Theology 101 No.17

Jesus needed to be unique to mankind in order to bring about our salvation from sin, death, and the devil. Being both Man and God made Jesus able to take our place under God’s Law and to suffer the guilt and punishment for our sins (II Corinthians 8:9). Just as Christ is of two natures, He also endured two “states” during His time on earth: A state of humiliation and a state of exaltation.

Christ’s love for mankind caused Him to humble Himself so that He could redeem us from sin. His love motivated Him to do what was in our interest (I John 3:16). Christ’s humiliation is summarized in the Apostles’ Creed with the words, “Conceived of the Holy Spirit; born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried.” Jesus gave up the full use of His divine powers to become one of us.

Many modern “theologians” deny a key part of Jesus’ humiliation. His conception by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary is a necessary and unalterable fact of God’s plan for man’s salvation. Jesus was like other human children. The most important distinction being He was not sired by and earthly father and that Jesus was holy (not conceived in sin and did not receive original sin from His human mother). Contrary to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, the Immaculate Conception pertains to Jesus being conceived without sin – not Mary. She like all other born of a human mother and father was a sinner in need of redemption.

Jesus’ whole earthly life was also part of His humiliation. In His 33 years Jesus endured poverty, contempt, and persecution. He bore the infirmities and weaknesses common to men, although He was without sin. He knew physical abuse and torture. His earthly suffering was intensified in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. It was there on Golgotha that Jesus suffered all the torments of hell and damnation. Jesus death, though voluntary, was real. His soul left His body and it was laid in the tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea. There it lay for three days with out seeing decay.

Where Jesus voluntarily gave up the full use of His divine powers in His humiliation, His exaltation is quite the opposite. Jesus’ exultation is marked by the full use of His divinity. Christ has entered into the full use of His divine majesty as God and Man. Where as Jesus’ divinity was once withheld from His humanity in order secure our salvation, His humanity now shares with His divinity all knowledge, all power, omnipresence, and all authority in heaven and on earth (Philippians 2:9-11).

Like His humiliation, Jesus’ exaltation is described in the Apostles’ Creed as thus: “He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.” Many erroneously believe that Jesus’ visit to hell was part of His humiliation or punishment for our sin. This is not the case. Jesus went to hell to proclaim His victory over sin, death, and the devil (I Peter 3:18,19).

The Bible teaches that on the third day Jesus Rose from the dead. He appeared to His disciples bodily. He was not simply a spirit, but in His spiritual body which was (and is) no longer subject to the laws and conditions it was subject to before. He no longer requires food and drink, nor does His body limit His divine attributes in anyway. Though there have been those who have denied Jesus’ resurrection from the beginning, it does prove He is who He taught Himself to be (Romans 1:4; John 7:16, 8:28). His resurrection proves that the Heavenly Father has accepted His sacrifice on our behalf. It also proves and foreshadows our own resurrection from the dead on the last day.

Forty days after His resurrection, Jesus ascended bodily into heaven before the eyes of His gathered disciples. He went there ahead of us to prepare a place for his followers (John 14:2,3). In heaven Jesus “sits at God’s right hand”. This is a figure of speech that means “to occupy a position of divine honor and authority”. (We have a phrase in English derived from this: right-hand man.) It should give Christians great comfort that our Lord and Savior rules with all authority, though unseen with physical eyes He is yet always with us, and that He will on day return for us to be with Him forever and ever. To this we can only echo St. John in saying, “[Jesus,] who testifies to these things, says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).