Lesson #27—Christ’s Humiliation

Shorter Catechism Q & A #27

Q. Wherein did Christ’s humiliation consist?

A. Christ’s humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.

Memorize Q & A – Exposition

Christ humbled himself by taking upon himself our flesh, our human nature, to face not only physical death, but spiritual death on our behalf. (Phil. 2:7–9)

What does it mean?

Discuss the meaning of humiliation as seen in:

• his incarnation (John 1:14; 1 Tim. 3:16)
• his birth (Luke 2:7, Gal. 4:4)
• his cross and death (Heb. 12:2-3, Isa. 53:2–3, Luke 22:44, Matt. 27:46, Phil. 2:8)
• his death and resurrection (Acts 2:24-31).

What is our practice?

1. Meditate on the redeeming love of God in Christ.
2. Understand the humility of Christ in our relationships with one another.
3. Let us work hard to be more like Christ.
4. Let us be zealous in our testimony of the Gospel of Christ our Savior.

Quotes for thought and discussion:

“For the Prince of Glory, who partakes of the same nature as the Father, to have condescended to take into personal and permanent union with Himself a nature which is infinitely lower than His own, even had He entered the world as a king clothed in purple and crowned with gold, it would have been an immeasurable condescension. … The anguished cry, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ is an indication of the extremity of His suffering. In the nature of the case we can understand but faintly what He endured as He hung there. But this we do know, that He who did no sin, and on whom death therefore had no claim, voluntarily took our place and suffered the penalty which was due to us and made atonement for our sin.” (Loraine Boettner)

“The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance and equal with the Father, did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon Him man’s nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin: being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin Mary, of her substance. So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably jointed together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God, and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man” (Westminster Confession of Faith, 8. 2).

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