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What it Means

31 October 2011 by Matt Gumm

Q. 46. What was the estate of Christ's humiliation?
A. The estate of Christ's humiliation was that low condition, wherein he for our sakes, emptying himself of his glory, took upon him the form of a servant, in his conception and birth, life, death, and after his death, until his resurrection.

Q. 47. How did Christ humble himself in his conception and birth?
A. Christ humbled himself in his conception and birth, in that, being from all eternity the Son of God, in the bosom of the Father, he was pleased in the fullness of time to become the son of man, made of a woman of low estate, and to be born of her; with divers circumstances of more than ordinary abasement.

Q. 48. How did Christ humble himself in his life?
A. Christ humbled himself in his life, by subjecting himself to the law, which he perfectly fulfilled; and by conflicting with the indignities of the world, temptations of Satan, and infirmities in his flesh, whether common to the nature of man, or particularly accompanying that his low condition.

Pause for a moment and consider this: What would it be like for God to be humiliated?
  • Become a creature
  • Start life as an infant
  • Experience growth
  • Undertake a ministry where you receive no recognition for your proper place
  • Continue in this ministry even though the wild animals have it better than you do
  • Be ridiculed and rejected by your own family
  • Pour your life into men whom society dismisses
  • Entrust your legacy to these men, although you know all of them will turn away, and one of them will betray you unto death
  • Experience death, and the wrath of the Father whom you have been one with since forever
What was the extent of Christ's humiliation? It was to every extent possible.


No mere human could ever endure with humility the type of debasement Jesus chose for Himself. He volunteered, in order to glorify His Father and save a people for himself.