Wendelin's "Christian Theology": Doctrine of the Parts of the Office of Christ, Part 1

THESIS I:  Hitherto the species of the office of Christ.  The parts follow, namely, the two states of Christ the θεανθρώπου/Theanthropos/God-man, one of humiliation, the other of exaltation.

EXPLANATION:  In these two states of Christ the θεανθρώπου/ Theanthropos/God-man consists the whole dispensation of our salvation and execution of the threefold mediatorial office.

THESIS II:  Humiliation is the voluntary condition of Christ the θεανθρώπου/Theanthropos/God-man, whereby He came down, according to both natures, so that He might be able to die, and by dying to satisfy divine justice for us.

EXPLANATION:  I.  According to the divine nature Christ came down:

(1.)  By a voluntary subjection of His person, wherein He, as Mediator, submitted Himself to the Father, and, with lowly flesh assumed, took to Himself the mediatorial office, and discharged it in all of its facets.

(2.)  With His divine glory and majesty hidden for a time, so that He might be able to suffer and die in the flesh assumed.  Of this humiliation the Apostle treats, Philippians 2:6-8, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:  but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:  and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Note:  In vain do the Lutherans oppose our doctrine concerning the humiliation of Christ according to the divine nature, from the mode of the humiliation, which is applicable to His human nature alone.  For, we teach that the divine nature was humbled in a far different manner than the human.  At the same time, even some Lutherans embrace our opinion concerning the humiliation of Christ according to His divine nature.  See Exercitation 66, § 2.  The Suebi go beyond the mode here, who declare that Christ suffered and died even according to His divine nature.

II.  He descended according to His human nature:

(1.)  By the taking of our infirmities,[1] which are without sin.[2]

(2.)  By the altogether humble obedience of life and death.

The course of His whole life was very humble.  Hence His poverty in birth, circumcision, flight into Egypt, bodily labor, baptism, temptation, the trouble of continual travel, the suffering of contempt, persecution, etc.

Of this humiliation, the Apostle treats in Hebrews 2:17, 18:  in all things it behove Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.  For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.

THESIS III:  The principal degrees of humiliation, with respect to His human nature, are three:  (1.)  the cursed death of the cross with the preceding sufferings; (2.)  His burial; (3.)  His descent to hell.

EXPLANATION:  I.  It was necessary for Christ to endure death, even indeed the cursed death of the cross:  because we were liable to cursing and eternal death because of our sins, according to that saying:  in dying thou shalt die:[3]  likewise, cursed is every one that continueth not, etc.[4]  But from this curse and death we were not able to be delivered, except through the death of the Mediator offered in our place.  Romans 8:2, 3, The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death:  for, what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.  Galatians 3:13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.  Suffering, of which the principal part was death, belonged to the Person of the θεανθρώπου/Theanthropos/God-man.  Whence most truly and really God is said to have suffered and died:  who hath purchased the Church with His own blood, Acts 20:28.  The contrary opinion by calumny is attached to the Orthodox, and even to Zwingli himself; and most unjustly is Zwingli’s ἀλλοίωσις, different construction, is traduced by loud Stentors.[5]  If any said that not God, but His Humanity alone, suffered and died, by God they understood His Deity, which some Lutherans absurdly teach to have died.  The saner Lutherans excluded from the passion, not the person, who is God, but only the divine nature, which they deny to have suffered and died.

The history concerning the death of Christ is found in Matthew 27.  The death of Christ is elsewhere called His last suffering, with some latitude, in such a way that His sufferings immediately preceding His death, properly so called, are included.  Now, His last suffering was spiritual and bodily.

The beginning of His spiritual suffering was a loss of joy, which the fruition and fullness of grace was wont to bring to Him:  sorrow of soul was added, dread and horror in ἀγωνίᾳ/agony, Matthew 26:37-39.  Its consummation was in His abandonment by the Father, whereby He lost all sense of consolation for a time, Matthew 27:46.  Our men understand this suffering to be the descent to hell:  as it will be demonstrated in what follows.  This infernal suffering squeezed bloody sweat from the Savior.  Whence also an Angel was sent to strengthen Him, Luke 22:43.  Unless He had endured these anguishes of Gehenna in our place, we would not have been able to be delivered from them.

The beginning of the last bodily suffering was consisting in this, that He was rejected by His people, esteemed as less than a murderer, deserted by His disciples, betrayed, arrested, stripped of His clothing, violently dragged off to tribunals, mocked, spat upon, beaten, and crucified.  The consummation of this suffering was in the curse, which was conjoined with the full sense of divine judgment, and finally in the separation of the soul from the body.

II.  The principal cause of the death of Christ was God, who, out of love for us, delivered His Son to death for us.  Romans 8:32, God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.  Isaiah 53:6, Jehovah hath laid on Him the punishment of us all; and verse 10, Jehovah, being pleased to bruise Him, put Him to grief.

The impulsive cause in God was His mercy and love, John 3:16.  In man, misery arose from sin, Romans 4:25.

The instrumental causes were Satan, the Pharisees, Judas, Pilate, and the Guards or lictors.  Although God made use of their works in the execution of His will against the Redeemer of mankind, yet they are not able to be excused of their wickedness, nor did they do well:  because they did not regard this, so that they might obey God, or promote the salvation of mankind:  but so that they might satisfy their own lust.

Satan, so that he might defeat the enemy of his kingdom, and strike God in His Son with shame.

The Pharisees, so that they might remove from their midst the enemy of their fame and reputation, through altogether unjust accusations.

Judas, so that he might acquire coins.

Pilate, so that he might retain the favor of Cæsar.

The Guards and lictors, so that they might obey the unjust commands of their lords.

Hence Augustine, epistle 38 to Vincentius:  While the Father delivered up the Son:  and Christ His own body:  and Judas the Lord:  why in this delivering up is God righteous, and man guilty? except that in one and the same matter, which they did, they reason on account of which they acted is not one.

III.  It is asked here:  If Christ died for us, why must death nevertheless come to us?

Response:  We, who are elect unto eternal life, die, not so that we might satisfy divine justice for sin; for Christ has furnished this with complete fullness:  but so that the remainders of sin in us might be destroyed, and the way to eternal life might be opened to us.  For, God gives life to us, because of the death of His Son, yet in such a way that only by our death, as the path or door, are we admitted to life.  Whence Paul desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ, Philippians 1:23.

Let the argument be observed, whereby it is proven, that Christ also endured temporal death for us.  Since the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23; 5:12, either because of His own, or because of others’, even ours, did He endure temporal death.  But not because of His own sins:  because He had no sins of His own, 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 7:26.  Therefore, because of our sins.

IV.  A curious question is here moved by the Scholastics, Whether, while death was lasting, Christ was true man?  Some embraced the affirmative; others the negative.

The reasons for the negative are strong:

(1.)  Because He truly died.  But a man is not able to die, without ceasing to be a man.

(2.)  Because His body was not living.  But every man is a living body.

(3.)  Because His soul was truly and locally separated from His body.  But one is not able to be a man, except by union of the soul with the body.

(4.)  But the Λόγος/Logos/Word was made man by assumption of the human nature, originating from the union of a human body and rational soul.  Therefore, He ceased to be a man through the destruction of His human nature, effected in the separation of His soul and body.

V.  Exception is taken on behalf of the affirmative:

(1.)  What the Λόγος/Logos/Word assumed, that He never laid aside.  But He assumed the human nature:  Therefore, He never laid it aside; and, consequently, is always man, even in death.

Response:  The major is not true in any simple way.  With the human nature, He assumed a human life, which by death He laid aside for a time, together with His human nature, with respect to its totality, yet not with respect to its parts, which He retained united to Himself, although not united to each other.

(2.)  The Λόγος/Logos/Word was incarnate, even in death:  Therefore, He was a man, even in death.

Response:  If to be incarnate is to have a human nature existing in act hypostatically united to Himself, the antecedent is denied:  but if to be incarnate is to have the parts of the human nature united, the consequence is denied.

(3.)  Christ, even in the time of death, was a priest:  Therefore also a man.

Response:  I deny the Consequence.  Because in the time of death He was a Priest, dead according to the human nature.

VI.  The first degree of humiliation was death:  the second, namely, burial, follows, which followed His death.  Now, Christ was buried, so that He might testify that He was truly dead.  The history of His burial is found in Matthew 27.

Now, He laid in the grave for three days taken συνεκδοχικῶς/ synecdochically:  for He did not spend three whole days and three whole nights in the grave, but only two whole nights, and part of the first and third day.  Whence Augustine:  They are reputed as three days; because the first day is taken according to the latter part of it:  the second day according to itself whole and entire:  the third day according to its earlier part.

[1] See Isaiah 53:4; Hebrews 5:2.

[2] Hebrews 4:15.

[3] Genesis 2:17:  “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:  for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (‎מ֥וֹת תָּמֽוּת׃).”

[4] Galatians 3:10; Deuteronomy 27:26.

[5] In Greek mythology, Stentor was a Greek herald, serving during the Trojan War, famous for his incredibly powerful voice.