Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

II. The State of Exaltation
A. GENERAL REMARKS ON THE STATE OF EXALTATION.
1. THE SUBJECT AND NATURE OF THE EXALTATION. As already indicated in the
preceding, there is a difference of opinion between Lutheran and Reformed theology on
the subject of the states of Christ. The former deny that the Logos, and assert that the
human nature of Christ, is the subject of the states of humiliation and exaltation. Hence
they exclude the incarnation from the humiliation of Christ, and maintain that the state
of humiliation consists in this, “that Christ for a time renounced (truly and really, yet
freely) the plenary exercise of the divine majesty, which His human nature had acquired
in the personal union, and, as a lowly man, endured what was far beneath the divine
majesty (that He might suffer and die for the love of the world).” 23 They hold that the
state of exaltation became manifest first of all to the lower world in the descent into
hades, and further to this world in the resurrection and ascension, reaching its
completion in the session at the right hand of God. The exaltation, then, consists in this
that the human nature assumed the plenary exercise of the divine attributes that were
communicated to it at the incarnation, but were used only occasionally or secretly.
Reformed theology, on the other hand, regards the person of the Mediator, that is, the
God-man, as the subject of the exaltation, but stresses the fact that it was, of course, the
human nature in which the exaltation took place. The divine nature is not capable of
humiliation or exaltation. In the exaltation the God-man, Jesus Christ, (a) passed from
under the law in its federal and penal aspects, and consequently from under the burden
of the law as the condition of the covenant of works, and from under the curse of the
law; (b) exchanged the penal for the righteous relation to the law, and as Mediator
entered into possession of the blessings of salvation which He merited for sinners; and
(c) was crowned with a corresponding honor and glory. It had to appear also in His
condition that the curse of sin was lifted. His exaltation was also His glorification.
2. THE EXALTATION OF CHRIST BOTH SCRIPTURAL AND REASONABLE. There is abundant
Scriptural proof for the exaltation of Christ. The gospel story clearly shows us that the
humiliation of Christ was followed by His exaltation. The classical passage to prove the
latter is found in Phil. 2:9-11: “Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto
Him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of things in heaven and things on earth, and that every tongue should confess that
23 Baier, quoted by Schmid, Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, p. 383.
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