Today we begin with the Second Article
of the Apostle’s Creed, specifically Christ’s humiliation and our Redemption
from All Enemies.
What do we mean by humiliation? First,
humiliation is not identical with the incarnation. We can understand
humiliation by illustration. Consider the strongest man you know – someone
strong enough to lift the front end of a car or a refrigerator. He possesses
great strength, but if he does not use his strength, little children can bind
him and render him helpless. This is the way it was with Christ. In his divine nature,
Christ always and fully used his divine majesty and power, but in his human nature,
he did not always use this power. The humiliation of Christ consists in the
nonuse of divine power and majesty that he possessed in his human nature.[i]
Our Lutheran Confessions teach that
Christ always had this majesty according to his personal union, and yet
abstained from using it in the state of His humiliation. … He exercised this
majesty, not always, but when it pleased Him.[ii]
In addition to his suffering, death and
burial, the stages of Christ’s humiliation occur during his conception, birth
and life. Scripture records that he was born of a woman, under the law in
poverty and humility, and that he was obedient to his parents. This shows that
Christ’s humiliation was linked with his work of redemption.[iii] [iv]
The entire life of Christ was continuous
suffering. He was aware that he bore all our sins and guilt. What he
experienced at Gethsemane and Golgotha intensified his suffering until he
exclaimed, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”[v]
We can only understand his suffering
through Isaiah, who wrote, “The Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all,”[vi] for in his conscience
Jesus felt all these sins as his own. His physical suffering was no greater
than other men crucified, but his heart felt the fierceness of God’s wrath and
the torments of hell.[vii] The damned in hell
despair, but Christ clings to God and cries, “My God, my God.” Christ died, and
the soldiers attest to his death.[viii]
The personal union of Christ’s two
natures was not disrupted by the death of his human nature. The soul of Christ
was in paradise and the lifeless body in the grave was still the body of the
Son of God. The fact that this body did not see corruption shows that it was
still in communion with divine nature.[ix]
The death of Christ was a voluntary act
on his part. When he gave up his spirit, it was not because of physical
exhaustion or any other cause. He died because he wanted to die just at that
point.[x]
In this life, we will never understand
the depth of Christ’s humiliation, but that should not prevent us from
meditating upon these mysteries. For your spiritual benefit, take time tonight
to pray about what Christ experienced in his birth, life, suffering and death,
and simply allow God’s grace to stir your heart that you may love as deeply as
Christ loved. Amen.
[i] Edward
W. A. Koehler, A Summary of Christian Doctrine. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing
House (2006). 147.
[ii] Robert
Kolb and Timothy Wengert, The Book of Concord. Minneapolis: Fortress Press
(2000). Also see http://bookofconcord.org/fc-ep.php#VIII.%20The%20Person%20of%20Christ.
[iii]
Galatians 4:4 and Luke 2:7
[iv]
Koehler, 149
[v]
Mark 15:34
[vi]
Isaiah 53:6
[vii]
Koehler, 150
[viii]
John 19:32-35
[ix]
Koehler, 150
[x]
Ibid.
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