1. The Humiliation and Exaltation of Jesus Christ

 

(i) As Jesus Christ is the pleroma of divinity, His richness and diversity may be understood when approached from diverse perspectives. To study the states of Christ, i.e., chronological stages of His life has been used since the seventeenth century as a useful and effective way to understand Christ. His life is divided into two states, i.e. humilitatio and exaltatio, each of which consists several stages.

 

(ii) The life of Jesus Christ is described in the way of contrast such as descent from heaven to earth and ascent from earth to heaven, homeleaving for far country and homecoming to the Father’s house(Jn 3.13, 13.3, 16.28, Eph 4.8-10), suffering and glory(Lk 24.26, Heb 2.9-10), or rich and poor(2Cor 8.9). Most of all, Phil 2.6-11 explicitly contrasted two states of His life in terms of humiliation and exaltation.

 

Phil 2.6-11

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 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 that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 

(iii) Even though humiliation is considered from incarnation, the humiliation of Christ began from eternity when the Son dedicated Himself for the people of God in the intra-trinitarian pactum salutis. Election before the foundation of the world was possible in His acceptance of humiliation(Eph 1.4), and His significant role in the creation of the world as the Word of God(Jn 1) seems to be related with His mission: “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”(Jn 17.5) Logos is instrumental both in the old and new creation. Logos and Wisdom Christology are central in the Old Testament era. His pre-incarnation activities, predictions and theophanic appearances in several forms including the Son of Man are listed in E. W. Hengstenberg, Christology of the Old Testament.

           

(iv) The subject of humiliation and exaltation is the person of Jesus Christ, not His humanity only. His humiliation has two elements of kenosis to laid aside the divine power and assume the form of servant and tapeinosis to subject himself under the demand and curse of the law and assume the penal responsibility of human race. The stages of humiliation such as incarnation, suffering, death, burial, and descent into hell are followed by the stages of exaltation such as resurrection, ascension, session, and triumphant return.

 

 

2. The Incarnation and Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ

 

(1)   Incarnation

 

(i) Incarnation presupposes the pre-existence of Christ, and therefore it is not the beginning of his personal existence but adding and assuming human nature to be united as God-man. Though some contemporary secularist theologians attempt to regard His incarnation as the total incarnation of God to deny the existence of the transcendental realm and heavenly God for pantheistic immanence, the incarnation may be described precisely the incarnation of the Son rather than God.

 

(ii) However, as Karl Barth pointed out, “The incarnation of the Word, the human being of God, His condescension, His way into the far country, His existence in the forma servi, is… a novum mysterium, with what is noetically and logically an absolute paradox… for the redemption of the world… not to alter Himself, but to deny the immutability of His being, His divine nature, to be in discontinuity with Himself, to be against Himself, to set Himself in self-contradiction.”

 

(iii) The possibility of the divine incarnation lies in the divine omnipotence and natural assimilability between God and man as the image of God. Whether the incarnation of the Word was necessitated by the Fall or not is controversial in view of the grand design of God. However, it was necessary to redeem the sins of human race, for it was necessary to be one of them to represent them.

 

(2)   Virgin Birth

 

(i) The virgin birth of Christ is recorded in Mt 1.18-20 and Lk 1.34-35, and it is strongly confessed by the early Christians as seen in the Apostles’ Creed: conceptusde Spiritu sancto, natus ex Maria virgine. Though Moltmann insisted “inappropriate to call the virgin birth historical” and it is neither a pillar or base of the Christian faith in Christ as the Son of God, it is “an event occurring in the realm of the creaturely world in the full sense of the word, and so in the unity of the psychical with the physical, in time and space, in noetic and ontic reality.” His incarnation needed a point of entry into humanity which was the point of conception, and the virgin conception is well suited to the incarnation of the Word rather than an interrupted confusion with human sexual union. Virginity signifies “non-creative, non-sovereign, merely ready, merely receptive” atmosphere to be incarnated.

 

(ii) The sinlessness of Christ has been grounded on the male-line absence, but theologically it is not possible to negate the female inheritance of original sin. Though Roman Catholics declared the doctrine of immaculate Mary that she was sinless, it is groundless and repeat the problem. The idea of sinlessness due to the male absence simply reflects the patriarchal system of inheritance. Rather, he was born sinless because of His divine sinless personhood and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Some theologians insist that Jesus did not sin even though he had original sin and sinful tendency, but the biblical description of His sinlessness is not based on data collection but His essential purity.

 

 

3. The Suffering Life and Death of Crucifixion, and Descent into Hell

 

(1)   Life of the Suffering Servant

 

(i) His whole life was a life of suffering as a humiliated and poor Suffering Servant toward the climatic point of crucifixion and death. With the human body and soul as well as the divine sensitivity, his pain was overburdened by the spiritual anguish with the mediatorial consciousness of penal gravity of human sins. Louis Bekhof listed four causes for his suffering life: (1) The Lord of the universe occupied the position of servant bound to obey than to command, (2) The pure and holy happened to live in a sinful and polluted atmosphere, (3) His perfect awareness and clear anticipation, and (4) privation of life and maltreatment of human/Satan. No human could feel his agony and pain.

 

(ii) The constant temptations of Satan in various ways occupied a significant part of his suffering. Two cases of temptation are prominent, one in the beginning of public life and the other at its end in Gethsemane. The first one consists of three temptations signifying economic, religious, and political salvation that have constantly contradicting the redemptive salvation of Christ through crucifixion and resurrection.

 

(iii) In the Gethsemane, Jesus was “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” and prayed that “if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me” three times. It is strange to see the trembling Christ before death, who had run His life courageously for this goal. But, His death of crucifixion was fundamentally different from other human death. The burden of divine punishment for all human sins was too heavy even for Him and His extraordinary sensitivity terrified Him.

 

(2)   Death of Crucifixion

 

(i) Even though He was sinless, Christ died a death of the greatest sinner as “the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world”(Jn 1.29). Therefore, his death of crucifixion was fundamentally different from the ordinary crucifixion. It was a cursed death of punishment for all sins of all human race by God. The Roman sentence to death was only instrumental to the divine sentence to most painful death, as it was a death and God-forsakenness both without sin in himself but with greatest sin for the sake of men. His body and soul, humanity and divinity suffered the extreme pain of death.

 

(ii) His death was not a temporary unconsciousness or swoon but the real death executed both by Roman soldiers and God Himself. Crucifixion was a way to death and the power of death prevailed Him for three days, though He is the Life Itself because His deprivation of being God due to His perfect identification with the fallen humanity.

 

(3)   Descent into Hell

 

(i) If physical death results in the separation of body and soul and the soul does not stay in tomb, where was His soul for three days of death? The Apostles Creed confesses that He descendit ad inferna. Sheol/Hades is the place of all the dead souls in the Old Testament, though later it was divided into two regions, one for the righteous and the other for the unrighteous, which are found in a parable of Jesus.

 

(ii) However, its weakness of biblical ground made some to omit this phrase from the Apostles Creed, though all the others satisfied with different interpretations without radical omission. Concerning the place of His soul after the death, Lk 23.43 and 1Pet 3.18-20 seem to be contradictory. Jesus answered the criminal that “today you will be with me in paradise”, but Peter explained away that “He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit qanatwqei.j me.n sarki.( zwopoihqei.j de. tw/| pneu,mati, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago.” Wayne Grudem explained away it as Christ preached to the disobedient people in spirit in the time of Noah, but he seriously miss the word “long ago pote”. Such ignorance is hardly possible because it is a fact report afterward which may had heard from the resurrected Lord. On the other hand, “today sh,meron” has another meaning “soon” or “little later”. If we have to harmonize in some way, the latter is more probable.

 

(iii) John Calvin strongly rejected the omission of this article: “we ought not omit his descent into hell… important to the sum of our redemption: if it is left out, much of the benefit of Christ’s death will be lost.”(Inst., II.XVI.8) Jesus died and paid for us not only the momentary death itself but also the punishment after death that is more painful. His death of three days meant His continued being punished still without the divine satisfaction, which was made in the resurrection.

 

 

4. The Resurrection, Ascension, Session and Glorification of Jesus Christ

 

(1)   The Physical Resurrection of Christ from the Dead

 

(i) The resurrection of Christ is the declaration of God that His justice is fully satisfied and Christ is no longer a sinner to be punished more. Christ is now declared righteous and all His people united with Him are also justified. Now, all His sufferings and humiliation ended. The Father and the Son, the Judge and the Sinner, are now reconciled and Christ is exalted by God.

 

(ii) His resurrection is neither spiritual nor existential but physical and historical. Though Moltmann’s idea that “Belief in resurrection is not summed up by assent to a dogma and the registering of a historical fact” but “participating in this creative of God” is right, he is wrong to insist that His resurrection “belongs to the vertical category of God’s history, not to the horizontal character of the history of the world”  Rather, Barth is right: “The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead… has in fact happened. It has happened in the same sense as His crucifixion and His death, in the human sphere and human time, as an actual event within the world with an objective content. The same will be true of His return.”

 

(iii) Jesus showed to the disciples for forty days, talked, ate, walked with them, and even let them touch His resurrected body: “Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."(Lk 24.39) His resurrected body is the first fruit of such kind that will be same with ours after resurrection, and its character was explained by Paul in 1Cor 15.42:

 

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable avfqarsi,a; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory do,xh; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power duna,mei; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body sw/ma pneumatiko,n.

 

(2)   The Ascension of Christ to Heaven

 

(i) The ascension of the resurrected Christ after forty days stay on the earth was the gate to His homecoming to the higher life of glory perfecting the resurrection. It is recorded in Lk 24.50-53, Acts 1.6-11, Mk 16.19, Eph 1.20, 4.8-10. 1Tim 3.16, Heb 1.3, 4.14, and 9.24.

 

(ii) His ascension to heaven was physical just like His resurrection, and it was a local transition from one place to another place, not simply a symbol of the lifting up of our humanity or a process of permanent omnipresence.

 

(3)   The Session and Glorification of Christ at the Right Hand of God

 

(i) After ascension to heaven, He was welcomed by the Father and “sitted at the right hand of God”. It is reported in Acts 2.33-36, 5.31, Eph 1.20-22, Heb 10.12, 1Pet 3.22, Rev. 3.21, and 22.1. This session was predicted by Jesus Himself in Mt 26.64. Though the expression “right hand” is anthropomorphic, it signifies His extreme glorification and power to share the reign of God. “All authority in heaven and on earth pa/sa evxousi,a evn ouvranw/| kai. evpi. th/j gh/j” given to Jesus after resurrection finally found its locality to exercise.

 

Eph 1.20-23

… he[God] raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

 

(ii) His session is not a life of peace but a busy life of being, standing, walking, and ruling, with continuation of His three-fold work as King, priest and prophet through His Holy Spirit and His own bodily Church until His Kingdom is consummated and dedicate it to His Father. So, His return to the world and the final subjection will reach the climax of His exaltation.