+I. The circumstances of the Saviour's depression from His original
state.+--We say that a person stoops, that he bends, that he sinks.
Moral correspondencies to these actions are understood. They are
condescensions. Immanuel is the name of our Saviour when born into
our world and dwelling in it--God with us. A local residence is thus
described. And we are informed of the degree which marks His coming
down from heaven, of the manner in which He came into the world--He
descended into the lower parts of the earth. What lowliness is this!
Similar terms are employed in other portions of the inspired volume;
by collating them with those of the text we shall most satisfactorily
determine its sense.
1. _The incarnation of Christ may be thus expressed._--To what did He
not submit? By what was He not buffeted? What insult did not
disfigure His brow? What shade did not cloud His countenance? What
deep waters did not go over His soul? His was humanity in its
severest pressures and humblest forms.
2. _This form of language may denote the death of Christ._--It is the
ordinary phrase of the Old Testament; "They shall go into the lower
parts of the earth: Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness,
in the deeps." Does it not seem strange that His soul should be
commended hence who had often bound death to His bidding and summoned
from the grave its prey? He is brought low to the dust of death. The
erect figure is prostrated. The instinctive life is arrested. That
mysterious frame--related to the infinite and the Divine temple of
all greatness, shrine of all sanctity--that "Holy Thing" sleeps in
death.
3. _This style may be intended to intimate that burial to which He
yielded._--"Lest I become like them that go down into the pit." "So
must the Son of man be in the heart of the earth." He has made His
grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death! He is put away
into darkness. He is held of death in its gloomy chambers. He is as a
victim and a prey. It is a prison-keep.
4. _The separation of the Redeemer's body and spirit may be described
in these words._--We mark in this departure of His soul the simple
requirement of death. It could not be retained. It descended into the
lower parts of the earth. This is the reverse of resurrection and
heavenward flight. It was humiliation. These are the gradations of
His descent. These are the "lower parts of the earth" to which He
declined. This is His coming forth from the Father! This is His
coming down from heaven! This is His coming into the world! His
measureless surrender of claims! His inconceivable renunciation of
honours! Stooping to inferior and still inferior levels of ignominy!
Plunging to deeper and still deeper abysses of shame!
+II. The glory of His subsequent exaltation.+--1. _It is in itself an
absolute expression of love._