Theological Term of the Week

twofold state of Christ
Christ’s two positions or statuses as God-man: his humiliation and his exaltation. Also called status duplex, estates of the Redeemer, or two states of Christ.

• From scripture:

… who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with Goda thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesusevery knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, andevery tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6-11, ESV)

• From the Westminster Shorter Catechism:  

Q. 27. 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.

Q. 28. Wherein consisteth Christ’s exaltation?

A. Christ’s exaltation consisteth in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day.

• From Covenantal Apologetics by K. Scott Oliphant:  

The lordship that is now Christ’s is a lordship that assumes the completion of his redemptive work. It is a lordship that could only take effect once the Son of his Father, gave himself up to save his people from their sins, and was seated at the Father’s right hand. It is, we could say, the full and complete redemptive lordship of the Son of God become man.

This can be understood most clearly in the so-called status duplex, the two states of Christ. Those states consist of his humiliation and his exaltation, and the latter follows from the former. The apostle Paul lays these states out most concisely in Philippians 2:6-11 [see above].

The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, did not unduly hold on to what was rightfully his, but instead he “emptied himself.” By that Paul means that the Son became what he was not; he, as Paul says elsewhere, “became poor” (2 Cor. 8:9) that we might become rich. He did not, we should emphasize, become something other than God. God cannot deny himself (2 Tim. 2:13). But he emptied himself of his prerogatives as God in order to take on the burdens, and ultimately the penalty, that sin brought into the world.

It was the accomplishment of this task—a task that was decreed before the foundation of the world—that brought about his redemptive lordship. It was because he was humiliated that God exalted him to his right hand. It was because he accomplished all his Father’s will that he was able to sit down at the place of both cosmic and redemptive authority (cf. Heb. 1:1-4; Revelation 5).

Learn more:

1. Elwell Evangelical Dictionary: States of Jesus Christ
2. R. C. Sproul: Humiliation to Exaltation
3. John MacArthur: The Humiliation and Exaltation of Christ
4. Philip Schaff: Jesus Christ, Twofold State of
5. Francis R. Beattie: The Presbyterian Standards - The Humiliation and Exaltation of Christ

Related terms:

• active obedience of Christ
• ascension of Jesus
• crucifixion (of Christ)
• intercession of Christ
• passive obedience of Christ
• threefold office(s) of Christ

Filed under Person, Work, and Teaching of Christ

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.