New State

By his resurrection Christ in fact entered a new state. As the mediator he has been exalted at God’s right hand above all creatures. In that exaltation also his divine nature shares in a sense. Just as not only the human nature of Christ but also the person of the Son was the subject of the humiliation, so that same person is the subject of the exaltation in both his natures. For he had put aside “the form of God” (μορφη θεου) that was his and concealed his divine nature behind the garment of a weak human nature; no one saw in him or could see in him the Only Begotten of the Father, except with the eye of faith (John 1:14). But now, in the state of exaltation, his divine glory radiates outward for all to see. Those who see him now have to confess that Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. But also his human nature shares in that exaltation. The spirit of holiness (πνευμα ἁγιωσυνης) already dwelt in Christ before his resurrection from the time of his conception, for he was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35), he was full of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1), received him unstintingly (John 3:34 etc.; cf. Matt. 12:18, 28; Luke 4:14; Acts 1:2; 4:27; 10:38). But this glory, which Christ possessed inwardly, still could not manifest itself outwardly. He was flesh, and by virtue of the weakness of the flesh, he was killed on the cross (2 Cor. 13:4). But in death he put aside that weakness and broke off his connection with sin and death. God, who gave his own Son for us in death and therein executed his judgment on sin, by his Spirit—who as the πνευμα ἁγιωσυνης dwells in Christ and also in all believers (Rom. 8:11)—raised him from the dead in order that he would no longer live in the weakness of the flesh but in the power of the Spirit. He was indeed put to death in the flesh, therefore, but made alive in the Spirit (1 Pet. 3:18). Also when he was flesh, the Spirit of God dwelt in Christ as the dominant power of his life, doing so as the πνευμα ἁγιωσυνης, so that Christ always followed the guidance of that Spirit and remained obedient to the Father unto death. At the resurrection, therefore, that Spirit must also manifest himself in Christ as the Spirit of life (πνευμα ζωης), who completely overcomes death in Christ and one day also in believers (Rom. 8:11). Christ has now been raised so far above all fleshly weakness that, by the resurrection, he has become a life-giving Spirit (πνευμα ζωοποιουν, 1 Cor. 15:45). Granted, even after the resurrection, he still has a body (σωμα); he is the same Jesus (Acts 9:5; Rom. 4:24; 8:11; 1 Cor. 12:4-6; 2 Cor. 4:5f.); the second and last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). He has the same σωμα with which he was raised, but it is now a σωμα πνευματικον (spiritual body). In the place of the corruption, dishonor, and weakness, which marked his natural body (σωμα ψυχικον), and the flesh (σαρξ), that spiritual body has very different attributes, namely, imperishability, glory, and power (1 Cor. 15:42ff.; Phil. 3:21).

 

Herman Bavinck, John Bolt, and John Vriend, Reformed Dogmatics: Sin and Salvation in Christ, vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), 435-436.