Lutheranism 101 - Part 23- The Second Article II

In talking about Jesus Christ's work of salvation for us we talk about two different states, and no they are not Arizona and California. They are two different periods of his life that were part of the salvation process. We call these two states, the state of humiliation and the state of exaltation. The state of humiliation consists of the period of time that as man He did not always or fully use his His divine powers. The state of exaltation consists of the period of time like now, that he fully and always uses His divine powers.

In the state of humiliation Jesus remained fully God, he just didn't always use his Godly powers, he restrained himself and lived as human under human conditions of suffering. The stages of Christ's humiliation include when he is conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. These things cover the time period that God choose to not let fully let his glory shine. Let's look at these in a little more detail.

We teach that Jesus was conceived and born of the Virgin Mary. In other words Jesus did not have a human father, but he did receive a human body and soul through Mary. The importance of the virgin birth cannot be overstated. If Jesus was not born of a virgin he would have been born sinful because he would have been born in the natural way through sinful parents. The fact that he was not conceived in the natural way, that the Holy Spirit enabled his conception through miraculous power enabled Jesus to be born sinless and perfect. So we can say that Jesus was true man in every way except he was without sin. This is also important because only a sinless man could obey the law perfectly for us in our place. Therefore to deny the virgin birth is to deny Christ.

In the humiliation of Christ we also talk about how he lived life here as a poor human and how he underwent persecution throughout his life, from the time that Herod tried to kill him as a toddler to the time of his death on the cross. We also included his burial. We teach that he was buried in a borrowed tomb and remained there until the third day.

Now during this time of humiliation he did at times let his glory be seen by others. When he walked on water, when he transfigured on the mountain, when he preformed miracles and raised people from the dead he displayed the fact that he was God. So Jesus in his actions very clearly showed at times that he was the God he said he was. Next time we will talk about Christ's work of redemption and atonement for us.

Here is some Scripture for you: Philippians 2:5-8; Luke 1:35; Matthew 1:20; Isaiah 7:14; Luke 2:7; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Isaiah 53:3; John 19:1-3; Mark 15:1-20; John 19:16-18; Mark 15:42-47

Pastor Fred