_Christian Theology by Milton Valentine, D.D., LL.D Copyright 1906, Lutheran Publication Society Printed Philadelphia, PA. by The United Lutheran Publication House_ Volume II Pages 88-95 --------------------------------------------------------------- DIVISION III. THE STATES OF CHRIST. As preparing the way for us to understand His total redemptive work it is needful to fix in mind the states of Christ as embraced in that work. These are usually three. Considered simply with reference to His divine- human Person, two states may comprise all; but viewed in relation to the scope of His work, three ranges of movement are covered, viz.: The State of Pre-existence, the State of Humiliation, and the State of Exaltation or Glorification. I. THE STATE OF PRE-EXISTENCE was that of "the Word" (_ho logos_) (John i. I-3), as the second Person of the Triune God, before the incarnation. This has been sufficiently set forth in the doctrine of the Trinity. To this state belong all the work, or divine self-revelations, that appear in the Old Testament economy, preparing the way for the actual coming in the flesh. We properly include this as embraced in a state of Christ, because it covers _mediational_ function and action in the pre-advent government or administrtion of the world. The move- ment of redemptive, saving grace began at once on the fall of man into sin and guilt, according to purpose before the foundation of the world. The movements of the Old Testament dispensation of grace, its instructions, theophanies, training, and salvation, were in and through Him. No man had seen God, the Father, at any time; ---------------End of Page 88------------------------------ the only begotten Son had revealed Him. He dates Himself as "before Abraham." It was He whose "glory" Isaiah saw in vision (John xii. 4I). In plan, purpose, and power, He was already the "Lamb slain." His work was already active and efficient as "the Christ," the "Anointed," in the redemptive economy (I Pet. i. I0-II). 2. THE STATE OF HUMILIATION (_Status Humilia- tionis_, or _Exinanitionis_). This has already been ex- plained, to some degree, in the incarnation and constitu- tion of the Person of Christ. It is to be held as including the entire condescension of the Word's be- coming flesh, _i.e._, the descent from the "form of God" (_morphe theou_) into the "form of a servant," and "being made in the likeness of men," as well as all the subse- quent self-privation when, "being found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself" in conditions of poverty, weaknesss, sufferings, to "the death of the cross" (Phil. ii. 5-9), and descent into the grave. Lutheran dogmati- cians, generally, have been peculiar in restricting the "state of humiliation" to Christ's _human nature_, as a temporary renunciation of the use or exercise of the Divine attributes and powers with which that nature was at once, in the incarnation, actually invested, accord- ing to their theory of the _communicatio idiomatum_.[1] They have made it appertain only to the assumed nature, while affirming that according to the _divine_ nature Christ was from infancy to His death fully partici- pant in all divine powers and activities. And they excluded the assumption of humanity as such from constituting a part of the humiliation of the Son-- alleging that as the union of the two natures is _per- -------------------------------------------------------- [1] P. 8I. ------------------End of Page 89----------------------- manent_, continuing in His exaltation, the incarnation itself must not be counted constitutive of this state. We cannot, however, so understand the Scriptures, nor concede the logic which was thought to require such a view. "Numerous more recent Lutherans abandon it."[1] It can be made plausible only from strained and extreme notions of the _communication of attributes_. The pre- existent Son, Logos, Word, was the _subject_ of the humil- iation or self-emptying. Sartorius distinctly and justly includes the incarnation as itself forming the funda- mental reality in the state of humiliation, involving as it did the whole actual human life of the Son of God as incarnate on earth.[2] From the point of view thus gained of it, we may specify the following features, sketched in Phil. ii. 6-8. (_a_) It was _voluntary_--a thing of self-sacrificing love, to meet the needs of a fallen race (Phil. ii. 5-8; 2 Cor. viii. 9; John x. II-I8). (_b_) It included a real birth, a grad- ual growth and advance to manhood, the acceptance by Him of all the real and innocent experiences of human nature, as hunger, thirst, weariness, human sympathies, pains, etc. It seems to have been necessary, or at least fitting, that He should live and act in a real human life, and thus present Himself a merciful, sympathetic, and faithful High Priest, actually touched with a feeling of man's infirmities (Heb. ii. I6-I8; iv. I5). (_c_) It included a divine self-limitation, or "emptying" on the part of the eternal Word, a surrender, in some way, of the plenary exercise of divine powers or attributes--_not_ of their _possession_--in order that He might be truly and really man and have a true human experience. Thus ----------------------------------------------------------- [1] Dr. Dorner, "System of Christian Doctrine," III., p. I82. [2] "Doctrine of Divine Love," pp. I6I-I63. ---------------End of Page 90------------------------------ He could "increase in wisdom and stature" (Luke ii. 52); thus He could say: "Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father" (Mark xiii. 32). "he was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, . . . that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man" (Heb. ii. 9). (_d_) It allowed such manifestations of His Godhead as were needful to show and prove Him to be the Son of God, and were necessary to accomplish His divine teaching and re- demptory work. He declined to use His supernatural powers for private ends or out of relation to the purpose of His incarnate mission. (_e_) It included a real _death_. "He became obedient unto death." As we shall see, this was necessary to the great peculiar redemptory func- tion to which the incarnation looked: "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit" (John xii. 24). That _He laid down His life of Himself_ is not incon- sistent with this reality, but rather deepens the depth to which His voluntary love condescended. (_f_) As to its time-extension, it began with the incarnation and con- tinued all through His earthly life and ministry to the moment of His revivification in the tomb. 3. THE STATE OF EXALTATION. This expresses the full resumption of the "form of God," in the infinite divine glory which He had with the Father before the world was. In its time-relation we may properly con- ceive of it as beginning with the moment of His reanima- tion in the grave, and as consummated, through trans- formation and the ascension, in His "session at the right hand of God" (Acts v. 3I; Phil. ii. 9-II; Eph. i. 20-22; Matt. xxviii. I8-20). It is to be borne in mind that this --------------------End of Page 91----------------------- state of exaltation, like the others, is marked by its representing a special relation and activity in the accomplishment and consummation of the redemptive economy. In specific statement, it means: (_a_) The glorification of the whole _Person of Christ_ as the _God- man_. _He_, the Theanthropic Christ, was exalted. It is of _Him_, in His whole personality, that the predicates of the state of exaltation are affirmed. "If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ" (I John ii. I); "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow," etc. (Phil. ii. I0; John v. 27-29; Matt. xxiv. 30; xxv. 3I; xxvi. 64; Mark xiii. 26). When the end of this dispensation comes, it is "the Son of man" that shall come in the clouds and sit on the throne. (_b_) The exaltation is _official_, as well as personal. Christ is Mediator, exalted into relations of official power and activity, above time and space, above all things that He may _fill_ all things. These are the essence of what is meant by "the right hand of God" (Rom. viii. 34). "The right hand of God is not any definite place, but the omnipotent power of God."[1] It expresses redemptive dominion, in full, divine efficacious power. In this relation, He (I) sends the Holy Spirit (John xvi. 7; Acts ii. 33); (2) endows men and calls them into the work of the church and service of His kingdom (Eph. iv. II); "He gave some apostles," etc.; (3) is Head over all things to the church, providential Ruler (Eph. i. 22; I Peter iii. 22); (4) He is Judge, as already men- tioned. As these brief statements of the states of Christ make evident, they all have their designations and reality in connection with the redemptive necessity and moral needs of man. -------------------------------------------------------- [1] Baier, 487: "Form of Corcord," Sol. Dec., viii., 28. --------------End of Page 92------------------------------ In this State of Exaltation, and at the beginning of it, Lutheran dogmaticians usually put what the Apostles' Creed terms the "_descent into Hades_" (_descensus ad inferos_). The doctrine of a descent by Christ was devloped in the early Church. It appears in Clement of Alexandria,[1] and in Origen.[2] It is found in the Formula of the Fourth Synod of Sirmium (359) and in the Creed of Aquileia in the fourth century. It appears in some subsequent baptismal formulas, and was inserted in the Apostles' Creed some time after the fifth century. It was incorporated in the third article of the Augsburg Confesssion. The Form of Concord amplified the state- ment. The conception of it is considerably varied in theology. In the Greek Church it is represented as "a voluntary passage of Christ's human soul, in union with His divinity, when separated from the body, into Hades (_ad inferos_) in order to offer, through the preaching of the Gospel, redemption to such as were held there under uncleansed sin, and to transfer believers to Paradise, especially the saints of the Old Testament."[3] In the Roman Catholic Church it is held that the whole divine- human Personality of Christ descended into the _Limbus patrum_, or the place where the saints of Israel were detained, in order to deliver them into the ful enjoy- ment of blessedness.[4] The Reformed Churches of Prot- estantism have generally given it a metaphorical inter- pretation, as a figurative expression of Christ's extreme humiliation and sufferings in connection with His death, ---------------------------------------------------------- [1] "Stromata," vi., 6. [2] "Cont. Celsus," ii., 43. [3] See "Orth. Conf. of Greek Church," Quest. xlix. [4] "Cat. Rom.," secs. I00-I05. --------------------End of Page 93--------------------- the depth of woe He reached in dying for sin and sin- ners. Some have made it a mere synonym for "dead" and "buried," by addition of a phrase indicating a sepa- ration of the soul from the body. This conception of the Reformed theology means, as it explains, that they place the _descensus_ as a part of the State of Humiliation. The prevailing Lutheran view, as stated in the Form of Concord and general dogmatics, is distinctive in Prostest- antism, in respect both to its position in the states of Christ and its generic conception. This connects it with His State of Exaltation, placing it, as His first act in this state, between His reanimation, or resumption of life in the grave and His resurrection from it. He is viewed as, in His whole person, descending into Hades, the realm of death, and exhibiting Himself as Conqueror. It thus belongs, not to the passiion, but to the glorious victory and triumph of Christ. And it is an act, what- ever obscurity and mystery may enshroud it, accom- plished in His entire divine-human Person as having overcome death. It is enough to know that He has thus descended and taken the keys of death and Hades for those that come to God through Him. And it is fitting when the Form of Concord advises against curi- ous speuculation or dogmatism about points left unre- vealed and beyond determination. The Scripture pas- sages for it are too incidental and their interpretation too uncertain to justify anything more than a very gen- eral statement. The literature of its past discussion is immense, but the conclusions established by it are exceedingly small. We may well accept the general statement of the Apostles' Creed in the Greek form, for thus far the Scriptures plainly warrant; but many of the special theoretic amplifications of the divinely stated -------------End of Page 94------------------------------- fact are too unwarranted to be counted as theology. Especially must it be regarded as utterly without right and profane to build up upon the "_descensus_" a scheme of purgatorial grace, through penal sufferings and priestly absolutions, in derogation of the all-sufficient propitia- tion and righteousness of Christ. Of another thing in this connection we may hold our- selves as fully certain--that the English word "hell" should not be used as a translation of hades in this clause. As the equivalent of the Hebrew _sheol_, hades stands in the Creed in the generic sense for the "spirit- world," the place of departed spirits irrespective of con- dition. It is not a simple equivalent for _gehenna_; pro- priety and accuracy forbid its use as such. It is true that the _old-English_ word "hell," from the Saxon "_helan_" (concealed, invisible) meant the same as hades or sheol; but it has lost that meaning in present English and popular understanding, and its use now constitutes a distinct mistranslation. Accordingly the revisers, giving us the revised version of the Bible, have refused the world "hell" where the Greek has hades, or the Hebrew sheol. ------------End of Chapter on Page 95---------------------- This text was converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg by William Alan Larson and is in the public domain. You may freely distribute, copy or print this text. Please direct any comments or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther Library at Concordia Theological Seminary. E-mail: smithre@mail.ctsfw.edu Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA Phone: (260) 452-2123 Fax: (260) 452-2126