From the time of His incarnation to the time of His ascension, Christ is said to have been in a state of humiliation. From the time of His ascension onward, Christ is said to be in a state of exaltation. The word “state” in this context refers to Christ’s position in life, particularly with respect to the Law. In His state of humiliation, Christ was subject to the Law even to the point of condemnation due to His assumption of our sins. “God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law” (Gal 4:4-5). In His state of exaltation, Christ is no longer subject to the Law and is free from condemnation due to His atoning work.
A common approach to describing Christ’s state of humiliation is to divide it into five stages: incarnation, suffering, death, burial, and His descent into hades. These five stages of humiliation are each now briefly discussed.
The Incarnation is properly understood as the second Person of the triune God assuming a human nature. Something with infinite qualities in a deliberate act of humiliation entered into something with finite qualities. “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14).
There is debate about whether the Incarnation was necessary and would have still occurred if sin had not entered the world. There are good arguments on both sides. Those believing that the Incarnation was not contingent upon sin points to God’s sovereign plan, God’s immutability, and the fact of the ascended Christ having duties beyond just that of redemption. Those believing that the Incarnation only occurred because sin entered the world point to Scriptural passages consistently conditioning the Incarnation with sin. “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lk 19:10; see also Jn 3:16; Gal 4:4; 1 Jn 3:8).
Orthodox doctrine is that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary (Mt 1:18-20; Lk 1:34-35). For example, the Apostle’s Creed states precisely this, that Christ was “born of the Virgin Mary.” This is also affirmed in the Roman Catholic Catechism, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Westminster Catechism, the Augsburg Confession, and in many other statements of faith. Beyond Mt 1:18-20 and Lk 1:34-35, justification for the virgin birth of Christ includes the prophesy by Isaiah, “Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel” (Is 7:14). But virgin is a translation of the Hebrew word almah (עַלְמָה), which can also simply mean a young woman. Theologically, it makes sense that the God-man was a result of both God and humanity, which would be the case if Mary’s conception was due to the Holy Spirit. Last, some believe that people are born with sin that is inherited from their Father’s line. If so, this would account for Christ assuming human nature but not the associated sin.
Those questioning the virgin birth deviate from orthodox doctrine but point to several things. The first is that of Is 7:14 discussed above. If Matthew and Luke understood this verse to refer to a virgin, they may have assumed that Jesus must have been the result of a virgin birth. The second is the fact that the Messiah was prophesized to come from the line of David. If Joseph was not Jesus’s biological father, Jesus was not a biological descendant of the male lineage of David. Last, no other mention of the virgin birth appears anywhere else in the NT. Both the earliest and latest Gospels do not mention it (Mark and John, respectively). And Paul does not mention it in any of his letters. When he writes, “God sent His Son, born of a woman” (Gal 4:4), he uses the word gynaikos (γυναικός), which means woman rather than choosing to use a word that means virgin.
A middle position is that the virgin birth may or may not have occurred, but this issue is not a matter of theological importance. Often, this position is motivated by a skepticism of supernatural events and is accompanied by a dismissal of most if not all other miracle accounts in the Bible. But there is merit to the position that the virgin birth is not a belief upon which any other theological doctrine depends and does not necessarily follow from any other theological doctrine.
The sufferings of Christ are most closely associated with the Passion, the torture He endured just before His crucifixion. The word passion comes from the Greek word pathos (πάθος), which literally means to suffer. But it is understood that Christ’s entire life on earth consisted of suffering as a sinless person in a sinful world. In this sense, His suffering was of the soul in addition to the body. At Gethsemane, Jesus makes this clear when He says, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death” (Mt 26:38). That Christ suffered in body and in soul is theologically important since His atoning work needed to address the effects of sin on both our bodies and on our souls. All of this was also required to fulfill Isaiah’s prophesy of the Suffering Servant:
However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore, And our pains that He carried; Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted, Struck down by God, and humiliated. But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed. (Is 53:4-5)
Christ’s death on the cross involves more than just the physical death of the God-man. First, it was an execution of someone judged to be innocent through due legal process. The Roman prefect and governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, says to the Jewish crowd, “You brought this man to me on the ground that he is inciting the people to revolt; and behold, after examining Him before you, I have found no basis at all in the case of this man for the charges which you are bringing against Him. No, nor has Herod, for he sent Him back to us” (Lk 23:14-15). The Roman legal system was considered one of the most sophisticated to have ever existed, providing clear evidence that the crucifixion was the killing of an innocent person, and therefore served no direct judicial function. Second, death by crucifixion was seen as so humiliating a death that it was not allowed to be used on Roman citizens. Christ’s crucifixion was therefore the humiliating death of an innocent person.
Upon his death Jesus cries out, “It is finished” (Jn 19:30). This marks the end of Jesus’s physical life, but not his humiliation. His humiliation continues with his burial in the tomb and His subsequent and descent into Hades. The Westminster Catechism writes, “Christ’s humiliation after death involved his being buried and continuing in a state of being dead and under the power of death until the third day. This period is referred to in the words, He descended into hell.”[i]
It may seem strange that Westminster Catechism refers to Jesus being dead for three days as descending into hell. In fact this specifically addresses language found in several creeds. For example, both the Apostles’ Creed and the Athanasian Creed states that Christ descended into hell after his death. It seems that these creeds are referring to something more than Jesus being dead, but the scriptural basis for an actual descent of Christ into hell is scant. Hence, a defining-away of the issue in the Westminster Catechism.
There is some indirect scriptural basis for Christ descending into hell prior to His resurrection. Paul writes, “Now this expression, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things” (Eph 4:9-10). Additionally, Peter writes, “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which He also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison … For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead” (1 Pt 3:18-19; 4:6). Many interpret these verses such that Christ’s spirit after His death descended to hell to preach the gospel to the dead and unsaved. But others reject this interpretation as it would seem likely, if true, that the burial and resurrection accounts in the Gospels would also include an account of the descent.
The humiliation of Christ is followed by His exaltation. Christ’s state of exaltation is typically divided into four stages: the resurrection, the ascension, Christ at the right hand of God, and the physical return of Christ to earth. Each of these stages will now be briefly discussed.
Christ’s resurrection consisted of the reunification of His soul with a glorified body that was difficult to recognize and could suddenly appear and disappear. “Now while they were telling these things, Jesus Himself suddenly stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be to you.’ But they were startled and frightened, and thought that they were looking at a spirit” (Lk 24:36-37). Furthermore, Christ’s resurrection was through His own power. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn 2:19). In this sense Christ’s exaltation includes His defeat of death.
It should be noted that Christ’s death and resurrection are credible accounts by historical standards. Paul writes that after Jesus’s resurrection, “He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also” (1 Cor 15:5-8). If Christ had not made these appearances, it is almost certain that Paul would have been publicly revealed as a fraud. Louis Berkhof writes, “Even liberal scholars admit that no fact is better attested than the resurrection of Christ.”[ii] Denial of the resurrection is essentially a refusal to believe in any miraculous account, no matter how strong the evidence may be. For more complete treatment of this issue, see the apologetics section on the Resurrection (p. 331).
Some have suggested possible ways that Jesus could have made His post-crucifixion appearances. Examples range from the apostles practicing deliberate deception, Jesus only appearing to die on the cross, or Jesus’s appearances being visions sent by God. All of these theories have fatal flaws except perhaps the vision theory. But Christ purposefully demonstrates his physical body when appearing to the disciples. “[Jesus] said to Thomas, ‘Place your finger here, and see My hands; and take your hand and put it into My side; and do not continue in disbelief, but be a believer” (Jn 20-27). The vision theory would therefore make God a deceiver and, if one can believe in a vision sent by God, why not simply believe in the resurrection in the first place?
The ascension of Christ is described by Luke as follows, “And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were watching, and a cloud took Him up, out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, then behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them, and they said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven’” (Acts 1:9-11; see also Lk 24:50-53; Heb 4:14). Of course, there can be very few things as exalting as to be lifted up to Heaven to be seated at the right hand of God. But the ascension of the Man-god was also theologically necessary for Christ to fulfill His role as Mediator. “For Christ did not enter a holy place made by hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Heb 9:24).
The Bible makes numerous references to the ascended Christ being at the right hand of God. Jesus himself predicts this when being questioned before the Sanhedrin. “But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God” (Lk 22:69). In the time of Jesus, being designated as a ruler’s right hand gave that person equal honor and authority. Therefore, Christ is not literally at the right hand of God as God is Spirit and does not have a literal hand. Scripture is clear on this meaning. “Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him” (1 Pt 3:21-22). Therefore, the exalted state of Christ at God’s right hand means that Christ has been given all authority over Heaven and Earth. Jesus Himself makes this clear just before his ascension at the Great Commission, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Mt 28:18).
The future physical return of Christ to earth is referred to as the Parousia (Παρουσία) which literally means a coming or a presence. The word appears in many places in the NT where it refers to the return to earth of Jesus from heaven to raise the dead, hold the last judgment, and set up formally and gloriously the kingdom of God. A typical example occurs in James, “Therefore be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming (parousias) of the Lord” (Jas 5:7). Although the Parousia is something Christians look forward to in the future, the Nicene Creed sums up this culmination of Christ’s exaltation nicely, “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.”
[i] The Westminster Larger Catechism, Answer to Q. 50, “How was Christ humiliated after his death?”
[ii] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Eastford, CT: Martino Fine Books, 1941: 347.
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