The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1904, Page 19

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

The Lutheran Pioneer.

19

The State of Humiliation.

Christ Jesus, the God-man, took upon Himself
a threefold office for our salvation. He is our
Prophet, Priest, and King. In the performance of
this threefold office we distinguish two states, the
State of Humiliation and the State of Exaltation.
In the State of Humiliation Christ, according to
His human nature, did not always and not fully
use the divine majesty communicated to His human
nature. This state extends from His conception to
His burial and comprises five steps or stages, His
conception, birth, suffering and crucifixion, death,
and burial.

Christ was, indeed, also in the days of His hu-
miliation, the very God, the equal of His Father in
glory and majesty; He was omnipotent, omnipres-
ent, and omniscient. But He, ‘‘being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon
Him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a
man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross,” Phil.
2,5—8.

That Christ was invested with divine majesty
even in His days of deepest humiliation becomes
plain to every observant reader of the Gospels. But
this majesty He usually kept hidden; He, “‘though
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God,”’ that is, though the equal of His
Father in glory and majesty, He made no display
of His glory, nor did He boast of His majesty.
Making Himself of no reputation, He took upon
Himself the form of a servant. He became the
lowliest of the lowly; He, the Lord, put Himself
under the Law, and became obedient unto death,
dying the death of a malefactor on the cross.

Nevertheless; now and then, rays of Christ’s
hidden glory dazzled the eyes of men; here and
there'this glory, as it were, broke through the
clouds of humility. Already in the night when He
was born the glory of heaven burst forth to illumine
the plains of Bethlehem. John testifies that the
disciples ‘‘beheld His glory, the glory as of the

. Only-Begotten of the Father.’? His many miracles .

and His transfiguration were so many rays of His
divine glory, which was only hidden in the days of
humiliation.

Our Second Article describes Christ’s State of
Humiliation with the words: ‘‘Conceived by the
Holy Ghost; born of the Virgin Mary; suffered
under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead, and
buried.’’ :

Concerning Christ’s conception we read, Luke
1, 35: ‘“‘The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee:
therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born
of thee shall be called the Son of God.”? Jesus’ con-
ception was holy and pure. We must all confess:
“Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did
my mother conceive me,’’ but Christ was conceived
by the Holy Ghost and was born of a chaste virgin.
The Virgin Mary, though the mother of Jesus, re-
mained a virgin. Christ’s birth was sinless, but
lowly and poor. <A stable became His first home
upon earth, swaddling clothes covered His naked-
ness, and a manger was His couch. Here was -
lowliness and poverty, indeed. And why did Christ
thus humble Himself? To save us from our sinful
conception and birth, to prove Himself the Saviour
of even the smallest and weakest of men.

Christ’s whole life here upon earth was a life of
privation, of suffering; from His cradle on He, as
it were, walked in the shadow of the cross; from
His childhood days He was the object of persecu-
tion and contempt; but the climax of His suffering
was reached during His last hours upon earth.
In Gethsemane He must suffer anguish unspeak-
able; in the high’ priest’s palace He is cursed,
mocked, and spit upon; in the judgment hall of
Pilate He is scourged and crowned with thorns.
The death sentence pronounced by the high coun-
cil of His own people is affirmed by the heathen
governor. He is condemned to die, condemned to ~
die a malefactor’s death, condemned to die on the’
cursed wood of the cross. Who can ever describe
the agony of these last hours of our Saviour’s life!
What human mind can ever fully realize the anguish
that tore our Saviour’s heart, from the time He said
in the garden, ‘“‘My soul is exceeding sorrowful,
even unto death,” until He bowed His head in
death! What humiliation we behold here on the
part of God’s’only Son! ;

After death His sacred body was laid in the~
tomb of Joseph, and lay there till the third day,
however, without seeing corruption, Ps. 16,10. —

. F.J.L.

Live for Your Faith: °

A gentleman recently said that he was so well
grounded in his Christian belief that he would die
for it if necessary. ;

“That is very good,’’ was the reply, ‘‘but just
now and in this country there is more call for people
who will live for their faith, and pray and work and

“give for its spread throughout the Jand.””