The Son’s Humiliation

I made use of Biblical Critical Theory by Christopher Watkin (Zondervan Academic, 2022) for this sermon.

Introduction

Two weeks ago we were thinking about the first line of the Apostles’ Creed which says, ‘I believe in God the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.’

And so, we thought about the Creator-creature distinction and how there’s the Creator, who is infinite, eternal and unchangeable and independent; and then there’s the creation — everything else which exists including the visible and the invisible — and it’s finite and temporal and changeable and dependent on God for its existence.

And we thought about how the Creator is transcendent, because he’s not part of creation, but he’s above and beyond it. Nevertheless he’s intimately involved in his creation, because he lovingly sustains it and directs it according to his most holy will.

And since God did not have to make us, then our existence is a gift. It’s a gift from God and it’s a mark of his kindness to us. And God’s creation is good, because God is good. And the creation is diverse, because there are visible and invisible things; and there are different stars and planets in space; and the world itself is wonderfully diverse and it’s filled with different kinds of plants and birds and fish and animals and humans. But this diverse creation is also united, because it all comes from God. And it’s also both functional and beautiful and it’s orderly.

And though God’s creation is good and remains good, nevertheless it has been spoiled by sin. And because of Adam’s sin in the beginning, we forfeited the right to enter God’s eternal rest, signified by the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. But Christ the Saviour has done all things necessary to win back for us the right to enter God’s eternal rest and to enjoy eternal life with God in the new heavens and earth. And while we wait to enter his rest in the new creation to come, he renews us inwardly by his Spirit who has been given to us as the deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

And having thought about the Creator and his creation two weeks ago, we spent our time last Sunday evening thinking about the second line of the Creed which is: ‘[I believe] in Jesus Christ, His Only-Begotten Son, our Lord’.

And so, we thought about how the name Jesus means Saviour. And every time we hear his name, we should remember and believe that he’s the only Saviour of the world, who has saved us from eternal condemnation by his life and death and resurrection; and who is saving us right now from the power of sin in our lives by his Spirit; and who will save us completely from sin and its effects when he comes again.

And we thought about how he’s the Christ, which means he’s the Anointed One. When the Son of God came into the world to be our Mediator and to make peace for us with God, he was anointed with the Spirit without measure to be our Great King and Priest and Prophet. As our King he delivers us from Satan’s tyranny and he guards and keeps us. As our Priest he offered himself as the perfect sacrifice to pay for our sins and to cleanse us from our guilt and now he intercedes for us. And as our Prophet he comes to us through the preaching of his word to teach us that God is willing to pardon our sins and he calls us to repent and believe the good news.

And Jesus is not only the Christ, but he’s also God’s Only Begotten Son, the Second Person of the Trinity. God therefore did not love us with words only, but with deeds, when he came in the person of his Son to save us.

And Jesus is not only the Christ and God’s Son, but he’s also Lord and he rules and reigns in heaven as one of us over all that God has made. And since he is Lord, then we should allow ourselves to be ruled over by him. And so, we should obey his laws and believe his promises and seek to honour him in all we do and say. And with his help, and in obedience to him, we’re able to renew in a small way the world around us, while we wait for him to come to renew all things completely and forever.

So, that’s what we’ve been thinking about over the last two Sundays. Today we’re thinking about the third and the fourth lines and half of the fifth line of the Creed. So: ‘[I believe] in Jesus Christ, His Only-Begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, descended into hell….’

Reformed theologians write about Christ’s two states: the state of humiliation; and the state of exaltation. His state of humiliation includes his coming into the world as one of us as well as his whole life on earth up to the point of his death and burial. His exaltation began with his resurrection from the dead and his exaltation to heaven and it continues with his reign in heaven as Lord over all. Those are Christ’s two states and the lines of the Creed which we’re going to be thinking about tonight relate to the state of his humiliation. He came into the world as one of us when he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary. And while his whole life was a life of suffering, he also suffered under Pilate, who sentenced him to be crucified so that he died and was buried and he remained under the power of death until the third day.

And before we get into it, I should say that just as our existence is a gift from God, because God did not have to create us, so God sending his Son to be our Saviour is a gift from God, because God did not have to send his Son. He was not forced to send his Son to be our Saviour. He was not compelled to do it. He did not owe us anything and we could not demand it from him. And so, sending his Son to be our Saviour was his gift to us. It was due to his grace, which is his kindness to sinners like us who deserve nothing from him but condemnation. But instead of condemning us, he sent his Son to save us by his life and death and resurrection. And so, whenever we think about Christ’s incarnation, we should give thanks to God for his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Conceived and born

And so, let’s think about how the Son of God was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary.

We read in Luke 1 how the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, who was a virgin, to announce that she will be with child and will give birth to a son and she was to give him the name Jesus. He will great, said the angel, and will be called Son of the Most High. And the Lord will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will never end. ‘How will this be?’ she asked the angel. In other words: How can I, a virgin, be with child and give birth to a son?’ And the angel explained that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the Most High will overshadow her. And so, just as at the beginning of God’s work of creation, the Spirit of God hovered over the waters, so now at the beginning of God’s work of re-creation, the Holy Spirit hovered over Mary in order to conceive in her a child.

And this child who was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit was none other than God’s Eternally-Begotten Son. By means of this supernatural conception in the womb of Mary, the Son — without ceasing to be God — took to himself a body and soul like ours so that he is now and will forever be God and man in one person. So, before he was conceived in the womb of Mary, he was the Son of God. After he was conceived, he was still the Son of God. But the Eternal Son of God now possesses, along with his divine nature, a human nature. He is fully divine and he is also fully human. And those two distinct natures are united inseparably in the person of the Son.

And since he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and not by a fallen man descended from Adam, then he did not inherit Adam’s guilt and he was sanctified and made holy from the moment of his conception and kept free from the stain of sin throughout the whole of his life, so that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was to do his Father’s will.

And so, just as the angel said she would, Mary conceived and in due course she bore a son. Angels announced his birth to the shepherds, telling them the good news of great joy which is for all the people that the Saviour had been born in the city of David. And a star guided the wise men to see the new king who had been born.

And so, we believe in Jesus Christ, God’s Only-Begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

Application 1

As we turn now to think about the significance of Christ’s incarnation, we should think about why it was necessary for the Mediator to be both God and man in one person.

He had to be God, because throughout the pages of the Old Testament, God had revealed himself to be the Saviour of his people. In fact, he revealed himself to be the only Saviour. He said: ‘I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no Saviour’ (Isa. 43:11). God was saying that he’s the only Saviour. And so, since God announced that he would be the Saviour of his people, then it could not be someone else who saved us. It had to be God. And so, God himself came down to earth to save us in the person of his Son.

And it was necessary for him to be fully human, so that he could do for us everything which we were meant to do, but could not do. And so, as one of us, he was to be live under the law and to do everything required by the law. And he obeyed God in our place and for our sake so that, by believing in him, we might share his perfect human righteousness. That means that God now treats us for his sake as if we’ve done everything right even though we may have done everything wrong.

And our Mediator also had to be fully human because it would not have been right for God to punish the angels, for instance, for something that we had done wrong. God, being just, had to punish our sin. He could not disregard it. But God, being merciful, was prepared to punish someone else in our place in order to pardon us. But it wouldn’t have been right for God to blame the angels for something humans had done. Since humans had sinned, then a human should be punished. And so, the Son of God become one of us so that — as one of us — he could take the blame for us and suffer in our place the punishment we deserve.

So, our Mediator had to be God because God is the only Saviour of his people. But he had to be human, so that he could pay for our sins in our place; and so that he could live a perfect human life in our place.

Application 2

But as we continue to think about the significance of the incarnation, we should notice what it means for how we think about the physical world and our bodies in particular.

When we were thinking about the creation a couple of weeks ago, I said that there’s always been an tendency among people to regard the physical world as evil. So, in the past, the Gnostics regarded our bodies as evil. They said that the spirit inside us was good, but it was imprisoned inside our physical bodies which are evil. And so, they longed for the time when their spirit would leave the body and be free. But Christians believe that everything God created — including our bodies — is good.

And we can make the same point today, because the fact that the Eternal Son of God was prepared to take to himself a human body like ours speaks to us of the goodness of the physical world and of our bodies. If the physical world was evil, then God would not enter it. And if the human body was evil, then God the Son would not have become flesh.

And it’s important that we affirm the goodness of creation and the goodness of the body, so that we don’t end up despising something which God created to be good. And in this day and age — when some people are confused about their gender identity, and are putting themselves forward for gender reassignment, we need to be clear that the body is good. People who are confused about their gender identity say that what they feel inside and what they are physically do not match up. Inside they feel like a woman, for instance, but they are trapped inside the body of a man. And so, their body has become their enemy. It’s a prison, preventing them from being what they really want to be. Their body is something which they have to overcome through medication or surgery. But the doctrine of creation and the doctrine of the incarnation make clear to us that the body is good. We know the body is good, because God created our bodies and the Son of God took to himself a body and a soul like ours. And after he died, he was raised bodily from the grave and he stands in heaven before the Father in the same body he had when he was on the earth. And when Christ returns, believers will likewise be raised bodily from the grave and we will stand before the Father in the same body we have now, only it will be made perfectly suited for life in the new creation to come.

And none of us this would be the case if the body was evil. But it’s not evil, it’s good. And we will live with God in body and soul forever.

Application 3

And the final thing to say before moving on to consider Christ’s suffering, is to underline the wonderful truth that God came down to us in the incarnation of his Son. So, religion is not about our climbing up to God. It’s not about us reaching up to him. That’s what other religions are about. They’re about out efforts to win the favour of the gods who are over us and above us. And we win their favour by offering sacrifices to them or by obeying them. But in the gospel we discover that God has come down to us. He has come down to us in the person of his Son who became flesh and lived among us. And now that he’s in heaven, he comes to us by his Spirit whom he has given to us. And one day he’ll come again to bring us to our eternal home.

The rich young ruler asked what he had to do to inherit eternal life. He thought he had to climb up to God by his own good deeds. But it’s not about climbing up to God, because God has come to us. And so, the Christian life is not about working hard to earn God’s favour. It’s about being thankful to God for his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. And everything we do and say and the way we treat one another should be an expression of our thankfulness.

Suffered and died

Let’s move on to think about how Christ suffered and died.

And we should note that he suffered throughout his life on earth, because he was born into a lowly family and in humble circumstances. And immediately Joseph and Mary had to take him and flee for their lives from Herod who wanted to kill the new king. After he was baptised, he suffered temptation from the devil in the wilderness. When he began his public ministry in the synagogue in Nazareth, he was rejected by his own people. Throughout his life, the Pharisees and Sadducees and teachers of the law complained and criticised him and tried to trap him with their questions. He suffered hunger and thirst and grew tired like the rest of us. And when it came time for him to die, Judas betrayed him and his disciples abandoned him. He was accused falsely and condemned to death by Pilate. He was beaten and whipped by the guards and nailed to the cross. And after he had died, he was buried in the ground and kept under the power of death until the third day. He was indeed a man of sorrows who was familiar with suffering, a man who suffered not just at the end of his life, but throughout his life on earth.

And not only did he suffer the physical torment of the cross, but he also suffered the wrath of God on our sins which were laid on him. When he was put on trial before Pilate, he was — as it were — being tried before God. And when Pilate passed the sentence of death on him, it was as if God was speaking through Pilate to condemn and crucify his Son for the sins of his people. And when he was crucified, he was pierced for our transgressions and he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed. We are the ones who went astray, but the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. And so, his death on the cross was a sacrifice for sins. The wrath and curse of God which we deserve was directed on him, so that he suffered in our place the judgment of God on our sins. And the guilt of our sins was covered over by his shed blood. And so, because of his sacrifice, we have peace with God and the hope of everlasting life in God’s presence.

In the Garden of Eden, God warned Adam that he would die if he sinned. And when Adam sinned, death came into the world. And since death is the penalty for sin, Christ the Saviour had to die. He suffered the penalty in our place so that, though we die, death for the believer is no longer a penalty for sins, but it’s the doorway into God’s presence. But for Christ our Saviour, death was indeed the penalty for sins. It was the penalty for our sins.

And so, he died. And after the Saviour died, he was buried in a tomb to make clear to us that he really was dead.

The Creed also says that he descended to hell. This is a controversial statement, because there is no clear teaching in the New Testament that the Lord really did descend to hell. Some believers therefore interpret this statement from the Creed to refer to the hellish anguish and torment which the Lord endured for us and for our salvation. Others point out that the word ‘hell’ has changed in its meaning since the Creed was first translated into English from the Latin. Hell for us refers to the place of everlasting punishment for the godless. But in the past, the word ‘hell’ merely referred to the grave or to the place of the dead. For instance, in the NIV translation of Acts 2:27, Peter quotes from Psalm 16 which is about how God the Father did not abandon his Son to the grave. However, the King James Version of Acts 2:27 uses the word hell: ‘thou wilt not leave my soul in hell’. In the past, the word hell simply meant the grave or the place of the dead. In that case, the point the Creed is making is that the Lord Jesus really did die. It’s not that he only appeared to die or pretended to die. He really did die and he really was held under the power of death for a time.

Application

We’ve already thought about how the death of the Saviour was a sacrifice for sins. But for a few more minutes, let’s think about the fact that he died on a Roman cross and the significance of that for us. One writer (Christopher Watkin) helps us here by suggesting the following points.

The Roman cross was not only an instrument of death, but it was also an instrument of humiliation. It was not only about death, but it was about public disgrace. Victims were naked when they were crucified, and onlookers could watch as the victim writhed and cried in pain; and passers-by would shout abuse and mock those who were suffering and dying. It was about humiliating the victim as well as killing him. And it was about making clear to the world that Rome is all-powerful and it will not put up with any rivals. Instead of putting up with them, Rome will destroy them without mercy. That was the message of the cross as far as the Romans were concerned. And so, the sight of a cross filled people with disgust and dread and fear lest it should happen to them. But what has happened now that Christ died on the cross? The cross has now become a symbol of love and mercy, because the cross of Christ speaks to us of the greatness of God’s love for sinners like us. This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. The cross speaks to us of God’s love and his mercy and his willingness to give up his Son for our salvation.

The Roman cross also spoke of Rome’s brutality and how Rome would not put up with rivals and how it would take vengeance on any who rebelled against it. The message of the Roman cross was that Rome would destroy its enemies. But the cross of Christ speaks to us of God’s willingness to pardon us for our sins. And it speaks of God’s desire, not for vengeance, but for reconciliation, because God sent his Son to suffer and die for us on the cross so that we might be forgiven.

For the Romans, the cross spoke of its power to destroy its enemies. When the guards got hold of you, there was no escape and they would beat you and whip you and nail you to the cross. And resistance was futile, because they were strong and powerful and were able to destroy their enemies. But the cross of Christ speaks to us of Christ’s willingness to make himself weak and to endure all things now; and to trust his Father in heaven to vindicate him when the time was right.

And the Roman cross spoke of how Rome imposed their rule by crushing their enemies. But the cross of Christ speaks to us of Christ’s willingness not to crush us, but to serve us, by giving up his life as the ransom for sins.

And so, when people saw the Roman cross, it filled them with disgust and dread and fear, but Christ’s cross speaks to us of God’s love. The Roman cross spoke of Rome’s brutality, but Christ’s cross speaks to us of God’s willingness to forgive us. The Roman cross spoke of their power to destroy, but Christ’s cross speaks to us of how Christ suffered in weakness. The Roman cross spoke of Rome’s rule, but Christ’s cross speaks to us of his willingness to serve.

And the cross of Christ is meant to shape our lives. It’s meant to transform how we live in the world, because we’re not to follow the example of Rome, but of Christ our Saviour. And so, instead of making people afraid of us, we’re to live a life of love towards others. And instead of taking revenge, we’re to forgive those who offend us. And instead of using force to get our way, we’re to suffer in weakness, trusting in God to vindicate us when the time is right. And instead of lording it over one another, we’re to serve one another in love and humility. And so, may our lives be shaped and transformed by the cross of Christ our Saviour.