From its beginning, Reformed Christology argued for a Neo-Chalcedonian understanding of the distinctiveness of Christ’s two natures in the unity of the eternal person of the Son. During the first three generations, Reformed doctrine developed in self-conscious differentiation from Lutheranism’s emphasis on a metaphysical communication of attributes (Cross, Drake). After the agenda-setting developments of the 16th century, Reformed Orthodoxy saw further delineation between the two traditions as each articulated the course of Christ’s incarnational life according to the doctrine of the two estates, humiliation and exaltation (Berkouwer, Bruce, Hoogland). The distinction of the two states began in the Lutheran tradition, which saw these as denoting a transition in the human nature’s use of particular divine properties. The Reformed argued that the two states are not a matter of change in the hypostatic union itself but the transition from humiliation to exaltation is a work of the person of Christ in the economy by which his divine nature is revealed in its glory and the human nature is glorified.
To this point, scholarship on Reformed Orthodox Christology has focused primarily on specific theologians (Lindholm, Daniels) but has yet to address the distinctive contributions of the Reformed Scholastics to Christology more broadly. This paper investigates how theologians of Reformed Orthodox period (c. 1585-1700) understood Christ’s transition from the state of humiliation to exaltation and explores the theological purpose of Christ’s exaltation within Reformed dogmatics. I will show how Christ’s exaltation functioned within Reformed dogmatics to preserve the Reformed emphasis on the distinctiveness of the two natures in the hypostatic union and the role of Christ as exalted mediator. With Christ’s resurrection and ascension, a new stage of his ministry begins as the work of redemption accomplished during his earthly ministry is applied by the Spirit sent by the Son and the Father. Christ’s threefold office is likewise exalted as Christ continued to be the prophet, priest, and king over his Church by the Holy Spirit. Examining the exaltation of Christ in the period of Reformed Orthodoxy contributes to the scholarly understanding of the development of Reformed distinctives from the 16th to 17th centuries and offers resources for contemporary retrieval of the doctrine of Christ’s exaltation.
Works Cited
Berkouwer, G. C. The Person of Christ. Translated by John Vriend. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1954.
Bruce, Alexander Balmain. The Humiliation of Christ in Its Physical, Ethical and Official Aspects. New York: A.C. Armstrong, 1895.
Cross, Richard. Communicatio Idiomatum: Reformation Christological Debates. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Daniels, Richard. The Christology of John Owen. Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2004.
Drake, K.J. The Flesh of the Word: The Extra Calvinisticum from Zwingli to Early Orthodoxy. Oxford Studies in Historical Theology. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.
Hoogland, Marvin P. Calvin’s Perspective on the Exaltation of Christ in Comparison with the Post-Reformation Doctrine of the Two States. Kampen: J. H. Kok, 1966.
Lindholm, Stefan. Jerome Zanchi (1516-90) and the Analysis of Reformed Scholastic Christology. Reformed Historical Theology 37. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016.