, on the Philippians hymn, notes that "Christ's two states, of humiliation and exaltation, are noticed" Matthew Henry. John Wesley, explaining how Christ emptied himself, says that though he remained full, "he appeared as if he had been empty; for he veiled his fulness from the sight of men and angels" Wesley.

After the Reformation, Lutheran and Reformed theologians set this out as the doctrine of Christ's two states. The Westminster Shorter Catechism sums up the first:

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.

Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 27

His exaltation, the next answer says, consists in his resurrection on the third day, his ascension into heaven, his sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and his coming to judge the world at the last day Q. 28. The eternal Son as God cannot be made higher than he is. The one exalted is the mediator, the Son made man for us: as Matthew Henry puts it, "The exaltation was of Christ's human nature, in union with the Divine" Matthew Henry.

Where the traditions differ

The first question is whether the incarnation itself belongs to the humiliation. The Reformed say yes: as the Catechism puts it, the humiliation begins with his being born, for the eternal Son took the form of a servant. Lutherans hold that the Word, being God, did not change, so the incarnation as such is not a humiliation. From his conception his human nature received the divine majesty through the union; his humiliation was that on earth he did not always use it fully, and his exaltation is its full use Formula of Concord, art. 8.

The second concerns the creed's clause that he descended into hell. The Reformed place it at the end of the humiliation: the Shorter Catechism speaks of his continuing under the power of death for a time, and the Heidelberg Catechism reads it as the anguish of hell he suffered in his soul on the cross Q. 44. Lutherans take it as the first step of the exaltation, a proclamation of victory over the powers of hell (1 Peter 3:19, Colossians 2:15). The Catholic and Orthodox churches teach that Christ went down to the realm of the dead and set free the righteous who had died before him. The question is taken further in Where was Jesus during the three days?

On every account, Christ's way runs through lowliness to glory, and so does the way of those who belong to him. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5); "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you" (1 Peter 5:6). The humiliation begins with the incarnation; see also the lesson The incarnation.