THE WORK OF JESUS: HUMILIATION AND EXALTATION

Thus far we have followed our doctrine and established that Jesus' divinity and his humanity. Next we want to turn to Jesus' earthly work specifically paying attention to the theological importance of his death, burial, and resurrection and how we understand atonement and Jesus' work on the Cross. 

There is a lot that we could talk about when it comes to the earthly ministry of Jesus. Trying to keep laser focused on our statement of faith though leads us to talking about the Cross and trying to understand what happened there. We can in no way cover all of it. If the cross and the very deep details of what it means is something you are interested in there's some weighty books by Gorman, one called Cruciformity and another called Inhabiting the cruciform God that trace the understanding of Jesus and the Cross through Paul's writings because Paul's letters are very heavy on the cross and what it means. 

Typically, when Theology as a study breaks up the pieces of the life of Christ and its significance you end up with two stages: The Humiliation, that includes the incarnation and his death, and his Exaltation, including the Resurrection and what Jesus is up to now. Since we have already talked some about the incarnation when we discussed Jesus' humanity, we will focus on The Cross, Atonement, and mention what Jesus is doing now to round out our Christology discussion. 

THE HUMILIATION

First, The Cross was always the Plan: Read Revelation 13:8. It's not a long verse, it's not even the focus of the section of this part of Revelation but this singular statement leaves no doubt that the plan was always for Son to become man, live, die on a cross, and make a way for reconciliation. John the Revelator describes Jesus as, “The Lamb slain before the creation of the world” It was not a contingency; it was not an accident. This was always the plan because it makes God both the Just and Justifier. 

The Bible shows us that the Cross was always the focus of Jesus ministry. There are multiple times in Jesus' ministry that he pointed to his death, some more direct than others but Jesus knew the plan

In, John 2:19 During the wedding at Cana, very early in Jesus ministry he told the Jewish leaders, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.". There is also a list of scripture references below I’d encourage you to read.

Second, there are different theological perspectives on atonement, and we are not going to get into the specific arguments for or against any of them because Cornerstone does not a specific position on theories of atonement, we will however take a look at what a few scriptures says and draw our conclusions from that. 

We can understand atonement from the Gospels. Jesus not only predicted his death throughout his earthly ministry but saw his death as a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. He quotes Isaiah 53 and applies it to himself at the last supper in Luke 22:37. Jesus described his death as a ransom in Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45. A ransom is paid to free those who are in bondage. Jesus described himself as our substitute in John 15:13. A similar idea is described by Caiaphas saying, "it's better that one man should die for the people" in John 15:13; 18:14. We also see that Jesus saw his death as a sacrifice in John 17:19.

We can understand atonement in the Pauline Epistles. There are many references that I’d encourage you to read below but Paul also echoes the description of Jesus’ life as a sacrifice and the “one for all” language. 

Throughout the entirety of scripture, we see that Jesus' death was substitutionary in he died on the Cross to reconcile us to God when we clearly deserved the punishment for our sin. One of the very first descriptions of Jesus during his earthly ministry embodies this idea in John 1:29 where John the Baptist says, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the Sin from the world!". Paul supports this idea in 2 Corinthians 5:21 writing, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in we might become the righteousness of God".  Similarity Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:24, "He himself bore our sins in his body on a tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed"

So why does this matter and what can we take away from this understanding? Overall, it is crucial to understand that through the cross God is both Just and Justifier. As we examined in Theology proper and the study of God, God is Just. That means that he is righteous and by his nature cannot allow sin to go unpunished. A God that allows sin to go unpunished would not be Good, Just, or Righteous. But, in paying the price himself, taking on the punishment for sin that we deserved, he becomes the Justifier as well. He made a way for us to have a restored relationship and did it himself through the Cross. 

First, the Cross is the place that we see both the full Justice and Mercy of God. He holds sin accountable but in his great mercy pays for it himself.

Second, there is no salvation outside the death of Jesus Christ

Third, seeing Jesus' sacrifice in this light helps us see the absolute depth of our sin. Our divide from God was so great that only God himself could bring us back. We are totally unable to meet our own need for forgiveness through any work, good deed, gift, or right living

Finally, Grace and Salvation are free but it was very costly. We must always be grateful for what God has done through the Cross and live our lives as a response to this Grace. 

THE EXALTATION

To finish our discussion on Christology it is valuable to turn to the scriptural understanding of what Jesus is doing now. Much more attention has been given to the earthly ministry of Jesus and his death, burial, and resurrection than his current activities after his ascension yet Jesus’ current ministry on our behalf helps us understand his character and activity as well as providing us with understandings about ourselves. This is shorter in discussion but there are many scripture references below. 

Jesus understood that his earthly ministry was only a part of his mission and purpose. May times Jesus repeatedly told the disciples that he must leave to return to the father

Jesus taught that he was returning the father to prepare a place for us

Jesus taught that he had to leave so that the Holy Spirit might come and work in and through Jesus' followers 

Jesus is currently stated at the right hand of the Father, a place of power, authority, and rule 

Jesus is our High Priest who is continually interceding on our behalf to the Father as described in 

So why does Jesus’ continued ministry matter?

First, we can take comfort in the fact that Jesus is still working on our behalf and that through him we have a direct and personal connection to God the Father

Second, The fact that Jesus is on the Throne, ruling over all of creation until his return gives us with perspective and hope because in spite of personal turmoil or world events, Jesus is the ultimate authority

Finally, understanding how God has worked in history to bring about Jesus' life, death, and resurrection can provide us with knowledge that God has proven himself faithful in creating and completing plans so that we understand that nothing in the present is outside of his authority and everything in the future is working toward the culmination of the Kingdom of God in Jesus' Second coming. We can have faith that these things will come to pass as he has been faithful in the past.