Question 48. How did Christ humble himself in his earthly life?

 

Question 48. How did Christ humble himself in his earthly life?

Answer. Christ humbled himself in his earthly life by submitting to the law and fulfilling it perfectly, which is common to human nature, but especially by colliding with the insults of the world, the temptations of Satan, and the infirmities of the flesh, which followed his humiliation.

 

Jesus died on the cross according to the law, but he did not fulfill the law by obeying the law. It is true that Jesus fulfilled the law by dying on the cross, but he obeyed the word of God, not the law. Jesus also acted against the law many times during his life.

In theological terms, scholars say that active obedience means that Christ kept the law for sinners as a condition of obtaining eternal life, and passive obedience means that Christ suffered by paying the penalty for sin and paying the debt of all his people. So, Christ's subjection to suffering and death is part of his active obedience, and Christ's living in subjection to the law and acting in the form of a servant is part of his passive obedience.

The meaning contained in the active obedience of Christ is to mix up the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and the attainment of righteousness through his faith with the righteousness that Jesus attained by keeping the law while living on this earth. This means that the work of Jesus on the cross alone does not achieve perfect righteousness, and that Jesus must also have active obedience to obey the law to attain perfect righteousness. This is the logic of those who support active obedience that salvation is obtained when these two things are believed. However, this is a false doctrine.

The idea implied in the meaning of active obedience is that salvation is achieved only when Jesus' work on the cross and Jesus' obedience to the law are combined. Heretics also use the passage in Romans 5:19, "For as through one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so through one man's obedience the many will be made righteous." Here, obedience does not mean obedience to keep the law, but obedience to Christ's atoning work. This obedience is obedience according to Christ's predestination that was determined before the creation of the world.

Jesus' humility during his earthly life was not to obey the law, but to serve sinners. So, he wanted to be with sinners like tax collectors, and he cared for the sick, fed the poor, and cured the demon-possessed. So, Jesus was criticized even by his fleshly brothers.

Jesus did not possess material possessions, nor did he have a fixed dwelling place. Matthew 8:20 Jesus said to them, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

 

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