‘The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took Man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect Natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God, and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for the actual sins of men.’¹The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, 2; Van Dixhoorn ed., Creeds, 115.

There’s a shape to Jesus’ life, and once you see it you can’t unsee it. Everything descends, and then everything rises.

A pre-existent glory voluntarily surrendered — and replaced, at the end of the movement, with ‘the name above all names.’

Two States, Two Natures

A useful and influential way of approaching the work of Christ was given prominence by Lutheran orthodoxy,²This section is, with developments, extracted from Thompson and Doyle, ‘Work of Christ: Traditional Approaches,’ 7-9. first explained at length in Martin Chemnitz’s The Two Natures of Christ (1578). There the doctrine of the two states of Christ — humiliation and exaltation — runs in some sense parallel to the two natures, truly God and truly man.

It’s an attempt to do justice to Scripture’s testimony concerning the historical progress of Christ’s life from humiliation to exaltation.

The key text is Philippians 2:1-11, which assumes a pre-existent glory voluntarily surrendered by Christ, only to be replaced at the end of the movement with ‘the name above all names.’ Other texts indicating the same movement include Mark 10:33-34; Luke 24:26; John 12:23-32; Acts 2:30-36. An Old Testament anticipation appears in Isaiah 53.³An excellent discussion through the range of Christ’s humiliation and exaltation is Crowe, The Lord Jesus Christ, 253-83. See also, Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Disputation 27, ‘On Christ in His State of Humiliation;’ Boer and Faber eds., 305-316.

Going Down: Four Stages

1. The Incarnation. This equates to the Philippian expression ‘taking the form of a servant’ (2:7), which accents the voluntary surrender of Christ’s heavenly splendour (cf. Rom 8:3; 2 Cor 8:9; Heb 2:9).

The basic New Testament statement is John 1:14: ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’ It also includes his life-long obedience, often explained as voluntary submission to the law of God (Gal 4:4).

Note carefully what this does not mean. It doesn’t suggest he ceased to be God — rather that he took to himself all the conditions of humanity, yet, as Paul makes clear, without sin (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15).

2. Suffering. The critical expression: in his humanity he took on the very nature of a servant, and as a servant, ‘he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross’ (Phil 2:8).

Jesus took on a state of undergoing pain, distress and hardship — suffering, for us. It culminates in his trial and death, but includes his life-long experience of weariness (John 4:6), thirst (John 4:7), hunger (Matt 4:2), and grief (John 11:35).

All this was in accordance with Old Testament expectations (Isa 53:3), and gave him opportunity to express his obedience to the Father’s will (Heb 5:8).

3. Death. ‘He became obedient unto death, even death on a cross’ (Phil 2:8).

This climax of Christ’s obedience and suffering is expressed in the cry of dereliction from the cross (Matt 27:46). And here’s what that cry was about: it wasn’t simply his sharing the agony of human death that caused him to cry out, but the bearing of the curse on behalf of those he came to save (Gal 3:13-14; 2 Cor 5:21).

4. Burial. There’s no equivalent in the Philippian passage, but the full sharing of human death in the act of burial was part of the apostolic proclamation (1 Cor 15:4).

There’s a further indication of the extent of his humiliation in the fact that it was a borrowed tomb (Matt 27:59-60). Some presentations add at this point the descent into hell, based on Psalm 16:10; Ephesians 4:8-10; 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 3:18-20; 4:4-6.

Going Up: Four More

1. The Resurrection. This great event marks the transition from the state of humiliation to the state of exaltation. It is the undoing of death, the seal on the atonement completed at the cross.

There’s continuity between the crucified body and the resurrected body, indicated by the empty tomb and the nature of the appearances (Luke 24:39) — yet equally an obvious transformation preparing the way for his return to the Father (John 20:17, 19).

2. The Ascension. The return to heaven is represented in Luke and Acts as a bodily ascension (Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:6-11). Jesus did not shed his body as if to undo the union of divine and human natures — he retains his humanity (1 Tim 2:5). And it’s this ascension which makes possible his pouring out of the Spirit (John 16:7; Acts 2:33).

3. The Session. Scripture speaks of Christ’s activity beyond the ascension. ‘He is seated at the right hand of the Father’ (Acts 2:33; Heb 1:3; Eph 1:20-22), fulfilling the Old Testament promise (Psa 110:1).

This ‘seating’ connotes the completion of Christ’s work and his authority to exercise the rule of God (Dan 7:13-14). Hebrews speaks of his continuous intercession on behalf of the saints (Heb 7:25; Rom 8:34).

The term for this is ‘session’ — indicating a formal time when a ruling authority meets and acts to conduct its business.

4. The Return in Glory. The complete manifestation of Christ’s glory will occur at his return, when every knee will bow (Phil 2:10-11). That return brings both judgement and final salvation for those who belong to him (1 Thess 1:9-10; 4:13-5:11; 2 Thess 2:1-12).

How Are the Two Halves Connected?

Here’s a question worth pausing on. What exactly is the nature of the connection between the state of humiliation and the state of exaltation?

Is it simply sequential — one after the other? Is there some kind of inner necessity in the movement, as perhaps indicated by Luke 24:26 and Acts 2:24? Or is it causal: because Christ underwent the humiliation, he was exalted by the Father (Phil 2:9; Heb 2:9)?

If we affirm all three, we must safeguard the love of Christ as the motive for his work — as opposed to any suggestion of self-interest (Mark 10:45; Luke 19:10; John 10:11-18).

That’s an important guardrail. The descent wasn’t a calculated investment with a guaranteed return. It was love.

As a postscript, the whole scheme was later expanded by the Lutheran theologian Matthaus Haffenreffer in his Loci Theologici (1603) to encompass three states: Christ’s humiliation (his life and death); his glorification (that state between resurrection and ascension); and his majesty (the state he has held since the ascension).

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• 1
  The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, 2; Van Dixhoorn ed., Creeds, 115. ↩︎
• 2
  This section is, with developments, extracted from Thompson and Doyle, ‘Work of Christ: Traditional Approaches,’ 7-9. ↩︎
• 3
  An excellent discussion through the range of Christ’s humiliation and exaltation is Crowe, The Lord Jesus Christ, 253-83. See also, Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Disputation 27, ‘On Christ in His State of Humiliation;’ Boer and Faber eds., 305-316. ↩︎