Christian Dogmatics: Volume 2 by Pieper Francis

Author:Pieper, Francis [Pieper, Francis]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Concordia Publishing House
Published: 2011-05-03T16:00:00+00:00

1

The Nature of the Humiliation and the Exaltation

Since in the Incarnation the Son of God united Himself with the human nature without reducing His divine Person or His divine attributes; in other words, since the fullness of the Godhead entered into the human nature (no genus tapeinotikon), Christ was also according to His human nature, from the first moment of the unio personalis and during His entire earthly life, in possession of the . We have dealt with this at length in the chapter on the genus maicstaticum. Accordingly, the humiliation of Christ consists in this, that He refrained, during His earthly life, from the full use of the divine glory communicated to His human nature. His office as Redeemer required of Him that, in order to carry out the divine plan of redemption, He should in our place be put under the Law and in our stead suffer and die , Gal. 4:4-5; 3:13.

The Lutheran doctrine of the humiliation is thus expressed in the Formula of Concord: “This majesty He had immediately at His conception, even in His mother’s womb, but, as the Apostle testifies (Phil. 2:7), laid it aside (seipsum exinanivit), and, as Dr. Luther explains, He kept it concealed in the state of His humiliation, and did not employ (usurpavit) it always, but only when He wished” (Trigl. 1023, Sol. Decl., VIII, 26). This exinanition, according to the Formula of Concord, safeguarded the truly human development of Christ: “This majesty He always had according to the personal union, and yet He abstained from it in the state of His humiliation, and on this account [qua de causa, on account of the exinanition] truly increased in all wisdom and favor with God and men; therefore He exercised His majesty, not always, but when it pleased Him, until after His resurrection He entirely laid aside the form of a servant, but not the [human] nature, and was established in the full use, manifestation, and declaration of the divine majesty (in plenariam usurpationem, mani-festationem et declarationem divinae maiestatis collocaretur)” (Trigl. 821, Epit., VIII, 16).

If the exinanition consists in a partial non-use of the divine majesty by the human nature, the exaltation consists in the full use of the divine majesty. The Formula of Concord thus says: “Hence we believe, teach, and confess that the Son of Man is realiter, that is, in deed and truth, exalted according to His human nature to the right hand of the almighty majesty and power of God [receiving more than the dona creata and finitae qualitates of the Reformed; cp. Trigl. 1033, Sol. Decl., VIII, 52], because He (that man) was assumed into God when He was conceived of the Holy Ghost in His mother’s womb and His human nature was personally united [fuerit unita] with the Son of the Highest” (Trigl. 821, Epit. VIII, 15). Emphasizing the difference between the two states, the Formula says: “We therefore hold and teach… because the entire fullness of the divinity dwells in Christ, not as in

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