With these words Christians confess that every aspect of Christ's humiliation is vastly important and precious to them. When we speak of Christ's humil­iation you will recall that we speak of all that our Savior experienced for us as He was brought low so that He could stand in our place as guilty before the Law of God.

Christ's first step of humiliation for us was that He was

Conceived … Born …⤒🔗

The conception which culminated in that birth at Bethlehem was indeed miraculous. It was supernatural. We confess that Jesus was "conceived in the womb of the blessed virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit without the means of man" (Belgic Confession, Art. XVIII: cf. Matthew 1:18-20; Luke 1:34, 35; Hebrews 10:5).

Never before had there been a conception like it — never since. Only by the supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit would the virgin birth take place. The activity of man could not be present. God had to act if this child was to be the Son of God. He had to be the fruit of the will of God, not of man. Further, He had to be sinless, and Mary, herself, was not sinless. Thus, for Him to be born without sin the seed had to be planted by the Holy Spirit. And that seed would be kept by that same Spirit's sanctifying in­fluence from all sin through life (John 3:34).

In order to do the work necessary for our salva­tion this Jesus had to come into the world just as we come into it. It was not a heavenly body which merely came to earth through Mary. Nor was it a separate creation. The sinless One had to assume an earthly, corruptible, weakened, suffering human nature. He was "bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh." Therefore, He had to be born of woman.

Indeed, His conception and birth was very impor­tant. He had to be conceived and born without sin in order to be our Savior since we are conceived and born in sin. His redeeming work began where our sinfulness begins. The manger at Bethlehem will never be seen properly unless it be seen as related to the cross. Because of this miraculous conception and birth

... He is our Mediator, and with His innocence and perfect holiness covers, in the sight of God, my sin wherein I was conceived and brought forth.Heidelberg Catechism, q.36

Suffered←⤒🔗

In one word this explains the whole earthly life of our Mediator.

In His birth He suffered. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger (Luke 2:7). Then came the flight into Egypt prompted by the hateful decree of Herod that all male children two years and younger be killed (Matthew 2:13-22). He was tempted by Satan (Matthew 4). He was despised by the Jews who were always in the crowd trying to find a way to bring about His end. With names they ridiculed Him (Matthew 11:19; 9:3; 12:24); with stones they threaten Him (John 8:59); in hate they sought to cast Him headlong over a cliff (Luke 4:29). How clearly the prophet Isaiah had seen it:

He was despised, and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief...Isaiah 53:3

As He moved onward toward death this suffering increased. In the Garden of Gethsemane He was pro­foundly aware of the suffering which was His (Luke 22:39-46). Then He was betrayed by Judas (Luke 22:48), forsaken by the disciples (Matthew 26:56) and denied by Peter (Luke 22:61). The trials were mockeries of justice. Pilate would judge Him inno­cent (Luke 23:14). Nevertheless, Jesus would be treated cruelly and finally sent to death!

Jesus on the cross! What a travesty of justice, humanly speaking. Innocent, yet condemned to death on a Roman gibbet — an agonizing death reserved only for the greatest of criminals. What suffering was His!

All of this suffering He experienced in body and soul. Of course, as we consider the passion of Jesus Christ we can only shudder at the unmitigated phys­ical suffering He experienced. But He was exper­iencing God's wrath on sin and His soul was "ex­ceeding sorrowful, even unto death" (Matthew 26:38). It was no masquerade: He really suffered — in body and in soul. But He suffered the infinite wrath of God and came through victoriously because He was sustained by the Holy Spirit.

But why suffer? Would it not have been sufficient for Him to die — and that only for our salvation? Remember, Jesus Christ is God's gracious Substi­tute for the elect. Remember, further, that the curse because of sin includes suffering (Genesis 3:16-19). Besides, remember that while Jesus was innocent of all law-breaking He was taking the place of God's elect. And the elect, along with all men have broken the greatest of all laws: God's law.

Therefore, the Heidelberg Catechism (q. 37) teaches us to confess:

That all the time He lived on earth, but especially at the end of His life, He bore, in body and soul, the wrath of God against the sin of the whole human race, in order that by His passion, as the only atoning sacrifice, He might redeem our body and soul from everlasting damnation and obtain for us the grace of God, righteousness, and eternal life.

Then, after six dreadful but blessed hours on the cross He died.

Died←⤒🔗

On the cross, which was an emblem of God's curse on sin (Galatians 3:13; Deuteronomy 21:23), He breathed His last — He "cried with a loud voice ... and ... gave up the ghost" (Luke 23:46).

In His death, the two natures were not separated. The divine nature always remained with the human. Temporarily the human spirit left the human body but the divine nature did not leave Him (Belgic Con­fession, Art. XIX).

Why should He die? God had said to Adam in the Garden, "...in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). Indeed, "...the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). If Christ is to be our Substitute He must also die. After this He was buried.

Buried←⤒🔗

Christ's "It is finished" marked the end of His ac­tive suffering, but there was more. He had to be placed in the grave for us, also, since His burial was a seal upon His death. Even the prophet Isaiah would write of this aspect of humiliation (53:9). Elsewhere, also, there is reference to this (Psalm 16:10; Matthew 12:40; Acts 2:27; 31; 13:34, 35).

But again, why did Jesus have to be buried? Was not His death enough? He was buried as our Substi­tute. We die and our lifeless corpse is placed in the grave. This is part of the curse — "...for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" (Genesis 3:19)! Of Christ, Ursinus adds, "…he was not unwilling to become a corpse for our sake" (commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, under q. 41).

Being buried it would be apparent in Jesus' resur­rection that He had overcome death in His own body. His resurrection would be a real bringing back to life of a corpse. While His body remained in the tomb, the corruption of the grave would not touch Him since He had made perfect satisfaction for sin.

For us, Christ's burial means several things.

• First, since Jesus was buried, through Him we put off the old man and we rest from sin (Romans 6:1-6). We are buried with Christ.

• Second, the grave need not terrify the believer, Ursinus adds, "that he has sanctified our graves by his own burial, so that they are no longer graves to us, but chambers and resting places in which we may quietly and peacefully re­pose until we are again raised to life."

• Further, we know that as the burial was not the end for Christ, so our burial will not be the end. There is a future for the body — a glorious future.

Descent into Hell←⤒🔗

From our earliest catechism training we have been taught to understand this portion of Christ's humiliation in the way it has been explained in the Compendium:

...that Christ, when He was forsaken by God on the cross, suffered the torments of hell for me.

However, this is not the only way this portion of the creed has been explained. Some have understood it as simply meaning that Christ was in the state of the dead. This they say because the word translated "hell" in our Bibles can also be translated "grave." However, this would make this part of the Creed repetitious. After all, have we not already said that Jesus died and was buried.

The Roman Catholic explanation is that after His death Jesus went to Limbus Patrum to appear to the Old Testament saints who had entered death before Him. After preaching the Gospel to these who were awaiting the message of redemption, He led them in victory to heaven. But how can this be if Jesus had not yet been victorious over the grave?

The Lutheran explanation is that Jesus Christ went to hell to demonstrate that He was victorious over Satan and all the powers of darkness. Again, how can He proclaim victory if the resurrection has not yet taken place?

Of course, there are some texts which are used to support these last two views: 1 Peter 3:18, 19 and 4:4-6. But neither teach that Christ went to hell. 1 Peter 3 speaks about the quickening or life-giving Spirit whereby Christ was preached even to the dis­obedient of Noah's day; and 1 Peter 4 speaks of the fact that the Gospel was preached to those who, at the time of writing, were dead, but had heard the Gospel when they were alive.

While Scripture does not explicitly use the words of the Creed, this truth is found there in one way or another. For the Christ, David spoke of hell and all its agony:

The cords of death compassed me, and the pains of Sheol gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.Psalm 116:3

When did all this take place? Certainly not after He died. Before He gasped that last breath He cried, "It is finished" (John 19:30). The work of redemp­tion, the sacrifice of reconciliation was then com­pleted. No more suffering was necessary. His ex­perience of hell could not have been after death. Rather, Jesus was experiencing this on the cross when He cried out,

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?Matthew 27:46

Remarking about the importance of this portion of the Creed Calvin writes, "if it is left out, much of the benefit of Christ's death will be lost" (Institutes, II, xvi, 8). Indeed, Jesus had to experience hell for me because that is what I should endure because of my sin (Matthew 25:41) were it not for God's grace in salvation.

Perhaps we can best understand the order of the Apostles' Creed here as the order of our experience as Jesus takes our place.