from obliVation to the law in every sense of the word, until He voluntarily subjected Himself to its demands. The law is made for men, i. e., for human persons. But Christ was not a liuman person. He remained after the incarnation, as He had been from eternity, a divine person. All his relations to the law, therefore, except as voluntarily assumed, were those which God himself sus- tains to it. God being the source of all law cannot be subject to it, except by an act of humiliation. Even in human govenunents an autocrat is above the laws. They derive their authority from him. He can abrogate or change tliem at pleasure. He is sub- ject so far as men are concerned to nothing but his own will. And so God, as the source of all law to his creatures, is Himself subject to none. He acts in consistency with his own nature, and it is in- conceivable that He should act otherwise. He cannot be subject to any imposed rule of action, or to anything out of Himself. Whatever is ti-ue of God, is true of God manifested in the flesh. That Christ, therefore, should assume the obligation to fulfil the conditions of the covenant made with Adam, to observe all the injunctions of the Mosaic law, and submit to the moral law with its promises and penalty was an act of voluntary humiliation. This subjection to the law was not only voluntary, but vicarious. He was in our stead, as our representative, and for our benefit. He was made under the law that He nii<ibt redeem those who were under the law. (Gal. iv. 4, 5.) It was in his character of Redeemer that He submitted to this subjection. There was no necessity for it on his part. As He was Lord of the Sabbath, so He was Lord of the law in all its extent and in all its forms. Obedience to it was not imposed ah extra as a condition of his personal happiness and en- joyment of the divine favour. These were secured by his God- head. It was therefore solely for us that He was made under the law. As by Adam's disobedience we were constituted sinners. He obeyed that we might be constituted righteous. (Rom. v. 19.) The whole course of Christ on earth was one of voluntary obe- dience. He came to do the will of his Father. In the Old Testa- ment his common prophetic designation was servant. He was called the servant of the Lord, " my servant." He says of Him- self, " I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." (John vi. 38.) " Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience." (Heb. v. 8.) " Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Phil. ii. 8.) All this was for us. His subjection to the law and to the will of the Father was voluntary and vicarious for us men and for our salvation.
614 PART m. Ch. Xn. — humiliation of CHRIST.
§ 3. His Sufferings and Death. The sufferings of Christ, and especially his ignominious death on the cross, are an important element in his humiliation. These sufferings continued from the beginning to the end of his earthly life. They arose partly from the natural infirmities and sensibili- ties of the nature which He assumed, partly from the condition of poverty in which He lived, partly from constant contact with sin- ners, which was a continued grief to his holy soul and caused Him to exclaim, " How long shall I be with you ? how long shall I suffer you ; " partly from the insults, neglects, and opposition to which He was subjected ; partly from the cruel buffetings and scorning to which He submitted, and especially from the agonies of the crucifixion, the most painful as well as the most igno- minious mode of inflicting the penalty of death ; partly from the anguish caused by the foresight of the dreadful doom that awaited the whole Jewish nation ; and especially no doubt from the myste- rious sorrow arising from the load of his peojjle's sins and the hid- ing of his Father's face, which forced from his brow the sweat of blood in the garden, and from his lips the cry of anguish which He uttered on the cross. These are wonders not only of lov-e, but of self-abnegation and of humiliation, which angels endeavour to comprehend, but which no human mind can understand or esti- mate. There was never sorrow like unto his sorrow.
§ 4. He endured the Wrath of God.
Our standards specify " the wrath of God," as a distinct particu- lar of the burden of sorrow which Christ, for our sakes, humbled Himself to bear. The word wrath is the familiar Scriptural term to express any manifestation of the displeasure of God against sin. Christ, although in Himself perfectly holy, bore our sins. He was " made sin " (2 Cor. v. 21) ; or, treated as a sinner. He was " numbered with the transgressors " (Is. liii. 12), not only in the judgment of men, but in the dealing of God with his soul when He stood in the place of sinners. Such Psalms as the sixteenth, fortieth, and especially the twenty-second, which treat of the suf- ferings of the Messiah, represent Him as passing through all the experiences consequent on the punishment of sin, save those which have their source in the sinfulness of the sufferer. We therefore find that even such language as that in Psalm xl. 12, " Innumer- able evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken 'hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up : they are more
§5.] HIS DEATH AND BUrjAi.. 616
than the hairs of mine head ; therefore my heart failetli me," may not inappropriately be taken as the language of his holy soul. In that case " mine iniquities " (\nb"i37), as parallel with " evils '' (ni37'T)> must mean " my sufferings for sin," i. e., the punishment I am called to bear. The words uttered by our Lord upon the cross, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " show that He was suffering under the hiding of his Father's face. What that experience was it is impossible for us to understand. Yet as in other cases He suffered anxiety, fear, a sinking of the heart, and other natural states of mind incident to the circumstances in which He was placed ; so also He suffered all that a holy being could suffer that was enduring the divinely appointed penalty for sin, which penalty He sustained for his people. Into the relation be- tween his divine and human nature as revealed in these experi- ences, it is in vain for us to inquire. As that relation was con- sistent with his human nature's being ignorant, with its progressive development, with all its natural affections, with its feeling appre- hension in the presence of danger, and dread in the prospect of death, so it was consistent with the feeling of depression and anguish under the obscuration of the favour of God. As the suffer- ings of Christ were not merely the pains of martyrdom, but were judicially inflicted in satisfaction of justice, they produced the effect due to their specific character. This of course does not im- ply that our Lord suffered as the finally impenitent suffer. Their sufferings are determined by their subjective state. The loss of the divine favour produces in them hatred, venting itself in blasphe- mies (Rev. xvi. 10, 11), but in Christ it produced the most earnest longing after the lio-ht of God's countenance, and entire submission, in the midst of the depressing and overwhelming darkness.
§ 5. His Death and Burial. Christ humbled Himself even unto death, and continued under the power of death for a time. The reality of Christ's death has never been disputed among Christians. Some modern rationalists, un- willing to admit a miraculous resurrection, endeavoured to show that death was not in his case actually consummated, but that He was deposited in an unconscious state in the tomb. In answer to the arguments of rationalists, certain Christian writers have taken the trouble to demonstrate, from the facts stated in the account of the crucifixion, that it was not a swoon, but actual death which occurred. We are raised above such question by believing the inspiration of the New Testament. In the apostolic writings the
616 PART m. Cn. XII.— HUMILIATION OF CHRIST.
death of Clirist is so often asserted and assumed that the fact can- not be doubted bj any who admit the infallible autliority of those writings.
Under the clause, " He continued under the power of death for a time," is intended to be expressed all that is meant by ancient creeds which asserted " He descended into hell." Such at least is the view presented in our standards in accordance with the teach- i.igs of the majority of the Reformed theologians.