The Godzette
Volume 22, Seventh Edition Pricele$$
Humiliation

Jesus was sinless; not only was he sinless but he was holy, undefiled, harmless and unable to be tempted. Thus the humiliation he experienced on the cross was all the more poignant because of his pure connection with God. He was anointed as our savior and had to be crucified for the atonement or redemption of our sin, but he was still God.

He was the Son of God with an eternal and divine identity matched by no one, which is applied against the background of dignity so that his humility may be understood. Christ was born in humility in a manger with animals on a bed of straw. The stench of humanity was born right along with him and he was raised in it and saw the fragility and filth of sin. The conditions under which Jesus was born at Bethlehem are expressive of the humiliation through which He must fulfill the design of His coming.

Because of the difference between God and man, it was not an ideal world that Jesus had entered; instead he came into a world of sin, misery, and death. As Sin-bearer he was duty-bound to abolish death with the provision made by God’s grace. The cross of Christ was self-humiliation to the lowest depths conceivable. Because of the dignity of being the Son of God, weighed against the damnation of being the Sin-bearer for all humanity, it would be found that there is no parallel to this humiliation and it is inimitable and unrepeatable.

The humiliation began in Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit and conception of the virgin. The entrance into and development in the womb of one who was herself sinful, as all other members of the human race, are indicative of the condescension. Jesus did not partake of Mary’s sin nature, but He did of her substance.

The humble station in life at Nazareth, baptism of John at Jordan, temptation in the wilderness, weariness with toil, hunger and thirst, sufferings and persecutions, mockeries and insults in arraignment before the high priest and Pilate, the agony of Gethsemane… all exemplify the humiliation that converged upon Jesus and reached its climax in Calvary.

The humiliation did not end with the cross. His spirit went to paradise but his body was laid in the tomb. The Son of God was in the grave as respects His body and He remained under the power of death for a season. Only with the resurrection was humiliation ended. The resurrection was the first phase of that exaltation whereby is bestowed upon Him the highest exaltation conceivable. The second coming of Christ will be the second phase and He will be glorified along with the saints and humiliation will become Satan and his fallen angels of deception.